Leveraging cloud services for your IT infrastructure can do wonders for your business—if it’s done right. Here’s how.
Whether you have backup and disaster recovery services for your organization’s data, or you’re keeping your servers in a third-party data centre to ensure security and uptime (a.k.a., colocation), or even if you’ve already migrated certain applications into a cloud environment, you’re already familiar with the value that third-party data centre services can offer a business. However, there’s a lot more that goes into ensuring these services are yielding the best value for your business in terms optimizing your operations and maximizing your productivity in the most cost-effective way—and this is a lesson some businesses have learned the hard way.
Heads in the cloud
Driven by great expectations of cost savings and easier management, many businesses jumped at the chance to move their IT infrastructure into the cloud, trading expensive, difficult-to-maintain physical equipment for virtual versions. But from 2017 to 2018, there was a 20% decline in cloud-first and cloud-only solutions1.
Public cloud solutions, where customers use computing resources available over the public internet, were particularly popular. This all-in approach wasn’t the perfect fit for many businesses, however, especially for those who had to meet specific security or regulatory compliance requirements. Other businesses found that a mix of cloud and colocation was more cost effective, while others preferred a mix of on-premises, colocation and cloud solutions.
Knowing your options is key
To make an informed decision about which mix of IT infrastructure solutions may be right for your business, consider all your options. While you may be familiar with some of these, you may not be familiar with all of them. In addition to keeping some of your applications hosted on your own premises or leveraging colocation services, you have:
- Private Cloud – Virtualized infrastructure dedicated to your business and your business alone available via the internet as a service, reducing the need to invest in hardware.
- Public Cloud – Computing and platform resources accessed via the public internet that are consumed in a utility or pay-as-you-go basis. This allows for great flexibility in lieu of control.
- Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) – An isolated computing resource reserved in a public cloud for a single client, striking a certain a balance between flexibility and control. Plus, billing for VPC is based on the reservation of computing resources rather than the consumption of them, making costs more predictable (you may pay more for what you actually used one month, but less the next).
(See Private Cloud vs. Virtual Private Cloud: A Primer for Businesses.)
Narrowing your options
One cloud consumption model solution cannot be optimized for every kind of business outcome—performance, compliance, elasticity, control and cost. For example, back-office workloads—such as an inventory management system—typically have predictable, stable resource demands, and placing it into a public cloud might drive a higher total cost of ownership than traditional colocation or private cloud solutions. Likewise, placing a front-office workload, like a customer relationship management or sales force automation system, in a private cloud may limit the ability to quickly address an unexpected surge in demand and orders.
When assessing your cloud strategy, consider how it will improve your operational efficiency, lower costs and free up your IT department to focus on innovative projects. With a variety of deployment models and the right knowledgebase, you can tailor the best solution for your business.
Take the first step in adopting a cloud strategy that works for your business. Connect your Rogers representative today.
1 McAfee. (2018). Navigating a Cloud Sky. Right Scale State of Cloud Report.