Cloud computing without compromise
Although the cloud has created new opportunities for SMBs, Software-as-a-Service and Ecommerce companies, with it comes important considerations.
By Staff
April 6, 2011
April 6, 2011
Although the cloud has created new opportunities for SMBs, Software-as-a-Service and Ecommerce companies, with it comes important considerations. Top among these is the architecture on which cloud software is hosted. This is usually seen as a choice between private and public clouds, but does not always have to be an either-or proposition. SaaS, Ecommerce and other businesses moving to the cloud can realize the promise of both with only a few tradeoffs.
Private clouds foster control and security, achieved through “owning” the infrastructure being used; for example, the firewall and everything behind it is dedicated to a single solution provider. Since businesses typically require 24/7 services from many backend applications, the reliability that comes from such control can be critical.
More and more small and, especially, mid-sized companies are looking to port more critical applications to the cloud, so it’s not unreasonable for business owners or IT managers and their SaaS providers to develop deep and appropriate SLAs with managed service providers, which might not be attainable in a typical “shared” public infrastructure.
Security is another driver for turning to a private, dedicated cloud service. There are good security frameworks in public cloud services; however, the public cloud will always come with a higher degree of risk. The more service elements that are shared the more risk compounds and, in fact, larger shared cloud services (with multiple ‘tenants’) can create a more appetizing return on investment for hackers.
Still, for those now looking at bringing mission-critical applications to the cloud there are a few important tips, even when considering dedicated services:
Again, this is not an either-or proposition, although often debated like one. A number of strategies exist to provide the best of both worlds.
A meaningful strategy to combine the two, for many businesses, is to instead deploy capacity management mechanisms that allow their applications to “burst” to the public cloud in response to peaks. With this “hybrid” solution, the core application is on a private cloud, but without risk of over-investing on infrastructure. Some technical limits currently exist, but by monitoring performance thresholds and dovetailing from private to public clouds through virtual machines and load balancing, capacity can be added or removed in real time.
The point is: serious discussions need to be had between businesses and their managed service providers to investigate what options are available to combine flexibility, security and control with cost-effective performance. No one type of cloud fits all, nor should businesses be limited by it.
Download a complete whitepaper on the topic of combining the benefits of public and private cloud at: www.tenzing.com/whitepaper
Kelly Beardmore is CTO and COO of Tenzing Managed IT Services.
PDF (500KB)
Private clouds foster control and security, achieved through “owning” the infrastructure being used; for example, the firewall and everything behind it is dedicated to a single solution provider. Since businesses typically require 24/7 services from many backend applications, the reliability that comes from such control can be critical.
More and more small and, especially, mid-sized companies are looking to port more critical applications to the cloud, so it’s not unreasonable for business owners or IT managers and their SaaS providers to develop deep and appropriate SLAs with managed service providers, which might not be attainable in a typical “shared” public infrastructure.
Security is another driver for turning to a private, dedicated cloud service. There are good security frameworks in public cloud services; however, the public cloud will always come with a higher degree of risk. The more service elements that are shared the more risk compounds and, in fact, larger shared cloud services (with multiple ‘tenants’) can create a more appetizing return on investment for hackers.
Still, for those now looking at bringing mission-critical applications to the cloud there are a few important tips, even when considering dedicated services:
- Certified compliance: If your business has data integrity, privacy or data residency requirements, perhaps HIPAA, SOX or PCI, does the hosting provider or the SaaS or Ecommerce service provider meet them all?
- What are the service provider’s IT Service Management procedures? How mature are they? The majority of outages happen during infrastructure and application changes. You should ask service providers to show and explain their operational procedures.
- What kind of business partner is the managed service provider? As more critical applications make use of cloud services, more of a partnership that fosters flexibility, responsiveness and accountability is required.
Again, this is not an either-or proposition, although often debated like one. A number of strategies exist to provide the best of both worlds.
A meaningful strategy to combine the two, for many businesses, is to instead deploy capacity management mechanisms that allow their applications to “burst” to the public cloud in response to peaks. With this “hybrid” solution, the core application is on a private cloud, but without risk of over-investing on infrastructure. Some technical limits currently exist, but by monitoring performance thresholds and dovetailing from private to public clouds through virtual machines and load balancing, capacity can be added or removed in real time.
The point is: serious discussions need to be had between businesses and their managed service providers to investigate what options are available to combine flexibility, security and control with cost-effective performance. No one type of cloud fits all, nor should businesses be limited by it.
Download a complete whitepaper on the topic of combining the benefits of public and private cloud at: www.tenzing.com/whitepaper
Kelly Beardmore is CTO and COO of Tenzing Managed IT Services.
PDF (500KB)
