The Business Case For the Hybrid Cloud

The PC era brought computing power into the hands of the users, but left them still dependent upon IT to provision the back-end infrastructure such as networks, servers, load-balancers, firewalls, etc. Since applications tend to be driven by departmental budgets, IT infrastructures often end up as over provisioned mishmashes of equipment, processes and technology entailing excessive cost and huge inefficiencies with servers usually running at 15-25% of capacity.

 Virtualisation is a transformation from the traditional static data centre to a monitored, metered, managed and automated environment where IT is dynamically provided as a service, known as a Cloud.

 In the cloud model, computing not only becomes efficient, but makes another titanic shift of control to the user. They specify the levels of performance, reliability and security required for an application, and the required virtual infrastructure is automatically provisioned and deployed within seconds enabling a company to innovate and grow faster. In the past, it would take a company six to eight weeks to commission a server. Now, computing power and storage space is becoming a commodity, bought when needed and scaled up when necessary. Dynamic resource management is enabling organisations to respond faster to market changes, gaining an advantage over their competitors. It is this agility and scalability that persuades most companies to venture into the cloud - even more important than cost.

 By leveraging the efficient pooling of on-demand, self-managed virtual infrastructure with server consolidation you can gain more from your existing resources. Compared to onsite servers which usually run at 15-25% of capacity, Cloud providers run their Cloud servers at 75-90%. That’s both greener and massively cheaper. When a company goes in to the cloud, it may pay more per unit of the service than if it owned the resources itself. But, with cloud computing you don’t pay anything when services are not required which works out much cheaper in the long run, 80% cheaper, according to Microsoft.

 You also save on data centre costs by reducing your physical infrastructure and improving your server to admin ratio: Less servers and related IT hardware means reduced office space costs and reduced power and cooling requirements. Better management tools let you improve your server to admin ratio so staff requirements are reduced as well.

You can securely backup and migrate entire virtual environments with no interruption in service. Planned downtime is eliminated and you gain the ability to recover immediately from unplanned issues.

Desktop manageability and security is improved. With desktop computing, information runs downhill to the edge of the network, then it stays on the physical hard drive. In the Cloud however, information is pulled up only for as long as required then when you shut down, there’s no residue left on the client. You can deploy, manage and monitor secure desktop environments that users can access locally or remotely, with or without a network connection, on almost any standard desktop, laptop or tablet PC. Employees benefit from this increased mobility with access to their desktop from any corner of the world.

Productivity and innovation is also boosted as employees have access to the latest technology without the need for investment in upgrades. Small and medium-sized businesses get world-class IT on a global scale without spending a penny in capital expenses.

Cloud Computing is more than an IT deployment. Moving into the cloud is a cultural shift as well as a technology shift. For IT staff, and especially the chief technology and chief information officers, it requires a rethinking of their roles, away from operations, where up to 70% of time is wasted on maintenance and upgrades, towards business strategy. This allows IT staff 70% more time to take advantage of new opportunities and drive rapid innovation and growth throughout an organisation.

A few years ago, the IT world was focused on public cloud computing. Then in 2010, after IT directors expressed concerns over public cloud security issues, the focus shifted to private clouds. And now, because everyone wants operational flexibility, hybrid clouds are at the top of the wish list. In a hybrid cloud, a private cloud is closely integrated with a company's legacy system. Then, as companies phase out these old systems, the Cloud ultimately becomes the prime architecture to deliver all IT services. A 2010 SandHill Group survey of over 500 IT managers has indicated that hybrid cloud use will now triple over the next three years.

VMware vCloud Director is a cloud computing management platform which seamlessly virtualises, and in-turn integrates, onsite and cloud servers. It abstracts the virtualised resources enabling users to gain self-service access in a catalogue. Tasks previously requiring significant IT staff resources and time to accomplish, such as configuring a network, can then be automatically executed in minutes. Commensus provide our customers with one of the only fully flexible, highly resilient and true onsite/offsite virtual cloud platforms. Working with the very best vendors and the latest technologies, Commensus manage a geographically replicated VMware ESX Enterprise system designed for the FTSE 500 but scaled to be affordable for a small-medium sized business. This is backed by unrivalled technical support and a 99.999% uptime SLA.

For more information about Cloud Computing and how the Hybrid Hosting can transform your business, visit Commensus.com.