Tag: cloud computing

The Cloud is now the preferred hosting solution for companies: easy to use and attractive from a financial point of view, the Cloud has everything to seduce. Cloud Computing offers to provide on-demand via the Internet computer services (servers, database, software, network, storage …).

Those virtual machines are called instances, which you can deploy autonomously through an admin interface. Choosing your Cloud provider is essential and for this, several criteria must be taken into account. How to make the right choice? In order not to make a mistake, it is important to take stock of the use you wish to make of your hosting service and to understand the different types of Clouds available on the market, in order to select the offer that best suits your needs and priorities.

Cloud storage

Cloud storage is a service model that maintains data, manages it, backs it up remotely and makes it available to users over a network (usually the Internet). Most often, users are billed monthly on a pay-per-use basis for cloud storage of their data. Despite a sharp drop in per-gigabyte storage costs, some cloud storage providers charge an operating fee that can make this technology more expensive than it initially appears. With cloud security constantly a major concern for users, providers have tried to reassure them by building security features such as encryption and authentication into their services.

Uses of Cloud Computing

Whether you are a growing SME, a start-up or a large international group, Cloud Computing is a technology used by all. Among the most widespread uses, we can mention data storage and backup, the provision of SaaS-type software, data management and analysis, AI or application creation.

Depending on the use you want to make of Cloud Computing, you will choose a specific type of Cloud, among those that exist on the market today.

Types of Cloud Computing

•     The Public Cloud: the resources of the Public Cloud are shared, which allows you the greatest flexibility. This solution allows you to control your budget, because the billing is calculated precisely on what you consume on your instances.
•     Private Cloud: In the Private Cloud, resources are dedicated. This ensures that your infrastructure is watertight and that costs are more predictable because billing is based on the host machines you need and in which you are free to deploy the instances you need at any time.
•     Hybrid Cloud: the Hybrid Cloud solution consists of opting for the Private Cloud and then installing instances in the Public Cloud on an ad hoc and/or isolated basis in order to exceed the limits of your Private Cloud without having to take an additional host.

What are the benefits of Cloud Computing solutions?

Cost

The Cloud Computing model allows you to pay only for what you really need. You can create and stop your machines when you want, and thus stick to the evolution of your needs. Moreover, thanks to Cloud Computing, you won’t have to invest in hardware, nor in manpower to manage your entire infrastructure.

The speed of deployment

Thanks to the CLOUD, the most complex infrastructures can be deployed in a few clicks. And thanks to the instance replication feature, you can create your templates and then replicate them on all your devices in a few minutes.

Data security

The system and infrastructure on which the cloud is based is regularly updated by our teams to maintain the protection of your data. In addition, many security rules functionalities are integrated to the solution in order to allow you to secure your network as well as possible (Firewall, Load Balancer…)

Public Cloud

Public Cloud is a centralized, simplified interface to easily manage your virtual machines and your network infrastructure while securing them. Thanks to its geographical scalability, you can deploy your machines in one of the data centers or points of presence, in order to be closer to your end customers.. Public Cloud includes a full range of instance templates, from general purpose instances to specialized RAM and CPU instances. You will also have a large choice of security rules such as firewalls. which will help you manage your traffic.

Private/Hybrid Cloud

Private Cloud is a turnkey solution allowing you to rent servers including an entire solution. By choosing this solution, you will be able to deploy as many instances as you wish thanks to the admin included in your dedicated server, in order to constitute a hermetic infrastructure for your projects.

Depending on your needs, you can also opt for a hybrid solution, mixing public and private, by deploying instances in your Public Cloud, fully compatible with the Private Cloud solution.

Cloud technology

Cloud technology allows you to deploy your Private Cloud anywhere in the world, including at home, in your own premises. Dedicated to large companies or local administrations, the server will be delivered directly to you. You can then take advantage of all the technology in your own infrastructure with your own security rules.

Online backup makes it possible to copy all the data present on the company’s workstations, to store them on the servers of a service provider and to recover them if necessary. How does online backup work? Who are the market players? How to choose a solution adapted to your needs?

Online backup is a technique used to store a copy of the company’s files on remote servers, using specific software installed on the workstations. The transfer of the data and their consultation can be carried out with any device connected to Internet provided that it has the identifier and the password required to connect to the web interface of the provider.

With this method, it is possible to recover data corrupted or lost documents due to technical failure, disaster, or human error within minutes.

