Vital Digest 2013

ITAL Vdigest 2013 A vendor perspective of current IT management processes

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VitAL Digest

Contents Broad spectrum cloud offering

Leader Welcome to the VitAL Digest.

Hornbill Service Management has announced changes to its cloud-based ITSM application myservicedesk.com which is now available as three distinct options: PRO, EXPERT and DEVELOPER. Matt Bailey spoke to the company’s CEO Gerry Sweeney.

Once in a while it is highly instructive to take a fresh look at what some of the top vendors and movers and shakers in the IT and IT Service Management space are up to. It is interesting to find out what factors are influencing their products and services and what market and wider trends are moulding the way they do their business.

Covering all bases

In this VitAL Digest we hear from Hornbill’s Gerry Sweeney who explains his company’s approach to the perennially interesting subject of cloud-based service management. While FrontRange’s VP EMEA Roberto Casetta outlines his organisation’s hybrid approach with its fully integrated voice automation and client management capabilities, available both on-premise and in the cloud from a single platform.

Mobility Vs security: Getting the BYOD balance right:

Fusion Business Solutions discusses why dealing with the mobility and security implications of BYOD is a fine balancing act and one that can be made easier with the right choice of solutions; particularly as the onus for device control is shifting away from IT departments into the hands of employees. Dominic Anschutz, head of cloud services at Exponential-e investigates explains the benefits of Data centre-as-a Service. And finally David Struges demonstrates how virtual desktops are enabling companies to embrace remote working.

I hope you find it useful

For a few years now it seems like the market has been clamouring for the cloud, but FrontRange VP EMEA Roberto Casetta says that often an on-premise solution is superior.

FrontRange’s HEAT Service Management solution is a hybrid offering that has all bases covered.

Fusion Business Solutions discusses why dealing with the mobility and security implications of BYOD is a fine balancing act and one that can be made easier with the right choice of solutions; particularly as the onus for device control is shifting away from IT departments into the hands of employees.

Do your customers know what services you provide?

Some IT organisations have established service management good practices but their customers and users often have difficulty understanding the services on offer. Shirley Lacy managing director of ConnectSphere and ConnectSphere training director Michelle Hales offer some advice.

Why the connection is king A perfect model for resource-intensive and fast-changing computing environments, such as financial services? Dominic Anschutz, head of cloud services at Exponential-e investigates Data centre-as-a Service (DaaS).

Going virtual Virtual desktops are enabling companies to embrace remote working according to David Sturges, chief executive officer of WorkPlaceLive.

Matt Bailey Editor

www.vital-mag.net | May-June 2013

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VitAL Digest

Broad spectrum cloud offering Hornbill Service Management has announced changes to its cloudbased ITSM application myservicedesk.com which is now available as three distinct options: PRO, EXPERT and DEVELOPER. Matt Bailey spoke to the company’s CEO Gerry Sweeney.

ornbill Service Management’s myservicedesk.com is a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution which supports ITIL best practices. Previously only available as a PRO option it is now being offered in three versions - PRO, EXPERT and DEVELOPER - to suit the varying needs of different organisations.

“While the need for IT Service Management and support that meets best practice is a constant, there are variations between the needs, resources and levels of expertise in different organisations.

We have a customer-first ethos at Hornbill, and as such, wanted to offer our customers a solution which is best suited to their needs.

These three myservicedesk.com packages enable us to do this,” said Gerry Sweeney, Hornbill CEO. “Many of our customers tell us that being able to observe ITIL best practice is critical to their business; myservicedesk.com has support for 11 ITIL processes built in.”

