One

All business processes have something to do with IT these days. And, meanwhile, you want to be able to concentrate on your core activities. After all, you are not an IT-company. Most likely, cloud computing could relieve some of your IT-worries. Through this model you purchase IT from an external partner in the form of additional, value-added services: infrastructure, platforms and applications-as-a-service. John Myklebust, Director Datacenter Services, explains how Belgacom sees the future.

The present economic crisis is forcing your company to carefully consider the course it is on. And the role of IT is part of this. That is why it is also an ideal moment to stop and review the established IT strategy and - if necessary - adapt it. Increasingly, cloud computing is playing a role in this type of exercise: a company purchases certain parts of its IT-needs (infrastructure, applications, security or storage…) from an external partner in the form of a service. This approach to IT is quite different from the one that companies have been organizing for themselves up until now. In practice, therefore, it can rapidly lead to a number of new challenges. Belgacom is a proven partner which is able to respond, both at the national and international level, to the changing demand for IT-services. “What is important is that you’re not forced to simply go with the cloud all the way,” says John Myklebust, Director Datacenter Services at Belgacom EBU. “We offer a hybrid model, which allows you to choose which parts you would like to keep in-house and which services you choose to use in the cloud. That is what’s great about the range we offer. You decide for yourself which balance best suits your own situation.”

Perfect alternative

The traditional approach to IT generally requires a significant investment in building up your own staff’s expertise. An IT environment of your own is generally a static thing: you can’t simply change the capacity and performance when there are changes to the IT-support on the business side.  At peak times, this inevitably leads to problems with the availability of the systems - and to lost turnover, loss of quality in the service, dissatisfied customers and so forth. Through its range of managed services Belgacom offers a concrete solution for this. “We offer Managed Hosted Systems,” Myklebust explained. “They are a perfect alternative to the traditional approach to IT. We provide you with a platform for your business critical IT-systems. As the need for capacity and performance changes, we can adapt the systems to this, without you having to worry about making any investment upfront. With us, you only pay for the service provided.” Note also that Belgacom offers the service either on site or hosted at a Belgacom Net Center. “For some clients, it’s important that certain machines - for example for business-critical applications or data - are physically located on their own premises. We take this into account.”

Secure storage

Pure IT-infrastructure is one of the most visible advantages of the cloud. Through Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Belgacom offers various infrastructure services, including robust solutions for back-up and disaster recovery, but equally, pure processing power and storage capacity. Specifically, Storage-as-a-Service lends itself exceptionally well to the cloud model. Storage has developed into a crucial component of the IT-environment. Yet, at the same time, storage is often difficult to manage. An extension of your own storage capacity always requires a significant investment upfront. And the more storage capacity there is, the more complex it becomes to manage. “Storage management is a highly technical area,” asserts John Myklebust. “As a company, you need highly specialized IT-staff, certainly for larger storage environments. That in itself is already a challenge, because these can be difficult positions to fill.”

Storage-environment is crucial

In most cases, the storage environment is an increased risk as a single point of failure. In order to reduce that risk, many companies find themselves forced to maintain a copy of their complex storage environment on a second site - and sometimes even on a third. After all, they work in a globalized marketplace in which they cannot afford any downtime. On top of that, the mirror sites, of course, need backups and archiving. “There are plenty of examples: websites for e-commerce, communication systems, production systems… These are all important IT-systems that rely on the principle of centralized storage. The availability of the systems determines whether a company can run or not.” That is why it is extremely important for the storage environment to be on all the time.

No investment of your own

Through the ‘Managed Hosted Storage’ model you have the possibility of using Belgacom’s datacenters for your storage needs. With a redundant network connection, the connection with the datacenters is guaranteed, and Belgacom provides the permanent availability and performance that your company requires. In quite a few cases - for backup solutions, for example - a secure Internet connection is sufficient. “The example of storage indicates the way that we can offer infrastructure-as-a-service. But we also offer complete application platforms - for example for portals, billing or monitoring - through Platform-as-a-Service. In addition, we are also expanding our Software-as-a-Service range. We currently have applications such as Microsoft CRM, Exchange and SharePoint in our portfolio.” The principle always remains the same: you purchase the infrastructure, the platform or the software-as-a-service, without having to make your own investment in license management, implementation costs, maintenance, upgrades etc.

Virtual and green IT

Belgacom continues to invest in service on the back-end side. In this way, you will always be able to benefit from the latest technologies within a stable and secure environment. Belgacom is investing in datacenter services that combine the use of public and private clouds, among other things. Here too, the hybrid character of the Belgacom-range is more clearly in evidence. In  a traditional IT-environment, applications run only locally on servers. Nowadays more and more companies are opting for hosting at the high-performance, secure datacenters of an external partner. “That means that, for those companies, the ongoing issue of the growing need for processing power is resolved,” Myklebust noted. “In the datacenters we use new technologies to optimize the use of the servers. Virtualization plays a key role here. At the datacenters we ensure aspects such as the optimal distribution of the workload across the servers.” Virtualization makes it possible to utilize the available capacity of the servers as efficiently as possible. That leads to considerable savings in the need for electricity and cooling. It has a positive impact on the cost of IT, but, at the same time, contributes significantly to Belgacom’s pursuit of green IT. “By making use of virtualization, we are able to offer our clients a wide choice. They can request a dedicated server or share one with other clients, both physical and virtual, managed or unmanaged.”

You pay for what you use

The expectation is that both the virtualized IT-environment at your site and the hosted virtual IT-environment will ultimately be absorbed into a single, all-embracing virtual cloud. It is the environment in which public and private clouds come together: the ‘federation of clouds’. In this big virtual environment it will become possible for your company to operate virtual machines that run on a server within the company, and manage them together with virtual machines from an external datacenter. This will allow you to deploy your resources even more efficiently. “If you need more capacity temporarily, then you can very easily take it from the cloud. Once the peak is over, then you can reduce the capacity again just as easily.” With the one big cloud, we are evolving in the direction of utility computing: computer power as a form of utility service, just like, say, water and electricity. You pay for what you use. The expectation is that ultimately, lots of  applications will work according to that principle, and that, for example, you will be able to purchase the entire desktop for your employees as a service.

Relying on the network

The more that an organization purchases additional infrastructure, platforms and applications from an external supplier in the form of services, the more the pressure on the network increases. In fact, IT becomes virtually synonymous with the network. Because the services that the company uses are run on the network, extra attention to the capacity, flexibility and security becomes essential. This is an aspect that Belgacom - as a supplier of both network and cloud computing services - is eminently suited to provide. To begin with, it goes without saying that the network has to be available at all times. In the world of the cloud, without a network, IT-services are out of the question. That is why it is crucial to find a network supplier who can deliver the right SLAs in terms of network availability and performance.  At the same time, there is a challenge when it comes to the burden on the network. As more users are authorized to access services in the cloud via the network, the need arises for a network that is easily scalable and secure. The company needs to be able to rely on the network, even at peak times. In light of this, an easily scalable solution - that can add or subtract services, according to the basic principle of cloud computing itself - is a must. Lastly, data security is also a critical area to focus on. The application and the data are stored securely at the external partner’s datacenter, but, naturally, it has to be possible to run the traffic to and from the datacenter with complete security as well.

What does cloud computing have to offer your company?

With cloud computing, you can purchase IT-services from a partner. You do not have to invest in the infrastructure, implementation, maintenance, expansion, etc. Cloud computing offers you a high degree of flexibility. Is it a matter of storage or processing power? You add capacity or remove it, as your needs evolve. What’s more, you don’t have to develop internal  expertise because your partner will provide it.