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Cloud Considerations That Every CEO Appreciates

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Rather than tinkering with outdated equipment to keep the lights on, CIOs are now sitting at the strategy table, determining how to harness the latest cloud technology to help drive business goals. The role of the CIO is changing, and much of their job is equipping the CEO and other key business stakeholders with the technology they need to gain a competitive edge without allowing too much risk.

For most enterprises, cloud solutions are necessary for keeping pace in a market where the end user experience is driving sales. While CEOs typically aren’t interested in hearing a detailed analysis of various cloud providers, they lean on their CIOs to deliver the agility and performance that business processes require.

In today’s environment, this often results in CIOs choosing a hybrid cloud or multi-cloud solution in which optimal performance and visibility are achieved through a mix of on-site and hosted services. Here are the areas every CIO needs to watch in order to keep the CEO on board with cloud:

Controlling costs: The big draw of cloud technology often rests on the promise of extensive cost savings, from reducing maintenance costs to the ability to implement the solution without purchasing hardware. A significant gain comes from the ability to categorize the subscription model of purchasing cloud services as operating expenses rather than capital investments.

The cost fluctuations inherent in a “pay only for what you use” type of investment sometimes emerge as problematic. Depending on the seasonality of the business, the activities of the IT development team, and activities related to accessing cold data storage, the enterprise can receive bills that are wildly different each month. CIOs need to be sure that spending is running alongside the annual budget and be ready to put some parameters in place where possible.

Shadow IT: Where it used to be necessary to petition IT for a software installation, apps are now easy to install, and the enterprise could have hundreds downloaded each day with nothing more than a corporate credit card. While line of business managers appreciate accessing the newest tools for their needs, it can create some security and broadband issues for the IT department.

Have clear policies in place for placing a new application on the network, and use employee training sessions to teach staff about the security concerns and broadband stress that are placed on resources when applications are not procured using the right protocols.

More and more businesses are adopting cloud solutions to become increasingly operationally efficient. Access Tech helps you identify the cloud services that could most benefit your company (and make your CEO happy). We can locate the carrier that will fulfill your specific cloud service requirements. Contact us today to learn more.

Avoid These Common Cloud Migration Mistakes

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When an enterprise is planning a migration to the cloud, anticipated benefits are often discussed in epic terms. Scalability and no hardware investment are key statements that excite both IT personnel and line-of-business managers. With benefits ranging from reduced maintenance costs to increased agility, discussions of cloud migration can motivate your team.

It’s important that enterprises anticipate the bumps along the road in their journey to the cloud. Some of the common mistakes can turn what should be a positive experience into a costly venture with critical consequences. Take a look at a few common problems encountered in a cloud migration:

Migrating to the cloud without a governance strategy. While a governance strategy doesn’t have to be perfected before moving to the cloud, there should be steps in place for the most basic considerations, such as data backups and security monitoring. When companies begin using the cloud without taking steps to address the three major areas of governance (finance, security, and monitoring), costly problems can quickly start piling up.

Moving everything to the cloud. This move may be appropriate in some cases, but many enterprises make the mistake of implementing sweeping transitions to the cloud, without enough consideration of whether or not an application is cloud-ready. It’s easy to negatively impact performance, customer experience, and even the bottom line if cloud migration is pushed too quickly. Many companies work out a hybrid approach as they get settled into cloud systems and find that it is both efficient and cost-effective.

Assuming the cloud services provider handles everything. It’s ideal when an enterprise finds a cloud services provider that feels like an extension of their own IT division, but it’s critical to have a clear understanding of the responsibilities of each party. For instance, cloud services generally include some security features, but the enterprise needs to know exactly where those begin and end. They need to know who is responsible for damages in the event of a breach and what measures are in place to prevent one.

Making assumptions about performance. Don’t wait for end users to complain that order processing has slowed down. Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to help you determine performance with the cloud versus your legacy system. Consumers have high standards when it comes to system performance, so it’s important not to lose ground when you move to the cloud.

At Access Tech, we begin by performing an audit of your current systems, identifying its weaknesses and strengths. We then can pinpoint areas for cost reduction and performance improvements. By taking a disciplined, comprehensive approach, Access Tech helps you sidestep common cloud mistakes. Make an appointment with us to talk more about your move to the cloud.

Avoid These Pitfalls With a Multi-Vendor Cloud Strategy

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The single-vendor approach is one many businesses will take, as it makes the management of contracts and the execution of activities much easier. When it comes to your cloud strategy, however, relying on a single vendor to meet all of your needs may not be the best strategy.

