Cloud computing ranks as one of the key disruptors of the digital age with undeniable competitive advantages to offer businesses. The cost- and risk-cutting implications are creating converts from CIOs in even the most conservative sectors.
Private cloud, whether on-premise or virtual, is an important infrastructure strategy that CIOs must act on. It is a complete paradigm shift from the traditional data center, rewriting the economics of capacity planning. Because a private cloud is dedicated to a single organization, it provides security, scalability, and self-service without baring a proprietary architecture.
The choice of going virtual or locking down on-premise depends on company-specific considerations, such as mission-critical workloads, security concerns, uptime requirements, or management demands. Services like virtual gateways and dedicated high-speed connections open up the option to provision a portion of existing data centers on premises, while extending capacity into the cloud for less sensitive computing loads.
A virtual private cloud offers hosted services to a limited number of people behind a firewall, minimizing the security concerns. Virtual private clouds also give companies direct control over their data and network access via routing configuration and security settings. Virtual private clouds deliver on the promises of utility computing, eliminating the concerns over wasteful over-provisioning while giving businesses confidence of never leaving customer demands unfulfilled during a surge.
Another facet of the cloud architecture design is whether to choose an existing managed service or build your own cloud stack from scratch. There are plenty of options in either direction. A host of open source initiatives puts different flavors of cloud stacks in the fingertip of a competent architect. The business owner can reduce cost and accelerate execution while having full control over all aspects of the infrastructure.
On the flip side, managed services are much closer to the hands-free ideal. The cloud provider takes care of security patch updates and guarantees compatibilities of all embedded components. Any specific managed service is generally a well-seated member of an ecosystem with harmonious supporting services (periodic backups, system alerts, event notifications, etc.) already plugged in.
The right choice depends on the exact operational needs and detailed cost analyses. The bundling of components in a managed service may have undesired consequences for a particular application. One may find that a more fine-grained configuration leads to significant cost savings in the long run, even with the offset of additional DevOps support.
BigRio has been migrating client companies to the cloud since its inception. We advise Engineering managers and CIOs from high-level cloud strategies to migration plans and implementation details. Is a “lift and shift” use case the best fit for the way you operate? Or should you augment the existing systems with a partial cloud deployment? Or maybe only rely on “bursting into the cloud” for Big Data analytics, but leave the big product engines behind? Are you clear enough on what you are trying to achieve? Have you done enough diligence on the cost implications?
Once your strategy is set, our teams of experts are certified to provide customized solutions on multiple public clouds. Contact us to find out more about private cloud computing solutions. We deliver industry leading architectural designs that account for efficiency, security, reliability, training, and future extensibility. As fast as the cloud technologies are advancing forward, we constantly stay on top of the curve to ensure our clients always benefit from the latest innovations.