The Mission Critical Cloud: Designing an Enterprise Cloud

Today, many organizations are taking a look at cloud from a new lens. Specifically, organizations are looking to cloud to enable a service-driven architecture capable of keeping up with enterprise demands. With that in mind, we’re seeing businesses leverage more cloud services to help them stay agile and very competitive. However, the challenge revolves around uptime and resiliency. This is compounded by often complex enterprise environments.

When working with cloud and data center providers, it’s critical to see just how costly an outage could be. Consider this - only 27% of companies received a passing grade for disaster readiness, according to a 2014 survey by the Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council. At the same time, increased dependency on the data center and cloud providers means that overall outages and downtime are growing costlier over time. Ponemon Institute and Emerson Network Power have just released the results of the latest Cost of Data Center Outages study. Previously published in 2010 and 2013, the purpose of this third study is to continue to analyze the cost behavior of unplanned data center outages. According to the new study, the average cost of a data center outage has steadily increased from $505,502 in 2010 to $740,357 today (or a 38 percent net change).

Throughout their research of 63 data center environments, the study found that:

With this in mind – it’s important to understand that there are indeed a number of different types of cloud options. Arguably, one of the dominant forms is a hybrid cloud.

From its starting point, cloud computing has evolved into distinct models, delivering a range of services.  A hybrid IT architecture typically consists of an interconnected combination of:

Public + Private (Colo) + Legacy = Hybrid Cloud

Services offered through cloud models are often divided into three groups:

In your own environment, you may be utilizing one or two of these types of services; or a combination of them. However, there are key steps you have to take to actually create an enterprise cloud model. These include:

New types of technologies allow for single resources (like applications) to leverage multiple WAN links if needed. Most of all, you can leverage powerful data compression and reduction features to optimize the flow of information cross-cloud and down to you users. Finally, you can specific protocol acceleration as a part of your cloud strategy. This means placing priority in specific data streams – VoIP for example. So, in creating an enterprise cloud which is hosting your critical apps, always plan around your WAN and its supporting technologies.

Remember, you’re not deploying just another enterprise cloud; you are deploying your own, unique, enterprise cloud platform. Ensure that you have good partners in place who can support both technical as well as business requirements.

Furthermore, the report pointed out that the average cost per record equaled about $158. However, being prepared for a cyber security incident can diminish that cost. For example, having an incident response plan and team in place can reduce that figure by $16 per record. There was a great IDC study of U.S. businesses which reveals a wide spectrum of attitudes and approaches to the growing challenge of keeping corporate data safe. While the minority of cybersecurity "best practitioners" set an admirable example, the study findings indicate that most U.S. companies today are underprepared to deal effectively with potential security breaches from outside or inside their firewalls.

Simply put, every aspect of your enterprise cloud design must have security incorporated into it. There are several important considerations here. First of all, you can absolutely deploy compliance-bound workloads into the cloud; as long as you’re working with the right type of provider. Now, you can leverage a variety of cloud services specifically aimed at regulation and compliance. From there, security from a holistic perspective will be critical. Within the realm of cloud security, there are almost countless technologies which can help you stay secure. This includes everything from securing cloud-to-cloud traffic, to leveraging cloud access security brokers (CASBs) for specific workload access.

Remember, the cloud itself can be very secure. However, how you deploy workloads and utilize that cloud can create vulnerabilities. Gartner, recently pointed out that through 2020, 95% of cloud security failures will be the customer's fault. This means organizations must be constantly vigilant in their design of cloud-based workloads. Your unique deployment methodology will require you to look at very granular security methods. This could range from very secure cloud-to-cloud connections, to leveraging internal virtual firewalls for better security.

Such criteria can be used as a checklist for decision making. However, an important point to note is that ‘hybrid’ does not mean a “cloud free-for-all.” Rather, it means working proactively at the architectural level, ensuring workloads are in the right places and that the right (high bandwidth, low latency, high availability, high security) communications paths exist between them.

The final, and possible most important step, is finding the right provider to work with when it comes to enterprise cloud deployment. If you require national or regional distribution, work with a partner which can support your distributed needs. If you require certain levels of uptime, make sure you sign up with a partner which can design an SLA which meets your needs. Most of all, an enterprise cloud strategy will require enterprise-level communication with your provider. Create a proactive support and management model will ensure a healthier cloud ecosystem. One which will be less costly to maintain, and one that will help the business compete in today’s digital economy.