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.