Businesses that take a single-vendor approach could miss out on key flexibility and find themselves in vendor lockdown. Consider the following potential downfalls before you wrap up all activities into one provider:

Cost: Most companies want the opportunity to negotiate cost when it comes to services they need to function. When one provider is in the mix, it may seem like a great strategy for better leverage. The problem is that the best features are not generally found with one provider at the best cost.

Downtime: A single cloud provider that can’t maintain promised uptime creates problems for you and your business. With a multi-cloud strategy, you don’t have to worry about prolonged downtime as redundant data is backed up across multiple cloud providers. With multiple players involved, you can avoid data loss and downtime.

Single vendor lock-in: While the initial lock-in arrangement may work well, it can be cumbersome and risky to migrate all of your data from one cloud provider to another if the former fails to completely meet your requirements. When your cloud strategy involves multiple providers, you have more options.

Lack of flexibility: Any company that wants to grow must be able to rely on flexible solutions. When flexibility is made a priority, you have the ability to scale, improve performance in key areas, and reduce overall costs.

Lack of choice: When you tie in with just one vendor, the choices available to help you meet your cloud strategy goals are limited to what that provider can offer. When you can mix and match the best offerings of varied providers, you can better fit your operational design to your organizational goals.

Performance disappointments: A single vendor limits the ability to optimize performance. When you can distribute data across multiple providers, unexpected cloud downtime doesn’t have to be an issue. The distribution of the workload leverages the best features of your cloud providers and improves overall performance.

If you’re ready to investigate how you can avoid these pitfalls and put a better, more distributed cloud strategy in place, contact Access Tech. Our experts are ready to help you assess your needs and put the best solution in place so you can improve performance, mitigate risk, and enjoy greater flexibility.

Choosing the Best Cloud Infrastructure for Your Organization

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In the push to remain competitive in a market where personalization is highly valued and the experience of the end-user is a driving factor in technology decisions, many organizations are making the decision to move to cloud implementation. Once you’ve decided that a move to the cloud is critical, you have another big decision ahead of you: determining the right cloud infrastructure for your needs.

The choices between private, public and hybrid cloud infrastructure come down to the individual needs of your organization, and ultimately, the price tag associated with each option. Here is a basic rundown of the three cloud infrastructure choices:

Private cloud: This is a cloud solution constructed and housed on your own server, and can be a safe and convenient choice, particularly if the infrastructure already exists. It offers an enhanced level of security over other cloud infrastructure options. Private cloud environments can be constructed to house any legacy system by adding a virtualization layer to reduce management in-house and allow service providers to access your system.

This option provides one of the easiest ways to transition from on-site systems to a cloud infrastructure. It is the most expensive option for implementation, requiring a significant initial investment, but lower monthly operating costs.

Public cloud: A public cloud infrastructure gives you all the data storage, processing and analytical power you need. The data is stored in data centers housed by the cloud provider. There are two main benefits to using a public cloud solution: the lead time on product deployment is significantly reduced, and the costs are handled as monthly operating expenses, versus an initial investment. Scalability is also a valuable trait of public cloud options, and there are almost limitless technical possibilities.

The major drawback of implementing a public cloud infrastructure is potential security concerns. The challenges of computing on a public domain and potentially sharing resources with other organizations can lead to weak areas in your security coverage.

Hybrid cloud: For many companies, the use of a hybrid cloud infrastructure is appealing. Some favor this approach because it offers the benefits of both private and public cloud environments, capturing both the robust security and technical prowess of each option, and optimizing the combination for the best possible fit for their organization. It has its drawbacks, such as the need to interact and manage contracts with multiple vendors, and navigate security needs with each one.

Ultimately, for many companies, the decision is not just about the best fit for their organization, but about the budget that they’re working within to get the best infrastructure. If you’re looking for guidance on how to get the best cloud infrastructure for your company’s budget and propel your digital transformation plan forward, talk with Access Tech today.

SD-WAN — Part Deux

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IT downtime is costing enterprises $700 billion dollars per year. Over half of North American businesses still don’t have a proper recovery solution in place. According to a study by IHS, companies average around $1 million to $60 million of downtime costs every year. 78% of that loss was employee down time, as well as 17% of revenue loss, and to fix the issue accounted for 5%. What could SD-WAN do for these companies?

