Cloud Hosting

In the beginning, cloud computing was just a utility -- commonly known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

But issues with primitive public cloud platforms (mainly revolving around security, compliance and customizability) has since caused many businesses to opt for the hybrid cloud model: a combination of the public and private cloud models, which gives organizations the best of both worlds and makes for an efficient cloud strategy. (Also read: Public Cloud vs. Private Cloud: How to Choose.)

However, is hybrid cloud as good as it seems?

Let's find out. But first,

Before we can examine the pros and cons of the hybrid cloud model, we need to know what we're talking about.

In general, hybrid cloud can be defined as a combination of public and private cloud infrastructures.

More specifically, the hybrid cloud model is a cloud solution that meets both of the following criteria:

As cloud computing technology has evolved, the hybrid cloud concept has extended. It now covers multiple heterogeneous on-premise infrastructures -- like private cloud, servers, containers and virtualized infrastructure -- and also includes multiple public clouds from various cloud providers. Moreover, these diverse cloud components are not in silos; they are well-connected and integrated to deliver seamless processing power. A proper hybrid cloud integration also makes it easier to manage and monitor the entire cloud infrastructure, allowing smooth portability for both data and applications.

In short, with hybrid cloud, the name says it all: It's truly hybrid in nature and spans multiple dimensions. (Also read: 3 Key Aspects of Effective Hybrid Cloud Management.)

First, the hybrid cloud optimizes the workload in both the private and public cloud infrastructures it comprises. It balances cost, security, speed, availability, and scalability efficiently.

Other major advantages of hybrid cloud include:

The hybrid cloud helps the enterprise optimize capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX).

Infrastructure cost is one of the biggest challenges in any enterprise; and hybrid cloud helps pacify this by bringing a balanced combination of public and private resources. This allows organizations to make a proper plan for workload distribution.

A combination of public and private cloud brings the best combination of security solutions.

That's because the public cloud, by nature, is configured with automated and highly efficient security systems. This reduces error, as human intervention is minimized, and is more cost-effective than traditional cloud security measures. At the same time, the private cloud provides more customized security to protect organizations' sensitive data.

Bringing these benefits together, hybrid cloud gives the enterprise the most bang for its buck in terms of security. (Also read: Cloud Security 101.)

The hybrid model can help the enterprise overcome availability issues.

Public cloud services rarely fail -- but if/when they do, it can be detrimental to client organizations. Private cloud and local data centers can provide the backup for public cloud downtime, but to really ensure airtight availability, organizations distribute their workload between the public and private clouds (i.e., the hybrid cloud). Ideally, store your critical data in the private cloud and/or your local data center so service continuity can be maintained even if there is any downtime in the public cloud infrastructure.

The above factors can also apply to latency; using the hybrid cloud model can help reduce the time it takes for data to travel.

In today's competitive business environment, scaling up to catch the growing market demand is the key to success. And the hybrid cloud is the perfect solution

The private cloud does not scale up quickly, but public cloud infrastructure is highly scalable. Since it combines the two models, hybrid cloud allows the enterprise to scale up the public part of its cloud infrastructure whenever necessary and in a cost-effective way.

Hybrid cloud solutions are easy to manage because they provide efficient and reliable management solutions for the infrastructure as a whole.

Public cloud solutions also provide lots of automation (sometimes AI-based), which is very helpful for managing the infrastructure.

Because the hybrid model is highly cost-effective, organizations can experiment with it without having to invest upfront.

This creates a great opportunity to innovate and grow: With a hybrid cloud, you can take calculated risks, test new ideas and implement them. (Also read: Experts Share the Top Cloud Computing Trends to Watch for.)

Along with great promises, hybrid model brings some challenges. Some key drawbacks to this model include:

There's no denying it: Hybrid cloud implementation is a complex task.

A proper migration strategy and planning are very important. Organizations should run a pilot project before migrating their workload into the hybrid cloud because, sometimes, the distribution of workload distribution between public and private clouds may go wrong, which can have a negative impact on the business.

While the hybrid model can be a cost-effective way to improve security, it can also be a serious concern if not designed properly.

The hybrid cloud has a public cloud component, which comes with unique risks that differ from the on-premise setup. (Also read: Is Your Organization Aware of These 6 Key Public Cloud Risks?)

If proper security tools and technologies are not implemented, data can be at risk with the hybrid cloud model. To protect it, organizations must ensure their entire public/private setup is protected from intrusions.

Again, while the hybrid cloud can also be a great tool to reduce network latency, it can also increase it if not done properly.

Transferring data to the public cloud can be an issue if your internet is slow. To avoid this, implement a backup plan to overcome latency-related issues.

