A data center strategy defines how infrastructure supports cloud adoption, performance, security, and long-term business objectives.
JP Laqueur, Senior Vice President of Marketing at DataBank, explores the close ties between cloud strategy and success and data center strategy and approaches.
Cloud technologies have enabled enterprises to lower operational and capital expenditures, accelerate the development and release of new products and services, and dynamically adjust their IT infrastructure to meet changing market demand. As a result, cloud technologies continue to gain traction and according to IDC, by the end of 2020, 67% of enterprise infrastructure will be based in the cloud.
But not all cloud service providers or platforms are created equally, nor are they always appropriate for certain business sectors or strategic objectives. Some organizations, especially those with strict performance or complex compliance requirements, have re-patriated applications back to premise-based infrastructures after finding cloud platforms were more expensive to operate, or presented additional management and security challenges. In fact, according to IDC in its Q119 CloudPulse report, as many as 85% of customers had initiated some kind of cloud repatriation effort.
And while some clouds have remained “general purpose,” newer “enterprise clouds” have emerged to address the needs of organizations that have greater fault tolerance, security, and compliance requirements.
But the evaluation of which infrastructure is best for an application can no longer simply be a debate about cloud vs. on-premises, or about which type of cloud. It needs to include the consideration of a modern, data center operator. In fact, we believe a third-party data center should be at the heart of every cloud or hybrid infrastructure decision and it’s the topic of our latest White Paper: “A Better Way To Cloud.”
Why? The modern data center – with its ability to aggregate colocation, cloud, and managed services – is rapidly becoming the core of a hybrid strategy, providing a critical third leg in the infrastructure stool, providing greater security and data privacy than many clouds, and hands-on management and compliance expertise beyond the reach of an in-house team.
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Hybrid IT is now the technology strategy of choice for businesses, allowing organizations to leverage the benefits of public cloud computing where and when it makes sense while preserving colocation and private clouds for workloads with more demanding compliance, security, and performance requirements.
But developing an effective multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud strategy requires broad network options to connect your workloads in geographically dispersed public clouds, private clouds, and even colocation facilities. DataBank accomplishes this with our Cloud Direct Connect (CDC) service which utilizes SDN networks from MegaPort and other providers to easily and privately access over 200+ on-ramps in 100 global cloud regions.
DataBank’s Cloud Direct Connect service can now get you to a diverse set of cloud service providers such as Nutanix, Alibaba, IBM, Salesforce, SAP, and Rackspace, in addition to AWS, Microsoft Azure, Oracle, and Google.
At present, DataBank’s Cloud Direct Connect on-ramps are available natively in the following locations and accessible from DataBank data centers via metro access or nationwide MPLS:
- Dallas
- Pittsburgh
- Kansas City
- Minneapolis
- Salt Lake City
- Indianapolis
- Atlanta
Enabling A True Hybrid IT Strategy
Cloud Direct Connect does more than enable a hybrid cloud strategy though. A robust multi-cloud strategy typically extends a hybrid cloud foundation with multiple carrier and cloud provider connections. It’s just one component of an overall ecosystem that enables a completely Hybrid IT strategy of public cloud, private cloud, and colocation.
Just like DataBank’s colocation, network, and storage platforms – our cloud platform is surrounded by a constellation of managed services, security, and compliance. This enables a more inherently flexible platform for scaling and adapting infrastructure, a more compliant container for data, and a more secure filter through which to connect users and applications.
As the illustration below indicates, whether an application is on our colo platform, our cloud platform, or a third-party public/private cloud platform accessed via Cloud Direct Connect, DataBank serves as a filter, providing visibility, control, and management of security and compliance to protect users and applications.
Key Takeaways for the Enterprise
DataBank’s Cloud Direct Connect accelerates your ability to facilitate a multi-cloud initiative. There’s no need to be an engineer with an IT background. You get a user-friendly, easy- access experience with security is built into the SDN network thereby delivering secure, low-latency connectivity to all of your public cloud environments.
Benefits of this combined solution include:
- Direct connectivity to multiple public clouds connectivity through a single port
- Rapid provisioning across one platform via intuitive web portal
- Pay for what you use
- Elastic capacity
- On-stop shop
- On-demand networking capacity that aligns to cloud consumption models
“By leveraging DataBank’ Cloud Direct Connect infrastructure, our enterprise customers will be able to more fully integrate public cloud capabilities into their colocation and private cloud assets to build true hybrid environments. It’s just another example of how DataBank is enhancing the colocation experience by bringing, secure, scalable and cost-effective public cloud access to our customers.”
-Vlad Friedman, CTO, DataBank
For a closer look at how DataBank’s Enterprise Cloud platform, Cloud Direct Connect service, and entire Data Center Evolved ecosystem enable a truly hybrid approach, check out our latest white paper: A Better Way To Cloud.
Listen to Vlad Friedman, Chief Technology Officer of DataBank, on DM Radio, as he and a few others discuss how the prevalence of alternative data continues to grow in this fast-evolving information economy. Data Exchanges are cropping up to give access to all sorts of interesting data sets, whether for retail sales or vehicular traffic or just about any other data source imaginable.
Listen to the entire interview here.