Zynstra's hybrid cloud solution integrates Office 365 with on-premise systems

IT services company Zynstra has launched a hybrid cloud solution designed to help 'small and midsized' businesses (SMBs) integrate Office 365 with their on-premise systems.

Called O365Connect, the managed Hybrid IT solution delivers the control of on-premise IT but with the economics and service levels typically associated with public cloud services, according to the Bath-based firm.

The solution, which was developed in partnership with Microsoft and HP, is aimed at businesses with between 5 and 250 IT users. It handles local networking, security, identity, file and print management and management of single-sign on to Office 365 and other applications.

Additionally, it automatically takes care of Disaster Recovery by backing up both local data and cloud managed emails and files to Microsoft's Azure cloud should office hardware go kaput.

ProLiant reliant

Part of Zynstra's Hybrid Cloud portfolio, the solution is installed on a HP ProLiant server by an IT service provider, which also manages the service and makes sure applications are up-to-date on the customer's behalf.

In a statement, Zynstra CEO Nick East said that the company's software runs on top of the server to allow local IT workloads to be run as services in virtualised Windows and/or Linux environments.

Zynstra's O365Connect is available from February 17 from the company's channel partners.

• Is hybrid cloud the future?

In Depth: Making your journey to cloud

A recent Gartner survey on the future of IT services states that 80% of organizations said that they intend to use cloud services in some form within 12 months, including 55 percent of the organizations not doing so today.

Certainly cloud isn't new but companies are still in the process of understanding what works for their business. What they can't do is fall in the trap of following the crowd and so need to know what all the options are - be that cloud, on-premise or hybrid - for their business.

With today's business environment epitomised by flexible working and a hyper-connected workforce, the implication that cloud computing is now universally accepted among small and medium businesses as a tool of choice is well founded. Yet for many, cloud is still very much the exception rather than the rule when it comes to fulfilling IT requirements in the business mainstream.

Everyone doing it?

It seems like the entire world is moving to the cloud. Cisco recently predicted that 60% of business workloads globally will be managed via the cloud by 2016. Whilst a recent Gartner survey on the future of IT services states that 80% of organizations said that they intend to use cloud services in some form within 12 months, including 55 percent of the organizations not doing so today.

The benefits of cloud, which offers more flexible and scalable installations for lower initial costs, are irrefutable to the extent that software and applications delivered over the web are now widely seen as the future of business computing.

The cloud has firmly entered the business consciousness, yet by no means is it the norm amongst small, medium and growing businesses, many of whom have existing systems in place that working efficiently. So what's all the fuss about?

Lower costs and manageability

The cost of entry for cloud software is reduced, as unlike on-premise applications (where a bigger up-front investment is required to purchase the hardware and software) you are paying monthly for the service and the computing power needed to run it.

The cloud's 'time-share' mentality spreads the costs out between all businesses hosted in the same facility, maintenance in the cloud can be carried out cost-effectively and necessary upgrades are easily negotiated.

Scalability

The scalability offered by cloud based solutions is a huge coup. As your business grows there is no need to worry about replacing your server as new users can be added at the touch of a button.

This is ideal for fast-growing companies that experience seasonal surges in demand, or surprise/irregular spikes, knowing that the system will be running effectively when it's needed most. Businesses can quickly upscale computing power as needed.

Flexibility

One of the biggest advantages of cloud is that it provides access to data anywhere, at any time. It supports 24 hour day operations, whether you're a founder stuck to your desk or a COO of an international business that needs to run around the clock, it provides the flexibility businesses need to cater to customers 24/7.

Of course whilst there are benefits, the one consistent concern with the cloud remains data security. However providers such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon have proven their security credentials through years of reliable, 99.9%-plus provision and those that don't drop out of the market pretty quick.

Other options for businesses

Whilst the benefits of cloud are abundant, it's not the only option. Adopting cloud technology isn't an all or nothing decision; companies will often retain on-premise solutions or even opt for a hybrid approach, which is by no means a bad thing.

Established businesses that have recently opted for on-premise solution shouldn't doubt that decision because of the buzz around cloud.

If a business is running efficiently on existing on-premise servers and storage, make the most out of the investment to see a tangible return and utilise in-house adaptations to achieve solutions rather than introducing a new system. Reassess software options when this is no longer the case or requirements change - for any business, changing software is a big deal so it needs to be a considered decision.

Equally for companies - particularly in highly regulated sectors - wanting to retain full control of their systems and data, they will likely pay a premium for this privilege in the cloud era.

There is no wrong or right answer when it comes to selecting cloud, hybrid, or indeed on-premise solutions. It's whatever works for the business and weighing up the options available should be something every software vendor should be advising to customers.

What to consider on your journey to the cloud….

