Private Clouds for SMBs: Building the Business Case - Bitpipe

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Cloud Technology: Which One is Right for Your Business. 4. Building a Private Cloud is Cost Effective and Affordable. 4.
Private Clouds for SMBs: Building the Business Case Contents

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1



Private vs. Public Cloud for SMBs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2



Private Clouds: Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3



Cloud Technology: Which One is Right for Your Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4



Building a Private Cloud is Cost Effective and Affordable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4



The Dell VMware Solution: A One-Stop Shop for a Virtualized Private Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5



Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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Introduction Every organization regardless of their specific vertical market has felt the impact of the ongoing economic downturn. This is especially true of small and midsized businesses with 100 to one thousand end users, who typically lack the IT and monetary resources of their enterprise counterparts. How often have we all heard and repeated the refrain, “We must do more with fewer resources?” Despite the dearth of funds and manpower, organizations must find ways to survive and thrive. To accomplish this they must find ways to simplify the provisioning and management of their local and remote applications and users. At the same time, corporations have a mandate to cut costs while improving network performance, reliability and security. Businesses must also identify ways to alleviate the burdens on their already overtaxed IT departments. In many instances, IT managers are tasked with deploying new devices and technologies even though they may lack the necessary training and expertise necessary for a smooth, trouble free migration. It all comes down to working smarter, not harder.

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One solution is to adopt a private cloud infrastructure. Constructing a private cloud infrastructure using proven technology from experienced vendors like Dell and VMware can address and solve many of the most pressing technology and business issues confronting users today. These include: • Ease of management • Scalability/the Private cloud services will scale as the business needs grow • Lower operational expenses • Lower upfront investment costs • Improved user productivity • Ubiquitous connectivity • Simplified local, remote and mobile PC management • Standardizing the environment • The ability to enable the company to better service customers and clients • Built-in security and data protection from behind the firewall • Ensuring that the organization remains competitive from both a business and technology standpoint Corporations considering a building a private cloud want to realize all of the above benefits while mitigating and lowering risks, attaining tangible Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) benefits and achieving a swift return on investment (ROI). Above all, C-level executives and IT departments contemplating a private cloud want to be able to master their networks and resources rather than have the networks master them.

Private vs. Public Cloud for SMBs Organizations can choose to deploy a private cloud infrastructure wherein they host their services on-premises from behind the safety of the corporate firewall. The advantage here is that the IT department always knows what’s going on with all aspects of the corporate data from bandwidth, CPU utilization to all-important security issues. Alternatively, organizations can opt for a public cloud deployment in which a third party like Amazon Web Services (a division of Amazon.com) hosts the services at a remote location. This latter scenario saves businesses money and manpower hours by utilizing the host provider’s equipment and management and alleviating onerous management tasks from overburdened IT departments. All that is needed is a Web browser and a high-speed Internet connection to connect to the host to access applications, services and data. However, the public cloud infrastructure is also a shared model in which corporate customers share bandwidth and space on the host’s servers. In a public cloud scenario there is always the worry that the resources may not be adequate in shared situation. There are also very real concerns surrounding data privacy, particularly if the public cloud provider’s datacenter is located in a foreign country, where the host government could potentially demand access to the corporate data.

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Organizations that are extremely concerned about security and privacy issues and those that desire more control over their data will feel more at ease with private cloud infrastructure in which the hosted services are delivered to the corporation’s end users from behind the safe confines of an internal corporate firewall. However, a private cloud is far more than just a hosted services model that exists behind the confines of a firewall. In an ideal private cloud deployment, the organization (after thorough analysis and careful planning and testing) constructs its own customizable, manageable stack of hardware, application, management and storage resources. The organization has the ability and flexibility to configure and scale the resources up or down as the needs of the business dictate. In addition to retaining and maintaining control of all computing and network resources, security and bandwidth SMBs and midmarket organizations can also contain the cost of their private cloud infrastructure by using readily available hardware from market leaders like Dell Computer. Any discussion of private and/or public cloud infrastructure must also include virtualization. While most virtualized desktop, server, storage and network environments are not yet part of a cloud infrastructure, just about every private and public cloud will feature a virtualized environment. Once again, SMBs and midmarket companies are well advised to choose a hardware vendor, like Dell, whose servers provide embedded virtualization support starting at the processor level. Dell also has a close alliance with server virtualization market leader VMware. The two companies offer a wide range of virtualization and private cloud products and services that specifically tailored for SMBs and midmarket firms. Organizations contemplating a private cloud also need to ensure that they feature very high (near fault tolerant) availability with at least “five nines” 99.999% uptime or better. The private cloud should also be able to scale dynamically to accommodate the needs and demands of the users. And unlike most existing, traditional datacenters, the private cloud model should also incorporate a high degree of user-based resource provisioning. Ideally, the IT department should also be able to track resource usage in the private cloud by user, department or groups of users working on specific projects, for chargeback purposes. Private clouds will also make extensive use of business intelligence and business process automation to guarantee that resources are available to the users on demand.

