Hybrid Cloud Paves the Way for IT-as-a-Service

With Cloud computing rapidly becoming an essential part of many companies’ offerings, organizations of all sizes are starting to embrace the newest trend, IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS). By employing a hybrid Cloud – a combination of private Cloud and public Cloud solutions – these companies are able to tailor their IT environments to match their own unique needs and long-term goals. Along the way, they are ensuring greater flexibility with their IT solutions.

Why is ITaaS gaining such a following? Taking a look at a few predictions from Gartner gives some insight into the reasons. By 2016, it is estimated that the majority of new IT spending will be allocated to Cloud computing; by the end of 2017, almost half of all large enterprises will have adopted the hybrid Cloud.

Companies have to be prepared to make the most of these shifts if they expect to remain agile and competitive. Likewise, businesses that provide IT services or advice to corporate clients must be poised to help those clients build a hybrid Cloud solution that will most effectively support ITaaS.

The mix will differ for every company.

Ultimately, companies will want to retain functions that are unique or otherwise enterprise-critical. They then can source the rest to the public Cloud.

This will require evaluating the cost-benefit of each option to determine the optimal blend, which will be based on overall business goals and operational needs as well as on regulatory and security requirements. Companies will need to assess costs, too, to find the ideal balance of performance and spend.

A growing number of companies most likely will look to establish software-defined data centers (SDDC), which is an environment that maximizes automation of computing, storage, networking, and security resources through virtualization. This provides an excellent foundation to support ITaaS.

Hybrid Cloud delivers significant benefits.

The fundamental value of hybridization is choice. With the ability to configure an individualized private-public Cloud combination, companies can expect to see benefits like the following:

  • Vastly increased flexibility that enables implementation of ITaaS.
  • Scalability of functions without sacrificing security.
  • Less stressed or more productively deployed IT staff.
  • Smoothly integrated internal and public workloads.
  • A more dynamic IT environment.
  • Greater visibility of services and costs, including IT usage by line-of-business.
  • Improved ability to manage compliance requirements.
  • Enhanced customer service.

 

Current IT trends represent best practices for implementing ITaaS.

IT is no longer a segregated support service; it permeates every aspect of a business’s functions and can make or break a company’s ability to grow and thrive.

Eliminating IT silos allows companies to view IT as a strategic business tool. As IT is taking its seat at the C-suite table, companies are realizing that a flexible, scalable IT environment is the only way to meet rapidly changing internal needs as well as external marketplace conditions.

As with any transformational change, top-level buy-in is essential to ensure that ITaaS is a success. Equally important is educating IT personnel on the positive value of this change: how it will benefit them in their job as well as the company as a whole.

To pull it all together successfully, companies must assess their IT infrastructure, workloads, and flows in order to identify the optimal hybrid Cloud configuration for them.

 

Six Benefits of Platform as a Service for IT Departments

Using a public PaaS (Platform as a Service) has many benefits, including faster deployment of apps. Meanwhile, a private PaaS provides an excellent compromise between the freedom that developers crave and the security that is required to keep data safe.

Developers are already well aware of the benefits of using PaaS. However, there are also many advantages for IT. Rather than seeing management of PaaS as a chore, IT professionals should take a look at the ways that PaaS can help them.

1. Fewer Requests from Developers

No software can completely stop the requests that come in from developers, but a good PaaS significantly cuts down the time that IT has to spend addressing developer requests. By allowing developers to set up their environments for themselves, PaaS saves time for both developers and IT, because it cuts down on the number of requests being passed back and forth.

2. Easy-to-Monitor Applications

PaaS provides a lot of information for IT about how an application is operating. This means that IT can quickly identify any issues and take action to correct them. The results are greater reliability of applications and a more manageable workload for IT.

3. Cloud Security

Security is always a big concern for IT, and the thought of using PaaS can raise concerns for some working in this sector. However, a private PaaS can provide adequate security to protect applications and data. IT can maintain control over important security features to ensure that risks are eliminated.

4. Flexibility

When choosing a private PaaS vendor, IT will want to look for flexibility. Private PaaS vendors are able to work with any IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and can accommodate a public or private cloud set-up as well as a hybrid solution. Maintaining flexibility is often the key to efficiently developing a business, and a private PaaS can provide it.

5. Control User Administration

Using PaaS doesn’t have to mean giving up control of user administration. IT can keep control over this important aspect of the service as well as other areas, such as resource allocation.

6. Use a DevOps Approach

PaaS can facilitate communication, which is a key part of the DevOps (development/operations) process. Online dialogue allows groups of developers to decide how to allocate resources, how to handle scaling, and when to restart an application. The more communication takes place, the smoother the development process is likely to be.

A good PaaS should satisfy a business’s IT staff, its developers, and its end users. Though developers have been convinced of the benefits, IT has yet to get on board, though the IT staff has many