For years now, businesses have been moving to the cloud. The transition is not always easy. There are plenty of things to consider before taking the first step. But the advantages are worth the effort. A unified cloud infrastructure can be just the solution for businesses struggling to control their IT environment. But just what would such an infrastructure look like?
The Cloud Center Concept
Imagine a single screen, a single pane of glass from which you could view and manage all your IT assets, systems, and networks. This clever solution could help you stay abreast of all issues facing your computing environment. With technology trends such as convergence, virtualization, cloud computing, and analytics, IT managers and technical support personnel would be happy to have such a screen. It has been the ideal of the computing world for some time. Fortunately, some solution providers are already able to offer the single pane, while others are getting closer.
The idea is to focus and centralize all functions of the IT infrastructure, including compute, storage, and network. One recent advancement that is helping make this happen is superconvergence. In the old days, switches, routers, and hard drive storage units were housed separately. Today the datacenter is a much denser place. Some solutions have built in all these functions into a single piece of equipment.
The virtual world is helping to create the cloud center too. First it was computing functions that were sent to virtual machines. Now with the advent of network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN), the network is becoming virtual too.
Flexible Service Delivery
It used to be that network reliability was among the chief concerns. But network engineers have done such a good job laying out the core infrastructure that many have worked themselves out of a job. Now the focus is on service assurance. How can providers guarantee that applications will remain up and running and complete their tasks?
With cloud computing, everything is becoming a service. There’s software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). The best way to get started with cloud computing is with one application on one cloud. But with a good plan and good partners, you can safely and securely bring your applications, platforms, and infrastructure to the cloud.
From there, it’s a matter of application-centric lifecycle management. No more fiddling with proprietary configurations on dedicated machines. In fact, much of the application layer is moving toward free and open source. But you still need application reliability. That’s where your partners come.
Working with Cloud Partners
A good cloud partner will have a whole host of services that they can offer you. Here are some of them:
- Implementation
- Configuration
- Integration
- Design
- Training
- Strategy
- Security
- Migration
- Storage
It’s smart for businesses to focus on their core competency. There’s nothing wrong with working other companies to meet your cloud services needs. You will find that their expertise is critical to your journey to the cloud.
You may find that it’s better for some applications to remain in the data center. Others might need to go to the private cloud for security reasons. And others can be moved to the public cloud. Each of these choices should be defined in application profiles: data center, private cloud, or public cloud. A good partner will help you sort all this out.
In fact, the methodologies used to help people on their journey to the cloud are fairly well developed. What may come as a surprise to laymen can be old hat to experienced cloud engineers.
Conclusion
Cloud computing may seem like a new technology, but it’s already well on its way to maturity. Cloud service companies have established best practices for cloud migration and application assurance. You may feel unsure in your journey to the cloud. Getting help from the experts will ease your concerns. No matter how you get there, moving to the cloud is a journey that is worth the trip. The world is moving to the cloud. Don’t be left behind.
About BayInfotech
Want to take advantage of the latest cloud technology? BayInfotech can be your best resource for cloud computing. Our services cut across industry verticals. We specialize in solutions that are measurable in terms of quality, cost and time. Our strength has been our nimbleness and flexibility. We take pride in our versatile approach toward technology and tools. And we strive to align with client requirements and expectations. Through solid business leadership, our goal is to win the trust of our customers and develop lifelong partnerships.
As a cloud service provider (CSP), BayInfotech has completed many projects for our loyal and trusted clients. Our hybrid cloud strategy guarantees them a fast and secure cloud infrastructure with 100% uptime. With our IaaS, PaaS and SaaS platforms, you too can extend your resources without the burden of a heavy infrastructure. Contact us today to see how BayInfotech’s Cloud Solutions can help you control the direction of your business.