Cloud Vs Traditional Data Centres

One of our infrastructure engineers explains how organisations with remote field workforces can take advantage of the cloud for a saving of up to 50% in data centre costs.

Which is Better to Empower Remote Field Workforces?

Many of our customers with remote field workforces – such as utilities, construction, public sector and healthcare – tell us that they are now finding traditional infrastructure restrictive and too expensive for their needs. Naturally, they’re wondering how they can modernise and upgrade their technology and infrastructure environments to give them that edge over their competitors.

What if there was a more efficient way of working than with on-premise servers or private cloud which provides value for money and can scale to fit your business needs?

Why Do Companies Still Use Traditional Data Centres?

We know from experience that companies use physical infrastructure designed to run with 99.999% uptime in a high availability state. This is done by servers running constantly – even when they aren’t needed!

But, as I like to explain to my clients, this is just like leaving your central heating on all of the time – it isn’t the most cost-efficient way of running your business. The expenses of the environment don’t scale to what is actually being used. It means that infrastructure costs are much higher than they need to be.

So what’s an alternative to expensive, inflexible private cloud?

Let’s consider something else.

Something that has all of the inherent high availability and security characteristics that any serious data centre could possibly offer, but that is:

• Highly scalable to reflect actual business needs
• Designed to avoid accruing running costs when it’s not being used
• A true pay as you use environment for more accurate, money-saving billing

Why pay for £250k of physical servers, instead of cost-effectively renting secure space that already exists?

The great news is that this alternative exists and it’s not a pipedream!

Our team of experts recently created this environment for one of our clients, connecting their field workforce, subcontractors and business applications to public cloud data services (like AWS and Azure), instead of the traditional data centre services they had. Working with one company in the utilities industry, we saw an amazing cost saving of around 50% from their previous data centre expenses.

How does this cloud environment work?

The environment is very cleverly designed so it adapts to changes in demand. With each login, only the exact amount of servers or infrastructure needed are “spun up” and paid for.

When the first operative, engineer or surveyor begins their shift and logs on to the system, it triggers a dynamic public cloud environment to start up. This gives each field operative their data, worksheets, forms, and everything else they need to do their job.

As more subscribers log in, the environment keeps shifting up a gear to deal with peaks in demand, and then gradually scales itself down until the last employee logs off and goes home. If there are no subscribers, or no data or infrastructure is needed, it switches itself off so that no costs are accrued.

The key point here is that they only pay for what they use – not for what they might need at peak times.

What Are the Benefits of Cloud?

Our clients using these kinds of environments are able to provide new ways of working that will lead to better services for their customers.

Tailored cloud solutions can provide a number of major benefits including:

• Significant reduction in high data centre costs
• A dynamic and flexible environment so that IT resources are spun up as required and only paid for during use
• Smart billing and environment rightsizing services to ensure the best value for money
• Security, DR and BC improvements made for enhanced security for the whole system
• Effortless migration for key systems such as SAP

About Cybit & How We Can Help You

We’re a Microsoft Gold Partner and Advanced AWS Consulting Partner who can help to fix your existing issues and fulfil your goals. Boost productivity and efficiency using Business Applications, turn data into decisions that propel your business forward with Data & Analytics, and modernise your business by adopting a powerful Cloud Infrastructure. To transform your business into a modern workplace, we can architect and carry out your full intelligent IT transformation. Our friendly, specialist teams of dedicated experts are on hand to tailor your systems to the way your business works to empower your staff. We use a unique blend of consulting, results-focused solution architecture, and proactive support so you gain the most value from your systems now and in the future. We are a nationally recognised IT solution provider that provides world-class technologies and specialist IT services to transform your business and drive incredible results.