Hybrid cloud ready for public sector IT challenges. A need-to-know guide

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1 Hybrid cloud ready for public sector IT challenges A need-to-know guide

2 Hybrid cloud ready for public sector IT challenges There s little doubt that the demands on public sector IT are ramping up. Government needs to be more connected, interactive, immediate, mobile and fluid than ever before. Digital by Default targets for this transformation has left IT struggling to keep pace. Provisioning is key to success. You need both ondemand access to additional IT resources and the flexibility to move workloads onsite or offsite as required. In this guide we examine how a true hybrid cloud solution can provide the best of both worlds while addressing the perceived security concerns around using the cloud. Hybrid cloud debunking the myths A hybrid cloud is a fluid infrastructure service where you can seamlessly extend your data center to the public cloud, leveraging the exact same infrastructure, network, management and skills that you use today. Critical applications can deliver the performance boost they need and resources can be provisioned where required. And a hybrid cloud can be scaled back just as easily when needed. Unfortunately many so-called hybrid environments fail to deliver as they are simply combinations of public and private clouds with little or no compatibility between them. Applications may need rewriting or migrating and sometimes totally different tools are required to operate them. And it can prove impossible to shift workloads back to a private cloud should the demand drop. A true hybrid cloud should provide a common platform for extending an existing data center to the cloud, using the tools and processes already in place without making any changes or significant additional investments. Many government services such as passport processing or tax returns have significant peaks and troughs throughout the year, yet have stringent data security requirements all year round. A hybrid cloud enables the public sector to keep business-critical applications in-house and also take advantage of the enormous scalability of public clouds Andy Tait, Head of Public Sector Strategy at VMware

3 Drivers for public sector IT in 2015 In an election year the ability to do more and better for less will be firmly on the agenda and any major IT projects will be closely scrutinised. Key considerations in 2015 include: Digital by Default: Providing better services for millions of users. For example in 2014, 82 percent of the one million people who applied to register to vote did so online. Reports show a 90 percent satisfaction with this new digital service. Flexible provisioning: Applications like Self-Assessment or the Passport Service need an enormous scale of infrastructure to cope with peaks in their demand. Improving delivery and minimising costs while coping with spikes will be imperative. Reduce spending: It is a stated aim to reduce public sector IT spending by 1.7 billion p.a. both on capital projects and expensive, long-term contracts. Before G-Cloud over 80 percent of the IT supply chain was going to just seven companies. There are now thousands of suppliers under shorter, more flexible contracts. Cloud First strategy: The UK Government s Cloud First strategy requires departments to consider IT solutions offered through the cloud before they consider alternatives. It is already delivering savings of around 50% according to the Cabinet Office. Security and compliance: In a post-snowden world, there is heightened concern around how and where data is stored and the vast majority of UK citizen data cannot leave these shores. Any new IT initiative must demonstrate it can meet stringent security, compliance and control requirements. Why a true hybrid cloud is a perfect fit for public sector. Hybrid cloud will allow public sector IT to make the most of its existing infrastructure by opening up the public cloud, enabling the environment to be seamlessly extended and provide a platform to deliver the outstanding services citizens are demanding. Meeting the Digital by Default standard includes having the capacity and technical flexibility to update and improve the service on a very frequent basis. Hybrid cloud can facilitate this. It allows IT to set up, test, deploy and take down applications without building any new infrastructure.

4 VMware vcloud Air - A secure hybrid cloud solution VMware vcloud Air is the world s first true hybrid cloud solution, delivering the safest and fastest way to harness the public cloud. It provides all the agility and cost-effectiveness of a public cloud without the risk, cost and time of starting afresh. Complete flexibility vcloud Air makes it easy to extend workloads and mission critical applications, in or out of the public cloud whenever additional capacity is needed. Applications can be moved back and forth without having to be modified and users pay only for the resources they need. Integrates with what you have vcloud Air supports over 5,000 applications and 90-plus operating systems. Workloads can be moved seamlessly without change because you don t have to adapt code for any existing applications. This means you can maintain the same performance and uptime you already achieve internally. Security is paramount When VMware released its UK-based vcloud Air service, cloud compliance became a non-issue. With the data centre for the service based locally, public sector organisations are safe in the knowledge that all citizen data is stored under UK and EU compliance and data sovereignty standards. Easy to get started VMware vcloud Air Dedicated Cloud, VMware vcloud Air Virtual Private Cloud and VMware vcloud Air Disaster Recovery as a Service are all available on the G-Cloud 6 Framework. An industry winner vcloud Air is the winner of numerous industry awards, most recently the UK Cloud Award for Most Innovative Enterprise Product of the Year. Listen to Andy Tait, Head of Public Sector Strategy at VMware, discuss public sector issues and how a hybrid cloud approach to IT can help.

5 How could a hybrid cloud help my workload? Development and testing A hybrid cloud makes it possible to quickly develop and test applications in the cloud and easily move them to onsite production if required. It s an easy, fast, and cost-effective way to gain on-demand capacity for a limited time period. As vcloud Air uses the same platform that you already run internally, you get the same results you would expect from your own data center. Extend existing applications IT is always faced with reducing costs and freeing up resources. One way to do this is to migrate standard packaged applications to the public cloud. Applications that are not strategic or customised, such as and collaboration software, offer a cost-effective option for running in a hybrid cloud. vcloud Air supports thousands of applications and dozens of operating systems so you can test and run your existing applications in the cloud with no changes required. Disaster recovery Many departments do not have the budget, expertise or time to develop a disaster recovery plan. Disaster recovery in the cloud is emerging as a compelling alternative due to the flexibility in commitment, capacity and cost. vcloud Air Disaster Recovery provides an easy way to get started without investing in any hardware, without training new specialists and without having to invest in a secondary site. The service provides a simple, secure process for replicating and recovering applications in the case of a local disaster. Modernise enterprise applications The cloud is an ideal model for delivering desktop as a service and enterprise applications built on traditional or three-tier architectures. Upgrading an enterprise application presents an opportunity to evaluate where to host it. vcloud Air delivers a secure and scalable platform for delivering desktop as a service and modernising applications that are built on traditional architectures. You can replicate the network that your enterprise applications require without starting from scratch.

6 Next Steps Learn how to get started with VMware vcloud Air at vmwareforyou.co.uk/hybridcloud or us directly at With vcloud Air we were able to extend our network on demand, which gave us amazing level of flexibility and control. We can provision pretty much instantly new service, change configuration settings, add new storage - it s completely changed the way we think about our IT infrastructure, it gave us that extra peace of mind. Carisbrooke Shipping VMware UK Ltd, Theta Building, Lyon Way, Frimley, Camberley, GU16 7ER Tel +44 (0) Copyright 2015 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.