[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]San Diego, CA, January 31, 2019. AITP San Diego and Managed Solution hosted an exclusive CIO panel on multi-cloud strategy. Representatives of Western Digital, Stone Brewing, UCSD, Scripps Health and Managed Solution shared their experience with establishing multiple cloud environments and challenges they faced along the way. They agreed that multi-cloud is a reality for businesses, and the only open question is whether your business will be reactive or proactive in the approach.
Steve Phillpott, Chief Information Officer at Western Digital, underlined two main facts regarding the cloud: “You own the security - cloud will give you a lot of additional capabilities, but you own it and need to make sure you are secure. Regarding cost, make sure you’re not wasting money by keeping colder, less frequently accessed data in the Cloud.”
Christian Aboujaoude, Senior Director Enterprise Architecture at Scripps Health, explained how cloud affected them: “We started to change our IT business model by leveraging the cloud as an extension of our infrastructure, helping to structure services in a more cost-effective fashion for our patients. Going to the Cloud was a shift for us. However, it did introduce flexibility and scaling especially when leveraged as a service. We had a lot of partners and vendors we work with which lead us down the road of using the major cloud carriers such as Azure or AWS promoting the use of a multi-Cloud strategy.”
Brian Andrews, Chief Information and Administrative Office at Stone Brewing: “Stone embarked on our cloud journey five years ago, supporting our business expansion and optimization with Software-as-a-Service applications and Infrastructure-as-a-Service. A recent example of the benefit was being able to double the size of our website infrastructure in minutes to support a big spike in traffic after announcing our new Enter Night Pilsner collaboration with Metallica.” Stone Brewing, headquartered in Escondido, California, has grown to become the 8th largest craft brewery in the country among 7,000 breweries. Stone has used cloud to scale nationally and internationally while reducing costs and driving business value.
Sean Ferrel, Chairman and Founder at Managed Solution, explained, that when making IT decisions we need to we need to first talk about what business problem we are trying to solve and not talk so much about the technology tools we like best: “Yes, we all have the painters, framers, plumbers and electricians who implement these tools but if we don’t have a great blueprint for what we want to build the result will be less impactful for the business.” Sean added where he sees technology going next: “We need to think about cost management, movement between data centers, aggregation of cloud providers and optimization of data resulting in business intelligence for our businesses.”
The panel was moderated by the newly elected President of AITP San Diego Donna Hale.
AITP San Diego serves the San Diego professional community by providing a forum to present issues and trends relating to the management of information.[/vc_column_text][grve_callout title="Book a consulting session" heading="h4" button_text="Contact us" button_link="url:https%3A%2F%2Fmanagedsolut.wpengine.com%2Fcontact-us%2F||target:%20_blank|"]Don't let your multi-cloud strategy happen accidentally. Let us help you with a 30 min FREE consultation with our cloud experts.[/grve_callout][grve_gallery gallery_type="carousel" ids="30614,30615,30616,30617,30626,30628,30629,30630,30631,30619"][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Every business owner, director or CTO has countless questions before deciding on whether or not to migrate to a public cloud, as opposed to using the already familiar in-house methods that have been used for years. We have come up with important questions to ask yourself before migrating to a public cloud.
All these questions, curiosities and worries are well-founded because you need to know all the advantages and disadvantages implied by undergoing the switch to a public cloud. It may be a lengthy process, and this is why you should see if it’s worth it, or not. Most of the times it is, and here’s why.
The cloud services most companies are familiar with are Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Google Cloud Platform. While these services are the most popular, they may not prove to be the best solutions for your company, depending on the costs you have estimated in your budget and depending on the data you need to migrate to a public cloud.
Microsoft Azure was created for building, testing, deploying and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed data centers. Similar to this cloud service, the AWS, which is a subsidiary to Amazon.com, provides on-demand cloud computing platforms to individuals and companies on a paid subscription basis.
The cloud platform offered by Google comes complete with more or less the same features, being a suite of cloud computing services that run on the same infrastructure used internally by Google for its end-user products; the most famous examples: Google Search and Youtube.
If you’re not sure yet whether you should migrate your company’s data to a public cloud, you should ask yourself these three questions:
1. Do I want access to a larger talent pool working for my company?
It is the first question you should start with. By switching over to a public cloud, not only will you benefit from 24/7 technical support, but you will also stand to gain from the years of experience which can be had by working with IT resource management companies. These companies experience a more extensive variety of situations that may appear because they encounter more situations on a daily basis than most companies encounter in an entire year.
Also, migrating to a public cloud, you will have access to talented people from all around the world, people you would otherwise have no access to because they live far away on a different part of the globe.
