Targeting ERP workloads for optimization helps gain business benefits while adoption cloud technology.
With increased automation of business processes, enterprises are integrating closely with their customers and partners to transform into connected businesses. At the same time, social and mobile interactions are growing at an unprecedented rate, resulting in data storage growth and accompanying demands for analytics. In this new environment, businesses are faced with a significant growth in compute, storage and network infrastructure. Rather than just add more resources to their existing data centers, organizations are either optimizing their in-house resources or looking for external IT resources to fulfill their needs.
While optimizing IT resources, finding common workloads can provide a lot of benefits as standardization allows large gains due to better IT management. In a typical large organization, supporting Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software constitutes a sizable portion of IT infrastructure. This makes ERP workloads an ideal target candidate to apply cloud techniques for optimization.
Monthly Archives: September 2013
Partner to Partner: The Value of Integrating Parallels Plesk Automation and Parallels Business Automation Standard
Guest blog by Ehsan Mirdamadi, CEO at Cirrus Tech Ltd. (http://www.cirrusone.ca/)
Web hosting companies today live in a world where our clients are looking for solutions to their business problems, not just a bunch of raw technology. But providing a broad variety of solutions and tailoring them to each client’s needs creates management inefficiencies, drives up costs, and drives us crazy. If only there were a way to seamlessly automate and manage all these components…
Integrating Parallels Business Automation Standard and Parallels Plesk Automation has been a crucial component in helping us to manage this complexity. Parallels Business Automation Standard automates our billing and business processes, while Parallels Plesk Automation does the same for hosting and related services. We think that Parallels Business Automation Standard and Parallels Plesk Automation are probably the most comprehensive solutions out there, and, while they are effective individually, bringing them together was a vital part of our strategy to enter the era of solutions.
Using these two systems together has enabled us to take control of our services while giving our customers an unparalleled level of flexibility. Our customers are thrilled. We’ve even heard from people who didn’t know this amount of flexibility existed. Suddenly, there’s less of a need for expensive IT consultants, because our solution makes it possible to build a service like CirrusOne, our cloud server offering, independently.
Our CirrusOne scalable cloud platform is powered by Parallels Cloud Server, and uses Parallels Plesk Automation to automate services for customers, which are in turn billed through Parallels Business Automation Standard. We feel that this integrated approach delivers a better experience for customers.
Here are five reasons we like using Parallels Plesk Automation and Parallels Business Automation Standard together, and why we think they’re the right answer for our customers. Using these products together allows us to:
1. Deploy services faster and create natural upgrade paths to new services
2. Easily add services such as MightyCall from Infratel and SmarterMail
3. Establish greater control over a large service range
4. Secure data by separating administration from customer servers
5. Reduce expenditures on server licenses
Before the Parallels Business Automation Standard and Parallels Plesk Automation integration project, many of our customers had to use three different platforms for three different service types. Closing the gap between traditional shared hosting and enterprise class hosting has meant using more services, and spending more time managing them. But now, with the help of Parallels products, we can deploy services fast, and administer them from a convenient place. It’s made our business more flexible, more efficient, and more profitable.
The HIPAA Final Rule and Staying Compliant in the Cloud
The HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule went into effect on March 26, 2013. In order to stay compliant, the date for fulfilling the new rules is September 23, 2013, except for companies operating under existing “business associate agreements (BAA),” may be allowed an extension until September 23, 2014.
As healthcare and patient data move to the cloud, HIPAA compliance issues follow. With many vendors, consultants, internal and external IT departments at work, the question of who is responsible for compliance comes up quite often. Not all organizations are equipped or experienced to meet the HIPAA compliance rules by themselves. Due to the nature of the data and the privacy rules of patients, it is important to secure the data correctly the first time.
Hybrid Cloud Computing Overview & Benefits
A hybrid cloud offers both affordability and security by splitting business requirements so that each process demand goes into the right cloud
As we witness high adoption rates for the public cloud and the private cloud, businesses are turning towards a hybrid cloud computing solution. The reason is obvious; in the initial days of cloud computing technology, enterprises used public clouds extensively for VDI, RDP and BYOD requirements. However, over the last few years security issues, operational challenges and data compliance issues have become a growing concern. This is why businesses started shifting to the private cloud. While the private cloud offered more control and visibility over business processes, huge investments and infrastructure management still remained a concern.