The online backup market is dominated by the major web players and Internet service providers, but there are also specialized providers. The first gigabytes of storage are generally free for individuals, which may be of interest to freelancers and small businesses with limited needs. For larger companies, however, it is better to contract a suitable package that includes additional services in terms of security and multi-account management such as cloud storage service providers.

How to choose an online backup solution

• Storage (and its price) => The online backup space made available to you in exchange for a monthly or annual subscription is the most important criterion for choosing between cloud storage providers. This storage is measured in gigabytes (GB) or terabytes (TB) of recordable data. The larger the package you choose, the higher the rate per GB or To decreases.
• Data duplication => In terms of online backup, the quality of service is determined by the ability to set up a redundancy of storage. You must ensure that the provider is able to instantly duplicate your data on a secondary server, in the event that the initial cloud server is affected by any incident or a malware.
• Data security => The implementation of electronic certificates and a data encryption (both server and client side) attest to the seriousness of a provider. Also pay special attention to the user password reset and recovery procedure, which should ideally include a two-step validation.
• Data synchronization => Many services include automatic cloud backup with instantaneous data synchronization. Thus, as soon as a document is modified on one of the workstations, the new version is immediately saved on the cloud server without your intervention. This saves employees a lot of time.
• Maximum file size => It is possible that some providers impose a maximum size per stored document, while others do not apply such restrictions. However, this maximum size is large enough that it is almost never reached in practice.

Cloud storage involves using remote servers accessible via the Internet to back up corporate data. Synchronization with workstations allows automated recording of document changes in real time.

How cloud storage works

Cloud storage involves the complete outsourcing of the IT infrastructure dedicated to storing company data. The remote servers are rented from specialized service providers according to two main criteria: the storage capacity and the bandwidth for transfers.

With this type of computer backup, you save on capital expenses, which are replaced by operating expenses. Instead of buying storage units and hosting the data internally, you benefit from computing power (expressed in GB or TB) made available to you in exchange for a monthly or annual subscription.

self-service access is done through a secure Internet connection Each user is authenticated and all connections are encrypted. Your employees can save their documents wherever they are and at any time. However, cloud storage is dependent on the quality of the ADSL line (or optical fiber) and the mobile network in the region. Therefore, the promises of service providers for “24/7” access should be kept in perspective.

Cloud storage features

Cloud storage is becoming increasingly popular with businesses and freelancers because of the benefits provided by this type of service:

• Cloud storage is controllable from any device connected to the internet: desktop or laptop computers, touch tablets, smartphones, etc. A centralized administration console makes it easy for large accounts to manage their endpoints.
• Unlike traditional hosting offers, you don’t have to make any special request to the provider to change your offer or to wait. In a few clicks, you can change your subscription formula and the request is taken into account instantly.
• The service is Pay as you go With pay-as-you-go, you use only the storage capacity your business needs at any given time. There is no need to oversize servers for future use.

Three main types of cloud storage services

• The Iaas service => You rent one or more remote servers on which you install the operating system and application software of your choice. It is the solution that comes closest to data centers and internal storage servers.
• The Paas service => The operating system and some computer tools are preinstalled by the provider who ensure their maintenance, but you keep the possibility of adding third party applications from other providers if you want.
• The Saas service => All applications (email, customer relationship manager) are controlled and updated by the provider who often offers them for free, however the configurations are more limited than with previous solutions.

Numerous IT service providers have invested in the computer backup market, and offer solutions adapted to companies that involve the installation of backup software on workstations, whose role is to send a copy of digital documents to the company’s internal network or to remote servers via the Internet

bakup software: are the “free” offers suitable for companies?

The majority of backup software providers offer free offers for individuals and associations that can also be suitable for freelancers. These formulas only allow to store a few gigabytes (GB) of data, and impose a maximum size per file. Moreover, they are limited to a single operating system or to a few workstations.

If your company employs more than a dozen employees or manages large amounts of data, this free version will soon prove insufficient. In this case, you have no other choice than to opt for the version “company” or “professional” paying software backup which does not suffer from these limitations. The support of specific applications or databases is rarely done with the basic backup software, but rather through additional plug-ins allowing compatibility with the services you use in your company: SQL Server, Oracle, Novell, VMWare, etc.

How much does it cost to buy or subscribe to a backup software ?

