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Companies embracing cloud for increased flexibility, lower costs

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As technology becomes an increasingly important part of doing business, companies are realizing the benefits of the cloud. Utilizing cloud-based applications is a great way to enhance business operations by reducing costs, increasing flexibility and improving collaboration and productivity.

While traditional software can only be used by the device it was uploaded to, cloud applications can be accessed from any Internet-connected device. The accessible nature of the cloud makes it much more convenient for companies with employees who are frequently on the go or like to telecommute.

The cloud also allows organizations to break free from traditional software and the associated upgrades and high licensing fees for a more cost-effective option. Cloud applications work on a simpler subscription model, making it easier for enterprises to scale their service and pay only for what they really need. Small businesses can especially benefit from implementing a cloud infrastructure, as the lower costs and increased flexibility are ideal for companies with tighter budgets and smaller IT departments.

Another benefit of the cloud is an increase in collaboration between coworkers. The cloud’s ease-of-use and its ability to make documents and services available from anywhere with an Internet connection improves editing and sharing capabilities. Employees who might be miles away from one another physically can be on the same page virtually through the cloud, easily and effectively making edits to documents or changing presentations together over the Internet.

Companies of all sizes will also benefit from the cloud’s ability to serve as a disaster recovery center. Duplicate files can be easily stored in the cloud and kept offsite in case of an emergency at a much lower cost than employing a physical data center for disaster recovery services. Utilizing a cloud disaster recovery solution dramatically improves enterprise data security, ensuring critical information and systems won’t disappear because of a natural disaster. The cloud also increases protection from cyberattacks, as all data stored on the platform is encrypted to make it impossible for hackers to steal sensitive information.

Hybrid cloud ideal for enterprise use
For companies interested in implementing a cloud environment, a hybrid cloud is a good option to consider. Hybrid clouds offer organizations a mix of private and public infrastructures, making it possible to utilize the best of both platforms. Applications can be run on a public platform while critical services and data can be stored privately to add an extra level of security. Hybrid clouds also offer service scalability, making it easier to meet business demands. When traffic is slow, companies can focus on the more critical platform and increase service on the secondary cloud when demand picks up.

Recent Postal Service data loss highlights need for disaster recovery solutions

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It was discovered in a recent government audit of the U.S. Postal Service that the agency lost sensitive data after the device containing both the original and backup copies of the information suffered a hardware failure. The machine that crashed contained the database for the Computer Incident Response Team, which was "used to record and monitor computer incidents." The database was lost in April after an unspecified malfunction occurred. The information was considered essential, meaning it was necessary to the maintenance of daily operations.

"…[T]he Postal Service did not ensure all database backups were being stored on separate hardware," stated the audit report. 'Specifically, the CIRT database was lost due to a hardware failure and the data was not recovered due to the absence of a backup on a separate piece of hardware."

Currently, the security standards for the Postal Service do not require separate devices for storing backup and original files to maintain information resources. Ironically, the USPS was given an award by CSO Magazine earlier this year for innovative use of online security. The award was accepted by the CIRT's Information Systems Security Manager Andrew Kotynski.

Disaster recovery: More important than you think 
​While it may seem like what happened to the USPS was just an embarrassing oversight, hundreds of companies make the same mistake each year. Even if duplicate copies of information aren't stored together, they can still be lost if the appropriate disaster recovery and business continuity policies aren't implemented. A recent survey conducted by Forrester found that 33 percent of companies have declared a disaster in the last five years. Four years ago, that number was 20 percent. The study also found that the downtime caused by disasters can be extremely expensive, with respondents reporting costs of up to $3.5 million.

When putting disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place, it is important for organizations to consider where documents and important information are currently stored and how employees access them. For critical information that is used frequently and by many different people, cloud storage services are the best choice.

Using content management systems and cloud-based solutions allow companies to store important data in an easily accessible place that will stay safe during a disaster and keep business running as usual. Employing managed services also lets small- and medium-sized businesses enjoy the same benefits as large companies while having lower costs and the security of a fully redundant, reliable data center.