Private Clouds: Advantages The biggest advantage of a private cloud infrastructure is that your organization keeps control of its corporate assets and can safeguard and preserve its privacy and security. Your organization is in command of its own destiny. That can be a double-edged sword. Before committing to build a private cloud model the organization must do a thorough assessment of its current infrastructure, its budget and the expertise and preparedness of its IT department. Is your firm ready to assume the responsibility for such a large burden from both a technical and ongoing operational standpoint? Only you can answer that. Remember that the private cloud should be highly reliable and highly available — at least 99.999% uptime with built-in redundancy and failover capabilities. Many organizations currently struggle to maintain 99.9% uptime and reliability which is the equivalent of 8.76 hours of per server, per annum downtime. When your

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PowerEdge C1100

private cloud is down for any length of time, your end users (and anyone else who has access to the cloud) will be unable to access resources.

is a high-memory (up to 144GB), power-efficient, cluster-optimized compute node server. It features a 2-socket, 4 or 6 cores per processor to provide the densest memory in a 1U form factor.

A recent survey of 250 SMB, midmarket and enterprise organizations worldwide by market research firm Information Technology Intelligence Consulting (ITIC), a Boston-based research and consulting firm found that companies are very clear on the technology benefits they hope to achieve by deploying a private cloud infrastructure. They include: ease of management (45 percent); the ability to provide better services to end users, customers and business partners (40 percent); ubiquitous connectivity and anywhere access (40 percent); lower operational expenses (39 percent); scalability as the business needs grow (38 percent) and lower upfront investment costs (36 percent).

PowerEdge C2100 Rack Server features high-performance data analytics, cloud compute platform and cloud storage server. It delivers up to 18 DDR3 memory slots in a 2U form factor for a maximum of 144GB. Dell designed the PowerEdge C2100 to maximize space, power and cost efficiency in data centers where memory and storage density are critical: MapReduce, Web analytics, database and cloud computing.

Cloud Technology: Which One is Right for Your Business There are three basic types of cloud computing although the first two are the most prevalent. They are: • Software as a Service (SaaS) which uses the Web to deliver software applications to the customer. Examples of this are Salesforce.com, which has one of the most popular, widely deployed, and the earliest cloud-based CRM application and Google Apps, which is experiencing solid growth. Google Apps comes in three editions — Standard, Education and Premier (the first two are free). It provides consumers and corporations with customizable versions of the company’s applications like Google Mail, Google Docs and Calendar. • Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings; examples of this include the above-mentioned Amazon Web Services and Dell’s new Dell Cloud solution for Web applications which has been in beta since April. The new Dell PaaS solution aims to solve some of the most common and potentially serious impediments to a cloud deployment including, under provisioning and unpredictable traffic. The Dell Cloud for Web applications incorporates Dell cloud-optimized servers and services with fully integrated Web application cloud software from Joyent. The costs are based on a per usage model. This gives customers the flexibility to rent fewer or more resources depending on their business needs. • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is exactly what its name implies: the entire infrastructure becomes an on-demand, pay-as-you-go, multi-tiered hosted cloud model and delivery mechanism. One notable example of this is VMware, which has its own private cloud architecture that is built on top of its VMware vSphere. VMware’s specific IaaS offering is delivered via vCloud Express.

Building a Private Cloud is Cost Effective and Affordable Capital expenditure costs are a major factor for any company that is considering a private cloud deployment. And there’s good news on this front. In addition to retaining and maintaining control of all computing and network resources, security and bandwidth SMBs and midmarket organizations can also contain the cost of their private cloud infrastructure by using readily available hardware and virtualization solutions from market leaders like Dell and VMware. Private cloud deployments can use standard, commodity hardware and virtualization offerings and Dell and VMware have solutions to fit every budget.

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PowerEdge C6100 is a high-density, four-node cloud and cluster optimized shared infrastructure server. It incorporates four, 2-socket server nodes in a 2U rack chassis. It is specifically designed to be a hyper-scaleinspired building block for high-performance cluster computing (HPCC), Web 2.0 environments and cloud builders. The Shared infrastructure uses less floor space, power and cooling than traditional models. And the Dell C6100 provides users with the added advantage of servicing and swapping out individual nodes as needed to increase uptime by up to 75%.

Because the Dell and VMware solutions are based on industry standards (including Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices processors), they offer a high degree of integration and interoperability with existing network environments. That also means that they can be installed and deployed with minimal disruption to the legacy environment and no need for specialized training or certification. This is a boon for SMBs and midmarket firms with limited IT resources.

