By
November 16, 2020
“Daddy, what are clouds made of?”
“Linux servers, mostly.”
The continued rise of hybrid cloud technology to allow for greater workflow flexibility for enterprises as costs and needs change, also means increased reliance on local network connectivity – but is New Zealand ready for it?
Hybrid cloud, or the ability to move workflow between private and public servers as needs and costs change, offers several benefits for a mobile workforce which is evolving everything from the gig economy to telecommuting.
To understand the hybrid cloud better, it’s best to look at what is meant by private and public cloud.
Public Cloud
Public cloud is access to third-party offsite servers provided by vendors such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, often using co-located facilities – which helps overcome speed and efficiency issues.
A feature of the public cloud is bare-metal servers that are an alternative to hardware but offer the hardware server experience – except it’s a service in the cloud (you control the configuration, and the vendor does the maintenance).
Essentially this means that every computer in your office is nothing more than a virtual machine – a web-based console that accesses your software tools over the Internet.
Private Cloud
A private cloud hosting solution is the enterprise’s own intranet or hosted data centre which is protected by the company’s own security measures.
Chorus product manager – business connectivity, Alexandru Tudor says the benefits of a hybrid cloud are well known, in that a good strategy will save time and money, improve efficiency and cater to the changing way we work and play. It is also a way of achieving some measure of business continuity, but there are fishhooks.
Latency
While the rise of the hybrid cloud is also in some ways fuelled by the ever-growing demand for greater capacity as more and more applications and tools become Internet reliant – e.g. from PABX (Voice over Internet Protocol) to IoT – there are issues, such as network latency.
“The problem is one of differing network configuration between public and private servers and the requirement for constant uptime. One way to avoid connectivity problems is by planning a network configuration that allows for optimum use of your resources.”
Supply
Another issue is one of broadband supply, specifically: proximity and continuity.
The further away you are from the servers, the greater the risk of latency and interruption of supply e.g. a flood in Australia could, like a power cut, leave staff twiddling their thumbs.
The closer your public services e.g. Amazon Web Servers, the better your speed and security from interruption.
In recognition of the above, Chorus recently partnered with Nlyte (a leading computing infrastructure management software solutions provider) to start transforming the company’s 600 telephone exchanges throughout New Zealand into Chorus EdgeCentres, supported by a brand-new data centre product.
“Equipped with a world class power supply, cooling, space and security to host cloud servers, Chorus has provided the means for business broadband clients of RSPs to eliminate proximity issues and even (almost) continuity of supply.
“Chorus is also able to offer a range of network features including transparent VLAN, high priority bandwidth and point-to-point, meaning business grade broadband on the Chorus network is the most reliable, consistent and secure broadband in New Zealand – and it’s certainly up to the task when it comes to the hybrid cloud,” Tudor says.
Source: Search Cloud Computing