Now that we’ve explored the various cloud computing options available, how do you decide whether cloud computing is right for your business?

In a recent article on securitycatalyst.com, Craig Nelson discussed reasons why businesses opt for the cloud and what they should consider before turning to cloud computing.

There are some simple reasons that business choose to go with cloud computing:
1. Lack of time or expertise (including security) to build and maintain an in-house solution.
2. Seeking the advantage/speed of new features that are released quickly.
3. It’s cheap (either free, or subscription fees).

But before jumping into it, discuss the following key questions with your internal team:
1 – What regulations is your business subject to? What operational principles and policies does your business have?  Can the cloud provider provide an adequate level of support? If not, can deficiencies be mitigated?
2 – Does the cloud provider offer security controls that allow an adequate level of protection?  If not, can deficiencies be mitigated?
3 – Does the cloud provider offer a level of operational transparency, so appropriate metrics and logs can be used for monitoring and reporting?
For more information on cloud computing and how it fits into your company’s IT infrastructure, contact Evolving Solutions.

In the past couple of weeks, we’ve talked about public clouds vs. private clouds, but what about a combination of the two?

A hybrid cloud includes a variety of public and private options with multiple providers. By spreading things out over a hybrid cloud, you keep each aspect of your business in the most efficient environment possible. The downside is that you have to keep track of multiple different security platforms and ensure that all aspects of your business can communicate with each other.

Experts believe that the future is in private cloud computing, and there has been a recent rush to implement hybrid public/private clouds in an effort to become closer to the private model.

How does the hybrid model work?   Software companies are teaming up with system integrators to bring internally managed clouds to enterprises.

For example, MomentumSI has combined software from three companies – New Scale, rPath and Eucalyptus – to provide what it calls a self-service private cloud offering. As a coalition, these companies can provide a single source solution that is simply not possible for public clouds providers on their own.

With a hybrid model, a company can use an SaaS application without security concerns.  The SaaS vendor creates a private cloud inside the company’s firewall and provides a virtual private network (VPN) for additional security.  If a company offers services to different vertical markets, it can use a public cloud to interact with clients, but keep their data secure within a private cloud.  With security being a huge concern for public cloud computing, this hybrid option is extremely attractive.

Evolving Solutions is proud to announce that we are now IBM Dynamic Infrastructure certified and the only MN company to have this certification.

A dynamic infrastructure aligns business and IT assets to support overall business goals while taking a more streamlined approach that leverages new technologies, focuses on optimization and manages and mitigates risk.

With datacenter demands growing, many businesses require a more flexible and smarter infrastructure that does not increase the burden on IT staff. The premise of the Dynamic Infrastructure Certification is having the knowledge and ability to create an IT infrastructure that is easy to manage and provide agility, speed and superior performance.

To be part of the IBM Dynamic Infrastructure Program, Evolving Solutions demonstrated that we are able to design IT solutions that optimize the datacenter environment and achieve greater results without adding additional staff. In-depth experience and additional technical certifications to validate those skills is also a part of being certified for Dynamic Infrastructure.

Contact Evolving Solutions to learn more about how we can use IBM’s Dynamic Infrastructure strategy to optimize your data center.

Security?  Privacy?  Compliance?  They are all legitimate concerns when it comes to public cloud computing.  That being said, the public cloud has undeniable benefits.  As a utility service, public clouds offer easy and inexpensive setup, scalability for growing needs and a pay-per-use model that eliminates waste.

The public cloud simultaneously solves three resource bottlenecks: power, data processing and access to software-as-a-service (SaaS) without ownership costs.  The public cloud essentially becomes a boost for your regular systems, offering additional power when needed and the ability to process large amounts of data that traditional file systems cannot handle.

But back to the cons.  There are certainly some very important issues to consider before using a public cloud.

1)  You can’t move data between service providers.  Companies therefore must ensure that they have selected a public cloud service provider that has a good reputation and the ability to scale based on their needs.  Switching providers at a later date is not a viable option.

2)  As public cloud computing is available to anybody, the risk of a security breach is much higher.  The data may be stored in different locations or even different countries, making it difficult to ensure that private data stays private.  Companies must therefore limit the access of individual users and strongly enforce password policies.

3)  When using an external service provider, there is always the chance of service outages.  If your public cloud goes offline, how long can you survive without it?

Even with all these issues, the economies of scale put public cloud computing at a clear advantage and service providers realize that.  It is in their best interest to address key customer concerns and work towards creating a secure and reliable service.