Out of the box myservicedesk.com PRO, one of three SaaS options that Hornbill offers, is already one of the most cost effective enterprise level ITSM products on the market. One of the key benefits of myservicedesk. com PRO is that it can be used almost immediately ‘out of the box’, with no customisation needed. It is easy to deploy and delivers rapid value, ideal for service desks that need to get up and running quickly, and it offers an intuitive and easy to navigate interface. The application has been designed to support ITIL best practices and is highly configurable. Application upgrades and back-up are carried out automatically, enabling service desks teams to focus on their customers rather than infrastructure management. myservicedesk.com is also available as EXPERT and DEVELOPER versions, both of which offer the best practice functionality and flexibility of myservicedesk.com PRO; with the ability to tailor the product to more complex or mature business requirements. As a cloud-based solution, myservicedesk.com supports improved business resilience and customer service, allowing IT service teams to work from any location at any time. All three options support a range of functions; including incident logging and viewing incident history; change approvals and logging; and viewing and downloading operational reports.

Covering the extremes Hornbill has been delivering on-premise ITSM solutions for around 20 years, but about two and a half years ago it decided the time was right to build a cloud environment. “Our SaaS customer base has been growing steadily since we built our cloud offering,” says Sweeney. “It was important that we built a cloud infrastructure that is resilient and secure, with performance and availability being key, so we have spent a lot of time getting this right. When we went through ISO2701 certification the number of customers on-board accelerated and we expect this uptake to continue.”

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Demand for cloud “A significant portion of new business coming down the pipeline is cloud-based so the demand is definitely growing.” According to Sweeney, demand is coming from across the board for cloud -initially from relatively small organisations that wanted all the functionality but only had a few users, “but now we have also seen success in large-scale organisations.” A common driver behind adoption is the ability for service desk teams to remove the hassle of infrastructure management associated with on-premise ITSM solutions, instead opting for the resilience and security delivered by our internally managed cloud platform.

Successful outcomes Hornbill is proud of its continued commitment to exceed contractual requirements when it comes to SaaS and is open and transparent about performance with its customers and in fact anyone who wants access to this information: “We have a website called trust.hornbill.net,” says Sweeney. “It is a portal for our SaaS customers that is actually open to the public. It gives full historical information on our service availability and the quality of the service we have been delivering over the full lifetime that we have been operating. We have a contractual service level agreement of 99.5 percent availability, but we measure ourselves at 99.95 percent availability and we almost always meet that. Each customer has a log-in to that area and we provide them all the real-time information about their back-ups, the size of their data, whether their data usage is increasing or decreasing, their system status and any specific notifications and all sorts of other information so they can see exactly what their systems are doing in our cloud.”

The future of SaaS “Based on our current pipeline and what we are seeing in the market in general there are clearly good opportunities for Hornbill in SaaS and I think it will continue to develop, but I can categorically say that isn’t going to be the be all and end all,” states Sweeney. “It is certainly not going to be the only solution. You could stick with on-premise or you could switch to SaaS and you will derive benefits with either option but I think that customers really want the flexibility of both.”

Looking at the broader ITSM world, Sweeney sees a time when IT departments themselves are going to have to start becoming internal cloud vendors. “I don’t mean offering Dropbox as such but looking at a similar service model,” says Sweeney, “I mean thinking about what they deliver to their customers on the infrastructure that they manage, in a cloudless way, so they can identify services clearly and associate a price with them. At the moment the conversation in ITSM seems to be centred around the need for IT to demonstrate value back to the business and in the future the internal cloud and the ability to wrap a price around a service could hold one of the answers.” www.myservicedesk.com www.hornbill.com

www.vital-mag.net | May-June 2013

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VitAL Digest

Covering all bases For a few years now it seems like the market has been clamouring for the cloud, but FrontRange VP EMEA Roberto Casetta says that often an on-premise solution is superior.

FrontRange’s HEAT Service Management solution is a hybrid offering that has all bases covered.

ith its HEAT hybrid ITSM solution, FrontRange – one of the biggest names in Service Management - is attempting to bring something different to the market. According to the company HEAT delivers Service Management software with fully integrated voice automation and client management capabilities on-premise and in the cloud from a single platform, something none of the competition can currently offer.

