Introduction to Cloud Computing

Transcription

1 Introduction to Cloud Computing There has been a huge shift in how we all view computing in recent years, with the future laying firmly in the power of Cloud Computing. It is by no means a new concept, but with modern innovations, and by utilising the latest technologies, the benefits are now available for everyone to share. We will help you to unders tand exactly what cloud computing comprises of, how these benefits can not only transform your business function, but also drive down your costs. This new, web-based generation of computing utilises remote servers housed in highly secure data centres for data storage and management, so organisations no longer need to purchase and look after their IT solutions in-house. In This Document: Background What is the Cloud The Cloud can be described as a metaphor for the Internet What is SaaS (Software as a Service)? What types of platforms does the Cloud use? Background For several years we have all experienced a huge shift in business which, in part due to the global economic downturn, has hit all businesses, from the one man band, to the largest corporations very hard; resulting in these organisations having to closely scrutinise their costs in order to stay competitive. It will therefore come as no surprise then that one of their biggest recurring costs is IT. These organisations have had a very positive outcome on the industry, helping pave the way for the logical shift to the cloud, by pressuring the major software suppliers, and allowing them to become empowered enabling them to move their data and processing power from old server rooms, into purpose built secure locations which deliver the latest technologies, guaranteeing their data security, and extracting greater computing power when its really needed; all at a fraction of historic costs. The commercial cloud architecture was born, meaning the start of the end to the traditional IT break fix & upgrade model that we are all used to. This has given way to providers who have the ability to run new feature/function rich environments super effectively, minimising the threat of viruses, with no more physical patching of insecure products, enabling very little if any downtime to business critical applications and data how about the ability to run your applications wherever you maybe in the world? Although this in essence sounds very simplistic, it is a far reaching and broad industry, employing many different technologies and architectures, it is vital that you make an informed decision on any planned IT provider, as the market (like any other) has varying standards and quality of service associated with it. We hope this document will help you to make informed choices, and give you the knowledge to ask the right questions. What is the Cloud The cloud embodies various services and technologies, which combine to enable the delivery of computing services over the Internet in real-time, allowing end-users instant access to data and applications, from any device with Internet access. As already discussed the Cloud is not a new concept, but one that we are all actually very familiar with. Since the commercial birth of the Internet, almost everybody has at one time or another used the combined resources from Cloud servers, whether comparing car insurance quotes, or using Web Mail like Gmail or Hotmail; the data and processing function(s) are carried out seamlessly to the user, regardless of their geographical location, through groups of interconnected computers and data resources. The Cloud can be described as a metaphor for the Internet As far as we are concerned there are two distinct categories associated with this Cloud delivery: SaaS (Software as a Service) and Hosted Services (streamed). These need to be understood individually, however, just to confuse matters from the offset, these two functions are often combined, utilising individual parts of one another s processing, either to deliver a single application, or an entire suite of products. To grasp this concept is to really start understanding the very essence of Cloud, which is to share, - using the combined computing resources of the most powerful computer platforms on the Internet, delivering an individual application or an entire suite the bottom line is that business applications and their transactions run across platforms vastly more powerful than we would otherwise be able to employ or afford in traditional IT environments. Public Cloud Private Cloud Hybrid Cloud What services can be used in the cloud? Hosted/Streamed Desktops Hosted Voice Over IP Cloud Storage Dynamic Servers Why switch from traditional IT to the cloud? Remote Access/ Access from anywhere Disaster recovery / backup Should I be concerned about security? In Conclusion About Sagari

2 What is SaaS (Software as a Service)? One of the biggest buzz words in IT over recent years has been Cloud. This does not mean this is a short lived, or in anyway a fad - in-fact the polar opposite is true but as businesses strive to save money and cut costs, one of the biggest return on investments comes from removing their emphasis on local support for their business critical applications. Organisations like Sagari specialise in all the management and support for them. Not only does this remove the carbon/ cost expensive power-cooling from server rooms, it minimises the support costs for management of a given service. Often physical servers are purchased at great expense and spend the majority of their lives under, or over utilised, with reactive rather than proactive management and support, most often only when things go wrong. Once migrated to a SaaS platform, customers are able to securely access individual applications over the