Utility Computing: where constant change is ‘normal’

The long-heralded promises and benefits of cloud computing, utility computing, business
continuity, software as a service, virtualisation and green computing are finally coming to fruition.

Evolving business needs mean that regardless of whether they are working in the office, off-site, from home or in transit, end users now demand seamless access to common
applications and associated data.

Technology advances mean that traditional ‘back-office’ computing resources can now be located in an off-premise data centre to meet these evolving  business needs.  Utility Computing in turn defines the way in which these resources can be offered as a set of utilities that can be consumed on an as-needs basis using a flexible pay-as-you-go model.

For a Utility Computing model to be successful, the remote provision of such utilities must
be capable of offering peace of mind around guaranteed provision of service.

brightsolid is a business critical ISP managing clients’ information availability and online presence through hosting, internet access, applications and business continuity (BC) services.   Based in Scotland but reaching across borders the privately-held company has made the investment necessary to ensure that it can deliver real and long-term services as online utilities with its growing number of clients across key sectors including financial, professional services, retail, Internet and public.

The ever-evolving advances in IT technology bring challenges not only in terms of keeping a pace of the latest trends, but also in understanding which of these – if any – are relevant to your business. 

In order to stay abreast of technological changes it is essential that you have a fully resourced
internal IT Department who can be truly unbiased in their recommendations.  The alternative is that you work with an external advisor who can counsel on all aspects of your IT Infrastructure and Managed Service challenges and help you understand the potential impact on any broader business decisions.

brightsolid help you to decide where you go next and our brightsolid minds consulting team help to guide you through your IT challenges to meet your business objectives.

Business Challenges
The ability to adapt to changing business requirements whilst maintaining oversight over additional capital and operational expenses is a daily business challenge

New infrastructure to meet such business demands will incur costs around:

• Purchase, configuration, installation and support of server infrastructure
• Training staff and maintaining expertise required to supporting the infrastructure
• Physical security to protect the infrastructure
• Security to meet regulatory compliance around protection of stored data
• Providing resiliency to pinpoint and remove single points of failure
• Ensuring business continuity in the event of a business disruption

It proves very difficult to accurately plan and budget for such expense and additional costs will always be borne by the customer in response to changing business requirements, making the
total cost of ownership difficult to quantify. 

Another very important issue in terms of reacting to changing business requirements is the
ability to do so in a timely manner. If infrastructure and supporting resources need to be
sourced and procured, then this can cause lengthy delays in implementing the business
requirements.  

Technology enablers
Cloud Computing, Utility Computing, Business Continuity, Green Computing and Virtualisation are frequently used terms. But what do they all mean and more importantly how can they change the way we do business?

Virtualisation of your server infrastructure is an optimal consolidation of physical servers, allowing multiple applications to run on a single host server or cluster of servers. Virtualisation brings increased efficiency, resiliency, flexibility, on-demand expansion capability and guaranteed availability of service. It reduces your environmental impact and total cost of ownership and in summary it gives you more from your IT for less.

Gartner comment that: “Virtualisation is a modernisation catalyst. Our key advice is to look
beyond simple consolidation and cost savings. Virtualisation can be the catalyst to drive many
fundamental important changes in architectures, processes and cultures. Virtualisation “unlocks” cloud computing potential internally and externally."

Server virtualisation splits out aspects of server hosting to facets such as required processor
power, storage requirements, memory, and so on, enabling services to be devoured on an as-
required basis. More on that point shortly.

www.brightsolid.com/products-and-services/brightsolid-structures/virtualisation

Cloud computing is a term used to cover many things. But in simple terms, let’s just look upon
this as the enabler and ability to remotely access IT services across the Internet.  

Returning to the point about changing work patterns this would mean that any user with an
internet connection would have access to the centrally hosted servers and resident data via a
‘cloud’ providing a seamless experience to the end user regardless of their location. 

In order for the ‘cloud’ model to be successful, the remote provision of online utility services must be provided in a seamless way so that the operational performance is the same as if the user were located on the their  own premises and accessing the servers across their internal LAN.

Such levels of service can only be made available by the provision of substantial dedicated
connectivity between the customer’s own site and the site of the hosting data centre. But let’s
be honest, even with reductions in cost of service, connectivity is not inexpensive. However, this factor needs to be taken in to account alongside the benefits and savings that are achievable for a customer from hosting their infrastructure in a highly resilient data centre. 

Business continuity (BC) is in itself an enormous subject, the importance and relevance of which is becoming more and more apparent in the business community. A BC Plan needs to completely underpin the day to day operations of an organisation and be the first port of call in understanding how the business hangs together. Of course, one of the major aspects of business continuity relates to providing resilience and security around the IT infrastructure, which comes as a standard set of benefits from hosting with a state of the art Data Centre.

brightsolid Online Utilities
brightsolid are at the forefront of delivery technology services. With a Tier 3+ data
centre and a team of consultants and engineers who work with our clients and partners to make the most efficient use of IT.

Utility Computing can be thought of as the commercial model by which all of the above is
delivered on a pay-as-you-go model. The term ‘utility’ is used in reference to the ability to
consume IT services as if they were utilities, i.e. you use as much or as little as required to tie in with changing business requirements and are charged for what you use. brightsolid Online
Utilities provide IT Services that utilise Cloud and Green Computing and are enabled by
Virtualisation and Business Continuity solutions.

IT departments can be – quite understandably - reluctant to ‘let go’ of any aspect of their internal IT infrastructure. So much so that IT outsourcing is often described – in the style of Harry Potter – as “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”. However, taking advantage of the Utility
Computing model does not mean it’s all or nothing in terms of outsourcing the IT Infrastructure. 

brightsolid work with our customers in a trusted partnership and advisory capacity. Where it
makes sense to outsource any aspect of their internal IT infrastructure or back-office capability – e.g. whether it be an application with sensitive customer data, or specific business continuity or disaster recovery requirements driven by regulatory compliance - then brightsolid will provide solutions via their Online Utilities model. 

By breaking down each aspect of the hosting infrastructure to components enabled by server
virtualisation, brightsolid can provide service as required for an existing pool of resources
covering:
-  Server infrastructure
-  Technical Support
-  Expertise
-  Security
-  Connectivity
-  Resilience

A customer merely picks the elements of service and quantities of each element of service they
require. In sharing these resource elements across multiple customers, this allows brightsolid
to pass on the economies of scale savings and as such provide a superior service in a seamless
manner that means the user experience – regardless of location – is exactly the same as if they were accessing these services over the internal LAN.

Opting to use the brightsolid Online Utilities model brings numerous benefits:

• Predictable cost model giving control over “total cost of ownership” from pay-as-you-go model
• Reductions in capital outlay and operating costs for both infrastructure and supporting services from economies of scale
• Flexibility to react immediately to changing business requirements from existing pool of technical resources
• Facilities already in place for regulatory compliance
• Fully resilient state-of-the-art Data Centres
• Trusted partner and advisor
• Management of all back-office hosting needs
• Dedicated, shared or virtualised hosting
• 24x7 support desk, ongoing maintenance, patching, monitoring and disaster recovery already in place

Contact details:
Emma Wood, Marketing Assistant
T: 0800 027 2027
E: emma@brightsolid.com
www.brightsolid.com