“Hybrid in my opinion is not just a matter of cost,” explains FrontRange VP EMEA Roberto Casetta. “Until a couple of years ago on-premise was fine, but then everybody got excited about the cloud; the reality is that the cloud doesn’t always save you money in the long term. It will save you money in the short term, maybe for three years, but typically the life of a Service Management system is

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Our flexible approach is unique because the technology is exactly the same: the application, the user interface, the experience for the user is exactly the same whether on-premise or in the cloud.

from five to eight years, so over these sorts of timescales on-premise can be more cost effective.”

Based in Milan, Northern Italy, Roberto Casetta holds a Bachelor degree in Computer Technology. He has over 20 years industry experience in software and services, both in enterprise and SMB markets, through channel sales and direct sales organisations. Having wide industry experience before joining FrontRange, he previously worked for Panda Security, MRO Software, Remedy, BMC Software, Hummingbird and Atos Origin.

Casetta joined FrontRange in 2010 as director of the emerging market region covering the Nordics, Southern Europe, Benelux and the Middle East. Within one year he was promoted to EMEA Channel Director and in August 2012 he was named as vice president for EMEA. www.vital-mag.net | May-June 2013

VitAL Digest

Integration Explaining why the company has opted for a hybrid approach Casetta says, “It is a consequence of the fact that companies are now in a position where they can analyse, check and double check what is best for them moving forward. They have the flexibility to decide which the best strategy is for them. On one side the cloud is an apparently attractive solution short term, but it might not allow a group of things that are requirements from our customers, particularly in the European market for example integration with existing legacy systems, from ERP to HR and CRM.

When we talk about Service Management we are not only talking about a simple call centre or Helpdesk, we are talking about a more complex, well integrated solution that is a strategic part of the business.

“Most suppliers are either able to offer their solutions in the cloud and on premise, but not both,” says Casetta, “We like to offer our customers the opportunity to be flexible and move seamlessly from one to the other, providing exactly the same advanced ITSM technology, but with the ability to integrate end-to-end. We are always open with our customers and tell them that if they are looking to save cost in the short term the cloud is the best option, but, if they have the resources in-house, , then the on-premise option is often best. The decision will depend in large part on the maturity of the company and we put a lot of effort into understanding what the customer is looking for because Service Management can mean everything and nothing. It can be anything from a very small, basic Helpdesk solution with incident management only, up to much more sophisticated systems with change management, service request, S&A, analytics reporting, integration with mobile devices, virtualisation, release management, IT governance and so on. But the main difference between the cloud and on-premise models is a financial one rather than a technical one.”

Flexibility Flexibility is also a very important aspect of the FrontRange approach. “Behind the hybrid concept there is the opportunity to deliver a solution to the customer that is most suitable for their organisation,” says Casetta. “We might start with 20 people in the Helpdesk and in this case perhaps cloud is best, but in two years time they can extend the solution to other departments in the organisation. If they want to integrate more information into the system they can move to on-premise. Our flexible approach is unique because the technology is exactly the same: the application, the user interface, the experience for the user is exactly the same whether on-premise or in the cloud.”

And the hybrid concept has switched on a light for customers according to Casetta. “It makes a lot of sense for them,” he says. “It helps them to focus on and think about their long-term strategy and we quickly realised that almost 70 percent of our customers want their solution on-premise many of which originally thought that they wanted a cloud solution.”

A strategic component of the organisation Beyond the cost arguments there are other reasons why many Service Management organisations are either sticking with or returning to on-premise. “Talking about the cloud has certainly been

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a way to open doors with the customer,” admits Casetta. “But there is still a lot of confusion. When the concept is clarified people start to worry about security and about losing control of their data. In Europe especially there is much more concern about data protection. ITSM systems and practises are much more mature than in the US and Asia, so when we are talking about Service Management we are talking about IT compliance and well defined processes and procedures. When we talk about Service Management we are not only talking about a simple call centre or Helpdesk, we are talking about a more complex, well integrated solution that is a strategic part of the business.”

More and more Service Management tools have to integrate far more than the traditional helpdesk roles. “Many tasks now involve complex processes that may include HR, logistics, purchasing and other departments as well as IT,” says Casetta. “Many of our customers are looking for this more integrated solution – the Service Catalogue concept. These days this isn’t so much a ‘nice to have’ part of the service, but a ‘must have’. And this is built in to our solutions. We are talking about processes and procedures based on a workflow engine that is the core of our application.”

