Hybrid Cloud Deep Dive: Avoiding CAPEX by blending Colocation and IaaS
One of the most overlooked but cost-effective and flexible Hybrid IT – Multi-Cloud implementations isn’t necessarily the most obvious.
Whether you know it or not, you’ve more than likely been running your own cloud since the birth of virtualisation. I’m talking about the trusty workhorse that resides in your in-house server room, or even better, as discussed here, a Macquarie Cloud Services colocation facility.
The upside of do-it-yourself (DIY) private cloud is your costs are likely very predictable and typically very low. When you combine these factors with a kit refresh every 3-7 years alongside maintenance agreements you can avoid any unexpected expenses. So what’s the problem?
Whilst a DIY private cloud has the aforementioned benefits, it doesn’t account for the potential issue of capacity requirements. These are often impossible to predict, occur at times with the most attention from management and can significantly impact ongoing projects. When one of these unpredictable times arise, you immediately think to the cloud. But which one?
Surprisingly, it’s quite rare that a colocation provider offers cloud services or Infrastructure as a Service that has characteristics of a public cloud rather than a private cloud.
What do I mean here?
A private cloud can typically mean longer-term contracts, slower delivery, somewhat customised implementations and similar to your own cloud, limited capacity.
What if you could simply extend your own infrastructure logically, for a variable amount of time, for the capacity you need now without re-inventing the wheel? Whilst that sounds like an ideal solution, the main challenge when extending out to a native cloud provider is a network. Internet services (at scale) have gotten cheaper in recent years but still constitute a real cost and subsequently, a deterrent to extending to a native cloud provider. Storage and backup platforms can also incur network tariffs that whilst understood, cannot always be avoided or predicted – think unplanned data retrieval due to system rebuild(s).
It’s here that a LAN type experience, supplied from the same data centre that you currently house your infrastructure in comes into play. Whether its compute and storage on demand, provided as a layer 2 extension to your existing virtual footprint (or via other means), NAS or object storage, backup repositories or managed backup services Macquarie Cloud Services can provide you short, medium or long term solutions to facilitate unforeseen capacity requirements or platform failures.
Advantages of using a multi-cloud implementation approach.
This grassroots Hybrid IT – multi-cloud implementation approach also has another upside. It makes the final transition away from self-managed, customer-owned infrastructure very simple. What may start as a complementary volume to supplement your existing capacity can, over time replace your entire stack. We make it easy for you to migrate workloads and data in, and the same goes for moving out. We understand you don’t want to be chained to one provider forever, so whilst we hope you stay around, the way we build and bill clouds makes it as easy to leave as it was to come.