Hybrid cloud management is another critical challenge.

The most important factor is to ensure consistency in multiple areas like infrastructure, operations, resources, and security. So, organizations should look for an experienced and trusted cloud partner for hybrid cloud deployment. Any management failure can cause severe damage to the business.

For a cloud strategy to succeed, an organization must consider two truths:

That's why hybrid cloud is an ideal fit: The most critical factor is proper workload management. The failure of the hybrid model is mostly caused due to poor workload planning and improper management. Enterprises should know that public cloud migration is not a simple lift and shift process. The hybrid cloud implementation journey should start when an organization is cloud matured and planning for work-load optimization.

For a cloud strategy to succeed, an organization must consider two truths:

That's why hybrid cloud is an ideal fit: it allows you to keep the public cloud's scalability and growth potential while housing your most sensitive data on-premise.

However, keep in mind that poor workload planning and improper management can cause even the best hybrid cloud strategies to fail. Public cloud migration is not a simple lift-and-shift process; your hybrid cloud implementation journey should start when an organization is cloud-mature and planning for workload optimization.

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Hybrid Cloud: Benefits and Barriers - Techopedia

bmobile has partnered with TTMA in creating one of the most resilient and secure Cloud solutions in the Caribbean. According to this press release, this technological leap will be critical for businesses seeking to grow. Details follow in this release...

bmobile has invested heavily in creating one of the most resilient and secure Cloud solutions in the Caribbean. This technological leap will be critical for businesses seeking to grow and will also be essential as more organisations, including the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (GoRTT), seek greater digitisation.

While digitisation allows organisations to benefit in terms of data, speed and efficiency, it also brings inherent risks if not managed properly, as evidenced by recent ransomware attacks in the Caribbean Basin. To help businesses better understand secure Cloud solutions (and the availability of world-class facilities here in Trinidad and Tobago),bmobilepartnered with theTTMAto host a webinar as part of the2022 Trade and Investment Conference (TIC).

The virtual meeting,Creating More Resilient Businesses through Cloud Solutions, allowed several local and international experts to demystify Cloud solutions and showcase how businesses of any size, including SMEs, can benefit from Cloud services.

Tanya Muller, Senior Manager of IT Infrastructure, TSTT,welcomed attendees with several case studies to emphasise the urgency of implementing Cloud solutions. One client of ours was the victim of a ransomware attack which froze their critical financial data. Thankfully as they had been backed up to our Cloud, we were able to restore their data and have them operational soon after. Another client suffered a hardware failure on their internal servers. Still, as they were backed up via our offsite Cloud facilities, we were able to have them back in operation in just an hour too, Muller highlighted. For customers that already have on-site servers, Muller noted that TSTT could house those on behalf of customers in a secure, climate-managed facility that can extend the life of those servers. Doing so can also significantly reduce in-house expenses consumed through IT staffing, maintenance and electricity usage.

Muller also highlighted the primary benefits of the bmobile Cloud solution to attendees. According to Muller, customers considering Cloud solutions would be interested in three things: availability, flexibility and continuity. We are always available and fortunately for our customers we had 100% availability over the past 11 years. In terms of flexibility, we can also scale as needed starting off storing data for ten customers, but if you now have three hundred, we can scale that for you within minutes without you needing to buy more servers. Continuity is also vital. Our Disaster Recovery (DRaaS) service can back up your data easily to avoid events as we shared from our customers stories.

Muller noted that the bmobile Cloud service is not only designed for large businesses, but most SMEs can also benefit. Data and customer information is important today, and we can automate information that you normally write down manually. From the hairdresser to the hardware, we have solutions and apps that can be designed around your needs to make your life easier by making management of your business easier, Muller added.

TSTTs data centre and facilities are rated and inspected annually and hold several international and independent certifications, some of which are unique in the Western Hemisphere and the Caribbean. The TIA-942 Rated 3 certification merits the annual physical inspection of the facilities. The DCOS-3 rating is given on review of the operations, maintenance and personnel management aspects of the companys Cloud and data centre operations. Extensive background checks are also conducted on staff.

Mauricio Pennini, Senior Business Development Manager, VMware,emphasised that not even TSTT has access to the data it hosts for its clients. The data is more secure in the Cloud, than it is in your own facility, he added. VMware is a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control with headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

Sean Koon Koon, Manager of IT Networks and Cloud, TSTT,also noted the extensive security measures that the company puts in place - that go well beyond what many companies can do in-house. We have designed our Cloud with collaboration and security architecture at their core. Using the Governance, Operations and Technology framework, the bmobile Cloud solution is built to be used by large clients like the GoRTT, which can share space but have those spaces differentiated by Ministry and be accessible in multiple locations while remaining secure, he added. Or be used by smaller clients just as securely.