Not only Service Management Adding to the importance of the flexibility in selecting the delivery model that works best for you, having a solution that offers endto-end integration capabilities that enable the standardisation of business processes across the enterprise is crucial. With this, an important aspect of HEAT is that it doesn’t just concern Service Management, it is also a client management solution. “We are not only able to detect and collect the issues or requests coming from users, part of the solution is client management, so we are able to manage and control everything that is on the network from a device perspective and understand which is hardware and which is software and then know which version of the software is installed,” says Casetta. “The HEAT application can deploy software, deploy upgrades and can even deploy new operating systems through the network – remote control that even extends past the typical desktop machines to the virtualised environment beyond.”

Additionally, a simple function like fully integrated voice automation allows secure management of password issues, the most common ticket item on the Helpdesk, clearly offering savings, but the HEAT solution does a great deal more. “When HEAT receives a ticket from a user it first understands the request, then it goes through an approval process, creates a plan to fix the issue and then at the point when a typical ITSM system stops activity the system can automatically deploy a solution,” says Casetta. “It can deploy a patch or an update in a way that is immediate and completely seamless for the user.

“It is a matter of really being able to provide a solution that is flexible in giving the customer choice, technologically advanced with the most extensive workflow system and offering complete end-toend voice and client management integrations delivered on a single platform from a single vendor. Now the power is in the customer’s hands,” concludes Casetta. www.frontrange.com

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VitAL Digest

Getting the BYOD balance right: Mobility vs Security Fusion Business Solutions discusses why dealing with the mobility and security implications of BYOD is a fine balancing act and one that can be made easier with the right choice of solutions; particularly as the onus for device control is shifting away from IT departments into the hands of employees

YOD, ‘Bring Your Own Device’ is one of the hottest trends in IT; analyst TechMarketView claims nearly 10 million UK employees will be using personal devices in the workplace – for work purposes – by 2016. With this in mind, many businesses are not only looking to increase the mobility of their workforce with new technologies but ensure that these devices are secure.

But can they really have the best of both worlds?

The challenge is the BYOD movement is evolving so quickly – new solutions, security policies and changing user expectations – that many business leaders just don’t know how to approach it. However, today, there are solutions available that can ease this process, particularly as the focus and control of devices is shifting into the hands of the employee.

In order to gain competitive advantage and satisfy evolving user expectations, businesses need to act now to stay on top of current BYOD trends. Get the balance between mobility and security right and businesses can reap the benefits of a more flexible, collaborative and productive workforce.

According to a survey published in 2012 by CIO magazine, more than half of companies (52 percent) plan to encourage or require employees to ‘BYOD’ in the next 12 to 18 months. The user mindset is subsequently changing. There is rising demand from millions of company employees around the world for a better, faster, less frustrating IT experience during work hours. They want the same quality experience at work that they have in their private lives.

But with more flexibility in terms of IT governance and mobile device integration, comes more security and control concerns.

IT organisations need to know who is accessing their email and systems but also have the ability to cut off access when devices are lost, stolen, or when employees go ‘rogue’.

Tip top solutions To meet today’s challenges, businesses need to know what’s solutions are available and where to turn for help and support.

The good news is that as user expectations change and technology evolves, so are the solutions supporting these changes.

New solutions, such as BMC Software’s MyIT platform, which won the 2012 Pink Elephant Innovation of the Year Award, offers the

BYOD – a new approach With the evolution of technology such as smartphones and tablets and the acceptance of remote working, the traditional desk-bound worker is becoming an archaic notion. In fact, BYOD is becoming the rule rather than the exception in today’s workplace.

Get the balance between mobility and security right and businesses can reap the benefits of a more flexible, collaborative and productive workforce.