With shrinking IT budgets and rising business demands, companies are looking for an intermediate model of cloud computing technology. The hybrid cloud computing solution rightly fits into this space. Certain applications require …
Telx to Exhibit at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that Telx, leading provider of global interconnectivity, cloud enablement services and 100% Uptime SLA data center facilities, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 13th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Telx is a leading provider of interconnection and data center services in strategic, high-demand North American markets. With 20 datacenters supported by 100% Uptime SLAs and 24 Hour Cross Connect guarantees, Telx increases speed to market and reduces connectivity costs by providing direct connections to a community of the industry’s highest performance networks and access to 1,100+ customers, including leading telecommunications carriers, ISPs, cloud providers, content providers and enterprises. Telx is a privately held company headquartered in New York City, servicing 13 US markets with six facilities across the New York / New Jersey Metro area, two facilities in Chicago, two facilities in Dallas, four facilities in California (Los Angeles, San Francisco, and two in Santa Clara), two Pacific Northwest facilities (Seattle and Portland), and facilities in Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C.
Growth of Cloud-based Mobile Platforms
This morning I was reviewing the preliminary results of my “State of Enterprise Mobility 2013” survey. Over 210 people have now completed it. Thank You!!!!! The results are very interesting and point to many changes in perceptions and preferences year-over-year. Stay tuned here for the complete and final results soon.
I was surprised to see that 34.7% of participants now prefer cloud-based mobile platforms. That is especially meaningful when you consider 23% don’t even use a mobile platform. If my math is right, 45% of those that use or want to use a mobile platform prefer a cloud-based platform. That is meaningful.
Behind the Scenes of IT Resource Scheduling
By Ryann Edwards, PMP, Resource Specialist, LogicsOne
A few years ago, we made a change at GreenPages-LogicsOne to streamline how we handle the resource scheduling process. It’s a good thing too, because so far in 2013 there have been close to 400 engagements that have used this new process. While scheduling a large group of resources may sound easy, at times it feels like it takes a team of highly skilled scientific specialists and analysts to get it right. Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but there is actually a bit of a science to it.
I should begin with the disclaimer that the process hasn’t always been so efficient. In fact, most of my new hire trainings begin with the “back in the day” spiel because it brings to light the lessons we’ve learned. This in turn leads to where we are today. So where did we begin? We were slightly blind. Our services team of Account Executive, Solutions Architects, and Project Managers were working in silos when it came to choosing and selecting resources for our services engagements. Everyone involved had the best of intentions: to find the right resource for the project, meet our customers’ deadlines or requests, schedule the project, and implement a highly successful engagement. The problem came when multiple Project Managers had “just the right project” for “just the right Consultant” who, yes, happened to be just the same person. Needless to say, as our professional services organization has grown and matured over the years, the need became strong for a streamlined scheduling system. That brings us to present day where we now have a Resource Specialist team to handle scheduling requests.
As I mentioned above, there is quite a bit of thought and strategy (“science” may have been pushing it) that plays out behind the scenes when it comes to the scheduling of service projects. It is imperative that at the forefront of it all is our customers’ best interests, including special requests and internal deadlines. While some might joke that we should just throw darts at a board of names to figure out who to schedule, I assure that you that we really don’t. In fact, we look at each Statement of Work and scheduling request that comes in to our queue in great detail. From researching the background and history that Consultants may already have with a client, to looking at geographical location, travel, availability, customer dependencies and deadlines; there are a lot of considerations.
At the end of the day, our objective is always the same: to make sure we are looking at the big picture and are doing everything we can to keep our internal and external customers satisfied. Our top priority is making sure the resource(s) assigned to a project are a good match for all parties involved, so the outcome is a successful professional service engagement for our customers. Believe it or not, our customers can help in this process. Here are some things that help us ensure a successful engagement:
- Sign Off. The signed Statement of Work is crucial. It is the only way we can fairly and accurately prioritize requests for services.