2. How will the knowledge transfer and other business-related activities go after migration?
Smoother, Faster, Better, Stronger. When you have your IT knowledge in one place where it can be accessible for your employees from any corner of the world they are, it’s easier to get things done from both a technical and business standpoint.
Your employees can have all the benefits they would have if they were present at the company’s headquarters, even if they are currently working for one of your clients, in their offices, which could be located on another continent.
Information becomes accessible at a click of a button, without having to go through all the email and phone calls to receive requested materials.
3. Is it a greener approach for my company?
In our modern day society, nothing should be more important than keeping our business as green as possible and limiting our carbon footprint to a minimum. It is what any self-respecting company is currently doing, and migrating to cloud services is at the top of the list when it comes to evolving your company into an environmental-friendly one.
Without having to keep all those servers plugged in and consume way too much energy than your company needs, you’ll be exponentially reducing the mark you leave on the planet, and you can start on having a positive one on the business world.
If you’re interested in learning more about cloud services and how to migrate to a public cloud; be sure to get in touch with us - right here
In 2018, the question isn’t whether or not you should move to the cloud, but rather which cloud — public or private? While there can certainly be benefits to both, it truly depends on your organization and business model. Here, we’ll discuss some of the benefits and why you should consider moving to the public cloud.
According to Forbes, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services are two of the top vendors in the cloud today, and I think most in the industry would agree. There are a few things one must consider when selecting a public cloud provider, starting with location. To ensure low latency, you’ll want to make sure the data center you select is in the right location. While most, if not all public cloud providers offer multiple locations, Microsoft Azure has more regions than any other cloud provider. Another important aspect for choosing a public cloud provider is data security. While all cloud vendors will claim to be secure, you should always consider the risks. Check your cloud provider for regulation and compliance coverage. For example, Azure has over 70 compliance certifications.
With all that said, whichever public cloud you choose, here are some great reasons to think about moving to the public cloud, regardless of the provider.
Having your data onsite can become quite costly. With traditional storage vendors, you typically get locked into long-term contracts. This causes users to over-provision their storage, which leads to paying for unnecessary resources. However, with public cloud vendors such as Microsoft and AWS, you can pay as you go — only paying for what you need. Having an OpEx-based storage solution allows you to easily budget for services and data. Cloud-based storage also won’t take up as much real-estate onsite, allowing you to either a) have smaller office space meaning rent space is significantly less or b) have more room for offices and cubicles which results in more employees driving the business and revenue. Cloud-based storage services also eliminate power and cooling costs, which can be substantial for many companies.
When moving to the public cloud, your data is stored at your provider’s data center. That provider then becomes an extension of your IT team as they will be the ones managing and maintaining the data center. The result can be very beneficial from multiple perspectives. First, you get assigned a representative (account manager) and/or team of people to help manage your data. Not only does this provide a dedicated specialist to your team that can bring additional knowledge and skills, it can potentially cut costs. By moving away from having on-site, private storage, you don’t need to hire additional people to manage your data center. This also frees up your IT staff’s workload allowing them to work on far more productive tasks that actually increase revenue.
As alluded to in point 1, it doesn’t matter how much storage you need today, tomorrow, next month or next year. With the public cloud, you can scale your storage as needed. In some cases, you can even hibernate data when you don’t need to access it. This provides an additional layer of flexibility for your business. You aren’t locked into a long-term fixed contract. Furthermore, it opens the possibility for a hybrid cloud experience, connecting to multiple clouds at once. This can be especially beneficial when considering DR and BC strategies.
In the end, the public cloud offers almost everything ‘as-a-service’ resulting in expanding your internal team and its knowledge. This also helps cut costs by not requiring your organization to hire additional IT team members. Plus, with the public cloud OpEx business model, you only have to pay for what you use and what you need, decreasing Total Cost of Ownership and increasing ROI.
Tools are there to increase our productivity and overall effectiveness. Microsoft tools are no different. Some of these tools exist to ease communication between employees and teams, others to prioritize tasks, while others, still, live to delegate responsibilities. Depending on the size of your business or the nature of your industry, be it financial, healthcare, and so on, these Microsoft tools that will increase your productivity are among the premier applications of their type. If you'd like a hands-on complimentary demo of these products, request a Customer Immersion Experience.
Microsoft Azure is a flexible cloud platform that allows users to rapidly build, deploy, and manage various applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. Azure will enable you to create applications by using any language you desire, as well as any tool or framework. What's more, you can scale your apps to any size without having to focus on the infrastructure already in place.
Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) is a set of tools that provide the user with everything they need to administer, provision, and secure the devices used in an enterprise. Among these, we have devices such as smartphones, laptops, or tablets, which can be managed from a single place.
