Network Connectivity and Cloud Convergence - Windstream Business [PDF]

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offers network services as well as data center and cloud solutions. ... 3. TECH ARTICLE. Network Connectivity and Cloud Convergence: How can your business ...
TECH ARTICLE

Network Connectivity and Cloud Convergence: How can your business benefit? Having a highly ava ila ble, re dunda nt a nd s e cure IT net wo r k inf r a s tr u c ture ha s b e c ome m o re challenging than ever. Providing production-level compute and storage capabilities to suppor t the ever-growing demand for data and information requires a great deal of capacit y and bandwidth. A s m o re bu sine s s e s c on side r m oving into the clou d, they ne e d c ompu ting a nd dat a s to r age ser vice providers they can count on to deliver the utmost in availabilit y, securit y and value. And considering the cloud’s dependency on the network as a central enabler of its capabilities, it’s no wonder many businesses are also discovering the benefits of using a single -source provider that of fers network ser vices as well as data center and cloud solutions.

The Network: Your Connection to the Cloud The consumerization of IT services is driving businesses to embrace and enable the mobile and BYOD workforce. With real-time access to

Considering the cloud’s

systems and information, the nexus of change

dependency on the

converges on the network, which becomes the

network as a central

critical link between data center applications and storage, public or private clouds and communications/network connectivity.

enabler of its capabilities, it’s no wonder many

Being able to use the network as a ubiquitous

businesses are discovering

backbone to deliver IT services from the cloud

the benefits of using a

is as critical as ensuring the electricity is available when flipping on the light switch. Monitoring

single-source provider.

networks, servers and storage appliances as well as end-user computing endpoints, after deploying cloud-based apps, is essential to ensure that infrastructures can scale with demand.

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TECH ARTICLE Network Connectivity and Cloud Convergence: How can your business benefit?

Benefits of a Single Point of Contact

business communication challenge, you

Many data center and cloud providers market their

get a truly consultative and holistic approach.

services under the guise of having a “single point of

You gain access to experts who can assess

contact.” However, that is generally not the reality.

your environment and customize a solution

Consider this question — Do you truly have a single

that meets the unique needs of your business,

point of contact when your cloud and data center

regardless of which type of technology

resources are “technically operational” per the

being deployed.

service provider, but the customer’s connectivity to their cloud is down? The true single point of contact that comes with choosing a partner who can provide you with cloud and data center services as well as network services comes with several additional benefits described below.

- S implified IT Management

- E nd-to-End Quality of Service (QoS) Enlisting the services of a single vendor for cloud and network services will ensure that you get better quality of service at every point, given the control your provider has over the network. Network service providers have the ability to offer high availability with different

Managing multiple vendors and multiple

end-to-end QoS levels and to price different

environments — all with different pricing

tiers of service that cover both cloud and

schemes, performance parameters and

traditional network services.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) — adds a tremendous management burden to enterprise IT. Par tnering with one vendor for all your communications needs allows for greater efficiency, accountability and control.

- I mpartial Consultations

- S ecurity and Reliability Two top concerns for organizations planning a move to the cloud are having a reliable and secure network and a finding a provider that deals with data in a secure and trusted way. Network service providers are experts at managing large-scale secure infrastructures and

Obviously, a data center and cloud provider

dealing with personal and business-sensitive

will sell you the benefits of colocation, managed

data in a confidential way. But not all cloud

network services, data center outsourcing

providers are created equal. While commodity

and cloud solutions. Equipment manufacturers

public clouds are designed to offer simple

are happy to highlight the latest and greatest

infrastructure services such as compute and

systems they have to offer. And of course all

storage as a service via the Internet, you often

of these solutions inherently depend on the

have to sacrifice service, support, security and

networks they run on. By teaming up with

performance for affordability. Enterprise-class

a provider who offers solutions to every

clouds, on the other hand, are designed to meet or exceed the security, performance and business SLAs of the infrastructures they replace.

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TECH ARTICLE Network Connectivity and Cloud Convergence: How can your business benefit?

- L ocal Insight With no single, over-arching regulatory regime for privacy and data protection, it is usually the cloud provider’s responsibility to deal with legislation and regulations at the local level. Enterprise-class cloud providers typically have strong footprints in locally regulated markets, and their

Choosing the Right Single-Source Provider Organizations in need of highly secure, flexible and customized solutions should seek a single-source communications provider like Windstream that offers:

- O nline Data Replication and Backups — This allows you to easily replicate databases

experience in dealing with regulations

and virtual machines (VMs), and utilize Disaster

related to privacy and data protection

Recovery as a Service (DraaS) solutions for

provides them the flexibility to adapt

data recovery and business continuity.

to local legislation.

- D istributed Application Computing — Vertically integrated

Geographically distributed compute clusters

telecommunications

of bandwidth for email servers and storage

and data center providers

and/or business analytics processing. Look

have the ability to operate across business boundaries, delivering seamless and high-quality solutions through a single point of contact.

- V isibility

linked across a private network allow plenty

for a provider who can manage the compute workloads with global load balancing services, ensuring server uptime and availability for production workloads and spikes.

- Voice and Data Communications — The best integrated solutions providers will have the ability to customize a Unified Communications offering for hosted voice, data and networking connectivity across a private network.

Cloud computing is defined as “shared resources allowing multiple end users to access ser ver, storage and network connectivity across the Internet.” For those organizations seeking assurance of end-to-end visibility across their IT infrastructure, (Internet) network connectivity becomes the critical link, creating both business process and operational delivery convergence occurring on the network.

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TECH ARTICLE Network Connectivity and Cloud Convergence: How can your business benefit?

- M anaged and Monitored Solutions —

Vertically integrated communications and data

Partner with a company that can ensure your

center service providers like Windstream have the

Quality of Service (QoS) connectivity is

ability to operate across business boundaries,

monitored and managed by network and

delivering seamless and high-quality solutions

data center Network Operations Centers

through a single point of contact. Customers

(NOCs) to provide 24 x 7 monitoring and

who implement IT as a Service (ITaaS) solutions

management of your critical IT infrastructure.

can outsource monitoring and management of

This includes managing your firewall, network

their entire IT infrastructure while consolidating

routers, server OS patch management

vendors and transitioning spend from CAPEX

and database administration support.

to OPEX.

Conclusion Single-source communications providers are uniquely positioned to offer what other providers perhaps cannot. That includes vision, control and accountability across the IT environment — star ting at the network and supporting voice, data and computing from their data centers in a secure, highly reliable and flexible package. Windstream offers high-quality network connectivity from customer sites straight into their data center s coupled with firewall management and high availabilit y load balancing for applications, databases, web and related server/storage needs. And with connectivity flexible enough to handle spikes in demand, customers benefit from the consistent uptime and availability of their resources housed in Windstream’s Enterprise-class Data Centers.

4 12649 | 08.13 | © 2013 Windstream Corporation