Tag Archives: Private Cloud

Adopting the Cloud in 2017

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With a new year comes resolutions—personal objectives for an individual to complete. Too often, the grand dream of exercising more often does not come to fruition, leading to empty gyms and admissions that the whole effort was “good enough.”

On a greater level, the new year gives businesses a chance to rethink how they run themselves—particularly when it comes to things like cloud systems.

It has been mentioned a few times on this very blog that cloud systems are revolutionizing enterprise data management. The cloud computing industry grew by 25% in 2016 and is expected to continue that sort of progress in the near future. Perhaps more telling is the rapid growth of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) by 53%, indicating a rise in interest in public cloud services.

So, in 2017, let’s have a look at some of the more viable cloud strategies that enterprises can adopt as their own new year’s resolutions. Hey, at least it’s not a gym membership.

The Public Option

Of course, the truth of the matter is that businesses that take advantage of cloud opportunities will fare better in the future that those that don’t. This has caused some degree of controversy, especially among small businesses that may not have the time or resources to kickstart their own cloud network.

That said, even these businesses can harness cloud services through the ever-popular public cloud. If they lack a CIO, which they likely will, they may not be able to enjoy the full benefits of whatever platform they decide to use, but still stand to benefit in the form of better storage, backup, and information sharing.

The Hybrid Option

Everything about the cloud is set to herald in a new era of IT-driven success in business. As a professional in the field, I’m ecstatic to see cloud computing given so much attention in the technology sector.

Despite my earlier mentions of public cloud systems, I believe that a hybrid cloud approach is best for businesses capable of running the private components on their own. Of course, infrastructure is necessary for a private cloud to work, but the speed of having on-site data access as opposed to relying on public Internet is very often an advantage.

Beyond that, one of the great aspects of the hybrid cloud is the ability to “pay as you go” for public services, giving businesses flexibility when more computing power than usual is needed.

Rise of Bimodal IT

Now, more than ever, this is the time to adopt cloud services, particularly for businesses that possess a robust IT department. A 2014 CIO Agenda report by Gartner details the ways that a hybrid cloud model can bring further opportunities to enterprises through what it calls “bimodal IT.”

Bimodal IT, referred to as one of the large components of digital transformation, is the practice of managing two work styles, one rooted in established practices and another focused on exploratory tactics. The hybrid cloud enables this progressive practice by allowing easy “overlay” across existing platforms, whereas companies operating primarily from physical servers may face problems with their hardware becoming outdated.

This is perhaps the biggest challenge that big businesses will face in the coming years. While small businesses may not have an existing IT support structure, they can also adopt cloud services without worrying too much about how it interacts with existing infrastructure.

Here’s to a New Year!

As we continue to move into 2017, it is important to remember that the IT industry is constantly in a state of flux. Businesses can’t anticipate every development that will be made, but adopting a cloud-based infrastructure gives them unprecedented flexibility to adapt to computing demand.

Server Pies: A Brief Guide to Cloud Computing Systems

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So you’ve decided to take your business to the cloud? Congrats! This is going to allow you to accelerate and increase the scope of your business initiatives to unprecedented levels. Now, all you have to do is figure out what sort of configuration you want your cloud computing set-up to be. Unfortunately, the jargon that gets batted around the cloud computing world can be a little intimidating to say the least. In this post, I look at four types of cloud computing systems in what I can only hope is straightforward, easily understood, and appetite-whetting language.

Private Cloud

In Brief: You own the server pie. You control who gets to take slices from it. A single-tenant environment better geared to mid to large-sized companies that need to meet compliance and security requirements.

Payment: It’s more expensive to buy a pie than it is to pay for a sliver of one. You are paying for dedicated servers and so you are looking at a contract model of payment to keep that infrastructure up-and-running.

Performance: It’s your server pie, so you get to decide what ingredients go into it. You have the ability to control everything from hardware performance to storage performance. If needed, a dedicate server can be integrated into the system for hybrid cloud capabilities. More on that below.

Compliance: You control your pie and whoever gets a share of it. Unlike a public cloud where your data is hosted in the same data center, private cloud solutions are hosted with their own data storage, hardware, and network. For that reason, high security and compliance requirements like Sarbanes Oxley, PCI and HIPPA can be much more easily met.

Public Cloud

In Brief: Someone else owns the the server pie e.g. Amazon EC2, Rackspace Cloud, or Microsoft Azure. You pay them to take a slice of their pie. A multi-tenant environment often used for smaller development systems or web servers that are not as focused on compliance.

Payment: Many public clouds operate off of a pay-as-you-go model, which often translates into hourly rates for using specific resources. Contracts requiring ongoing use are seldom part of the equation.

Performance: You are taking a slice of someone else’s server pie, and so you don’t have any control over what ingredients go into that pie. The hardware on which your server will be hosted is decided for you.

Compliance: In a public cloud, you are taking a slice of pie that other individuals/companies/clients are taking slices of. Because you are sharing hardware, storage and more with these other entities, meeting compliance standards such as PCI or SOX is often not possible.

Public Cloud v. Private Cloud infographic

via thedatavault.com

Hybrid Cloud

In Brief: You are eating from two pies. A strategy in which two types of cloud or hosting infrastructure are used by a single company. Using different clouds for the same task.

Payment: Depends on the marriage of server pies. May end up being a combination of the pay-as-you-go and contract model. Increased flexibility means a better chance of getting the best price per performance.