Top 4 benefits of cloud storage services

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As technology becomes an increasingly important part of business, many companies are looking for solutions that will provide the most advantages for the least amount of money, time and complexity. One technology that is growing in popularity is cloud computing, and specifically cloud storage services. While there are many benefits to storing sensitive documents and information in the cloud, keep reading to find out the top four.

1) Cost-Effectiveness:
Backing up data can be extremely expensive, especially when considering the necessary equipment and hardware. Labor costs become an issue too, as manual backups are time-consuming and complicated. Cloud storage solves these problems by leaving the maintenance and equipment costs to a third party provider. Cloud storage solutions are easily scaled, allowing businesses to only pay for the amount of storage necessary for their business and making it simple to increase or reduce space as client needs change.

2) Security:
Storing information in the cloud is much more secure than keeping paper documents or using physical devices for file storage. Hard drives and USBs can be stolen or lost, while information in the cloud will always stay put. At the same time, security is not a core competency for many companies, but it is for cloud service providers. Because of this, providers who are mainly focused on data security are much more adept at keeping information protected than a business with an IT team focused on dozens of projects and problems at once.

Cloud storage also creates an extra layer of security between privileged data and cybercriminals. Backup files are kept separate from originals so hackers cannot steal everything at once.

3) Disaster Recovery:
In the same way that it is safer to keep duplicate files away from the originals to protect them from malicious actors, it also helps to protect against natural disasters. After a storm or fire, regular systems may not be accessible, but information stored in the cloud will be.

4) Accessibility:
Professionals are using more devices than ever before and cloud storage allows files to be accessed from any of them. Sharing is also made easier with this increased flexibility, as files can be put in the cloud and then accessed by any authorized party. This helps to increase collaboration between in-house and remote employees, as well as improving productivity.

Cities increasingly utilizing the cloud for disaster recovery services

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With state and local governments increasingly feeling the pressure to streamline IT operations to control costs and enhance performance, a growing number of cities are beginning to pursue the most up-to-date tools and hardware architectures to modernize their data centers.

At the same time as there is an emphasis on physical devices, city IT managers and CIOs are also utilizing the cloud in their data center renovations. Instead of using tight budgets on new data center facilities, cities are able to implement pay-as-you-go cloud services to consolidate data and programs from different government agencies in an effective way. Many local agencies are employing the cloud to handle spikes in data center workloads, or as a backup service or a disaster recovery utility.

Under the supervision of CIO Vijay Sammeta, the city of San Jose is implementing plans to use the cloud as a backup mechanism for the city’s critical IT infrastructure. In the next 12 to 18 months San Jose will be transitional virtual machines to the cloud and using the technology to manage various applications, as well as for backup and disaster recovery services.

“When you think about all the components of a highly available service delivery stack: network, servers, database and the applications, it starts [to] make a lot of sense to simply let someone else worry about that and just build redundancy to the Internet,” said Sammeta.

The cloud an alternative to physical facilities
The city of Asheville, North Carolina has also turned to the cloud for its disaster recovery plan. The city was set to build a $200,000 disaster recovery center as part of a fire station construction project, but it never came together so Asheville needed a plan B. Utilizing the cloud allows the city to enter disaster recovery mode only when it is critically necessary. The ability to scale for need saves Asheville thousands of dollars a year as compared to the cost of maintaining hardware in a physical facility. With the new system, the city is also able to encompass a number of applications into the disaster recovery plan that were previously uncovered.

In Michigan, Oakland County is using the cloud to supplement its overworked data center facilities, according to CIO Phil Bertolini. Implementing a cloud infrastructure allows the county to transition some systems to the cloud, taking computing pressure off of the data centers’ servers. The town of Newington, Massachusetts is also getting in on the cloud craze, implementing services to extend the city’s business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities.

New study finds companies increasingly utilizing cloud for disaster recovery

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As technology becomes more prevalent in business and companies increasingly rely on massive amounts of data to complete work, the need for a secure backup service and disaster recovery plan is more necessary than ever. In a recent webinar sponsored by Microsoft, Forrester analyst Noel Yuhanna recommended that enterprises strategically implement public cloud services for disaster recovery to ensure business continuity.