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www.vital-mag.net | May-June 2013

VitAL Digest

B US U S I N E S S SOLUTIONS

There is rising demand from millions of company employees around the world for a better, faster, less frustrating IT experience during work hours.They want the same quality experience at work that they have in their private lives. chance for businesses to deliver self service IT in a seamless way whilst handing over IT control to employees.

MyIT is a self-service application that employees can use from virtually any connected device anywhere, anytime, for managing the IT services that they use and need. With personalised, localised control over IT services, employees will become less frustrated with their mobile working experience as they will have access to everything they need via one application.

With a solution like BMC Mobile Device Management (MDM), it is possible to deliver the control a business needs to securely manage a variety of mobile devices on a corporate network throughout their entire lifecycle. Businesses gain the visibility they need to understand usage patterns and user behaviour so they can better service organisational needs. The solution reduces vulnerabilities and security threats as it can protect personal and corporate data through encryption and passcode policies.

Businesses also gain the ability to remotely wipe corporate data from personal mobile devices if the data is at risk.

No matter where an employee is working – at home, in the office or on the road – with the use of the latest solutions, a range of benefits can be achieved, not least increased productivity from employees as they don’t have to be affected by frustrating IT support. Getting the balance between mobility and security right means businesses can benefit from mobile IT services that fit seamlessly into users’ lives. This in turn, leaves you with a happier, more productive and empowered workforce.

www.vital-mag.net | May-June 2013

However, the benefits of MyIT don’t stop there; they are even greater for IT staff. Placing control in the hands of the user, there are fewer first-level support requests, which instantly boosts the perception of IT services and speeds up the resolution of more complex issues.

On the other hand, BMC MDM enables businesses to restrict access to authorised mobile devices and keep critical corporate data from easily walking out the door. In addition, BMC MDM keeps the workforce productive by keeping them connected with the device of their choice. In turn, this can significantly reduce the impact on the service desk and cut the costs and time spent solving simple mobile device management questions as the solution issues automated requests and enrols corporate and employeeliable devices.

Embrace BYOD

Bring home the benefits

TechMarketView claims nearly 10 million UK employees will be using personal devices in the workplace – for work purposes – by 2016.

tasks. Each user can also get updates on the IT services that matter most to them, while checking on pending requests, without calling the help desk – no more back-and-forth between users and IT.

Working with the BMC MyIT platform, employees get a tailored solution and great service, anytime, anywhere and with easy access to help resources in the application, workers can keep moving on their daily

In order to remain competitive and meet growing employee expectations, firms need to stay one step ahead of the BYOD movement. They have to ensure that they have the right solutions in place not only to enable mobility but to secure it as well.

However, getting the balance right between mobility and security doesn’t have to be hard, not when solutions such as BMC Software’s MyIT platform and BMC MDM are available.

BYOD is here to stay and the time has come for businesses to act, to ensure they are not only enabling mobility across the workforce, but securing it in the most effective way possible to spur on a more productive, happier workforce.

www.fusion.co.uk

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VitAL Digest

Do your customers know what services you provide?

Some IT organisations have established service management good practices but customers and users often have difficulty understanding the services on offer.This can also lead to issues in service delivery. Shirley Lacy - managing director of ConnectSphere, author of ITIL Service Transition and project mentor for the ITIL 2011 update - and ConnectSphere training director Michelle Hales offer some advice. any service providers use a service catalogue to help customers, users, the Service Desk, other IT staff and suppliers to understand the scope of service provision and what to expect from each service. It typically includes information about service identifier, description, deliverables, prices, contact points, service hours, service targets, ordering and request processes.

If you do not have a service catalogue this is a good place to start.

However it is worth understanding the principles of defining a service (see the ITIL Service Strategy publication).These principles help IT organisations to understand the importance of focusing on the business value that each service delivers. By focusing on appropriate performance metrics and service level targets the services become more meaningful to customers.

The service catalogue – is it fit for purpose?

If you already have a service catalogue is it fit for purpose? Many organisations find that their catalogue of services has grown over time. For example, as mobiles, cloud services and BYOD have been introduced. Many services may provide the same thing, but on different channels or platforms. The sheer quantity of unstructured service offerings and options just becomes confusing for customers and users.

