Cloud MARKET REPORT
Carl Boraman, Director of Strategic Alliances, at Tollring - “the choice of private
cloud vs. public cloud is still very much subjective, with no ‘right’ answer.”
data sovereignty while also
providing security assurances
and increased assistance with IT
workloads – everyone has a lot
to do so they need help!
For many, continuance and
expansion of private-hybrid
cloud is due to a desire to
have greater control and to
know who they are talking to
and where their data is held.
It also represents a need for
applications which are ‘mission
critical’ to be more speci cally
tailored to that business’s
particular requirements.
What’s more, businesses need
applications which can be
easily adapted to di erent
markets and territories, to
re ect the geographies they
operate in. is exibility is
becoming more important to
companies aiming to stand out
from the crowd in a saturated
marketplace.
It’s clear there is no ‘onesize
at’s why we work closely
with organisations to really
understand their business
and customer needs so we
can recommend an approach
which will genuinely deliver on
>
go deeper into the solution
to provide comprehensive
user support. Further
bene ts include licence
utilisation statistics, control
over provisioning, and the
opportunity to apply their own
branding throughout – even
o er multi-tier branding to
their customers. For many
service providers, who are
competing on customer
experience like never before,
the private option is really
important to their business
strategy.”
Tim Mercer, CEO of Vapour
Cloud told us, ‘”More and
more clients are looking for a
hybrid approach whereby certain
applications and services are
delivered in both environments
- after all there should be no
such thing as a one-size- tsall
approach. However, many
businesses - and in some case
their providers - fail to think
about the network (more
speci cally the internet pipe)
for the solutions delivered via a
public cloud. e pipe may be
big enough on a typical day, but
in times of need - such as when
a backup is urgently required
following a ‘disaster’ - the pipe
can’t pull the data back and
transfer it at the speed required.
Sometimes the provider will
also charge an additional fee
in such circumstances which
represents unplanned costs.
A private cloud connected to
a client’s WAN, sometimes
therefore comes up trumps as it
has added security.”
Patrick Callaghan, Vice
President Enablement at
DataStax, says companies are
evaluating the approaches that
suit them.
“Do they want to commit
to working with a single cloud
provider, and give up their
control and exibility? Do they
want to run a hybrid, where
they look to retain control, but
take advantage of cloud? Or do
they look at multi-cloud, which
can be more complex but also
follow the best of breed model?
is cloud-native approach o ers
more exibility and agility in the
long run.
From a data perspective,
using containers and Kubernetes
means they can run across
multiple clouds helps on the
software side. On the database
side, you would have to look at
the open source database Apache
Cassandra to run in hybrid and
multi-cloud deployments.”
Graham Wilkinson, Head of
Sales at Beyond Connectivity,
says there are pros and cons both
ways.
“ e advantage of multi
cloud is that it sits across several
networks so it’s always accessible,
anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
Obviously by its nature a private
network is locked down so if
there is a problem there are
limited options to recover the
situation quickly. e biggest
concern of public cloud is
security but there are several
e ective ways to minimise the
risks.”
Dave Hawkins at KCOM
believes that whichever cloud
option an organisation selects,
one of the main concerns is
whether or not it allows their
business to function as usual, if
not better.
“For example, organisations
within the banking industry
may need to migrate to a hybrid
cloud system, in order to be
compliant with new regulations
around processes, such as open
banking and GDPR, and to
ensure the security of their
customers’ private data.
Many new technologies and
applications coming into the
market are compatible with
the public cloud, encouraging
these types of organisations
to migrate towards a cloud
model, to capitalise on emerging
technologies.”
Simon Smith at Extrinsica
Global says it’s the degree of
confusion in the marketplace
that matters.
“Many organisations,
particularly the upper midmarket
and enterprises, where
security and governance
consideration are high on
the agenda, are beginning to
understand the transformational
di erence that basing their
solutions in the hyperscale
cloud can make to them. Using
a combination of hyperscale
software, platform and
infrastructure services enables
complete, coherent solutions to
be built that will transform the
way businesses can operate.
However, there is much
disinformation out there about
the advantages of the private
cloud approach, (largely pedalled
by organisations that have yet
to sweat the tin-in-a-datacentre
assets they own) and businesses
are understandably confused
and, more to the point, missing
out.”
Where does the channel, who
sell mainly to SMEs, fi t in to
this mix and who is keeping up
with the skills required to do
so successfully?
Geraint Talbot-Davies, says,
“At Intercity Technology, we
specialise in working with
British businesses and are seeing
a shift in such organisations
back to the hybrid approach,
which allows them to retain
ts-all’ approach to cloud.
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