Cloud Computing: Why You Should Be Here Now
Introductions Bill Vicino Senior Technical Consultant bvicino@akaes.com 212-502-3933 Tom Kostis Senior Technical Consultant tkostis@akaes.com 212-560-5456
Before We Begin Q&A Please don t hesitate to ask questions any time during the session. We also have dedicated Q&A time at the end of the session Scribe There is a scribe in the room to record questions and action items that we cannot address in this timeframe. This presentation will be available for download on our website.
What is Cloud Computing? In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer or local network. Been around for over twenty years think AOL Mail back in the 90 s.
Advantages/Benefits:
What is Microsoft Azure?
What is Azure? In short, it s Microsoft s cloud platform: a comprehensive set of integrated services, virtual machines, storage, data, networking, and applications. Using the various Azure components AKA is able to configure a secure, scalable and highly available GP deployment in the cloud. AKA s Dynamics GP Azure hosted solutions leverage IaaS, building out an Azure hosted infrastructure to support your ERP needs. The environment can be extended to integrate with your on premises resources like File Shares/Document Management Solutions and Databases. Azure offers a 99.95% availability SLA, 24x7 tech support, and round-the-clock service health monitoring. That s why more than 57% of Fortune 500 companies rely on Azure today.
The end-user experience Anyone familiar with browsing the web can easily transition to using our Azure hosted solutions. Your application user community will get an address and login information. Your people login and are presented with ERP and any other applications you've chosen to deploy and make available to them. Launching the applications are as easy as clicking and logging in! To your end-users, the application functions the same as if it were a locally installed, on premises application. Your IT team can focus on other projects while they let AKA's award winning team take care of their ERP environment!
What About Communication and Collaboration? If you were starting a business today, it s fairly certain that you would not even consider putting an Exchange Email Server in your server room, (you may not even build a server room!). Office365 offers the full Exchange/Email functionality, including the Outlook client and Outlook Web client. Meaning that your communication platform is always available, from anywhere, with the very latest updates. Additionally, you can get the entire Office Suite Online; including Word, Excel, Access, etc. So when you open an attachment, it will open using the Online Viewer, even if you don t have the proper application installed.
SharePoint Online and Yammer For document collaboration, there really is no better application than SharePoint. With easy to use security, workflows, document libraries and lists, it is easy to create Team Sites and Company Libraries and Forms that allow for efficient sharing. You can also enable features that allow users to collaborate simultaneously, check in/out documents, or require approvals. And since SharePoint is also online, your IT folks can configure your domain so that you use your network login one time to access all Online sites. And all online sites are updated on the back end, meaning the end of upgrades for your Systems Team! Yammer is your company s Bulletin Board, perfect for posting and commenting on company announcements.
CRM Online Just to come full circle, it is worth mentioning that CRM Online, like Office365 and SharePoint, is a fully functioning web-based application that exists in Microsoft s Cloud of Services. Updates happen on the back-end, at your schedule. But no longer does your IT team have to figure out the upgrade path. All of these online resources have clear paths to migrate from on-premise. Once online, you have better options for uptime, backup, redundancy and availability.
The new Dynamics AX Microsoft recently released their biggest ERP space change in years with the new Dynamics AX. Unlike traditional Client/Server applications, the new Dynamics AX is a true HTML5 environment. This means that AX users simply open their favorite browser, go to the Dynamics AX web address and login! No more need to install client applications to every user's computers or invest in RDS/Citrix infrastructure to deploy applications. The initial release of Dynamics AX is purely Azure based with Microsoft themselves managing the underlying infrastructure and availability. Of course AKA's award winning team will remain on the front-line, guiding your team in application usage/support.
Reason 1: High Availability Your data is hosted in a state of the art Microsoft data center with built in redundancy. Minimal downtime for updates/maintenance
Reason 2: One Stop GP Support One phone number/email address for Dynamics GP support with AKA s Azure hosting. We resolve your issue whether it s Dynamics GP Application related or infrastructure related you won t get bounced around between different support teams.
Reason 3: Dedicated GP Environment Each Client gets a fully dedicated/isolated environment with AKA s hosted Dynamics GP Solution. There are no shared resources like SQL Servers, RDS Server, Cloud Storage. Maintenance windows are schedulable
Reason 4: Fixed Monthly Cost AKA s cloud hosting solution is based on a fixed monthly fee which includes hosting fees, GP application and infrastructure support. Core GP upgrades included in the fixed monthly fee.
Reason 5: Integrate to On-Premises AKA can integrate your hosted Dynamics GP cloud environment to on-premises systems VPN connectivity between Cloud and your local office. We can support document management systems, workflows, websites, SQL Servers
Reason 6: Highly Scalable You are not stuck with a fixed, expensive to expand on-premises infrastructure. With Azure AKA can quickly resize servers, add storage capacity and build out new environments with minimal downtime.
Reason 7: On Demand Environments Azure allows AKA to rapidly build out DEV/TEST/DR environments as needed Environments can be shut down and started ad hoc or on schedule pay for what you need
Reason 8: Your Data is Safe AKA creates, monitors and tests a backup plan to meet your specific needs and data retention requirements. Backup vaults can be created in multiple locations. Files, databases and Virtual Machines are backed up
Reason 9: Dynamics GP Upgrades Included Core Dynamics GP upgrades included in your monthly hosting fee. Upgrades scheduled at your convenience as there are no shared resources.
Reason 10: Everywhere Availability All your users need is Internet Access to use Dynamics GP across the globe. Azure runs on a growing global network of Microsoftmanaged datacenters across 13 regions.
Thank You! Bill Vicino Systems Engineer E:bvicino@akaes.com P: 212.502.3933 W: www.akaes.com