Many IT organisations have a technical service catalogue rather than a customer-facing service catalogue. This means that IT staff cannot see how an application or technical component supports the business and this can result in mistakes that impact service quality and business continuity.

Adopting ITIL service management best practices helps IT organisations to focus on business outcome and value of the IT services.

It is best practice to separate the customer-facing services from the supporting services that ‘underpin’ the customer-facing services as shown in Fig 1.

FIG 1

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www.vital-mag.net | May-June 2013

VitAL Digest

How can an IT organisation better market its customer-facing services to its business?

In practice it is worth offering targeted service catalogue views for different customer and stakeholder groups. It means that the language you used can be more targeted and it can help customers to understand your services better.

If you think of your services as technology-enabled business services you will communicate more clearly.

Think of an online web store – there are many different ways of finding and accessing a service or product and there are usually options for you to select that help to clarify the offering.

Users often want access to the service request catalogue, perhaps through on online self-service portal.

Redefining the services on offer An internal IT service provider has over 1,000 services in their service catalogue that had grown over time. Many of the services provide the same thing, but on different platforms. Many services were described in technical language that the customers did not understand.

Approach There was a clear need to simplify the catalogue of services whilst maintaining the ability to track what services were delivered on which platform. A project was set up to define services in way that all stakeholders could understand. An IT architect was a member of the project.

Adopting ITIL service management best practices helps IT organisations to focus on business outcome and value of the IT services.The ITIL service strategy publication covers many principles and processes to help with marketing customer facing services. Organisations use the ITIL Service Strategy management process to set objectives and expectations of performance towards serving customers and market spaces, and to identify, select and prioritise opportunities.

The principles described in ITIL service Strategy were adopted.

The steps were:

There is an opportunity with new services and user devices to communicate clearly what the service does in business terms in addition to the constraints and conditions that apply. For example services that incorporate cloud computing, mobile centric computing, BYOD.

Step 4 – Classify and visualize the service

Defining market spaces and service models A market space is defined by a set of business outcomes, which can be facilitated by a service.The opportunity to facilitate those outcomes defines a market space.The following are examples of business outcomes that can be the basis of one or more market spaces:

• Sales teams are productive using sales management cloud applications via mobiles.

• Key enterprise business applications are monitored and secure.

• Online bill payment service offers more options for shoppers to pay.

• Business continuity is assured.

Each of the outcomes is related to one or more categories of customer assets, such as people, infrastructure, information, and can these are linked to the services and underlying service assets that make them possible.

A service provider creates the conditions under which outcomes can be met through the services they deliver. A service model shows how service assets interact with customer assets to create value. It is usually a list or diagram of items that will be needed in order to be able to deliver the service.

The service portfolio The service portfolio defines all the services a service provider plans to deliver (pipeline), those currently delivered (service catalogue) and those that have been withdrawn from service (retired).

The service portfolio management process helps service providers to understand the business value of an entire portfolio of services throughout their lifecycles. It enables a service provider to compare what newer services have been offered over the retired services they have replaced.

It is the service portfolio management process that ensures the IT organization maintains its service definitions in a way that customers and other stakeholders can understand.

Step 1 – Define the market and identify customers Step 2 – Understand the customer Step 3 – Quantify the outcomes Step 5 – Understand the opportunities (market spaces) Step 6 – Define services based on outcomes Step 7 – Service models Step 8 – Define service units and packages.

The most popular combinations were bundled together and offered as packages. The business relationship managers were trained on how to offer the new packages.

An improvement plan was developed to target specific consolidation and cost saving measures.

Results The result was a new catalogue of services that clearly described which services were being offered and how they could be combined. Customers had a clear understanding of each service and the value that each service could deliver to their business.

The services were consolidated from 1,000 to 50 service packages with options. Business relationship managers could select the service package and specify which platform was appropriate. The service operation team found it easier to understand the individual services that made up the package.

Service level targets, service level agreements and service reports were all simplified. Over time, efficiency savings were also realised through consolidation of the services and application licences.

