14
14
CLOUD COMPUTING
" Managed cloud services have been available for some time now but it ’ s only relatively recently that some of the most mature , reliable and powerful offerings are becoming available in Europe "
Security is key Ensuring an organisation ’ s application portfolio is safe , secure and stable is vital to minimise risk and maximise business outcomes . In a world where security breaches are increasingly becoming the norm , that ’ s easier said than done . Choosing the right managed cloud provider means that in addition to secure infrastructure , an organisation can also gain access to the guidance and on-demand expertise that will help to ensure that their environments remain secure and stable .
In a managed cloud environment , each customer ’ s data is securely and physically segregated from other cloud customers . The enterprise is able to undertake full test and development , sandboxing , quality assurance use cases , along with creation of data marts and the operation of disaster recovery .
Data management According to IDC , by 2018 , cloud will become a preferred delivery mechanism for analytics , increasing public information consumption by 150 % and paving the way for thousands of new industry applications . New industry applications mean more data will be created and with this comes the challenges around the management of data . Data has little value if it ’ s not available to be analysed and used to help grow the business .
Left to its own devices , it could take any organisation years to build and deploy the complex analytical environment needed with a mix of open and closed source technologies . The reality is that given the competitive pressures in today ’ s digital environment , no company can afford to take its eye off the core business for any period of time whatsoever .
From a tactical point of view , the challenge is to find the best way to ensure data is stored , managed and analysed , without incurring expensive overheads and in a scalable way to allow for rapid future growth . A managed cloud infrastructure combined with a powerful database that has the speed and flexibility to deploy complex analytics , and can address all these concerns . It can also help an organisation to quickly innovate and build new analytical applications . In this context it ’ s vital for organisations to be able to analyse what they want and when they want it , regardless of where the data resides . This enables companies to balance surges in usage and to manage capital and operational expenditure .
Critical maturity Managed cloud services have been available for some time now . However , it ’ s only relatively recently that some of the most mature , reliable and powerful analytical offerings are becoming available in Europe . It ’ s clearly time to start the discussions ; with the knowledge that selecting the right platform is just the first step to furthering business growth and success .
For enterprises operating in Europe , a mature data warehousing tradition is a critical element in realising value from business analytics , while cloud services give them a mixing bowl for new data sources that are analysed in conjunction with the data warehouse . Businesses operating at this scale stand to benefit from the ability of managed cloud services to accommodate rapid business growth and to potentially achieve higher cost efficiencies . All this is alongside significant gains in the way data can be stored , analysed and put to profitable use .
Telecom carriers , global service providers , networking vendors , and IT services firms are increasingly competing for a slice of the managed and cloud services market in the Asia / Pacific region . With organisations increasingly outsourcing IT related functions , cloud and managed services have become important delivery models for them . As a result , managed and cloud services have become key areas that service providers , networking companies , and IT service firms are focusing on . n
www . networkseuropemagazine . com