The Dell VMware Solution: A One-Stop Shop for a Virtualized Private Cloud Both public and private clouds should be flexible and agile: the resources should be available on demand and should be able to scale up or scale back as the businesses’ needs dictate. The combination of Dell server and storage hardware used in conjunction with VMware’s leading edge virtualization solutions can offer SMBs and midmarket companies a “one-stop shop” as they construct their private clouds. Dell has steadily bolstered its server and storage offerings in recent months in anticipation of the growing wave of private cloud deployments. In March, Dell introduced a suite of hardware, software and services that are optimized to support cloud computing infrastructures. The cynosure of the Dell cloud offerings are the latest Dell PowerEdge C-series servers, which were specifically designed to provide businesses with affordable TCO; they also deliver high performance computing with energy efficient consumption. To make the transition to the private cloud as efficient, seamless and trouble-free as possible, all of the latest Dell integrated cloud infrastructure offerings are pretested, preassembled and include fully supported hardware, software and services. Dell’s intent is to provide a turnkey cloud solution that takes the uncertainty and guesswork out of a cloud deployment. This allows organizations to realize a faster return on investment and avoid costly mistakes. All of the Dell PowerEdge C Servers are specially designed to appeal to users who require high performance and low power consumption. This includes public and private cloud providers; corporations that are constructing their own private clouds to deliver on-demand application services for internal use; high performance computing (HPC) environments (like government, defense, aerospace and engineering); social networking sites like Facebook; Web 2.0 deployments and serious gaming users. The Dell PowerEdge C Servers — which include the C1100, the C2100 and the C6100 — also leverage the extensive experience of Dell’s Data Center Solutions Division. Dell’s DCSD has worked closely with organizations like Facebook and Microsoft to build custom servers for their internal online operations. In March at the same time it announced the new PowerEdge server models, Dell also strengthened its cloud portfolio with the introduction of integrated solution services designed to help customers deploy, design, manage and maintain dedicated cloud and a new Cloud Partner Program. The latter enables Dell to work closely with third party ISVs to offer customers easy-to-buy and -deploy cloud solutions and blueprints that are optimized for Dell hardware solutions.

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Dell’s cloud-optimized server and storage products operate synergistically with virtualization market leader VMware’s full suite of virtual private cloud solutions. The VMware vSphere solution ensures the security and compliance the business demands by deploying a private cloud infrastructure inside the firewall. VMware vSphere 4.1 features: • Resource pooling and dynamic resource allocation • Centralized management and automation • A self-service portal for end users VMware’s vSphere private cloud offerings are designed to enable IT department to transform themselves into an efficient, agile and user-friendly internal service provider. Dell and VMware have a strong, long standing technology and business partnership. Combining VMware’s industry leading virtualization technology with Dell’s industry standard PowerEdge servers, storage and services gives customers access to a fully integrated, flexible, manageable, scalable, cost effective and energy efficient private cloud infrastructure. The tightly integrated services simplify deployment for IT departments, providing them with agility while ensuring security and preserving their freedom to choose and construct the private cloud solution that best suits the business’ needs. VMware’s vSphere offerings also target SMBs. The products include: • VMware vSphere for SMBs includes two kits. They are the vSphere Essentials and vSphere Essentials Plus. Both feature cost effective price points for SMBs that want all of the high performance and data protection capabilities of their enterprise counterparts. • VMware vSphere Standard and Dell servers, storage & services provide an entry solution for basic consolidation of applications to slash hardware costs while accelerating application deployment. VMware vSphere Standard delivers a managed virtualization environment for test labs, preproduction servers, and remote offices. • VMware vSphere Advanced provides a strategic consolidation solution that protects all applications against planned and unplanned downtime to provide superior application availability. VMware vSphere Advanced combines the performance and reliability of the market leading hypervisor with critical features for maintaining a high degree of uptime for private cloud-based applications. Together, Dell and VMware allow organizations to quickly, efficiently and affordably transition their legacy infrastructures to a high performance private cloud infrastructure minus the complexity usually associated with new technology upgrades. The Dell VMware partnership establishes a “one-stop shop” for companies looking to take advantage of the benefits of virtualization that encompasses an end-to-end solution from the desktop to the data center as a foundation for cloud computing. The combination of Dell and VMware in a private cloud infrastructure lowers management costs and increases business agility. The IaaS solution incorporates policy-driven management that automates routine operational tasks — dramatically shaving deployment time and reducing the number of dedicated administrators needed to deploy and maintain the private cloud. The result is greater efficiencies and economies of scale and accelerated return on investment (ROI).

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Conclusions SMBs and SMEs that deploy Dell/VMware products can build scalable, secure and cost effective private clouds that deliver optimal performance, reliability and security. The combination of Dell PowerEdge C server hardware, private cloud offerings and services and VMware vSphere virtualization and cloud-optimized technology will enable SMBs and midmarket SMEs to reduce their infrastructure and management costs and allow them to build flexible, scalable and secure private clouds that will expand according to the business needs. Organizations will be able to virtualize all of their assets in the IT infrastructure and deliver IT as a Service through policy-driven management that automates routine operational tasks and leads to efficiency and savings across the business. Most importantly, SMBs and midmarket SMEs that use the Dell and VMware solutions for their private cloud deployments are assured of leading edge, industry standard products, services and after-market technical service and support that will enable their businesses to secure, manage and maintain a private cloud infrastructure that delivers immediate TCO cost benefits and accelerates ROI.

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