technology Upgrade or extend IT – stick or twist?
Many UK organisations are locked in a cycle of upgrading IT hardware – on expiry of its warranty. However, if you don’t need the latest and greatest then it makes sense to keep equipment and support it – especially if it still performs well, is stable and continues to meet business needs
If your hardware is at end of life or end of support life, I have highlighted below your options, writes Paul Timms, managing director of MCSA Group.
Extending IT
Thankfully, there is an excellent array of well-established third- party support companies available with extensive stocks of spares; organisations that are capable of supporting a range of legacy equipment that continue to run critical systems reliably and effectively in many environments including banks, power stations and government departments.
Opting for a third-party support
contract instead of the supplier’s out-of-warranty tariff can deliver a saving on service costs and improve SLAs. In addition, by not upgrading to the new software infrastructure, there is no need to continue paying software licence fees - further reducing costs.
To obtain the exceptional level of service required by these critical systems, look at support companies with highly skilled engineers, with experience in delivering services for and across different hardware platforms. Look also at providers with regional distribution centres, possessing spare parts so they can always meet customers’ specific requirements.
Importantly ensure the company you choose has a support process that provides you with rapid access to experienced engineering expertise – as soon as a problem occurs. This depth of engineering skill, combined with excellent support processes, will allow you to confidently assume that a four-hour response, six- hour fix service level agreement (SLA) can and will be delivered.
Upgrading IT
Of course, with ageing hardware running business-critical applications, organisations will be understandably concerned about reliability, the speed of availability of spare parts and the responsiveness of any support operation. No business will want to delay an upgrade if it will jeopardise uptime or compromise operational performance – the business cost will be too high.
If there are doubts about the ability of your IT to adequately
S3 Object Storage; what is it and how can it help your business?
Many of us use cloud storage in our personal life, and businesses are following this trend using public cloud services, like Amazon AWS, writes Russell Cook, MD, SIRE Technology
One similar solution aimed at businesses wanting to utilise this next generation approach for hybrid IT solutions is based around S3 Object Storage. Here the key is recognising that not all data has the same value nor does it all require instant retrieval should there be a break in IT services. With this approach, businesses are able to implement the dynamic migration of their data from physical, on-site storage facilities to off-premises cloud storage, which have a near infinite capacity.
Traditional block-based storage has no understanding of the data being stored and treats everything as a bit stream. Smart Data Storage systems store the data, metadata (information about
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the data) and provide easier data analysis.
Why Object Storage can work for your business?
As data volume grows we need better ways to manage and store it. S3 Object Storage is a multi- tenanted storage system which provides IT departments with operational control and end users with self-service management of their data. The key benefits are:
• INFINITE SCALE: Peer-to- peer architecture allows almost endless scaling. Scale to many servers, across data centres and multiple regions. Recent tests showed linear scaling to 200 nodes and 1 billion objects.
• HYBRID CLOUD: Provides your business with the option to scale
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – SEPTEMBER 2016
beyond your own storage and integrate Amazon or other S3 providers, giving flexibility as well as control.
• ALWAYS ON: Detects and isolates any failure across the system. Automatically identifying components and continuing to operate in a fault tolerant mode. Storage continuously repairs and re-optimises itself.
• DATA SOVEREIGNTY ASSURED: All data is stored securely and held in UK-based data centres, ensuring continued compliance and risk mitigation.
support the business processes now and into the future, look for providers that can also help with new systems design, installation and support. They should also be able to help you determine the right time to refresh – and identify the most appropriate solutions for your business.
Conclusion
It’s clear that unless IT can no longer support the business, simply upgrading it per se is not always a sound move. Instead, why not consider raising the retirement age of your IT equipment – but ensure it’s sustained by expert third-party support.
www.mcsagroup.co.uk
• ON PREMISE AVAILABILITY: Why invest in another data centre if you can have 24/7 access to your own, unique Object Storage?
SLAs (service level agreements) can be tailored to meet practical individual requirements alongside financial constraints. The service is described as being ‘forever active’ and the storage servers are built to scale as needed both in the company’s data centre and in the public cloud. SIRE’s own S3 Object Storage, is a hybrid solution that utilises standalone software which can integrate with the Amazon cloud to provide the trusted, scalable storage platform to power these private clouds. It seamlessly plugs into these environments, making secure, robust, self-service storage a reality for your business regardless of its size or the sector in which you operate.
For more information about S3 Object Storage visit the website.
sire.co.uk/cloud-solutions/ object-storage
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