Joseba Calvo, Managing Partner, EPI Latam, also shared insights with virtual attendees. In terms of certifications, TSTT has certifications to mitigate what we often call Murphys Law. And these reliable Cloud services will become more critical in the coming years. The number of internet users is projected to increase from 3.8 billion in 2019 to 5 billion by 2025, he highlighted. As a result, businesses poised to benefit are those with secure and reliable Cloud services, supporting their client databases, apps and operations. EPI is the global certification agency that verifies quality and provides independent audit services with specialisations in the ICT and Data Centre sectors.

Attendees also had the opportunity to ask direct questions of the team of experts assembled by bmobile and explore the Cloud solutions for their businesses. The event was hosted byKhamal Georges, Senior Manager Corporate, Environmental, Social, Reputation Management, TSTT.

Link:
bmobile partners with TTMA to Create More Resilient Businesses through Cloud Solutions - Trinidad Guardian

According to a joint study between Replicant and Demand Metric, 95% of contact centers across the globe have implemented automation as a part of their services, or plan to within the next year.

Automation has become an essential part of contact centers ever since the voice answering machine entered the fold (and probably took a few hundred people out of their jobs in the process). Naturally, of course, the human element still needs to be a part of such centers because customer queries rarely ever fit a singular mold that AI can attend to. However, there is still a lot that can be automated and continually is by such services. Greeting and holding messages dont need a separate branch of individuals when they can be left up to AI. Redirect numbers on phone lines can be directed by pre-recorded messages instead of a real person waiting to fill in each individual. With contact centers having evolved from landlines to involving all forms of communication including social media as a whole, theres a lot of room that can be made for automation, and everyones eager to save themselves a few bucks here and there by doing so.

Replicant is a firm that exclusively deals in contact center automation, and I love its Blade Runner-inspired name. There are a lot of fun layers there, but I digress; the firm conducted a study with marketing guru Demand Metric to conduct research, consisting of over 300 contact center leaders, on just how prevalent automation is within the contact center industry. An easier question would have been something along the lines of how prevalent is the opposite?. It does warrant mentioning that automation isnt just a desire to reduce production costs (even if I suspect that this ranks very high), but also a necessity that arises out of the need for effective customer service. The actual figures reported by this study reveal that 77% of respondents had customer care as a top priority, and 60% reported workforce concerns as also being a major concern. No one in the digital age likes to wait for long hours on telephones or message platforms. The goal is an efficient, quick call where work gets done and no ones waiting for any longer than necessary.

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A Study Reveals That 95% Of The Worlds Contact Centers Will Be Automated By Next Year - Digital Information World

RALEIGH EDJX, an edge computing platform, is one of the Triangles most promising startups. But in recent months, its undergone a major shakeup. Two of its original founders, John Cowan, then its chief executive officer, and James Thomason, its former chief technology officer, left the company in March due to creative and strategic differences of opinion with its board.

Since then,EDJX (pronounced Edge-X) has replaced Cowan with Benjamin Thomas, a former general partner with DC-based Novington Capital. It has also added $3 million to its coffers led by Intersouth Partners, bringing its total raised to date to $15 million.

Global edge computing is expected to hit $17.8 billion by 2026. The word edge, in the context of computers, means literal geographic distribution. Edge computing is computing thats done at or near the source of the data, instead of relying on the centralized public cloud at one of a dozen data centers to do all the work.

WRAL TechWires Chantal Allam had the chance to catch up with Thomas to discuss the companys recent developments. Heres what he had to say:

EDJXs technological foundation is sound and cutting edge; the original vision of the founders was spot on. We have built architecture from scratch explicitly for the edge. In fact, our founding chief technology officer, Delano Seymour, who was EDJXs original chief technology officer, has remained and is doing a super job. I feel lucky to have become CEO at such a critical time in the companys growth. Our focus now is commercialization of our products and services.

Right now, were onboarding developers to join us to build and run applications in fact, more are joining each week. EDJX does not require server management or the maintenance of underlying infrastructure. Businesses can onboard to our serverless EDJX Platform to start building their apps. Were at the cusp of a growth spurt, and I am excited for the companys future.

I have a track record of identifying opportunities early in various industries, jumping in as senior leadership, and creating meaningful results. I have done this in veterinary medicine and the travel industry. Ive also made a number of other active investments in technology and financial services.

My career started as an engineer at NASA/Lockheed Martin and later as a business analyst at Accenture, so I am very comfortable in the tech domain. I have also personally managed offshore teams and built over 100 software applications. An engineer by training, I completed my bachelors in Mechanical Engineering at Tulane University and a masters in Management from Stanford University.

