Cloud technology: future continuous business

The need for rapid development of business against the backdrop of economic uncertainty makes the Ukrainian businessmen to manage the resources more efficiently. Wanting to avoid the substantial costs, companies are increasingly paying attention to the “cloud” technology, which in some cases are an effective tool for saving.

Cloud technologies (cloud computing) in the Ukrainian market for more than a year, causing widespread interest and discussion in the IT community. Sooner or later it will come to all the companies who are looking for ways to expand business opportunities and do not plan capital investments in the creation of a new IT infrastructure.

Under the “cloud” technologies now means dynamically scalable way to access to external computing resources as a service provided through the Internet. This user does not need any special knowledge about the infrastructure “cloud” or management skills “cloud” technology.

Decided to allocate several models of cloud: SaaS (Software as a service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). Model of SaaS, is a “cloud” applications as services. With its help, the user gets access to the applications of cloud infrastructure, and the client does not need to know exactly where and on what hardware the application runs.

The second type of “cloud” services – Service PaaS. A client can establish and develop their applications on the platform provided by controlling the application, in this case, it is not necessary to perform the control of the IT infrastructure. The third model – Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, IaaS. Client is provided with a virtual architecture, consisting of servers, workstations and networking equipment, where the client can maximize their own operating systems, databases and applications.

Classify cloud computing as follows: total “cloud” public “cloud» (public cloud), private “cloud» (private cloud) and the hybrid ‘cloud’. According to the traditional scheme, the IT infrastructure and software company acquired the property, over time they upgrade, increasing computing power and software according to modern business needs. The positive aspect of the model is the ability to quickly provide the necessary services to the business. However, such a scheme, the IT department of the company must always be one step ahead, which obliges him to acquire the IT infrastructure for the future, so as not to lose the race of IT security. In this scheme, companies have to face the risk of shortage of computing power, or lack of disk space to store information.

Absolutely the opposite of their previous construction and functional significance – a model of the public “clouds”, which creates a service provider. This type of “cloud” is designed for applications that do not require a high level of safety. When installing these “clouds” the client has the ability to create portals without the critical information for external users to conduct non-confidential design and external data storage, and the user can not control the process of data backup, and he does not know near what data they are located and what priority from application programs.

In turn, private “cloud” allows the combined company’s IT assets in one pool and allocate them between IT applications as they are loaded and the need for business at any given moment. In addition to implementing their own needs, you can provide some resources to other users, while maintaining a high level of security.

In these pros and cons of cloud computing, companies are more profitable to use a hybrid “clouds.” This version is the introduction of using a set of two or more “clouds” with different models of implementation, which are united by a common technology or standard. Hybrid “clouds” can attract the resources of public clouds when it is needed.

Risks

Speaking about the benefits of “cloud” computing is to say, and the risks entailed in the transition to “cloud”. The most important of them – a threat to information security. In a competitive environment, most companies are afraid of leaks from the network “cloud” provider due to interception, loss of control over data and applications that can not destroy data, insider actions by the provider or other users of the “cloud.” For protection, you can use data encryption or depersonalization. In this case it is necessary not only to encrypt the data stored at the provider, but the link to it. However, while solutions that allow to effectively protect data in the “cloud” is not worked out. But as assured by experts working in this direction are already underway.

Another risk could be called a binding “cloud” technology to a particular service provider, failure by the provider, breaking the admin interface, bankruptcy and takeover of the operator. Companies do not fear nothing of these events, because it can bring to their business substantial property damage.

Other risks include the loss of communication with the network provider, DDoS-attacks and loss of compliance with the requirements of regulators. These risks can be reduced by proper preparation of SLAs (Service Level Agreement, SLA), which will offset some of the damage. Regulatory requirements may change over time, and the law “On personal data” and does makes “cloud” computing inapplicable in practice. However, in some cases cloud system can be made even more secure than the traditional architecture, due to segregation of duties and properly drawn up agreements.

Major milestones in savings

However, apart from an adequate functional facilities and risk an important factor in choosing the “cloud” computing is the desire to save money on IT services. Companies that use a “cloud” technology reduces the cost of establishing and supporting their IT infrastructure as the main benefit of using – payment solely for the only access to the necessary computing power and business applications. At the same time the economic efficiency of the “cloud” computing depends on the maturity level of IT infrastructure. Thus, according to Sergei Shcherban, the head of the Department of IT infrastructure IT-Solutions, for companies with a mature IT infrastructure “cloud” computing – a way to speed up the provision of IT services and make services more flexible. At the same time the introduction of “clouds” in the company of an immature IT – a chance to increase the efficiency of your IT infrastructure.

In addition, each model of the “cloud” computing has its own parameters economy. Thus, the use of private “clouds”, the economy is to automate the processes of resource allocation and service, the exact calculation of the consumption of resources, efficient allocation of computing power through the use of virtualization and server load more dense park, which is formed from the “cloud.”

Implementation public “cloud” does not require any investment in establishing and supporting their own IT infrastructure services provider and the cost is quite reasonable to optimize the cost of computing power redundancy, since the cost of reserve capacity is allocated to several companies.

However, the client who decides to convert a standard IT infrastructure in the “cloud” computing must understand that the process of transition is quite expensive and the financial benefits will be felt only after a few years. Another thing, if the IT infrastructure is being organized from the ground up – in this case, you can significantly increase the cost-effectiveness for the company.

How to choose a “cloud”

Assessing the cost-effectiveness, reducing transaction costs and increase business flexibility, many players are interested in starting practical issues, namely what “cloud” technology to use for specific tasks. How to choose a “cloud” that meet the requirements of the company, – Sergey recommends Scherban.

– Conduct an audit of the budget. Before implementing “cloud” technology to evaluate the budget allocated for the operation of existing infrastructure. The calculations should take into account the future expansion of infrastructure, the hidden costs of the application and potential savings.

– Create a feasibility study and determine the portfolio to go to the “cloud.” At this stage you must decide the best option to build a “cloud” – as mentioned – it may be, as a private cloud, and the service provider.

– Prior to the introduction of “clouds” should also consider how to adapt the work required for the application or how to rebuild the business processes to work in the “clouds”, as well as to reorganize the IT processes.

Back to the Future

According to market players, by 2015 more than 40% of Ukrainian companies will use cloud computing. According to experts Gartner, among the most promising technologies in 2012 will be “cloud” computing. According to analysts, in 2012 we should expect a wider range of open, public and private, private “clouds.” However, to have spoken, the figures present hype speaks for itself. Contrary to today’s concerns, significant economic advantages and popularity around the “cloud” computing suggest that the “cloud” technologies to be, and not in the distant future, and in the immediate present.