Performance: Can be Public/Private to maximize power while also maximizing security, dedicated/non-dedicated for customized performance, colocation for redundancy for stability and redundancy needs.

Compliance: Depends on the marriage of server pies

Multi-Cloud

In Brief: Taking pieces from multiple pies in multiple locations. As cloud technology advances, certain clouds will emerge as being better at accomplishing different tasks e.g. sharing sensitive data or processing power. Using different clouds for different tasks. A hybrid cloud can use a multi-cloud.

Payment: Depends on the network of server pies. May end up being a combination of the pay-as-you-go and contract model. Increased flexibility means a better chance of getting the best price per performance.

Performance: Inherently is a diverse array of server pies, which means that you should be seeing better performance.

Compliance: Can be public or or private, depending on what sort of server pies you own and what sort of server pies you’ll need to access elsewhere. Depending on how your cloud network is configured, this can be arranged to easily meet compliance and security requirements.

In today’s world of cloud computing, we’re seeing a push to diversified cloud systems. Being able to navigate between the types of cloud systems out there will without a doubt be essential for many businesses to maintain competitiveness moving forward.

Scott Maurice

Cloud Computing is One of the Most Disruptive Forces in IT History

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It’s no secret that cloud computing has revolutionized how businesses buy and use technology. This year alone, Market research firm Gartner Inc forecasts that $111 billion worth of IT spending will shift to cloud services. And that number is expected to grow. In fact, Gartner believes it will almost double to $216 billion by 2020. It’s no wonder Gartner’s analysts coined cloud computing as “one of the most disruptive forces of IT spending” in their report.

Companies of all sizes are being swept up in this shift. From startups all the way up to Fortune 500 companies, buying and maintaining in-house computer servers, storage, and networking gear is becoming a thing of the past. Most companies are finding they would rather have someone else handle it for them.

A number of companies have jumped at the call for cloud services, most notably Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, and IBM. Instead of businesses having to invest in expensive equipment that needs to be regularly updated, patched, or replaced, they can now pay more precisely for exactly the computing, storage, and networking power they use. Renting is the new buying.

“Cloud-first strategies are the foundation for staying relevant in a fast-paced world,” said Ed Anderson, Gartner research vice president. “The market for cloud services has grown to such an extent that it is now a notable percentage of total IT spending, helping to create a new generation of start-ups and ‘born in the cloud’ providers.”

Businesses can choose between public and private cloud models. The difference can be thought of similarly to renting an apartment in a complex vs a stand-alone home. Public cloud models are a multi-tenant environment, where you rent a portion of capacity alongside other clients. Private cloud hosting, on the other hand, is a single-tenant environment where the hardware, storage, and networking power are dedicated to a single client or company.

Public cloud models come with their own benefits and tradeoffs. Their multi-tenant nature allows for a pay-as-you-go model, where businesses can pay by the hour for resources without a contract. A notable limitation to the public cloud model would be that since ever server shares the same hardware, storage, and network devises as all other tenants in the cloud, meeting compliance requirements, such as PCI or SOX is not possible. For this reason, the majority of public cloud deployments are generally used for web servers or development systems where security and compliance requirements of larger organizations and their customers is not an issue. Also, you obviously don’t have control of the hardware performance, since this is managed by the provider.

Private cloud models similarly have their own benefits and tradeoffs. The most obvious differentiator would be the customizability. Because the hardware, storage, and network are dedicated to a single client, performance can be specified and customized to ensure certain levels of security and meet complex compliance requirements. Private models also allow for hybrid deployments for cases in which a dedicated server is required to run a high speed database application. Hardware can be integrated into a private cloud hybridizing the solution between virtual servers and dedicated servers. The tradeoff here for customizability is obviously that corporate customers must still own their own data center equipment.

AWS was one of the first major proponents of cloud-first strategies back in 2006. Today, they are the largest public cloud company following by big players like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM. These companies have completely disrupted the traditional model selling operating systems and software to users on a one to one basis.

While companies of all sizes have been rapidly shifting towards cloud, we are beginning to see a backlash from larger corporations. Smaller companies, used to spending most of their funding on servers and software, see public cloud deployment as a blessing. Startups, typically strapped for cash, can now operate on competitive computing power for just a few cents an hour. However, the public cloud often loses its economic benefits once a company hits a certain size. Companies processing a lot of data might find their public cloud service getting so expensive in fact that they opt instead to go back in-house.

Dropbox has been a prime example of this contention. Earlier this year, they admitted that they have been progressively moving data to their own data centers, off of AWS, for the past few years. Akhil Gupta, Dropbox’s VP of Infrastructure, cited the need for more customization of hardware as a chief motivator. Mainly, the company wanted to change the proportion of storage to computer to networking in order to lower costs. Because the public cloud model doesn’t allow for these hardware changes, Dropbox decided it was time for a change.

Gupta told Fortune earlier this year, “We wanted to build jumbo super storage servers that could hold immense amounts of data with a small amount of compute.” For Dropbox’s, holding and routing user files requires a lot of storage, but relatively little computing power. It makes sense why then, they would benefit so greatly from this specific customization.

This doesn’t mean, obviously, that all companies of a certain size should or will move away from the public cloud. But it does point to an interesting case for a legitimate outlier that doesn’t fit the public-cloud-for-all discourse.