It is a tool specifically designed for enterprises that want to have better control over their assets and intellectual property, all the while, minimizing the need for human resources.
Microsoft Office 365 is a wide variety of powerful features that improve your file sharing capabilities, online meetings, and email management, among several others. OneDrive, for instance, will provide a great cloud storage solution, while Skype for Business will enhance your internal communications. Microsoft Office has made a name for itself over the years and Office 365 is just a more versatile and all-encompassing version of that.
With Microsoft Hyper-V, you can create and run a software version of your computer. Known as a virtual machine; this software version will act like a complete computer with its own operating system and installed programs. Hyper-V will run each of the virtual machines that it creates in an isolated space, meaning that you can avoid crashes and other such problems affecting different workloads.
In short, Hyper-V can help you in establishing or expanding your private cloud environment. It will also use your hardware more effectively by consolidating servers and workloads onto fewer and more powerful computers that use less energy and space. Hyper-V will also improve your business continuity by minimizing the impact of downtime, be it scheduled or not. It will establish and expand your virtual desktop infrastructure, also making development and testing easier and more efficient.
SharePoint is a web-based platform that integrates with Microsoft Office, enhancing collaboration between organizations. This tool is primarily used as a storage and document management system that can help companies solve various challenges such as disconnected teams and people, slow turnarounds, lost productivity, or outdated IT systems that are difficult to scale appropriately.
All of these Microsoft tools here, as well as others such as Exchange, Directory Services, or Dynamics CRM, will help you to increase your company's productivity.
Managed Solution is an organization that provides IT managed services to various companies in the finance, healthcare, or biotech industries, among others. As part of the top 1% of Microsoft Cloud Service Providers worldwide, Managed Solution will help you leverage these technologies, provide the most up-to-date solutions that are sure to drive productivity and innovation, resulting in an overall increase in revenue.
San Diego, CA, August 16, 2018, – Microsoft has authorized Managed Solution to resell Microsoft Office 365 Government Community Cloud to US government organizations. Furthermore, Managed Solution has been priorly authorized to resale Government Azure Cloud, which enables it to fully serve US Federal, state, and local government agencies in their governmental capacities by providing full service cloud offerings.
Office 365 Government Community Cloud is designed for the unique needs of US government organizations. This solution provides all the features and capabilities of Office 365 services in a segmented cloud environment that helps organizations meet US compliance and security standards.
Azure Government delivers a dedicated US based cloud enabling government agencies and their partners to transform mission-critical workloads to the cloud. Azure Government services handle data that is subject to certain government regulations and requirements. In order to ensure the highest level of security and compliance, Azure Government uses physically isolated data centers and networks, located in the US only.
Jennell Mott, VP of Cloud & Vendor Operations, Managed Solution: “ Being authorized as a re-seller for Microsoft Office 365 Government Community Cloud and Azure Government means that we are able to provide full service cloud solutions and offerings for our Government customers with the backing of Microsoft’s full compliance regulations.”
About Managed Solution
As a relationship-driven organization, Managed Solution collaborates with you to customize the perfect mix of software, hardware, and IT services. We deliver a flexible technology solution that evolves and adapts to meet your needs and exceed your expectations at every stage of your business cycle.
[vc_row gmbt_prlx_parallax="up" font_color="#ffffff" css=".vc_custom_1467066066924{padding-top: 170px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 190px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;background: rgba(55,82,161,0.66) url(https://managedsolut.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/managed-solution-azure-1.png) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;*background-color: rgb(55,82,161) !important;}"][vc_column][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row parallax="content-moving" css=".vc_custom_1465945819577{background-color: #e98922 !important;}"][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text css_animation="appear"]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Find your best path to a truly consistent hybrid cloud[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/4"][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/4"][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/4"][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/4"][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Whether in reaction to changes coming from IoT devices, in response to user clicks on mobile apps, or for the initiation of business processes from customer requests, most modern applications are built through the use of events. With the growth of event-based programming, there is a larger focus on server-less platforms, such as Azure Functions (a server-less compute engine) or Azure Logic Apps (a server-less workflow orchestration engine), which enable you to spend less time worrying about any infrastructure, provisioning, and scaling, and spend more time focusing on your application.
In an attempt to make building event-based and server-less applications even easier to build on Azure, Microsoft has released Azure Event Grid, a first-of-its-kind fully managed event routing service. Azure Event Grid manages all routing of events from any source, to any destination, for any application, greatly simplifying the development of event-based applications as well as the creation of server-less workflows.
