Although each enterprise operating in today’s global economy is unique, practically all enterprise IT executives have three common objectives:
increase productivity
operate more efficiently
reduce costs
To help achieve these objectives, more and more IT executives are shifting their enterprise applications and services to the cloud.
Incorporating the cloud as a central component of the IT infrastructure is one of two critical steps necessary to achieve these objectives. Enterprises also need to give careful consideration to the underlying network that connects to these cloud applications.
Eliminate Worries about Network Reliability
The rapid adoption by enterprises of cloud-based applications and services has led Frost & Sullivan to predict that Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) revenues in 2015 will exceed traditional data center services revenues. In the firm’s 2014 Cloud Survey, 54 percent of the survey respondents said they have not moved their enterprises to the cloud because they question the reliability of the network.
So, whether they already have shifted to cloud computing or not, enterprise IT executives are taking a close look at the networks that connect the various pieces of their entire IT infrastructures.
Certainly the public Internet can deliver cloud connectivity, but savvy IT executives do not want to entrust their mission-critical business operations to this best-effort network. IT executives know the public Internet cannot guarantee data delivery, quality of service or service priorities, nor can it provide service-level agreements (SLAs). Not surprisingly, leading IT executives insist on a more effective, reliable and secure cloud-networking solution for their organizations.
The Cloud is Only as Good as the Network that Supports It
Many IT executives are opting for a private network-enabled cloud solution. These executives know that not all networks–not even all private networks–provide equivalent levels of quality and performance. Realizing their enterprise cloud is only as good as the network that supports, leading IT executives are looking to both cloud service providers (CSPs) and network-service providers for private network solutions that are specifically designed to deliver application reliability, security and performance.
For their part, many CSPs are addressing IT executives’ concerns about reliability and security by offering core or optional security elements to their cloud services. In addition, more and more CSPs are teaming with network service providers in “network-enabled cloud” partnerships designed to ensure end-to-end security and application performance for enterprise clients. As a result, either by choosing the right network-service provider for cloud connectivity or by working with a CSP that already has a partnership with a strong network-service provider, enterprises can achieve the benefits of the cloud while eliminating associated reliability and security concerns.
The On-Demand Private Network Matches the On-Demand Cloud
A cloud-oriented private network, which consists of Ethernet and MPLS IP-VPNs and backed by strong SLAs, delivers the carrier-grade, cost-effective performance IT executives demand for their mission-critical enterprise applications and services. Also sufficiently flexible to adapt to the unique requirements of individual enterprise organizations and thereby ensure each can achieve its three principal cloud-computing objectives, a cloud-oriented private network offers:
burstable, on-demand scalability for each enterprise location – to ensure adequate bandwidth at all times, billing based on actual usage of capacity and elimination of the costs, both operationally and financially, of idle network capacity
automated, accelerated provisioning of new connections and rapid turn-ups of new services – to ensure enhanced enterprise productivity and operating efficiency, as well as a stronger competitive position in the marketplace
geographic reach from any enterprise location to any desired end point in the world – to ensure the network goes wherever the enterprise goes
carrier-grade reliability and performance – to ensure that enterprise data is always secure and always gets the most direct route possible, with the fewest number of hops, the lowest-possible latency and the maximum available bandwidth, between end points and the cloud
all these capabilities for a price that does not constrain the CapEx and OpEx budgets – to ensure that cloud computing, in fact, helps reduce enterprise costs
The Right Private Network Delivers on the Promise of Cloud Computing
Although the concept of the cloud often gets the lion’s share of attention, leading IT executives know that only by pairing that concept with the right network connectivity can they achieve the promised benefits of cloud computing. Either directly or in partnership with a cloud provider, the right network-service provider delivers high-performance, reliable and secure access to the cloud–the kind of access that enables IT executives to achieve their cloud objectives.
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