According to Yuhanna, more than 70 percent of enterprises currently have to manage at least two terabytes of data, but at the rate new information is being created that could become petabytes in just a few years. In the webinar, Yuhanna praised the cloud for its ability to automate the data backup process and include encryption while not requiring staff to manage the day-to-day operations of the servers and storage platform.

Forrester recently conducted a survey of more than 200 database backup and operations professionals on three continents and found that 15 percent of companies are currently utilizing the cloud for database backups. This number has doubled in the last year, according to Yuhanna. The report also found that users were driven to the cloud for backup and disaster recovery services due to the need for constant application availability, cost savings and organizational agility.

Cloud offers multiple DR benefits
The cloud is ideally suited for disaster recovery because it is able to replicate data that resides in a physical location without having to create a redundant facility to house it. It is also a cost-effective option, as backups and archived data often sit unused for years at a time with few updates and don’t need to be stored in an expensive physical facility. The cloud therefore creates a dual benefit of storing information in a cost-effective environment that is also offsite in case of a disaster.

The Forrester survey also discovered that the key reasons companies utilized the cloud for backup and disaster recovery services were the ability to save money on data storage and administrative costs and provide more frequent backups.

“You could almost be guaranteed that if you decide to put some data in the cloud that, whether it’s an archive or backup, the next year it’s going to be cheaper to store it there,” explained Forrester principal analyst Dave Bartoletti.

Finally, the report found that 57 percent of respondents reported the use of cloud backup and disaster recovery services actually helped to improve their company’s service level agreements, as processes and systems become more reliable with the cloud.

Cloud computing in education market grows as schools see benefits

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As the benefits of cloud computing become increasingly obvious, a growing number of industries are beginning to embrace it. The newest sector adopting cloud services is education, as they offer students and teachers the ability to access a variety of applications and resources easily and economically. Added security, cost-effectiveness and ease-of-use are also driving the adoption of cloud computing in educational institutions of all levels and sizes, as well as disaster recovery services and the promise of stronger communication and collaboration between students.

Due to the increase in adoption of cloud technology by schools, the global cloud computing in education market is growing at a rapid pace. MarketsandMarkets recently released a report projecting the global market will grow to more than $12 billion by 2019, an increase of $7 billion over five years. The study found that reduced costs, increased flexibility and enhanced infrastructure scalability were major market drivers, as was the growing need for schools to be technologically advanced. 

"The significant production of inexpensive computers, Internet broadband connectivity, and loaded learning content has created a worldwide trend in which Information and Communication Technology is being used to alter the education process," the report stated. "Cloud computing is beginning to play a key role in this revolution."

The report went on to say that North America is expected to remain the leader of the market, but the Asia-Pacific and European regions are projected to show the most significant traction.

A separate survey from a technology provider found that almost 50 percent of respondents in higher education made adopting cloud computing a priority because their employees were increasingly utilizing cloud applications and mobile devices in their work. The study also found that IT professionals in higher education expect to save an average of 20 percent over the next three years due to the implementation of cloud services.

Schools see multiple benefits with cloud 
​A major reason many schools are adopting cloud technology is the ability to cut spending, not just with the cloud services themselves but through the ability to reduce the costs of office supplies like paper and ink. With cloud-based services, teachers are able to make lesson plans, homework and reading available online instead of having to print and copy hundreds of pages each semester.

Another major benefit of the cloud is that disaster recovery and online backup services are built right in to the infrastructure, which comes in very handy as students increasingly complete work electronically. Schools are also benefiting from the large amounts of cloud storage services available. Student records can be kept in the cloud and then encrypted, making them easy to share with necessary parties while at the same time improving security.

With the cloud, students are able to collaborate more easily and effectively as they can work on and edit documents simultaneously. Sharing and transmitting documents is also made easier which improves the ability to receive feedback and improve work. The increased accessibility offered by the cloud also allows students to work on assignments from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Asheville, NC moves disaster recovery to the cloud

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Jonathan Feldman, the CIO for the city of Asheville, North Carolina, made a big splash recently when he decided to migrate the city's disaster recovery operations to the cloud.