Azure Event Grid makes an event a first-class object in Azure, you can subscribe to any event that is happening across your Azure resources and react using server-less platforms like Functions or Logic Apps. In addition to the built-in publishing support for events, through services such as Blob Storage and Resource Groups, Event Grid gives users flexibility and the ability to create your own custom events to publish directly to the service. On top of having a broad array of Azure services and built-in handlers for events, like Functions, Logic Apps, and Azure Automation, Event Grid allows flexibility in handling events, supporting custom web hooks to publish events to any service, even 3rd-party services outside of Azure. The flexibility that Azure Event Grid offers allows for endless application options and makes this a truly unique service in the public cloud.
Azure Event Grid allows for direct event filtering using event type, prefix or suffix, so you only need to receive the events you care about. Whether you want to handle built-in Azure events, like a file being added to storage, or you want to produce your own custom events and event handlers, Event Grid enables this through the same underlying model. Thus, no matter the service or the use case, the intelligent routing and filtering capabilities apply to every event scenario and ensure that your apps can focus on the core business logic instead of worrying about routing events.
Azure Event Grid is designed to be highly available and to handle massive scale dynamically, ensuring consistent performance and reliability for your critical services.
By allowing server-less endpoints to react to new event sources, Azure Event Grid enables event-based scenarios to span new services with ease, increasing the possibilities for your server-less applications. Both code-focused applications in Functions and visual workflow applications in Logic Apps benefit from Azure Event Grid.
The same unified event management interface enables simpler operational and security automation, including easier policy enforcement with built-in support for Azure Automation to react to VM creations or infrastructure changes.
We are aiming to deliver more event sources and destinations later on this year, including Azure Active Directory, API Management, IoT Hub, Service Bus, Azure Data Lake Store, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Data Factory, and Storage Queues.
Azure Event Grid completes the missing half of server-less applications. It simplifies event routing and event handling with unparalleled flexibility.
Go ahead and give it a try. I can’t wait to see what you build. To learn more try the quick start.
Sources: stackify.com, azure.microsoft.com, aws.amazon.com
Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services go head-to-head, but which one is really the best on top? Whether you are planning a multicloud solution with Azure and AWS, or migrating to Azure, you can compare the IT capabilities of Azure and AWS services in all categories. As the leading public cloud platforms, Azure and AWS each offer businesses a broad and deep set of capabilities with global coverage. Yet many organizations choose to use both platforms together for greater choice and flexibility, as well as to spread their risk and dependencies with a multicloud approach. Consulting companies and software vendors might also build on and use both Azure and AWS, as these platforms represent most of the cloud market demand.
Security and management tools include Active Directory Federation Services, Azure Active Directory, Multi-Factor Auth, among others, as well as a range of integrations for Azure monitoring and performance tweaks.
No matter which IaaS offering you get, you will be using Amazon’s identity and security services such as AWS CloudHSM’s key storage service and Amazon’s own Active Directory. Not only that, but AWS offerings also have a range of management tools that users can use, including AWS Config, AWS Cloudtrail, and Cloudwatch.
Azure has multiple app deployment options for developers. Including App Services, Cloud Services, Service Fabric, Container Service, Functions, Batch, WebJobs and more. No matter what type of application you are developing, Microsoft has great tools in place to help deploy and scale it.
AWS offers similar solutions with Container Service, Elastic Beanstalk, Lambda, and Batch. AWS does not have as many options or features on the app hosting side. Microsoft has flexed their knowledge of developer tools to have a little bit of an advantage for hosting cloud apps.
Hybrid clouds are easier with Azure, partly because Microsoft has foreseen the need for hybrid clouds early on. Azure offers substantial support for hybrid clouds, where you can use your onsite servers to run your applications on the Azure Stack. You can even set your compute resources to tap cloud-based resources when necessary. This makes moving to the cloud seamless. Aside from that, several Azure offerings help you maintain and manage hybrid clouds such as Azure Stack, Hybrid SQL Server, and Azure StorSimple. Microsoft’s long history of working on enterprise IT gives them an upper hand when it comes to the hybrid cloud.
While Amazon realizes that it needs to strengthen its offerings to support hybrid clouds, it is still catching up, with more investments earmarked for hybrid clouds, according to Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s chief financial officer. Still, the retail giant currently has a handful of solutions that is geared for companies who wants hybrid cloud deployments such as Storage Gateway, Direct Connect, and DynamoDB Local.
Harness the power of government cloud computing, so you can focus on advancing your mission. Designed only for US federal, state, local, and tribal agencies and their partners, Azure Government offers:
The AWS cloud provides scalable cost-efficient solutions for the US Federal Government. The cloud services can be employed to meet mandates, reduce costs, drive efficiencies, and increase innovation across Civilian agencies and the Department of Defense. It is a pay-as-you-go model, delivering access to up-to-date technology resources that are managed by experts.
Chat with an expert about your business’s technology needs.