Conclusion Simplify the services can achieve significant cost savings. To do this successfully, an IT service provider should adopt a structured approach, as described in ITIL, and use a project to facilitate discussions between existing customers and the IT service provider.

www.connectsphere.com Call 0845 838 2345

ITIL® is a registered trade mark of the Cabinet Office www.vital-mag.net | May-June 2013

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VitAL Digest

Why the connection is king A perfect model for resource-intensive and fast-changing computing environments, such as financial services? Dominic Anschutz, head of cloud services at Exponential-e investigates Data centre-as-a Service (DaaS).

ne of the newest approaches to IT in recent years is Data-as-a-Service – which refers to the delivery of on-demand Virtual Data Centres (VDC) delivered across a private network rather than the public internet. Typically these are offered on a per unit basis – be it per-CPU, per-GB of Storage etc and can be dynamically provisioned.

There are many reasons for enterprises to adopt this model, but the primary one is that it allows them to ‘own’ infrastructure on an OPEX model, thus avoiding large costs upfront. Instead, enterprises have the ability to scale resources up and down and

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only pay for them when they are needed. This model is perfect for resource-intensive and fast-changing computing environments, such as financial services.

However, this should not be confused with Infrastructure-as-aService. The benefits of Data Centre as a Service are completely absent from IaaS facilities, where you basically have no alternative except to use the servers, networking and other hardware supplied by the IaaS provider.

In addition, what separates Data Centre as a Service from other similar approaches is the fact that it is run on a private network, which delivers significant security and performance benefits. The

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What separates Data Centre as a Service from other similar approaches is the fact that it is run on a private network, which delivers significant security and

resources in a Data Centre as a Service scenario should be managed as an extension of internal data centre resources. The private network is the key delivery mechanism which enables this.

The network is often one of the most overlooked aspects of any cloud or as-a-Service deployment, despite the fact it remains the critical backbone for delivering services. Trusting non-critical services to the vagaries of the public internet may be acceptable, but for something as critical as core data centre services a far more robust connection is necessary.

Security & performance Two of the major issues and concerns end-user organisations have when moving to the cloud are security and performance. Where data might previously have been consumed by end-users over a highly secure corporate LAN, remaining within the firewall at all times, cloud and ‘aaS’ models potentially see data traffic go over the public internet, where it is inherently less secure. That said, it is performance where this model really tends to fall down – ultimately a service is only as fast as the slowest part of the network, and by bringing ‘best-effort’ internet into the equation you are potentially introducing a major bottleneck into the network infrastructure.

By removing public internet from the equation, true Data Centre as a Service delivers not only a more secure environment, but one which performs more reliably. True Data Centre as a Service makes external virtual data centres available on-demand as if they were simply additional internal resources, and for this to happen, services on the WAN must behave as if they were on the local network.

Ultimately, you need a LAN that acts like a WAN. Ethernet is the perfect platform to create this environment because it allows customers to easily and quickly introduce connections to new sites and services – including Data Centre as a Service - without having to reconfigure the existing design. A private Layer-2 or Layer-3 VPLS connection will allow Data Centre as a Service offerings to be managed across the WAN as if they were local resources.

Furthermore, customers can begin to look at introducing end-to-end SLAs for their Data Centre as a Service deployments. The lack of

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SLAs in cloud deployments has often been a sticking point, and while cloud providers will often guarantee uptime of their services, these promises do not extend to the availability or performance of the connection into their infrastructure. With a private VPLS connection, IT departments can have dedicated bandwidth and put in place SLAs with their service provider to ensure optimal performance.

The importance of private connections in Data Centre as a Service deployments is magnified by use cases such as Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery and Test and Development. Recreating the performance of the local data centre is crucial and in order to successfully test application performance the infrastructure delivering those applications must behave and perform as it would on the local network. With Data Centre as a Service delivered over a high-speed VPLS WAN, this is eminently achievable. Although most organisations are usually reluctant to invest upfront in dedicated infrastructure, if a business is reliant on remotely deployed resources, a dedicated high-performance connection to those resources is of paramount importance. Delivery over a private network is one of the best ways of allaying these fears and ensuring safe, secure resource sharing.

