Cloud Hosting Providers For Converged Networks

Cloud computing services are growing geometrically. If you haven’t gotten on-board yet, it’s probably because you aren’t convinced of the cost savings, security or the ability of the cloud to cover all bases for your IT needs. That picture is changing rapidly. Let’s take a snapshot of what’s available now for SMB users.

When we think of cloud computing, the picture that comes to mind is one of a giant brain in the sky that runs operations for hundreds or thousands of companies. That’s the approach that gets all the press, but it’s far from the entirety of the market. Indeed, there are many other providers out there who can deliver the virtual services you need on a less grand scale. You may not be able to get everything from one service provider, but the building blocks are out there to handle your voice and data needs.

That’s important, because enterprise VoIP solutions are driving a trend toward converged networks. If you only consider moving traditional data center servers to the cloud, you’ll be missing a big piece of the puzzle. The other trend that’s important is fixed mobile convergence that integrates cell phones into your telecom infrastructure. Mobility can be the link that makes or breaks your productivity in the future.

The foundation of cloud computing is cloud hosting that incorporates Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). Cloud infrastructure is virtualization on steroids. IT departments have found that virtualizing servers ups the efficiency of the physical server hardware. What cloud computing does is greatly expand the virtualization to include huge racks of high performance servers plus storage and bandwidth. It differs from the virtualization that you would do yourself or the virtual servers you’d rent from a colocation center in that it is sold incrementally on-demand. You pay by the minute, by the hour or by the number of CPU cycles used.

Another characteristic of cloud hosting is that it is highly elastic or scalable. If you start to run out of capacity, you simply order up more virtual servers. The cloud operating system takes care of how these resources work in concert to provide the capacity you need. At no point do you have to purchase, install or maintain any equipment. The cloud service provider takes care of this with a 24/7 technical staff.

There are actually three types of clouds to choose from. The one that first comes to mind is the public cloud that serves many users simultaneously. You gain access via a private line or dedicated Internet service. Companies that have highly sensitive applications, unique requirements or simply want more control go with a private cloud. That is a similar infrastructure to the public cloud but on a scale suitable for one company. The hybrid cloud is a combination of the two. Public facing or non-critical applications run on the public cloud, while a separate private cloud handles very sensitive applications.

While cloud computing is thought of a data processing service, there is also a voice cloud known as cloud communications or hosted PBX. In this case, the computing resources are specific to telephony needs and the connectivity is by SIP trunk from your location and to the public switched telephone network from the provider. You no longer need a PBX phone system in-house or any telephone trunk lines. What you have is SIP telephones connected to your network and a converged SIP trunk from your business location or locations to the service provider. Some hosted PBX systems integrate cell phones into the system so that you have the same capabilities while mobile as at your desk.

Some of the cloud services you can readily get include cloud hosting, hosted PBX, unified communications, enterprise cloud security, private/public clouds, cloud storage, hosted Exchange, SharePoint, disaster recovery, anti-spam and anti-virus, hosted firewalls, and dedicated cloud access connections.

Are you feeling that you may be missing out on productivity improvements, cost savings, agility of scaling your business, or advanced features available in the cloud? This would be a good time to explore options with multiple cloud hosting providers. You can start small and grow or make a step-change relocation to the cloud, depending on what works best for your company.

From CAPEX to OPEX In The Cloud

There’s a new cost model for Information Technology. It’s a move from high CAPital EXpense or CAPEX to OPerational EXpense or OPEX. What’s driving this change? It has to do with the uncertainty of the business climate and the availability of cloud computing services.

What’s wrong with the way we’ve always done it? The legacy practice of building on-site environmentally controlled data centers and stocking them with server racks, arrays of disk storage and network appliances works very well if you can come up with capital to implement this plan.

There are also operational costs in the form of electricity, bandwidth and staffing, not to mention the near-constant process of patching and upgrading software. Those software packages aren’t cheap, either.

Traditional Information Technology is capital intensive. That hasn’t been a problem until recently because it was accepted business practice and everybody did it. Then along came the “Great Recession” and everything changed. We’ve had a lot less certainty about the economy the last few years. Most companies have responded by hunkering down and minimizing cost of all types. For those that see opportunity and want to expand, there’s a dearth of available financing.

Any wonder why cloud services are multiplying before our eyes? The business climate provides the impetus and the cloud provides the solution. It’s a combination that’s turning a trend into a stampede.

What’s so great about moving out there to the cloud? For many companies, it’s a combination of agility and expense versus commitment and capital. There’s nothing going on in the cloud that you can’t do yourself. What cloud service providers offer is a way to offload, or outsource, the infrastructure, platform, software and staffing that isn’t proprietary to your business.

For smaller companies, buying cloud services gives them a robustness of computing that they’ve never had before. If you are too small to have a dedicated IT staff on duty around the clock, you’re pretty much flying by the seat of your pants. You expect that whatever is working today will still be working tomorrow. When a part of the network or process goes down, you troubleshoot as best you can or get on the phone to a consultant or the vendors. It’s not unusual to have long periods of unplanned downtime.

Not so if you get your computing and perhaps your telephone service from a reputable cloud provider. The core business of the cloud services company is to provide a limited number of services and execute them perfectly. They have the equipment, the redundancy and the staff to make sure things are always up and running. It’s what keeps their many customers buying from them. You may not need an extensive array of servers, storage, software or bandwidth, but you’ll benefit from using the same infrastructure as those who do.

For the larger organization, high performance is a basic expectation. What the cloud has to offer the enterprise is a way to increase and decrease infrastructure resources on demand. You need more virtualized servers? You’ve got ‘em. You need more storage? There’s plenty in the pool to draw from. More visitors creating a demand for more bandwidth? No problem. The fiber optic lines are already in place with more bandwidth than any one company can use.

You simply pay for what you need when you need it. That gives you a tremendous flexibility to pursue new business opportunities with the knowledge that if they don’t pan out, you are not committed to a huge computing investment that must be paid off regardless.

Could your small, medium or large enterprise benefit from moving from a capital intensive to a pay as you go expense model for information technology services? Find out by comparing prices and available services from cloud service providers. Then get started at the level that makes the most sense for your organization.