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Cloud computing offers an opportunity to run your IT processes more efficiently, as resources can be scaled up and down to meet the needs of the business, explains Ian Masters, Sales & Marketing Director at Double-Take Software.
However, from a storage perspective cloud offers more potential than just somewhere to put your files offsite. Whole workloads made up of the operating system, applications and data can be moved up into the cloud, and these can be activated in the event of a failure at the primary data centre.
Because the workload is based in the cloud, the cost to achieve this is much lower than having a full second site set up, and it also reduces the amount of downtime that the company faces.
This approach to cloud can also work well alongside existing business continuity measures.
From a business point of view, there are compliance and security concerns around using the cloud. For some organisations, the benefits that cloud can provide - scalability of service, pay-as-you-go billing, ease of management - cannot overcome these security objections, as they have to have full control of their data at all times. Others may look at a “half- way house” approach based on
using a private cloud
or hosting partner to manage their workloads and provide a recovery service instead.
These different models - from internally hosted and controlled storage, through to full public cloud environments - will meet different requirements within organisations, depending on how public the information or application can be, and the level of management and control required. Establishing the best place to run and store a workload is therefore essential.”
When it comes to the cloud there has been a lot of hype, and yes, there is a reasonably high degree of confusion that is really down to a lack of clarity in its definition. This is in no small part due to many organisations putting their own spin on the cloud, states Adrian Groeneveld, Pillar Data Systems.
Our view is that a lot of the technological elements of cloud have been around for quite some time, and ‘cloud’ on the whole is really just a new label put upon those elements.
What cloud is really about is driving efficiencies through intelligent pooling and sharing of infrastructure and resources.
This can be done within an organisation’s data centre, or through payment for services delivered via an external organisation’s infrastructure.
Building a cloud infrastructure within an organisation’s own data centre can increase efficiency, drive down costs and reduce the amount of physical infrastructure required to service a business.
Done correctly, simplifying infrastructure with an external cloud – typically hosted applications such as hosted CRM and remote backup services – can also be beneficial to a business. But there are also some potentially complex issues surrounding legality, compliance
and security, which still demands a need to identify where the burden of responsibility for securing data ultimately resides.
Right now, any organisation considering cloud as an option should first look at consolidating its own infrastructure.
Getting your house in order is a great way to secure quick wins against the bottom line and improve efficiencies. This is an area in which Pillar Data Systems excels.
SUMMER 10 WWW.SNSEUROPE.COM
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