Selecting the Best Cloud Model to Achieve Your Unique Business and Performance Objectives

The way corporations conduct business and operations today is constantly evolving. Enterprises are striving to be more agile, responsive and adaptive than ever before to meet business demands and support customers and employees into the future. There’s no doubt that technology makes the business world go round, and at the very core is having a “cloud-first” mindset.

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), enterprise cloud spending, both public and private, increased more than 34% from the previous year, and global cloud spending grew seven times faster than overall IT spending.

There is growing evidence to support the cloud-first trend:

• Increased cost savings by eliminating the overhead expense of operating an on-site data center
• Reduction in skilled staffing needed to maintain on-site operations
• Speed and agility that allow organizations to deliver services quicker
• Maturity of cloud platforms to deploy new capabilities and solve new migration challenges

Deciding between public, private, hybrid and multi-cloud strategies can be a complicated process. A trusted managed services provider with deep cloud expertise can guide an organization on its cloud journey by using enhanced technologies and methods that can securely place workloads in the cloud model that best suits them, without sacrificing cost efficiency or performance.

Public Cloud – Cost-Effective Option for Apps, Storage, Testing and Development
A public cloud solution with a managed services provider eliminates the need for organizations to host their own on-site IT infrastructure. The public cloud allows organizations to relocate workloads to the cloud and access compute and storage resources without the burden and increased costs of data center management.

The public cloud is ideal for apps, web-based email, online office applications, storage, testing and development. Many simpler workloads are moved to the public cloud due to its high reliability and compatibility with a wide variety of operating systems.

Organizations that could benefit from large economies of scale or have resource constraints in their current state are likely to select a public cloud option. Compute resources can be scaled up and down quickly and predictably to meet business demands, which is a major advantage of the public cloud. Organizations also gain greater visibility of their IT environment with the ability to access and manage accounts online. Another benefit is being able to shift organizational focus to application management, customer outcomes and business initiatives, as opposed to operating and managing the infrastructure.

Private Cloud – Built for Business-Critical Workloads and Ideal for Innovation
Similar to the public cloud, the private cloud is a fully hosted solution that offers self-provisioning capabilities, greater visibility and customization. The private cloud supports demanding or
high-performance workloads and can offer a more tailored deployment that achieves performance and cost objectives that customers seek from the public cloud. Demanding workloads include highly transactional, heavily integrated or performance computing environments for business-critical and innovative workloads.

The private cloud is ideal for organizations with legacy components, complex integrations or specific security and compliance requirements. Private cloud providers like FNTS can leverage industry experience in highly regulated sectors to deliver an environment that makes compliance and auditing much less complex and stressful for clients.

A Hybrid or Multi-Cloud Approach for the Best of Both Worlds
Utilizing a combination of cloud environments can help organizations reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and modernize IT operations without being locked into a single cloud platform that might not fit all of their needs.

When determining if a client would be a good candidate for hybrid or multi-cloud strategies, FNTS reviews the business requirements and price/performance needs of client workloads to develop an architecture and operating model that delivers the outcomes they need. Many FNTS clients have workloads that span a range of technologies, from VMware farms to IBM z or IBM i. The FNTS team is uniquely skilled in handling these complex, multi-platform environments. Additionally, clients will have unparalleled access to FNTS’ leadership and cloud engineering teams to ensure their concerns and needs are heard and incorporated into a strategy.

Beginning Your Cloud Journey
When considering a cloud-first approach, it’s important to consult with a managed services provider that can help you understand the outcomes you expect and how they align with your business objectives. The migration process takes careful evaluation and a collaborative approach to planning, designing and testing environments.

At FNTS, we support clients in a wide range of situations and industries to build strategies and close organization IT skill gaps that exist. Our certified and highly trained teams work with clients at the grassroots level and become an extension of their team to ensure peak performance; provide security expertise to meet regulatory and compliance requirements; and communicate opportunities to optimize technology investments. Our services keep clients agile and competitive in today’s evolving market.

Interested in learning more about how the cloud can help you achieve your business goals? Contact us today!