When Feldman took over as CIO, he was dismayed to find out that Asheville's disaster recovery facility was located two blocks away from City Hall. The city had already started using the cloud to host some geographic applications, as well as IT development and testing environments, and Feldman was interested in finding a way to expand the use of their cloud infrastructure. Using a cloud disaster recovery platform, Feldman was able to use a pre-built automation tool that would essentially run the city's disaster recovery program on its own and ensure business continuity.

"I was not comfortable with us coming up with a home-brewed automation system to do something as critical as disaster recovery," said Feldman in an interview with SaaS In The Enterprise. "We don't do it enough to be a core competency for us."

With Asheville's disaster recovery operations off site and in the cloud, the city no longer has to worry about losing both primary systems and their backups at the same time if a storm were to knock out power. Utilizing a cloud-based platform also allows the city to only pay for disaster recovery when they need it, instead of paying around the clock for a physical facility.

Feldman started small with the migration to the cloud, transitioning only important but non-essential applications first with plans to grow capacity once the platform has been proven. The new disaster recovery system was designed to test one system each quarter, with each test taking between one and four hours to complete.

"We're able to failover pretty quickly, and failover very inexpensively, and have a high degree of confidence because of automation," said Feldman. "When we do disaster recovery, we know it's actually going to work. Between that and the geographic dispersion, that's huge." 

Using colocation in the era of the cloud

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Colocation facilities have long been vital resources for organizations that require high-performing data centers but prefer to entrust infrastructure management to a third-party provider. In addition to sparing IT departments the headaches of maintaining servers, switches and other equipment, colocation produces tangible benefits such as:

  • Redundant power supplies: Individual endpoint failures or even natural disasters won’t compromise uptime.
  • Streamlined IT costs: Colocation removes many of IT’s considerable expenditures on equipment and personnel
  • Cutting-edge performance: A colo facility typically has access to best of breed IP services and equipment, more often than not enabling better speed and reliability than the client could achieve strictly in-house.

Accordingly, in North America, the colocation and managed hosting services market is primed for strong expansion. TechNavio recently projected that it would increase at a 13.6 percent compound annual growth rate from 2013 to 2018.

Reduction of capital and operating expenditures is expected to be a key driver of colocation uptake. But what is colocation’s place in an IT landscape increasingly dominated by cloud services?

Finding the right colocation provider in the era of cloud computing
Cloud computing has fundamentally changed IT by giving developers, testers and operations teams access to unprecedented amounts of on-demand resources. Organizations have more options than ever for scaling their businesses, and the cloud has already enabled the success of blockbluster services such as Netflix and Instagram.

Colocation can play an important part as companies modernize their infrastructure and take advantage of remote infrastructure. Many IT departments are in the midst of migrating some on-premises systems to the cloud, creating mixed environments known as hybrid clouds. Colocation providers can step to the plate and supply the security, flexibility and know-how needed for evolving IT for the cloud age.

To that end, buyers should look for experienced managed services providers adept at handling a variety of infrastructure. Although colocation has been around since before the cloud entered the mainstream, cutting-edge offerings may offer a level of usability on par with public cloud, via top-flight service management.

“[C]olocation providers need to offer more than just remote hands,” wrote Keao Caindec, chief marketing officer at 365 Data Centers, for Data Center Knowledge. “They need to offer basic managed services such as firewall management, server management, backup and recovery services as well as other managed IT operations services for the dedicated infrastructure of each client.”

Colocation increasingly popular among banks and other enterprises

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Many companies are deciding to forgo building and maintaining their own data centers in favor of colocation options offered by third-party providers. There are numerous advantages to this approach, especially now that organizations are crafting their own applications, many of them mission-critical, designed to scale for many users.