internet using a variety of connection types. is a prime and business critical example; deploying SaaS to manage one of the most crucial business functions, allows staff to be migrated seamlessly, with no business downtime, enabling subsequent access to staff over the internet. Providing the very latest Outlook 2010 for example - these browser based, or hosted systems are accessed securely, offering the same look feel & speed as if the same were still located down the corridor you can also be safe in the knowledge that the support staff utilised by Sagari and other premium vendors are some of the most knowledgeable and skilled available anywhere in the world. There are many SaaS application available, with the number growing on a near daily basis - to name just a few of the common applications: (web-based/hosted) (Zimbra/ Hosted Exchange) CRM (Sugar etc.) HyperOffice suite Zoho Google Docs. VoIP (telephony) Such is the market push for hosted applications that nearly all of the existing software providers are offering their latest release(s) as hosted (SaaS) versions now these can either be hosted by your Cloud IT provider, or are hosted by the manufacturers themselves such as SugarCRM. Gone are the days of the antiquated and expensive updates, where fortunes are charged for license/version upgrades, nearly always resulting in a server upgrade being necessary, where potentially weeks of requiring an expert consultant(s) on-site to correctly setup the software up Sounds familiar? The Cloud has introduced some real positives, with the demise of this over priced Cash Cow logic that IT has historically had, the days are numbered where we had to except these large costs, removing the underlying feeling of being held to ransom by our suppliers speaking techno gabble at you. The Cloud really has brought a new level of honesty, highlighting ethical providers who are able to put the customer s wants and needs first. Where customers don t have to think or worry about the support, which is all taken care of in the background. Another positive for customers deploying SaaS services can be that they are only paying for what they actually use, like a pay-as-you-go service very often resources are only required in normal working hours for example, this could mean services can be switched off when not being used - different suppliers work on different charging metrics, some working on average usage, others may bill for data rates (amounts of transacted data), others for access times or helpdesk availability. NB It is vital that you fully understand and read the small print for any Cloud provider SLA s and charging metrics, some have large costs for excess data rates, with small unrealistic amounts to start with. What types of platforms does the Cloud use? As already discussed, there are many different suppliers running their Cloud services on various platforms and infrastructures. Like so many descriptions & analogies we have to make when discussing this topic, many of these infrastructures are also shared are used in part (just to cause the further confusion). Please don t be put off by this, in reality this is actually to your benefit - which we will explain. The main types of Cloud platforms are: Public Cloud The Public Cloud (or external Cloud) is the most common variant described by the press. The resources are dynamically provisioned, and the architecture is leased from the owners and managed via 3rd party Cloud suppliers. The owners provide full server environments or bespoke software. Using the Public Cloud(s), cloud providers are able to setup and manage scalable environments for their clients. The suppliers are completely responsible for the management, including security and routing. Bills are produced like a utility bill, which varies dependent on several factors e.g. how much data is moved, number of transactions and CPU/RAM utilised, and

3 normally billed to customers monthly. Similar to an electricity bill The CPU, RAM & Disk space are all the responsibility of the supplier, along with patching security and anti-virus. Public Clouds allow organisations to manage anything from a single web server; to the delivery of a full Enterprise domain setup (this describes a full corporate setup), built using separated application servers, security servers and domain controllers necessary to deliver a fully streamed desktop (just like we are familiar with in corporate environments). A Public Cloud has a great deal of advantages: servers are assigned for specific tasks and can be built very quickly; you are only billed for what you use. They enable an extremely fast architecture, with quick turn-around and setup times - often using pre-defined images for server(s), in most circumstances they are already available and don t need building from scratch e.g. SBS2008 or SQL Enterprise, IIS etc. When servers are setup, part of their charging metric includes licensing. NB Licensing is itself is a huge and complex subject, and makes charging transparent and is including in the monthly bill - minimising the confusion in pricing from Microsoft etc. The downside is they are not the easiest to manage or administer, especially when running more than a single (SaaS) server/ instance, or application. They always require monitoring, a very clear understanding of the proprietary routing and security provided by the Cloud owner. Your Cloud supplier is responsible for all security/backups, which is especially complex when running and managing a fully streamed/hosted desktop environment with multiple servers. This takes huge amounts of planning, and a methodical delivery to get everything right from the start; from the development stage thorough testing, including back-ups etc. must be fully verified by your supplier to