When I learned about EDJX and the potential to lead the next wave of computing, I made an investment and joined as CEO. I started in a consulting capacity in April, and officially joined in July. The team is terrific, passionate, experienced, and motivated. Also, taking a business from concept to reality is invigorating for me as a serial entrepreneur.

Shakeup: Raleigh edge-computing startup EDJX founders out; new CEO; $3M cash infusion

Were so fortunate to have friends, close associates and believers in our technological vision. Intersouth Partners led this round, and they have been great partners. This latest raise is recognition of the groundbreaking work were doing, EDJX is gaining market momentum and accelerating the adoption of serverless edge computing, and the need to forge ahead to power next generation architecture for the edge.

As with the launch of any new platform, it takes substantial capital to gain broad traction. Were raising funds to keep driving our positive momentum, to keep innovating, building and acquiring customers who require compute located close to where they are.

We have an unfailing belief in EDJXs technology and use cases. Were not a $1 billion company, but we believe we have the pieces in place to become that, just not within that 12-18 month time frame. Our momentum is growing, and as I mentioned we are adding new users each week.

EDJX opened its global serverless platform for developers in July. Tell us about EDJXs decision to pursue this vertical, and the Smash Your Servers! campaign.

We see Smash Your Servers as encouragement for developers to build from scratch for the edge. EDJX brings compute, storage and sensor hosting services close to the developer where they can build and run applications without the need to manage servers or maintain underlying infrastructure. EDJX services include a serverless computing environment for applications currently built with C++ or Rust. More languages will be added soon.

There are a number of serverless platforms out there, but most of them are built using centralized architecture, using traditional cloud tools designed for cozy, protected data centers. A lot of the developers of these platforms just assume centralized is the answer and its what they know. The edge is a messy place, and you have to leave the data center to discover the edge.

In the future where you have hundreds of billions of devices, compute and storage will need to move out to the edge. The sheer amount of data and processing will require hyper-local compute and storage to process the data generated. The cloud wont be able to keep up, and micro-data centers at the far edge will be necessary.

This is where EDJX comes in with our operating system. At EDJX, we believe weve solved the problem with proprietary, decentralized architecture; a self-healing mesh network that is able to live on the edge; that allows enterprises to quickly and efficiently deploy to the edge at lower cost and complexity. Also, developers can connect their sensors directly to our EdjBlocks for virtual real time signal processing, something that you cant do, or would not want to do, in a data center.

For EDJX, our involvement in the PINN initiative has provided great exposure to the possibilities of the first unified open standard to support 5G wireless, edge computing, radar, lidar, enhanced GPS, and intelligent transportation systems. PINNs deliver a multitude of advanced edge sensors and computing capabilities.

We have been in close contact with many U.S. based vendors, who see our operating system as a vital component to their offering. These manufacturers recognize our multi-tenant edge mesh network is unique and critical to making it all work at the edge. Many of these deployments are part of public funding initiatives by the U.S. Department of Transportation, and they take time to materialize. We hope to see some of these come to fruition in 2023 as these important initiatives get funded.

Cubic has been a great partner for us EDJX. Were working with Cubic on a number of initiatives.

We continue to see a great deal of flux as 5G continues to roll out. For one, our IOMT edge platform has significant implications for IoT and advanced AI solutions at the far edge of the network combining to form a transformational end-to-end IoT solution from base to battlefield, solving immediate challenges for the military and civilian first responders.

Were still working with the Autonomy Institute Alpha Lab at Camp Mabry where developers build, test, and deploy next generation Internet of Things solutions providing the blueprint for public safety, military, and civilian use cases. The work is ongoing.

EDJX is growing. At present, we have around 40 team members. Like most internet companies, our team is wherever we find the best talent. Of course, were headquartered right here in Raleigh, with several key people based here. Our chief financial officer is based in Raleigh. We also have significant investors in North Carolina. I am based in Washington D.C., an easy drive to Raleigh.

We are also proud to note that we employ people from all over the world. Were in the midst of onboarding a team of developers and expanding our employee role in this way. Were also looking to hire a developer evangelist ideally based in Research Triangle Park, and we are looking for additional sales executives at this time.

Our priority is to carefully listen to feedback from developers as we grow our base. Were also onboarding customers that have some exciting use cases, like sub 5 millisecond sensor response rate. To my knowledge, only EDJX can accomplish this.

We also plan to launch new features at upcoming conferences, including ITS World Congress, and Edge Computing World, where we will be running a hackathon with lots of cool prizes. We want to be the easy-button solution for the edge.

Link:
Changing of the guard: Q&A with edge-computing startup EDJX's new CEO - WRAL TechWire