What can be accomplished through colocation? Key benefits include:

  • Physical and data security: Colocation providers typically manage highly secure facilities that feature closed-circuit cameras, biometric scanners and alarm systems. Furthermore, actual server cabinets may be locked and full-time security staff may be on site. With an in-house data center, the costs of such measures would be exorbitant, but they are included in many colocation plans.
  • Scalability: Keeping up with evolving requirements and user demand can be tricky with an in-house data center. When a change is needed, extra equipment may need to purchased and additional staff hired. With colocation, upgrading is a much simpler matter of simply changing the service plan.
  • Redundancy and reliability: Colocation facilities are often decked out with environmental monitoring to ensure that conditions are optimal, plus they usually feature redundant power supplies. Similarly, top-flight equipment enables high network reliability. Clients can worry less about the fallout from natural disasters, power outages or downtime that would more acutely affect a self-run data center than a colo site.
  • Performance: Building on the last point, colocation data centers have strong, consistent performance as a result of redundancies, as well as optimal power and networking arrangements.
  • Support: Colocation packages feature around-the-clock client support. Rather than having to troubleshoot an issue in the middle of the night on their own, IT personnel can contact a representative for technical assistance.

Taken together, these perks facilitate economical and reliable utilization of data centers. Colocation helps enterprises keep pace with the emergence of cloud computing and new requirements for application development and data processing, all while controlling costs. Unsurprisingly, colocation providers have been ramping up their budgets to serve the growing number of organizations interested in their services.

Colocation spending surges as enterprises spend less on in-house data centers
Rising interest in colocation has forced providers to expand capacity and services. An Uptime Institute study found that almost 90 percent of surveyed colocation companies had increased their budgets year-over-year.

Similar growth hasn’t occurred within enterprises, with only half of them (excepting financial institutions) reporting larger budgets than the year before. However, more than 60 percent of banks and other financial services providers saw gains.

Across the board, though, more resources are being moved off premises and into colocation data centers or cloud computing environments. The study found that:

  • One quarter of respondents’ capacity was running in colocation facilities, while seven percent was tied to public cloud.
  • Almost 40 percent of companies using at least 5,000 servers – most of them in finance – relied on more than five providers.
  • Availability, geographic scalability and capital cost reduction were primary drivers of colocation adoption.

These findings give a good cross-section of where enterprises are at as they try to deal with the expanding roles of software and cloud computing. Colocation gives institutions in verticals such as finance a leg up in controlling costs and improving reliability.

How data center backup helps with business continuity

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Backing up data should be standard operating procedure for everyone by now. It’s not worth the risk of losing important documents, photos and videos, especially now that there are so many options for stashing these assets in redundant cloud storage services or on an external hard drive.

But while consumers may have only a few gigabytes of data to back up, organizations have a much more extensive undertaking when it comes to ensuring the safety of mission-critical information. With the ongoing shift to data centers, colocation and cloud computing, companies have to be conscious of how and where their massive data stores are kept.

Back up data center assets to guard against loss
Data center backup plans are increasingly important hedges against disaster. A Unisonius Consulting study of Turkish data centers noted that many sites are still vulnerable to threats such as:

  • Flooding: Some data centers are located in low-elevation locales or in cellars.
  • Power outage: Having only a single electricity supplier means that a facility cannot easily accommodate redundancy.
  • Earthquakes: Depending on their locations, data centers may be subject to seismic activity.

While the report examined data centers in Turkey, similar conditions exist around the world, endangering data that is properly housed or protected by backup. Frequent outages underscore what could happen to data and business continuity in a worst-case scenario.

“There is always a data center outage in the U.S. It’s whether you have invested in backup services or not that will determine whether your services are affected,” Jordan Lowe, CEO at ServerCentral told DatacenterDynamics. “As a business you make an active decision whether to invest into backup sites. It is a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money but, if you don’t want a service affected that’s a bullet you have to bite.”

Features to look for in data center backup
For organizations in sectors such as finance, it is worth having peace of mind when it comes to data backup and restoration. Here are some specific features that make for a good backup solution:

  • Secure, automatic multi-site backup: Having just one backup isn’t enough. It is better to use a service that automatically and securely (using encryption) relays backup data from one site to another.
  • Disaster recovery: It may be beneficial to migrate assets to a secure off-site location to mitigate risk from flooding, hurricanes and fires.
  • Easy administration: A Web-based, graphical interface protected by a virtual private network is valuable for managing backup policies and workflows from anywhere.

These capabilities contribute to the ongoing safety and integrity of data. Even in the event of a natural disaster or outage, key assets are preserved and business continuity is sustained.