Business Implications of The Cloud

Understand your existing environment needs

Not all systems are suitable for replication to the cloud infrastructure.

"Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) continues to be a vital part of cloud computing and thesubject of disaster recovery remains a key talking point. IT professionals are challenged with gaining the skills and knowledge needed to be at the top of their game. Following are topics central to IaaS Disaster Recovery that will better prepare IT professionals for the tasks ahead...."

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a model which has the sole purpose to make business environments or enterprises more constructed and synchronized with the organizations' ongoing operational activities.

IaaS is a platform where business enterprises avail equipment useful to their transactions at pay-per-use service. To make it simpler, it is a facility that governs business companies and offers clients, in this case, users, products such as hardware, servers, extra storage space and networking components through the Web or in servers and data centers.

Traditionally, computer infrastructure involved personal machines, cooling devices, storage space, server rooms filled with computers and thousands of personnel to maintain the technological structure. This set-up can cost a lot--thousands to millions, even billions of expenditures. Now with the advent of IaaS, there are less costs and a more fine-tuned labor workforce. Plus, there are no upgrading costs or maintenance fees required.

Disaster Recovery

A special feature of IaaS is disaster recovery. When disaster strikes or the server crashes, IaaS makes it certain that the facility they offer is kept safe without prejudice. They ensure that services will run again and perform back up quickly, for they provide disaster recovery.

VAZATA has proven an easy IaaS choice for businesses that require a high performance level where IT is concerned. Redundancy, a proper fail-safe backup and the ability to quickly recover from a systems crash are vital components and VAZATA rises to the challenge of covering all of them. 

Source: http://EzineArticles.com

IaaS Security and cloud best practices depends on whether you use a public cloud or private cloud implementation. With a private cloud, your organization will have total control over the solution from top to bottom. With IaaS in the public cloud, you control the virtual machines and the services running on the VMs you create, but you do not control the underlying compute, network and storage infrastructure. For both scenarios, consider the following security issues:

Data leakage protection and usage monitoring
Authentication and authorization
Incident response and forensics capabilities
Infrastructure hardening
End to end encryption
Data leakage protection and usage monitoring

When you’re deploying IaaS in a public cloud, it’s important to know who is accessing the information, how the information was accessed (from what type of device), the location from which it was accessed (source IP address), and what happened to that information after it was accessed (was it forwarded to another user or copied to another site)? Create a transparent process that controls who can see that information and then create a “self-destruct” policy for sensitive information that does not need to live indefinitely outside of the confines of the corporate datacenter.

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"There are multiple business models offering pure colocation servicesand those models typically rely on how the colocation provider pays for the space and power it has to sell. There are several ways to gain profit margin selling technical real estate and power. The most commonly occurring model consists of a service provider charging for floor space by the square foot. Even in a situation where only a single cabinet or rack is being purchased on a monthly basis, the data center provider has assigned an amount of space to support the physical cabinetand the space around it to cool the equipment that will occupy that space..."

"Low-cost cloud computing and storage can be a boon for IT managers with tight budgets looking to get as much computing power for their money as they possibly can. 

One of the major ways this is achieved is through multi-tenancy. Multi-tenancy allows a single physical instance of a resource to be shared among multiple consumers, which allows for consolidation of and more effective usage of those resources. This lies at the heart of cloud computing, taking some models from the mainframe era and porting them to today’s modern hardware. But while multi-tenancy in public and private clouds offers economies of scale, it can also create potential problems for enterprise users."

One of the benefits of IaaS is the ability to scale resources on demand—meeting IT capacity growth with efficiency and security.

Enterprise cloud computing - for competitive advantage through breakout opportunities both for cost savings and, more importantly, for business innovation.

Understanding the offerings of an online storage service is crucial to ensure you opt for a service that has the functionality and usability you’re seeking.

There are many ways to approach cloud, the easiest is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), everything must pass through the infrastructure of a data center.

Video highlights from VAZATA's August 30th vConnect Lunch at the FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco, Texas.  The theme of the luncheon was, "Cloudy Apps vs. Cloud Infrastructure." VAZATA, along with local leaders in technology, gathered to discuss some of the industry's big topics such as apps, cloud computing and infrastructure. Lance Black, CEO of VAZATA, discusses what cloud computing is all about and how IaaS providers like VAZATA can create infrastructure solutions that make their client's applications available in the cloud. VAZATA is a leading IaaS provider with data centers in Dallas, Texas and in northern Virginia. 

Cloud computing helps control the cost of infrastructure because you pay for actual use and can be quickly scaled up or down as needed.

"To answer this question I want to draw a distinction between “cloud” and “dedicated” which can be physical or virtual servers. In this case, cloud services will be defined as utility-based services or pay-per-use in regards to CPU, RAM, Storage and Network. Whether virtual or physical, dedicated servers are defined as a total server configuration comprised of dedicated CPU, RAM, Storage and Network. An example would be a Single vCPU, 4GB RAM, 250GB Storage and a 100Mbs port speed for public internet service.

These services are not always easily defined, however, we will use these definitions here. The obvious advantage for these cloud services is the ability to ‘only pay for what you use’. This option is especially convenient for variable needs in computing and storage. This could mean seasonal traffic or development environments where use will be intense for short periods and dormant at other times."

Small - mid sized companies who need to control IT infrastructure costs benefit most from IaaS. IaaS lets you invest in your core business. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers bridge that gap by building the robust infrastructure and selling it at a fraction of the cost, making the IT infrastructure an operational expense for the company. 

Going to the cloud with your business requires a well though out transition plan. VAZATA shares the steps involved in a well executed plan.