Every business is individual and has different requirements. Whilst there's no one size fits all for business computing, the underlying considerations should be universal. Businesses need a solution to a problem, whether it be cloud, hybrid or on-premise, these basic questions are a good place to start:

1. What are the challenges that face my business?
2. Do you need access to data outside of the office?
3. What problems are you experiencing with your software?
4. Do you need a tailored solution or a scalable solution?
5. What would cloud provide my business with that on-premise doesn't?

• Steve Attwell is the Managing Director for Sage UKI's Small and Medium Business Division

Cloud providers' love/hate relationship with pay-as-you-go pricing

IT vendors had a golden age before the invention of the cloud.

It was essentially a risk-free delivery. Customers required a product, sales would propose a solution to which the customer would sign and commit, the customer would pay upfront, the vendor would start manufacturing (if required), and eventually the solution would be delivered to the customer.

At every step of this journey the vendor took steps to prevent its risk. The contract was negotiated per customer, thereby ensuring the deal was profitable. The customer paid upfront so the vendor didn't need to borrow money or risk the customer defaulting on a debt.

The contract commitment was made beforehand, so the customer took the risk that the solution might not be used. And finally, the customer was told when delivery would be made, so the vendor could optimize its stock levels.

On demand

Cloud computing changed this. Being able to buy computing resources on-demand, with no advanced notice, no commitment, no upfront payment, public pricing and immediate delivery, means the financial risk on the customers part is negligible. If you don't consume a resource, you don't pay for it; if you do, pay only for what you used at the end of the month. This is an attractive selling point for providers.

The result of this is that the risk is now put back in the hands of the cloud provider. The provider must borrow funds to invest in infrastructure that might not be used sufficiently to make a return.

The provider must build the technology in advance of when its customers need it - consumers can't wait for a resource, it must be delivered immediately. And the provider must take the risk that consumers won't pay its bills at the end of the month.

Taking risks

With this in mind, it's easy to see why none of the larger IT companies disrupted the market with cloud computing and it was left to Amazon.com, a company more commonly associated with books and films to do it first. IT companies had lots to lose by introducing pay-as-you-go; AWS on the other hand, had a lot to gain.

However, the tide is turning, and many cloud providers now offer alternative pricing schemes alongside on-demand, allowing consumers to take on more risk, thereby getting a discount.

In fact, the Cloud Pricing Codex found 50% of cloud providers now offer on-demand alternatives. So don't thank cloud providers too much for giving you that discount for a commitment – trust me, they wouldn't do it if it didn't ultimately benefit them too.

• Dr Owen Rogers is Cloud Economist at 451 Research. He has previously held a number of product management positions and completed his PhD thesis on the economics of cloud computing in 2013

Taming Big Data E-Discovery Using the Cloud

by John Tredennick

The business world is accumulating data at a staggeringrate. Every day, estimates say, we create 2.5 exabytes of data. That numberwill double by 2014. Just one business, Walmart, is said to collect more than2.5 petabytes of customer data every hour.

From a legal standpoint, this accumulation of “big data”raises two major challenges. One is what is broadly referred to as informationgovernance. It involves sometimes-difficult, executive-level decisions aboutwhat data to keep, how long to keep it, and how best to manage it.

The second challenge arises when a business becomes involvedin litigation or a government inquiry. The difficulty then is for thebusiness’s lawyers to sift through all this data to find the specificdocuments, emails, text messages, spreadsheets, presentations and otherelectronically stored information that are pertinent to the matter at hand.

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Horses for Courses: Betting on the Right Cloud Environment

by Simon Aspinall

A horse race is a complex environment, with many factorsthat contribute to performance. The term “horses for courses” stems from thefact that a racehorse performs best on a racecourse to which it is specificallysuited. While this phrase is transferable to various situations, it serves as acritical starting point for enterprises that are trying to determine their ITand cloud computing strategies. Just as some horses perform better on certaincourses, some applications run better in certain clouds.

All enterprises have complex ITenvironments consisting of many applications, and a majority of theseorganizations are increasingly accepting cloud as a new IT operations model. CIOsmust then decide which applications are appropriate to run in the cloud, andwhich cloud will enable them to perform as efficiently and effectively aspossible. Private, hybrid and public clouds all come with pros and cons, and eachare suited best for different applications when it comes to performance.

Availability, cost, security, compliance, flexibility,scalability, and multi-tenancy play a crucial role when determining deploymentoptions. Enterprises need to consider these criteria, and check the boxes thatbest apply to them and their workloads.

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Cloud ghost schools

type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/spannermans-edublog/"> In February Prof Sugata Mitra picked up a $1m prize in LA from TED. What exactly this bloke called Ted was doing in La La land is not totally clear but although he himself comes from Cloud Cuckoo land he is clearly a generous sort.