guarantee no downtime or loss of data in the future. It is very important that you fully understand your chosen Cloud providers backup and redundant policies if building your environment on a Public Cloud. Other potential negatives are the increase in charges where you have redundant servers, these will always charging in the background and require a clear and knowledgeable approach, Public Cloud providers also charge for any data being moved across their environment, which can also add up. In conclusion Public Cloud providers are only responsible for the hardware that you or your Cloud supplier are using, they will not always support the software that resides on it and to successfully deliver a fully streamed environment takes a great deal of planning and skill to support. They do offer a fantastic forum to build environments quickly or deliver single applications, with state of the art internet speeds and general user response times. They also provide very attractive environment for backup data which is utilised by allot of suppliers to ensure no loss of data and often used to backup data from Private Cloud environments. Public Cloud Providers: Amazon (AWS) EC2 Google Microsoft RackSpace Flexiscale Private Cloud The Private Cloud is a term which requires some clarification. In essence this came to being from large companies who owned and setup there own proprietary environments, hosting only their own internal services which are administered by their own staff, effectively becoming in-house service providers, only delivering services to their own corporate customers. This obviously required vast investment to setup the hardware with large investments required on their internet links/connections to service the global connection speeds required for different geographical locations. When trying to understand what the Cloud truly delivers; these organisations quickly realised that their Return on Investment would take many years to claim back from the traditional support architecture which they moved from, this has changed as the market recently embraced the true benefits of the Cloud, meaning there is now a cross section of these vast data centres that with internal investment started to gain too much capacity for their own needs, meaning these corporate owners were able to sub-lease their infrastructure for other organisations to use. The corporate investment model was always financially driven by the operational IT costs. As soon as the market realised that they would not require support staff to visit staff s machines in a break fix scenario, and that much cheaper thin-clients could be purchased the saving were instant and very significant. Hybrid Cloud Hybrid cloud environment combine the resources from both the Public & Private Cloud, this is the most popular choice for large enterprises. For example, a company could choose to use a public cloud service for general computing, but store its business-critical data within its own data centre. This may be because larger organisations are likely to have already invested heavily in the infrastructure required to provide resources in-house. Private cloud (also referred to as corporate or internal cloud) is a term used to denote a proprietary computing architecture, providing hosted services on private networks. This type of cloud computing is generally used by large companies, and allows their corporate network and data centre administrators to effectively become in-house service providers catering to customers within the corporation. However, it negates many of the benefits of cloud computing, as organisations still need to purchase and set up and manage their own clouds. Sagari work using a multi-tenanted architecture utilising Sagari s own Microsoft and VM environments housed in the very best data centres in the world What services can be used in the cloud? Nearly all IT services can be delivered through the Cloud, obviously taking advantage of the distributed cloud model. Some of the solutions include but are not limited to: Hosted/Streamed Desktops Hosted desktops remove the need for traditional desktop PCs and associated support in the office environment; this massively reduces the cost of providing the services that any business requires. A hosted/streamed desktop looks and behaves just like a regular desktop PC, but the software, including bespoke customers applications are delivered via managed environments, these are highly secure data centres, which rather than setup on their own machines and servers in a Comms room, are run through data centres. N.B Please ensure your potential IT provider is capable of virtulising all your applications The results of delivering a fully hosted desktop via the internet means you can

4 work from anywhere in the world, your business will never feel the effects of the snow/bad weather again, as access will be available from anywhere, using any existing PC or laptop (or ultimately by Thin-Client). All subsequent management is centrally looked after by your IT provider, including patch management, Anti-Virus, backups and Disaster Recovery. The PC s become far more efficient when used in this manner, with the option of using much cheaper thinclients to reduce future expenditure. Hosted As more business look for a secure and reliable solution (that doesn t cost the earth!), they are increasingly looking at hosted platforms. Utilising the world s leading platform, Sagari offers all our clients the very latest Microsoft Exchange environment - this enables our clients from the large to the small to experience the same benefits, offering the very latest hosted Exchange. No more expensive investment and costly infrastructure upgrades. Your business critical is stored centrally on managed servers, enabling