virtualisation & cloud services
GAME CHANGER
Jason O’Conaill of Infinity SDC discusses how cloud is shaping business.
C
loud has changed
the game for many lT
giants such as Dell,
Oracle and Citrix,
and has created
new opportunities for others such
as Amazon Web Services (AWS),
Microsoft and IBM. Many smaller
software and service companies
are also springing up with new
offerings to challenge the giants,
bringing creativity and flexibility to
the cloud industry. The disruptive
nature of cloud is continuing to
evolve business models faster than
ever, bringing more and more new
entrants into the market.
The technology landscape has
changed for all types of vendors – but
what has remained constant is the
need for encryption, availability and
uptime, as well as the ability to be
efficient and increase productivity with
the same resources.
Why the cloud is beneficial
for businesses
Businesses are adopting cloud
infrastructure in order to retain – or
regain competitive advantage, which
drives them to innovate and pivot
away from traditional IT structures.
Slack, Netflix and Uber are all
great examples of global success
stories, having built their businesses
entirely and exclusively using cloud
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technologies. What has helped
these businesses move quickly, is
the growing availability of secure and
scalable infrastructure, coupled with
Software as a Service (SaaS) from
cloud players such as AWS, Azure,
Rackspace, Soft Layer and Google.
The ability to have ‘just in time’
infrastructure, combined with instant
access to storage and networks, is
compelling to innovative companies
seeking to rapidly address global
market opportunities.
Turning to the cloud offers both
financial and technical benefits. Old
technologies may only be a few years
in operation, but many organisations
are now actively seeking to move
data away from traditional structures
such as in-house data centres, to
secure and flexible cloud. It has taken
a whole cycle of IT adoption for the
benefits of newer cloud technologies
to emerge over traditional in-house
server rooms. However, with the
availability of 10Gb network speeds
and secure Infrastructure as a Service
(IaaS) becoming affordable, it has
started a mass migration to newer
cloud operators.
Increased reliability and security
adds more compelling benefits for
organisations moving to cloud. Many
cloud operators are now setting up
significant data centre operations
in Europe, with the UK firmly
positioned as the largest IT market
in Western Europe. The decision
by the European Court of Justice
in Luxembourg to render the Safe
Harbour agreement between USA
and the EU invalid has accelerated
the quest to build out local data
centres in Europe.
How cloud is growing
Many organisations have yet to
take the initial step towards cloud,
as they evaluate options and seek
the validation of others who have
already made the move. Businesses
may start by migrating certain data
to the cloud and some will choose
to remain in a traditional data centre
environment until the time is right
to move more critical or sensitive
data to cloud. As billions of dollars
are being invested by Google,
Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, Amazon
and IBM to grow cloud services,
more and more adoption will occur.
Organisations will benefit from
commoditisation and lower costs as
cloud giants seek to lure prospects
to adopt their technology. As a
result, data centres will become
larger and of higher density, as
more compute per sq. ft. or per Kilo
Watt of energy is demanded by the
cloud industry.
Big Data and the adoption
of data analytics have further