At its very basic meaning – The Cloud is a network of almost infinite computing and storage assets that can be accessed by the public through a portal or subscription of some sort. The origins of this can be traced back to the 1950s where large organizations would employ mainframes as their computing system, while users accessed it through dumb terminals.
Public Cloud Hosting
Cloud computing is here to stay!
This always-on, always accessible network of resources is great for life in the new millennium. Our lives have changed and evolved where we’re reliant on data and information profusely. The Public Cloud gives us full access to this through the likes of Google Drive, Apple’s iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive etc. where anyone can save a document at work or in the park and then at a later stage, on a different device, in a different part of the world, work on it again, seamlessly.
Where the Public Cloud has really put down its roots, is in the as-a-service space. Here, large companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, etc. can place their software and systems within and offer it to businesses and consumers alike for an ongoing subscription fee. This removes the requirement for individuals to spend thousands on hardware themselves. Cloud computing is changing the way businesses and IT consultants are looking towards the future.
Total Cost of Ownership
In this example, we will see the difference in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) between a new Microsoft Exchange 2016 on-premise installation vs. a migration to Office 365 for a company of fifty users.
- On-Premise
- Public Cloud
Aspects to Consider
While the Public Cloud has offerings that will allow your business to be agiler than ever, it is a delivered service at the end of the day. Features and abilities that are available for your use today, may not be there tomorrow or 6-months down the track. Providers like Microsoft are so focused on providing the best experience for their users that they have, in the past, discontinued services and features that businesses rely on with a very short notice period. Most of the time there is a migration plan to move from Product A to Product B after the shut-off, however, there is always some user-level disruption with the procedural change.
As with Private Cloud solutions – the Public Cloud offers a higher level of system monitoring and service uptime that can be obtained traditionally with an in-house IT team, for a fraction of the cost.
Through our close relationships with the major Public Cloud providers, Qbt Consulting is able to match up services offered to exactly what your business is needing and what will suit your desired budget and uptime requirements.
Having your infrastructure, networking, files, application workloads and in some cases your entire computing processes in the Public Cloud moves your accounting to an OPEX heavy model, no more high-cost CAPEX upgrades and expansions.
The Public Cloud is, in essence, an infinite resource of computing power and storage capabilities. For instance, with an Office 365 E3 subscription, you’re provided 1TB of Cloud storage per account and 1TB per organisation through SharePoint Online.
For a company starting with 20 knowledge workers with access requirements, that’s 21.01TB (you also get 500GB of SharePoint storage per user account) of Cloud-enabled, backup, redundant storage. To obtain that amount of storage in a traditional, on-premise setup the CAPEX cost would be close to $13,000 AUD. There’s also the added ongoing cost of backup and high availability software licensing as well as the human element to support and maintain and the utility costs to keep it running.
With the Public Cloud option, in the unlikely event that your 20 person company reaches your given storage limits, you’re able to, within seconds, add up to an additional 20TB of storage space.
Technologies Used
With the rapid rate at which software, hardware, best practice and security solutions are advancing, we must always be on the lookout for new, improved and goal aligned solutions to employ within our business.
We have forged enduring relationships with some of the biggest names in the industry to provide an incomparable level of service and performance our clients expect and can rely on.