your organisation the security and redundancy you thought previously impossible. Choosing the right supplier will guarantee you the fastest connectivity from any location. This allows staff to access their , calendar, contacts and shared files by a variety of means; all by the latest Outlook client. Your IT provider should also manage and support Mobile Device access, including Blackberry etc. Voice Over IP VoIP (Voice Over IP) is a means of carrying phone calls across your digital network and the internet, consider VoIP to be no different to a traditional phone system with the same if not more functionality, handsets work exactly the same as a normal digital phone attached to a PBX - but it has distinct cost advantages! A hosted VoIP system replaces the expensive on-site phone systems, there is no charge for installation and handsets and phone numbers are much cheaper, it s simple, cost-efficient and paid monthly. In most cases handset and totally plug and play with minimal configuration. Cloud Storage Cloud storage is growing in popularity, offering many benefits and cost advantages. Whilst saving expenditure it removes the necessary support and maintenance, working out much more cost effective than the required in-house maintenance, management and support required. It also makes the recovery of data much easier with clearly driven software etc. N.B You must ensure your provider enables encryption on all data storage Dynamic Servers Dynamic servers have just started to realise their true place in the market place. The conventional model of a dedicated server is fast becoming redundant. Service providers like Sagari gives its customers access to their resources that look and feel exactly like the dedicated server in their old Comms room, but that are fully scalable. Customers directly control the amount of processing power and space that they use, this means they only pay for what they use. They don t pay for hardware they don t need. Typically, customers can make changes to their dynamic server at any time, without the historic costs associated with moving from one server to another. N.B You must also ensure your IT provider has the ability to Virtulise your services in the first instance Sagari can virtulise almost any application no matter how old or dependent, this provides customers seeking this service the ability to guarantee and ensure business critical legacy programmes are run on the latest dynamic servers giving amazing reassurance. Why switch from traditional IT to the cloud? The list of positives to all business switching over to a hosted architecture is nearly unquantifiable. The proof really is in the pudding as some of the worlds leading organisations realise the large cost savings and benefits that choosing the correct hosted IT supplier brings to their organisation. Not only providing large savings, but increasing their ROI on the associated to do with IT that they may not have truly considered Training for example is now delivered across the network via online Webinars, new staff don t wait for weeks on end for a training course that s now delivered online, viruses and server downtime is a thing of the past. New software doesn t need to be installed or upgraded on each machine etc. Cloud computing offers a simple operational expense that is easier to plan for. This stops money being wasted on depreciating assets that are always under or over utilised in your Comms room and costs a fortune to keep cool irrelevant of how it s being used. IT solutions can be deployed extremely quickly and managed, maintained, patched and upgraded remotely by your service provider. Technical support is provided round the clock by reputable providers like Sagari for no extra cost, reducing the burden on IT staff, this frees up staff to focus on business-critical aspects of the business that aren t IT related Cloud IT not only vastly improves flexibility, it increase efficiencies at all levels but saves vast amounts of money, and helps you organisation go green by markedly cutting down carbon emissions. It prevents the need for large future investment and means that the small business is on a level playing with large business the disparity between resources is brought in line, this means all costs can be clearly planned for and paid for regularly without investment that your business may or may not realise in the longterm. Some of the hardware and software run by Sagari would costs 100 s of thousands to afford individually, and really gives all business the chance to compete on level ground. Reputable suppliers will offer levels of support normal companies could not compete with, enabling 24/7 phone support, free training, with nearly 100t% uptime of data centres. N.B Always ask a prospective provider about reliability and guaranteed service levels ensure your applications and/or services are always online and accessible. Remote Access/ Access from anywhere Cloud-based IT services let you access your applications and data securely from any location via an internet connection. It s easier to collaborate too; with both the application and the data stored in the cloud, multiple users can work together on the same project, share calendars and contacts etc. A normal misconception is that if your internet connection is to fail, you will not be able to access your critical data or application. The truth is access is far easier than if it were in your office for example, you can easily access from another means such as your mobile device or wireless network, giving you more redundancy than you imagined. Flexibility including remote working is easily enabled, in truth this happens by default, this means you will stay operational though bad weather and generally keep staff happy and working.

