ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
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and Infrastructure as a Service
(IaaS) are shared among the service
providers’ customers.
Hybrid cloud: Hybrid clouds
combine public and private clouds
to deliver a specific IT service or
services. Organisations may want
to run an application entirely or
partially in the public cloud, but keep
their sensitive data in a more secure
private cloud. Or they may run an
application internally, but ‘burst’ it
out automatically to a public cloud
during peak demand periods when
more computing power is needed.
There’s also multi-cloud, which
describes public and/or private cloud
The popularity
of the pay-as-
you-go model in
the Middle East
is one of the
drivers towards
cloud adoption.
Sachin Bhardwaj, eHosting
DataFort.
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ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
services used to deliver a single
enterprise service, such as big data
analysis or applications with multiple
interactive components.
There are advantages and
disadvantages with each approach.
For example: the private cloud is
customisable, has excellent network
performance and is secure while, on
the negative side, it can be expensive.
Shadi Salama from Cisco says: “At scale,
a private cloud offers the efficiency and
agility of a public cloud without the loss
of control.”
And what of the public cloud? Samih
Moussly, Channel & Alliance Manager,
MENA at ServiceNow, adds, “The
public cloud is easy to deploy and can
be rapidly scaled as per business and
budget requirements. The pay-as-you-go
model is budget friendly and converts
CapEx to more manageable OpEx as the
management, upgrade and security of
the cloud are all responsibilities of the
service providers, which also eases the
workload on the in-house IT team.” Sachin
Bhardwaj, Director Marketing & Business
Development, eHosting DataFort, agrees.
“The popularity of the pay-as-you-go
model in the Middle East is one of the
drivers towards cloud adoption.”
As rosy as this all seems, however, there
are disadvantages. “The one drawback of
the public cloud,” says Samih Moussly at
ServiceNow, “is privacy and compliance.
For Middle East organisations, particularly
those in sectors where data privacy
is of utmost importance such as the
financial, healthcare and government
sectors, regulations might restrict the
use of public cloud services. Another,
albeit lesser concern around the public
cloud is the possibility of latency and
congestion in remote areas, which could
lead to degradation of performance.”
Fadi Kanafani, Regional Director for the
Middle East and Africa at NetApp, adds:
“Public cloud resources are agile but data
is not. Moving data is time consuming and
can require significant bandwidth, which
can be expensive. Additionally, the data
formats and services used by the public
cloud provider might be incompatible
with those deployed at the customer’s on-
premises storage.”
Hybrid cloud: the best or worst of
both worlds?
On the positive side of hybrid cloud
Shadi Salama, Cisco.
Cloud adoption,
in general, has
definitely seen
an increased
uptake in the
Middle East as
more businesses
are gaining
confidence
in both the
security and
reliability of
the cloud.
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NTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
computing, sensitive information can be
stored in the private cloud, while non-
sensitive information can reside in the
public cloud. The hybrid cloud is flexible,
scalable, cheaper than the private cloud
and has better security than the public
cloud. On the negative side, the hybrid
cloud is more expensive than the public
cloud and less secure than the private
cloud. Maintenance and operation can be
a challenge and, if not deployed correctly,
services can experience poor performance.
Shadi Salama from Cisco says: “The
hybrid cloud is expected to become the
norm for most enterprises. It has the
advantage of moderate initial investment
while having the opportunity to use
SaaS, PaaS or IaaS on demand. It offers
more control, where the risks are directly
related to how the user is using it.”
“By using a hybrid cloud approach,”
adds Jeroen Schlosser at Equinix,
“companies can maintain control of an
internally managed private cloud while
relying on the public cloud as needed. For
instance, during peak periods, individual
applications, or portions of applications,
can be migrated to the public cloud. This
will also be beneficial during predictable
outages: hurricane warnings, scheduled
maintenance windows and rolling brown/
blackouts, for example.” And Fadi Kanafani
at NetApp adds: “The ideal hybrid cloud is
an IT environment where everything can
be managed under a single canopy and
data can flow freely to where it’s needed
the most.” One thing
is clear; the
cloud isn’t a
destination.
It’s a journey
on which
technology
and market
conditions are
constantly
changing.
The challenges to cloud adoption
There are several challenges currently
facing the channel, including security,
compliance and data sovereignty, cloud
management, costs, education and staff
with the right skill set. than most organisations for the simple
fact that cloud service providers cannot
afford to have their systems breached; the
loss of revenue, not to mention damage,
to their brand would be catastrophic. As
a result, these providers invest heavily in
security and have robust, highly skilled
security teams with best-in-breed security
solutions.” Ray Kafity, Vice President,
Middle East, Turkey & Africa (META)
at Attivo Networks adds: “Businesses
are adopting cloud computing at an
Security: “There is still this
misconception that the cloud isn’t as
secure as an on-premises solution,” says
Samih Moussly at ServiceNow. “The truth
is that the cloud is probably more secure
Jeroen Schlosser, Equinix MENA.
increasing pace and some of the greatest
benefits include being relieved of some
security responsibilities, such as managing
the physical security of datacentres.
Unfortunately, the same threats that
plague on-premises devices and systems
are just as problematic in the cloud.
Cloud service providers offer a range
of security controls to help protect the
confidentiality, integrity and availability
of applications, data and devices. This
shared security model is necessary, but it
is not sufficient to address sophisticated,
advanced, persistent threats. There are
also significant limitations in the choices
of detection technology that can detect
the lateral movement of threats within
a cloud environment. This can result in
increased dwell time available to attackers,
providing the necessary time for attackers
to plot out their attacks and complete their
breaches, all too often unnoticed. A lack of
in-network threat visibility, along with the
inability to maintain regulatory compliance
when using the cloud and the difficulty in
monitoring workloads across clouds, are
among the major challenges that highly
influence the rate of cloud adoption.”
Security breaches are typically at
‘joints’ formed during the integration
of different services, or at end-points
within the business, such as machinery,
computers and smartphones for example.
“If the customer is not able or aware
enough to fully secure all possible joints
and end-points, this could provide the
entry point for attacks that can have
significant impact on the business and
its future,” says Mohammed Abukhater,
Regional Director for the Middle East
and Africa at FireEye. “It is crucial for
organisations and individuals adopting
a cloud infrastructure to identify all the
security threats, understand them and
lay out a strong security foundation
before implementation.”
Compliance and data sovereignty:
Samih Moussly at ServiceNow believes
that “partners can play a vital role by
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