SD-WAN

These statistics support the major increase in SD-WAN appeal. SD-WAN (software defined WAN) allows business managed networks more flexibility. Bandwidth is more efficiently used and allows for high level application performance while lowering costs. Deployment and management are very easy and much less expensive than conventional WANs.

SD-WAN key features include:

• Dual-WAN Uplinks aggregate all WAN connections to distribute traffic over multiple pathways with built-in load balancing and auto-failover.
• Real-time Voice Failover prioritizes VoIP traffic and routes calls over the cleanest ISP connection to eliminate dropped calls, choppy sound quality and echoes.
• Bi-directional QoS optimizes bandwidth in both directions for optimal application performance.
• Application Performance Monitoring assesses the performance of critical applications with the ability to alert IT staff.
• Centralized Monitoring and Management simplifies the deployment and management of branch- office WANs.
• Managed Firewall leverages CPE appliances and central management to act as the first line of defense against intrusions and other network threats.
• Unified Threat Management provides comprehensive, multi-layered security that safeguards a business’s network and information assets against viruses, malware, and emerging cyber threats.

Hosted and Cloud Services

The networks that run a business are as important as the applications used to operate them. Hosted VoIP and Hosted Email cloud services are resilient and allow companies to continue running despite human error or disaster. Cloud Hosting allows servers to go offsite. Hosted Data Backup provides backup for both PCs and servers, protecting all business data.

There are many cloud providers to choose from. Trust Access Tech to save you time and money by getting to the right one for your business now.

Big Leaf and The Cloud

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We believe that access to the cloud requires a new generation of Internet connectivity. You shouldn’t have to worry about Internet connections, performance, or outages.

Is Big Leaf the Solution?

Big Leaf offers unique network architecture, and their SD-WAN technology optimizes application performance across a single Internet connection. While simultaneously leveraging the strength of multiple ISPs, Big Leaf offers these amazing options with the simplicity of a single plug-and-play connection.

With applications like hosted voice, Office 365, ERP, and other line of business applications moving to the cloud, up-time is critical. Here is one example: A 50 attorney law firm had a two hour Internet outage during the middle of the work day. As a result, they estimated that they lost $12,000 in revenue over that two hours, and that was in attorney productivity alone. To help prevent this from ever happening again, Access Tech installed a second Internet connection and a Big Leaf WAN optimizer. Together they now have reliable, predictable, and measurable Internet. This Outage Cost Calculator tool will help to gauge your potential loss.

Here’s a list to help you work through what downtime costs your business:

  • All internal business processes will cease; inventory tracking/ERP, billing, HR, intranet, etc.
  • Lost sales revenue; sales will have no access to customer or product data
  • Lost employee productivity; systems to keep them working are unavailable
  • No communication or email access
  • Cost to restore IT systems
  • Financial impact of customer dissatisfaction
  • Compliance violations, if applicable
  • Upstream and downstream supply-chain ripple effects
  • Potential litigation
  • Missed deadlines that result in employee overtime

As Big Leaf says, “The Cloud is Only as Good as your Connection.” As we looked at last month, SD-WAN is the way of the future, allowing us access to more data than ever before. Access Tech can help you with the right SD-WAN solution for your business.

If you would like more information, here is a great Big Leaf Overview.

SD-WAN

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Confused by SD-WAN? That is no surprise. Like “Cloud,” which can mean many things (SaaS, PaaS, public, private and hybrid), SD-WAN can as well. Most commonly, SD-WANs fall into these three categories:

1. Internet and Cloud Optimization: Latency, jitter, and packet loss can be killers for cloud based traffic such as Office 365, VoIP, and VPN. SD-WAN services provide real time monitoring and management of WAN traffic. Physical connections to multiple ISPs provide redundancy and resiliency. In many cases, MPLS QoS results can be achieved at lower cost and higher reliability with SD-WAN.

2. Cloud Managed Routers and Firewalls: Premise or hosted services allow you to configure and manage security settings through a web-based dashboard – Anytime, Anywhere.

3. VPN Services and Devices: Most “real” SD-WAN offerings fall into this category. They are meant as a lower cost tool to displace MPLS for site-to-site connections. At their core, these devices and services provide site-to-site VPNs, just like standard firewalls or routers.

Big Leaf, Aryaka, NTT, and VeloCloud are a few of our SD-WAN partners.

Which SD-WAN option is right for you?
Access Tech can help you discover, design, and deploy the best SD-WAN solution for your business.

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