5 Disaster recovery / backup Recent research has indicated that a vast majority of businesses does not have an adequate disaster recovery or business continuity plan should a disaster occur; research show that in most cases this would bring the business to a halt. Sagari prides itself on covering all the facets of DR and Backup as its core delivery, all data is continually backed-up, allowing all our customers to retrieve important files from their desktop or office environment at the press of a button. On request we can even supply our customers with a ready-togo desktop to plug in should their business be hit by an unforeseen problem. Sagari s Hosted/Streamed Desktops primarily use VDI for its backend services, this means you don t have to worry about data backup or disaster recovery ever again, and is taken care of as part of the service. Files are stored twice at different remote locations to ensure that there s always a copy available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. Should I be concerned about security? Security is a big concern for everybody considering the move of their data and services to the Cloud. The correct answer from any reputable provider should always be the same your applications and data a safer with us, than it would be at your own customer premise. Sagari utilise and adhere to the very strictest policies, and host in some of the most secure buildings in the country, fear of theft is nearly impossible, Fire - non existent, by using the correct collocation encryption and backups means a copy of your data can always be retrieved. N.B Not all vendors offer the same level of security, which means you must research their policies. Gartner lists the following seven security questions: 1. Privileged user access enquire about who has access to data and about the hiring and management of such administrators 2. Regulatory compliance makes sure a vendor is willing to undergo external audits and/or security certifications 3. Data location ask if a provider allows for any control over the location of data 4. Data segregation make sure that encryption is available at all stages and that these encryption schemes were designed and tested by experienced professionals 5. Recovery find out what will happen to data in the case of a disaster; do they offer complete restoration and, if so, how long that would take 6. Investigative Support inquire whether a vendor has the ability to investigate any inappropriate or illegal activity 7. Long-term viability ask what will happen to data if the company goes out of business; how will data be returned and in what format In general security is usually improved by keeping data in one centralised location. In high security data centres like those that Sagari use, security is typically better than traditional setups. In Conclusion Cloud infrastructure should allow any enterprise, of any size to achieve the most efficient use of their existing IT hardware and software investments. Sagari works closely with many channel partners to provide an end-to-end solution to any size business from the small to the largest corporate businesses, if a company wishes to evaluate, plan migrations and move towards cloud computing, this can be done quickly and simply Sagari project manage everything from the single virtualised application, to the delivery of entire streamed desktop suite, always communicating clear customer defined timelines and goals and objectives. As and when your business grows, your IT needs grow with them, Sagari act and as a cost effective extension to this growth and your aspirations. The scalability and speed of the deployment offered by Sagar i and our Cloud infrastructure means you can expand your IT provision instantly easily meeting the increased requirements and demands this works the other way, also meaning should you wish to scale down this can easily take place. Security is typically greatly enhanced, along with resilience, and the flexibility, and overall responsiveness. Waste of money through time management is minimised, allowing you to effectively do more with a great deal less. Moving to a cloud environment gives your organisation the ability to use the most advanced technologies at a fraction of the cost, purchasing and running cutting edge systems perceivably in-house, that you may never dream of affording before. N.B Ensure that your provider can deliver your requirements and attains a quality of service you deserve. About Sagari We have been in operation for over 4 years and were one of the first IT companies in the UK to offer fully hosted/streamed desktops anywhere. Sagari prides itself on exemplary customer services, and offers our customers everything from streamed desktops, to hosted , VoIP, mobile device integration including Blackberry, whist utilising the very best Virtualisation tools to migrate existing software platforms. Our main data centre has been voted the fastest in the UK and 2nd fastest in the world adhering to all the latest ISO standards with staff managing the Infrastructure with Microsoft Gold Partner status and a plethora of other related qualifications (available on request). We host and manage IT services for any business, from small charities and education, to manufacturing and government bodies; including the Department of Work and Pensions and NHS (N3 T1 connectivity). Every business is viewed by Sagari as individual, and unique, with differing needs and requirements - we always deliver with the same exacting standards of care. No customer is considered too large or too small, and any help we can provide at any level is welcome For more information don t hesitate to contact our customer services dept on sales@sagari.co.uk, or and please look at the website sagari.co.uk