Thus ended my attempt to explain Cloud Schools and the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference to my mum. Why did I bother? Well simply because Prof Mitra is going to staff his Cloud School with grannies so I thought she might be interested.

To be fair the Prof too has had problems communicating his vision to his target demographic who are now convinced he is hiring ghosts to teach their children. Grannies or ghosts, so far so hilarious but this is a seriously important project.

You see Prof Mitra regards it as self-evident that access to the Internet is the key to accessing education for those that cannot access it locally, either because their are no schools, few or no good teachers and even no safe roads. More radically he believes that children can educate themselves if given access to technology ... ok with a little guidance later on, hence the grannies.

He has form. In 1999 he installed hole in the wall computers in a few Indian slums and watched in amazement as the children found their way around them unaided.

This summer at TEDglobal in Edinburgh he explains how his new Cloud Schools will work.

We’ll take futuristic glass kiosks powered by solar cells up mountain with satellite uplinks and other techy paraphernalia for granted. This is all fun stuff and the NSA will no doubt get joy from tracking remote terrorists accessing Wikipedia or posting ‘selfies’ on Facebook but the real genius is as follows.

Most teachers are retired. In the UK there are more qualified teachers not teaching than are practicing the profession. Some of the retirees are still sane, have huge amounts of knowledge about stuff and know how to guide children...better still they are cheap to hire.Children are better at teaching themselves than schools are at teaching children. Prof Mitra knows that his test 300 will spend their days, at first, just playing games. He also knows that they will move onto more and more complicated things, just because that’s what they do. No-one who grew up in the early PC days can gainsay him. From Turing to Torvalds we have a class of self-taught technocrats.

If you remain skeptical just look at our attempts to teach computers, ICT and science in schools. Abject failure. Is there a clue here?

At a certain point in development a student needs access to an expert, a mentor, a guru. Schools cannot guarantee to have one on their books but the Cloud School can. MIT’s EdX project is living proof of their thirst for access to expertise.

This is a project worth watching. I am sure that it will be a roaring success. I am also sure that it will produce results that we cannot anticipate. Good luck to the ghosts and grannies in the clouds say I.

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Oracle embracess the broader Cloud landscape

type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/infrastructure-and-operations/"> It's easy to accuse Oracle of trying to lock up its customers, as nearly all its marketing focuses on how Oracle on Oracle (on Oracle) delivers the best everything, but today Ellison's company and Microsoft signed a joint partnership that empowers customer choice and ultimately will improve Oracle's relevance in the cloud world.

The Redwood Shores, California software giant signed a key partnership with Microsoft that endorses Oracle on Hyper-V and Windows Azure, which included not just bring-your-own licenses but pay-per-use pricing options. The deal came as part of a Java licensing agreement by Microsoft for Windows Azure, which should help Redmond increase the appeal of its public cloud to a broader developer audience.

Forrester's Forrsights Developer Survey Q1 2013 shows that Java and .Net are the #2 and #3 languages used by cloud developers (HTML/Javascript is #1). The Java license does not extend to Microsoft's other products, BTW.

This deal gives Microsoft clear competitive advantages against two of its top rivals as well. It strengthens Hyper-V against VMware vSphere,as Oracle software is only supported on OracleVM and Hyper-V today. It gives Windows Azure near equal position against Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the cloud platform wars, as the fully licensed support covers all Oracle software (customers bring their own licenses), and pay-per-use licenses will be resold by Microsoft for WebLogic Server, Oracle Linux, and the Oracle database.

AWS has a similar support relationship with Oracle and resells the middleware, database, and Oracle Enterprise Manager, plus offers RDS for Oracle, a managed database service.

Bring your own license terms aren't ideal in the per-hour world of cloud platforms, so the pay-per-use licensing arrangements are key to Oracle's cloud relevance. While this licensing model is limited today, it opens the door to a more holistic move by Oracle down the line.

Certainly Oracle would prefer that customers build and deploy their own Fusion applications on the Oracle Public Cloud, but the company is wisely acknowledging the market momentum behind AWS and Windows Azure and ensuring Oracle presence where its customers are going. These moves are also necessary to combat the widespread use of open source alternatives to Oracle's middleware and database products on these new deployment platforms.

While we can all argue about Oracle's statements made in last week's quarterly earnings call about being the biggest cloud company or having $1B in cloud revenue, it is clearly no longer up for debate as to whether Oracle is embracing the move to cloud. The company is clearly making key moves to cloud-enable its portfolio. Combine today's moves with its SaaS acquisitions, investments in cloud companies and its own platform as a service, and the picture clearly emerges of a company moving aggressively into cloud.

I guess CEO Ellison no longer feels cloud is yesterday's business as usual.

Posted by James Staten

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