While you've been busy growing your business over the last 12 - 18 months, the IT industry has been hard at work preparing solutions that will bring your business "in to the cloud". It seems like the "cloud" is mentioned everywhere nowadays, but before you decide if this is right for your business, you need to understand the basics around this technology that everyone is talking about!
The standard definition, according to the U.S. Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), of cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable resources -- networks, servers, storage, applications and services -- that can be rapidly provided and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.
In essence, the cloud releases you from the constraints of your physical infrastructure and allows you to dynamically access and utilize server resources. No longer do you need one physical server to run a mission-critical application. You now only need the computing power required to run that application and virtualization layer ensures that your application is completely segmented. From the application's perspective, it is running on its own server, a "virtual machine".
The NIST definition expands on five essentials characteristics:
- On-demand self-service: This allows businesses to provision computing resources and services immediately when required
- Broad network access: Access to your services is available over a network
- Resource pooling: Computing resources (like CPU, RAM and storage) are pooled to offer virtual machines to multiple clients using the same underlying physical infrastructure. This eliminates the entire aspect of the managing the physical server infrastructure yourself.
- Rapid elasticity: Capabilities can scale up and down which make the computing resources "unlimited" from the user's perspective.
- Measured service: Computing resources can be monitored to determine utilization and allow for capacity planning.
The cloud computing model is fundamentally changing our industry by allowing all businesses to meet the ever increasing market demand for more, faster and on-demand services.
The rationale behind this ever increasing cloud market is well founded. There are multitude benefits in utilizing the cloud to run your underlying infrastructure:
Rapid Scalability and flexibility
Server resources are available and managed through a client-friendly web portal. It is dynamic and responsive, enabling you to reassign or add new resources without the complexities you have had in the past.
Maximized Availability
Increase hardware utilization by virtualizing computing resources. This allows you to increase the performance of your servers, ensuring that you always run your application effectively.
Minimized costs
Minimal capital investment and you eliminate hardware, physical infrastructure and operational costs
When assessing whether or not the cloud is right for your business, it's good to understand the basics, but it's best to turn to an expert for advice. To find out if this move is right for you, contact a Primus Business Services representative that can talk to you about the benefits and transition plan that would move you in to the cloud.
PrimusCloud™ Server
If you are considering moving to cloud computing, check out our PrimusCloud™ Server. With PrimusCloud™Server, you have minimal capital investment and you are able to eliminate hardware, physical infrastructure and operational costs by leveraging Primus' virtual platform. PrimusCloud™ Server minimizes costs by saving you time and money. In addition, all of Primus' servers are located in Canada and we provide outstanding data security and downtime reduction options to fit your specific needs.
To learn more about how virtualization can help your business, contact your Primus Business Services sales representative or visit our PrimusCloud™ Server page.
