Tag Archives: virtualization

Migrating Colocation to the Cloud

  By VAZATA Admin | October 31, 2012 - 9:13 am | ,
Leave a comment

Contributed by Michael Ray, Solutions Architect at VAZATA. 

In today’s dynamic, new world of technology, there are buzz words such as Colocation, Cloud Computing and Virtualization replete throughout the data center industry.  Colocation has grown significantly the past few years, but accessing the Cloud and the hosting of data through Virtualization has become even more prevalent. Compared to a strict colocation solution, virtualization and cloud computing provide even more redundancy and reliability with even greater savings.

While many companies are coming up to speed on cloud computing and utilizing managed hosting providers with “cloud type” solutions, the vast majority of business’s have yet to venture into the world of cloud computing.

The most significant reason that most companies have not made the switch is that they simply don’t have a path from the traditional colocation model to the cloud model. The understanding of how to migrate costly ‘physical’ infrastructure to a more manageable ‘virtual’ infrastructure just isn’t there.

As a result, the VAZATA Cabinet was born.  The VAZATA Cabinet comes with a 42U cabinet, power, 100MB of Bandwidth, 500GB of free storage and a virtual server. This cabinet allows a customer to collocate their existing physical hardware in one of VAZATA’s  Tier 3, FISMA compliant data centers, and have a sizeable amount of “cloud infrastructure” to use.

A customer might decide to use the included storage as some sort of a BU or DR initiative.  Or, use the virtual server in a test/development environment.  By mirroring an outdated server, a customer is prepared should the old one fail and have a virtual server waiting in the wings to replace it with minimum down time.  As additional cloud resources are available, they can easily be added to the existing private network.

The VAZATA Cabinet provides the ultimate flexibility in hosting a company’s mission critical application and allows VAZATA to be a true technology partner.

Because every business is different and technology needs so diverse, VAZATA’s certified technicians are on hand to help plan, design and support the transition and migration process, freeing customers to take care of  running their business.

VAZATA is committed to scalable solution that will help customers “Take Colo to the Cloud.” Contact us to learn more:  http://vazata.com/Home

Virtualization of your Data Center for Cloud Hosting

  By VAZATA Admin | April 10, 2012 - 11:11 am |
Leave a comment
VAZATA's offers virtualized data centers and cloud hosting solutions.

VAZATA's offers virtualized data centers and cloud hosting solutions.Contributed by Michael Ray, Solutions Architect for VAZATA.

As you construct the plans for your cloud environment, perhaps the most important issue on your checklist should be your ‘data center server virtualization’. Here’s a helpful list to hit the high points:

Checklist for building a data center for cloud hosting

Security is not the only aspect to be considered as you build a data center for cloud hosting. Important, yes, but setting up your data center server is an important, complex task. Consider these key points:

• Performance
• Data Center Server Virtualization
• Security
• Interoperability

Let’s look at each one a little closer.

Security – Your secure data is a gold mine, and with hackers so prevalent these days, preventing access to your data is a major concern. Because you should not let other customers on the cloud, a cloud authentication service is a reliable way to better insure security. It prevents the possibility of other cloud sub-sites getting hacked if one of them gets compromised. Also, it’s imperative that you’re sure only the right user is accessing resources in case there are multiple clouds. Simply put, you must be sure that if any sub-site gets compromised, it will not impact the other sub-sites/sites in the cloud.

Data Center Server Virtualization – There are plenty of data center server virtualization platforms with VMware being one of the most preferred custom virtualization platforms because it allows multiple operating systems, termed guests, to run concurrently on a host computer. Data center performance monitoring is important and server management can be greatly simplified with the help of virtualization. Disaster recovery planning is enhanced with virtualization in data center operations.

Interoperability – Part of your security process should include making sure your cloud hosting vendor sends out alerts for risk and fidelity. If you can consolidate monitoring, and management systems, then less difference exists between the cloud environment and the internal IT infrastructural set-up, ensuring greater levels of interoperability. Try to analyze the services that can be used commonly in both your cloud and network environment. It is up to you to ensure the compatibility of resources with those provided by the cloud, keeping them available to your users at all times.

Performance – Performance is the ultimate benchmark for cloud hosting and you must maintain the optimal performance levels to reduce any significant latencies that may appear when users try to carry out tasks that require extensive resources. It’s important to know how much bandwidth your cloud vendor provides, what their general access time is, as well as how regional failures are handled. The flexibility offered with the cloud environment is extensive, and developing the most sustainable business model while building your data center for cloud hosting will come together more smoothly keeping these key points in mind each step of the way.

Could Personal Cloud Really Replace the PC?

  By VAZATA Admin | April 2, 2012 - 4:38 pm |
Leave a comment
Availability and Uptime in a Data Center

Contributed by: Michael Ray, Solutions Architect for VAZATA

According to industry experts, in the near future, devices themselves will become less important, and a combination of devices, including the PC, will be one of many options. No one device will be the primary driver, but rather the personal cloud will be the star in that role. The focus will be on access to the cloud and the content stored or shared on the cloud.

Megatrend No. 1: Consumerization

  • Users are more technologically-savvy with a variety of expectations of technology.
  • The internet and social media have enabled users to venture out.
  • The rise of powerful mobile devices is a game changer for users.
  • Users have become more creative and inventive.
  • Through the democratization of technology, users of all types and status within organizations can now have access to similar technology.

Megatrend No. 2: Virtualization

Virtualization has improved flexibility and increased the options for how IT organizations can implement client environments.

Megatrend No. 3: “App-ification”

Applications are designed, delivered and consumed by users in multiple ways. This change has a dramatic impact on the entire market.

Megatrend No. 4: The Self-Service Cloud

The advent of the cloud for servicing individual users opens a whole new level of opportunity. Every user can now have scalable and nearly infinite resources for whatever they need.

Megatrend No. 5: The Mobility Shift
Today, mobile devices combined with the cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and any tradeoffs are outweighed in the minds of the user by the convenience and flexibility provided by the mobile devices.

These megatrends are creating a new style of personal computing that frees individuals to use computing in creative new ways to enhance many areas of their work and personal lives. By 2014, who can say for sure? But, the indicators are very strong that the impact of the cloud will be felt at home, work and around the world.

Source: www.gartner.com