Cloud services Brilliant cloud computing or will replace data center

As early as the summer of 2013, a series of articles on data centers were written, called "The Apocalypse of Zombies in the data center".

The first story is about IBM's predicament. IBM was trying to make a deep role transition-from a company that provides data center services to a subsidiary of outsourcing-to become a more cloud-focused IT industry leader. Another is to explore how, as an IT industry practitioner, how to adapt their skills to more cloud-oriented status.

A year has passed, how is the situation now? IBM's situation is getting worse. Although they are still investing in cloud computing, the company's revenue has not increased. Instead, they were forced to abandon two separate hardware businesses: selling the server business of the x86 architecture to Lenovo, and selling the chip manufacturing process for enterprise P systems and Z-Systems to GlobalFoundries. While it is almost certain that IBM will rebound, it has to bear huge losses. The company is expected to lose 4.7 billion dollars in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the technology giant, with more than 400,000 employees around the world, is sure to make a bigger cut.

Xiao-bian does not like to say what the small story told you, but the fact is like small part of the said.

Small series of colleagues, David Ger Wei Bao, this morning I wrote an article about how the Chief Experience officer should be in Capex vs. Opex: The one-time capital input required for data storage in its own data center is Capex, and the ongoing operating costs of using cloud storage are OPEX) make informed decisions to stay competitive. If you are a decision maker or have some influence on your organization, and you have not yet considered cloud storage (cloud storage is a cloud-computing system with a large number of storage devices), it is recommended that you read it.

Another issue that Chief experience officer must consider is the upgrade of old data systems in the Enterprise data center. It's a matter of time before Microsoft stops providing Windows Server 2003 support. The decisions that need to be made are simple: now public cloud service providers (such as Azura and AWS) or private cloud service providers simply charge a fee based on calculation time, data storage, and downlink traffic if your existing data center is still using Windows Server 2003, is it still necessary to upgrade it (such as upgrade to Windows R2 or Linux)?

Over the past year, competitive public or private cloud computing providers have improved the attractiveness of their products by reducing the cost of use and increasing the range of services. At the same time, the keen chief experience officers found the cloud services at their fingertips and began to enjoy the great convenience they had brought.

In the 2013, the purpose of the enterprise to use cloud services was to take advantage of its self-service configuration to mitigate the burden of development and testing. In 2014, the chief Experience officer was investing, experimenting and actively shifting workloads to the cloud.

Rich and diverse cloud services

However, there are still key issues that hinder the transfer from the data center to the cloud, which is the problem of messaging and e-mail. Of course, some companies may still have plenty of reasons to maintain the independence of their messaging infrastructure, but for any larger organization, the management and operation of the system is a pain in the neck and a lot of money.

Microsoft Office 365 and many Exchange-based providers with their own value-added services can provide services, including full technical support and day-to-day management, to help you solve these problems once and for all. Now, if you choose Office 365, you can also get the opportunity to use new features, such as corporate Skype. The business used to be called Lync, which uses IP telephony, video collaboration, and instant messaging.

There is no doubt that Office 365 is not the only communication service product based on cloud services. Google apps, as well as other private clouds, especially those hosted by third parties, are such products. But you have to take a serious look at which features are necessary and which services are most appropriate to your needs.

Another benefit of cloud services is that using a public cloud will not (or a lot less) consume licenses for software, no matter what operating system you are using. The service provider will pay those fees and provide you with the services. You only need to pay according to the number or time of use. In some cases, the top cloud service providers in a particular industry can guarantee the use of ISV software and provide software usage licenses.

These are the use of infrastructure, i.e. service (IaaS) transfer programmes. If you use a platform that is a service (PaaS) scenario, the cost will be significantly reduced, and there is no need to manage virtual machines and underlying operating systems at all. If any part of your business application can use a database as a service (DBaaS) such as Azura SQL, then you will know what real savings are. Your application typically requires a high cost of computing and storage, which, through the database, is a service that translates into more simple transmission and storage costs.

Of course, there are other goals that can be easily achieved in addition to the transfer of enterprise communications and application data. Gathered into storage is increasingly used to address the problem of storage inefficiencies that haunt businesses. In a price-competitive service provider, it is easy to find a service that is willing to provide you with the ability to make better use of your storage space.

The use of cloud computing does not require an absolute answer. Taking a mixed cloud scenario, such as just handing over infrequently used files to the above-gathered storage service provider, gives you the choice of both worlds. For example, if there is regulatory or data ownership issues, you can't put the database directly in the public cloud, you can choose to put the application's outer and middle tier in the public cloud storage, and use point-to-point VPN to connect your local database room and cloud storage service provider.

VPN software using public cloud service providers such as AWS and Azure, such as those used under Windows Server and Linux, is very effective in certain situations, such as those assigned to branch offices. By contrast, cryptographic MPLS connections with telecommunications operators such as AT&T, Verizon and Equinix, and host-managed service providers, may have lower latency and faster connection speeds. In this respect, the AWS solution is called "direct connect", while the Azura is called "expressroute".

This is a rough introduction to some common cloud and private cloud scenarios, and how it solves the problem of using local data centers. Undoubtedly, 2014 is a watershed in the use of data centers and cloud computing. 2015, there is no doubt that more data centers will be dying.

Have you moved a lot of work to the clouds this year?