- Information. The more details you can provide regarding the project or services, the better. Does a key resource on the project have an upcoming vacation? Are there outside dependencies that will effect when your project can start? Do you have an important internal deadline that you need to meet? All of those things are pieces to the scheduling puzzle.
- Be open-minded. While you may have worked with one Consultant in the past and would like to use them again, we have a full staff of highly qualified resources that welcome the opportunity to work with you!
Streamlining the scheduling process has allowed members of the services organization to focus on other important aspects in the project lifecycle; project planning, managing, and executing. Having a team dedicated solely to resourcing has improved efficiency in scheduling, increased visibility into utilization of the solutions team, and is a key piece of the puzzle for successful project delivery.
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Google, Amazon Outages a Real Threat For Those Who Rely On Cloud Storage
Guest Post by Simon Bain, CEO of SearchYourCloud.
It was only for a few minutes, however Google was down. This follows hot on the heels of the other major cloud provider Amazon being down for a couple of hours earlier in August. This even relatively short outage could be a real problem for organizations that rely on these services to store their enterprise information. I am not a great lover of multi-device synchronization, I mean all those versions kicking around your systems! However if done well, it could be one of the technologies that help save ‘Cloud Stores’ from the idiosyncrasies of the Internet and a connected life.
We seem to be currently in the silly season of outages, with Amazon, Microsoft and Google all stating that their problems were cause by a switch being replaced or an update going wrong.
These outages may seem small for the supplier. But they are massive for the customer, who is unable to access sales data or invoices for a few hours.
This however, should not stop people using these services. But it should make them shop around, and look at what is really on offer. A service that does not have synchronization may well sound great. But if you do not have a local copy of your document on the device that you are actually working on, and your connection goes down, for whatever reason, then your work will stop.
SearchYourCloud Inc. has recently launched SearchYourCloud, a new application that enables people to securely find and access information stored in Dropbox, Box, GDrive, Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint or Outlook.com with a single search. Using either a Windows PC or any IOS device, SearchYourCloud will also be available for other clouds later in the year.
SearchYourCloud enables users to not only find what they are searching for, but also protects their data and privacy in the cloud.
Simon Bain is Chief Architect and CEO of SearchYourCloud, and also serves on the Board of the Sun Microsystems User Group.
Is the Cloud Really Less Costly Than On-Premise?
To state the obvious, businesses of all sizes are moving their applications to the cloud or renting software as a service (SaaS) instead of licensing or buying the software outright.
The number one reason people cite is cost. Businesses large and small are under the impression they can save a bundle by moving their apps to the cloud. At the same time, companies who handle a move to the cloud badly can suffer a negative backlash from their user community.
When you consider all the cost factors, like your time, energy and risk to your business, will you save money in the long run by going with SaaS? The short answer is no.
One thing is clear: businesses will pay less up front for cloud vs. on-premise. Modern SaaS systems are rented on a pay-as-you-go basis, or might have short-term contracts. Average license fees for equivalent on-premise software range from two to three years’ worth of SaaS subscriptions. Add in 20% annual maintenance when you buy and install your own software and you are in concept paying three years’ worth of subscription revenues up front for the same tools.
Deep Insight and Collaboration in the Cloud: A Customer Story
Recently, one of our customers, let’s call him PointInFact, had a very typical problem. After deploying a new version of its software, some user requests degraded horribly. Requests that should have taken half a second took up to a minute. Interestingly, the PointInFact team runs a multi-tenant SaaS solution in the AWS Cloud and relies heavily on cloud services. This reliance makes User Experience Management and fault domain isolation very challenging.
Back Story: Application Running in the AWS Cloud
PointInFact runs a SaaS service. Internally this results in a multi-tenant service where each customer has his own instance of the application he subscribes to. All of these applications and services are hosted in Amazon’s EC2 Cloud where they dynamically create new application environments and offload some functionality to AWS by using the provided services. As a SaaS business, customer satisfaction is very important to them, as a consequence they monitor all applications and services centrally and from an end-user and server-side perspective with Compuware APM.