At the end of the day, every CIO and IT professional is there to enable the business to run at its highest potential. And the last thing a CIO wants to be thinking about is if their infrastructure can handle the business’s demand for responsive and innovative technology. This is why partnering with a service provider for infrastructure as a service is a popular solution to these challenges in many different ways.
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) not only provides a way for organizations to reduce operating and maintenance costs, but it can also provide virtually limitless agility and scalability, regardless of your application and database suite. IaaS also delivers these services in a model that guarantees very high availability and uptime and adherence to the highest in security compliance levels.
The migration of your organization's infrastructure from aging on-premises hardware and data centers with on-site support can seem like a daunting concept with no clear starting point. The good news is that you’re not alone.
Whether your business is a regional utilities provider or a global retailer, it is not uncommon for your IT staff to be struggling to operate aging hardware, out-of-date software, and unreliable infrastructure. Because of these struggles, your organization could be hampered with growing maintenance costs and lost opportunities to innovate and invest.
However, IaaS allows your organization to realize real cost savings while delivering scalability and high availability for your enterprise. The IaaS model transfers the burden of maintaining, updating, and replacing hardware to a service provider who specializes in providing powerful and state-of-the-art storage, server, and network technology. Additionally, through IaaS, organizations can bolster their disaster recovery stance and help to ensure availability, no matter where customers are.
One of the key benefits of IaaS is that it can be customized to your organization’s needs and requirements. Every aspect of your future platform can be designed and enabled with your operation in mind, including the software, operating systems, and networking configurations you prefer, as well as the amount of services that you contract for.
Some organizations select an IaaS provider to just assist with data center migration and backup; others employ full-service IaaS with options for scalability, built-in 24/7 support, and assurances for security, compliance, and availability requirements. There are also choices when it comes to selecting a public cloud option, a private cloud, or a hybrid option, depending on your business. No matter where your organization is on that spectrum, an IaaS provider can help to craft and implement the solution right for your organization’s needs today and down the road.
Whether your organization can’t decide if IaaS is right for your needs or if it is ready to start walking down the migration path, determining the key factors to help measure success can help to objectively evaluate the ways in which IaaS can impact your operations.
One of the most common factors is the projected or realized cost savings in maintenance and support by transitioning to an IaaS platform. Other factors include changes in system uptime, fewer security and compliance deficiencies, and the time to market when new services need to come online. However, one of the most important things to consider is the improvements in internal and external customer satisfaction that come with reliable, modern, and secure service.
Regardless of the size of your business, IaaS can be a powerful way to control IT spending while also laying a foundation for future business growth. FNTS has helped organizations across the country, including a regional municipal utility, to migrate from aging hardware and unreliable data center technology to elastic, scalable, and reliable FNTS-supported infrastructure.
Along the way, FNTS’s experienced professionals can help to navigate challenges and design a solution that meets your business needs and accommodates your budget. To learn more, discover how we helped a leading municipal utilities company achieve cost savings and scalable infrastructure in this case study.