• If your company chooses to backup files on its internal servers the backup software will be available for a small fee through a final purchase whose selling price is included between 50 and 200 $ per user depending on the options chosen knowing that the tariffs are degressive depending on the number of licenses purchased. As a rule, regular updates of the backup software are also charged.
• If you opt for an online backup on remote servers for a “cloud storage”, the cost of the monthly or annual subscription of the backup software will obviously be higher since the provider will ensure the storage, security and availability of your data for you. Among the large actors of this market, the professional offers are generally included between 10 and 20 $ per month and per user.

It is important to remember that the cost of cloud storage is falling very fast from year to year, a consequence of the famous “Moore’s Law” which causes an increase in capacity for the same price, and therefore a decrease in the price per GB of stored data. This phenomenon is all the more visible with the large companies in the sector (Amazon Web Services, Google Drive for Work, Microsoft’s One Drive, or Dropbox) which have considerably reduced their prices in a few years.

In addition, some providers offer companies a free trial period (which never lasts more than a few weeks) during which you have the opportunity to test the backup software on a few workstations and determine the quality and reliability of the service.

Before an enterprise can benefit from the full benefits of a cloud-native approach in terms of scalability, availability or innovation, it must reveal a number of challenges. Here are the four main ones about cloud computing:

1. Addressing the skills in cloud based apps

A recent study by OutSystems points to the lack of in-house skills and expertise as one of the main obstacles to the widespread use of the cloud-native approach in desktop and mobile apps.

Cloud architect, tech lead, full stack developer… all of these cloud technology specialized profiles are currently under pressure in the job market. At the same time, 44% of the decision-makers interviewed in the study believe that the use of cloud native technologies is a lever for attracting and retaining talent.

The shortage is expected to ease in the coming years, however. Pablo Lopez, chief technology officer at WeScale, notes a shift in the content of initial training courses. “Engineering schools are starting to take containerization and Kubernetes cloud native technologies into account. Future classes will be trained natively in cloud platforms.”

2. Overcoming the cloud computing complexity

Moving from monolithic applications to the granular approach of cloud native through a microservices architecture requires a real increase in software skills. “Companies are going into the cloud by trial and error,” observes Pablo Lopez. “They have to maintain what they have while learning about disruptive technologies.

While cloud providers offer a very rich portfolio with a dozen new cloud services every month, the IT department must constantly monitor and evaluate the real contribution of these technologies in order to retain the best in terms of performance, security and cost.

According to the expert, two approaches are possible. “A company can set up new operational teams dedicated to cloud-native technologies that bring on board the rest of the IT department. At the risk that these will be looked at with envy.” Another possibility: opt for a global transformation. “This implies significant training efforts, but also a higher resistance to change.”

To get around this difficulty, major accounts have set up a cloud center of excellence (CCoE). This core of expertise aims to hide the complexity of cloud security projects, by popularizing and selecting a limited number of cloud services and giving trajectories to reach the Grail of the cloud native. Digital native” companies have set up SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) teams to spread best practices.

3. Controlling operational costs

No need to configure a physical server anymore, with the cloud IT teams can create a development and environment to test cloud based apps with a few clicks. This can lead to over consumption. “While there are threshold mechanisms, the ability to predict cloud costs remains complex,” says Seven Le Mesle, co-founder and president of WeScale. “They depend, among other things, on the traffic load and the auction systems set up by the providers.”

“CIOs are thinking more in terms of envelopes than fixed amounts. This disturbs financial teams used to managing a budget to the nearest dollar,” he continues. “As for the FinOps approach, there’s a lot of talk about it, but it’s still not widely implemented.” Failing that, there are solutions dedicated to cloud cost optimization such as CloudCheckr from NetApp, Beam from Nutanix or CloudHealth from VMware.

4. Understand new cybersecurity risks

Finally, the cloud-native is leading to a paradigm shift in cybersecurity. In an on-premises environment, you only need to build a strong enough wall around the applications to counter attacks, Pablo Lopez reminds us. “Cloud native breaks down this pattern. By multiplying the points of entry, we increase the attack surface. Cloud native therefore leads to rethinking security by reducing privileged accounts and limiting access to services and data to the strict minimum.

However, “by design” security is not yet natural, notes Seven Le Mesle. The IT department is adopting cloud technologies to give its developers more autonomy. However, they are not always aware of the cybersecurity issues and security teams are overwhelmed. In particular, hackers use “exploits” published on code repository platforms such as GitHub.

The DevSecOps approach should allow everyone to be responsible for security knowing that it took five years for DevOps to become mainstream. Meanwhile, Seven Le Mesle notes the emergence of a new role. That of the cyberchampion who evangelizes and disseminates best practices within IT teams.