A viable alternative Organisations are beginning to look at whether Data Centre as a Service is a viable alternative to costly physical data centre resources.

Throughout the evaluation process, the supporting network should not be overlooked, due to the central role it plays. Not only is the network the critical interface between the externally-hosted infrastructure and the local IT resources, but it is the key enabling technology that separates Data Centre as a Service from a host of other similar models.

Private VPLS-based networks blur the traditional LAN-WAN cloud perimeter, and create a highly responsive and flexible environment over which the IT department can have complete control. Ultimately, cloud computing will become a permanent and major part of enterprise computing. It should not be forgotten however, that connectivity is everything in this model. www.exponential-e.com

www.vital-mag.net | May-June 2013

VitAL Digest

Going virtual Virtual desktops are enabling companies to embrace remote working according to David Sturges, chief executive officer of WorkPlaceLive.

recent study by industry analyst Gartner revealed that 84 percent of organisations have a remote workforce to some degree. Remote working is increasingly being enabled by technologies such as virtual desktop solutions which allow people to work from any location in the world and access their emails, files and desktops using any device.The attractions for businesses are two fold – greater workforce flexibility and also cost savings, with reduced investment in IT and less administration.

Yet, moving to a virtual desktop infrastructure is a major consideration involving the outsourcing of data and the IT infrastructure, storage and security to a third party provider.

The provider will host and manage all the IT, the data backup, disaster and recovery and help desk support - it must be a relationship of trust.

This solution allows companies to safely introduce bring your own device (BYOD) to work policy. With employees often using a variety of devices including tablets, laptops and smart phones, many companies have become increasingly about data security breaches if the devices were to get lost or stolen. There have many high profile incidents of data breaches because of laptops left on trains. With a hosted desktop solution no files or data are stored on devices which lowers the security risks and with greater numbers of employees using consumer apps, they can use their own devices to access their work desktops and switch between their personal and work data easily.

So how do organisations create a virtual desktop strategy without compromising security, network capacity or IT performance? One thing to stress is the importance of mapping business objectives, plus current and future remote working IT requirements from the start, before deciding on the right technology and the right provider.

Considerations when developing a VDI Strategy Some organisations are already using solutions like Dropbox to share files and enable remote working. However, as Dropbox requires people to pull down files it can be slow and there have been cases of it being hacked. Google apps are also popular, but one of the draw backs of Google apps is that people don’t know where their data is being stored.

For companies to have confidence in the security of their data, they should work with an accredited cloud computing provider with a UK data centre (if operating in the UK) to ensure security is watertight.

Organisations need to check for accreditations too such as ISO 9001, ISO 27001 for IT security and ISO 14001, which is focused on environmental standards.

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Other questions to consider are the level of disaster and recovery needed, time scales for implementation and when it will take place and the details of the project migration plan.

Cloud computing is not going away and neither is the demand for remote working.

Organisations also need to be wary of the contracts they sign and read the small print. There have been cases of companies signing up to fixed term contracts only to have these revert back to the start date when a new user is added. Needless to say, such contracts should be avoided at all costs.

One business that has reaped the benefits of remote working is Waterloo Quarter BID a business-led organisation that works with and for businesses in the Waterloo district of London. This small organisation is funded by its members and delivers a range of projects for them aimed at improving their economic performance and their physical trading environment.

Waterloo Quarter embraced cloud computing five years ago when it moved to a larger office in Waterloo. It is a small business that couldn’t afford to spend time sorting out IT or employ a technical expert but the nature of its business meant that the company’s main focus had to be on delivering excellent customer service and not sorting out IT issues such as performing data back-ups or worrying about server space running out.

Cloud computing is not going away and neither is the demand for remote working. With the option to save money, reduce their IT administration and offer their employees greater working flexibility– it would seem foolish not to embrace ‘the cloud’ with open arms.

www.vital-mag.net | May-June 2013