The cloud: what can you really do with it?

That an organization can scale up or down faster, become more future-proof and that its data is more secure, among other things, is well known by now. Yet for many organizations, these benefits remain somewhat abstract. Not everyone knows, for example, that extra computer capacity can also be hired on a project basis or even for a few hours for extra storage or computing power. When your peak demand is over, you can just as easily switch back to your own server park.

Are you ready to lead the way?

Would you like to know more about the possibilities of Provide’s managed cloud? Together with one of our cloud specialists, we will map out the needs of your organization.

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How Airbnb, Uber and Netflix seized power with cloud technology

To truly convince you of the utility and potential of the cloud once and for all, three words are in fact enough: Airbnb, Uber and Netflix. These, and a whole host of other relative newcomers and start-ups, have been able to harness the full potential of cloud technology like no other, thereby turning their respective markets on their heads in a short period of time. Moreover, just like a number of so-called fintech companies, until recently these were companies outside the sector. This marks the end of an era in which ICT was primarily a supporting factor and certainly not a determining factor in the success and growth of organizations.

More innovation by outsourcing

In order to deal with such competition from non-traditional quarters in addition to the already fierce traditional competition, more and more companies are still opting to move to the cloud. And rightly so. Fortunately, as a company or organization you do not have to know everything about the cloud like Uber, Airbnb and Netflix. You can confidently leave the migration, management, optimization, further development, maintenance and support of your cloud environment to an experienced cloud service provider such as Provide. By fully or partially outsourcing your IT environment to us, your IT staff will have their hands free for matters that have been left behind and for strategic matters, such as innovation. In order to gain a competitive edge, for example.

A migration is only the beginning

The number of standard and user-friendly tools and platforms for making a difference in the cloud is increasing daily. You are never alone when it comes to making these kinds of follow-up choices and the concrete use of all those functionalities. Of course, you only want to outsource your IT environment to a party that has been at the center of developments for decades and for whom the cloud and internet hold no secrets. A party that also has sufficient size with a view to continuity. Provide is such a party.

Future-proof

Because of our broad and deep knowledge and experience, we also see developments such as Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain technology and Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality coming at us and at you in full force. By working with you to identify the potential of these technologies for your business operations and implementing them where necessary, we immediately make your IT environment ready for the future, step by step.

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Reference > BOAL

BOAL ensures continuity by outsourcing its IT

Public, private, hybrid and multicloud

Despite the popularity of the cloud, many companies and organizations are still hesitant. For example, there may be concerns regarding compliance and security. At least as often, losing control plays a role in “cloudophobia. We can take that fear away immediately. Migrations to the cloud almost always take place in phases, with the implementation of MS 365 being the first step in most cases. Usually, this is quickly followed by more applications that are either ‘relocated’ or deployed in their current form, or unlocked, in a private cloud or installed on a server on location.

Combination

Such a combination of on-premise infrastructure and cloud services with automated configuration and coordination between the various platforms is called a hybrid or multicloud. In this construction, Provide can provide the private and public cloud services, including the links to SaaS solutions and manage them. The public cloud services (hardware) can be purchased from providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure.

Exclusive right of use

In a private cloud, your organization has the exclusive right to use the reserved computing capacity and work securely in a private domain. The private cloud can be hosted by an independent local service provider, such as Provide, or it can be physically located in your own on-premises data center. Finally, for optimal business management, it can be convenient to house certain processes in a public cloud and others in a private cloud.

It can also be advantageous to use multiple cloud providers simultaneously. For example, when you build software yourself and want to use a PaaS platform (Platform as a Service), without having to worry about infrastructure and operating systems. In such cases we speak of a multi-cloud solution.

Cloud Strategy

Although moving a central server infrastructure on-premise to the cloud in one step is quite possible, you can also choose to do this in several steps. We have already transferred many customers to a multi-cloud environment via a hybrid construction, where we take over the operational management from the customer and the customer starts to operate in the role of director. Before that happens, we first perform a cloud readiness assessment.

Roadmap

With a cloud readiness assessment, we map out your entire IT and application landscape. This gives us a complete overview of which IT resources are used where in your organization. Next, our specialists will advise you which cloud and infrastructure services are the best choice for the various software tools and IT processes. Ideally, the final cloud transition follows the following steps:

1.

We usually start by defining the cloud strategy: what should continue to run locally and what can be migrated to a private and/or public cloud? We translate the resulting findings into a roadmap combined with a cloud architecture for the short, medium and long term.

2.

Next, we map out the costs and benefits of the transition to the cloud and the impact of the transition on the internal IT function. This is the so-called integrated business case. In this step, we focus on the changing role, tasks and responsibilities of the internal IT function on the one hand, and the role, tasks and responsibilities of the cloud and managed services providers on the other.

3.

Then we determine the transition and transformation strategy to the cloud, namely hybrid or multicloud. In the latter case, all applications are delivered from a SaaS environment in combination with an MS 365 and Azure environment (public cloud). The hybrid and multicloud are managed by Provide, where we act as a single point of contact. In addition, we provide the management of the public cloud environment the SaaS links, in combination with the on-premise infrastructure and end devices (laptops, desktops and mobile devices).

4.

After agreement on the strategy to be followed, the transition phase begins. We migrate virtual servers to the private cloud (especially applications that cannot yet be migrated) and other applications are purchased as SaaS services where possible. At the same time, the office automation environment will be migrated to MS 365, including Azure Active Directory to manage and secure existing user profiles.

5.

The final step is to phase out the private cloud if all client-server applications become available as SaaS applications or from Azure. Finally, replacing thin clients with fat clients (desktops and laptops) if necessary can also be part of the transition.

Modern workplace and DevOps tooling

Before, during or after the transition and transformation of the application landscape, other transition-related issues can also be set in motion, including the replacement of thin clients with fat clients. It may also be necessary to integrate the in-house development process, whereby DevOps tooling can facilitate collaboration, source control, the build & deployment process and quality assurance.

Finally, during the phased transition, several breaks can be made to initiate new budget phases and/or discover new insights. Moreover, by continuously making adjustments and measuring the effect of each implemented component, the costs and revenues remain manageable.