Understanding the Push for Managed Cloud Solutions
The demand for managed cloud solutions from businesses and organizations continues to grow at a rapid pace. According to industry research, the global managed cloud services market is predicted to expand at a compound annual growth rate of close to 10% from 2022-2027.
There are several key factors driving this increasing shift towards managed cloud solutions, including:
- The need for more flexible and scalable IT infrastructure
- Demand for streamlined deployment and management of cloud environments
- Data security and compliance requirements
- Cost reduction and optimization of IT spending
Many businesses now recognize the operational efficiencies and cost benefits that managed cloud solutions can provide. By leveraging a managed service provider, organizations can tap into cloud expertise and best practices without having to build large in-house teams.
The Types of Managed Cloud Solutions and Their Differences
There are three main types of managed cloud solutions available for businesses: public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud. Each offers distinct advantages and considerations when determining the right fit for an organization’s needs.
Public Cloud
A public cloud deployment refers to shared cloud computing infrastructure provided over the internet by a third-party provider. These resources, including servers, storage, and network infrastructure, are owned and managed by the cloud provider at their data centers. Customers access these shared resources to run applications and store data.
Public clouds offer several benefits, like flexibility, scalability, and cost savings. Resources can be provisioned on demand to match workloads and only pay for what is consumed. The large scale of public cloud providers also enables them to offer robust disaster recovery capabilities that are not feasible for individual companies to build.
However, as resources are shared with other customers, there can be variability in performance. Public clouds also do not provide the same kind of control, security, compliance standards, and performance guarantees available from private infrastructure.
Private Cloud
In contrast to public clouds, private clouds provide dedicated cloud computing resources for a single organization, not shared with others. The organization or a third-party provider can host and manage the private cloud infrastructure on or off-premises.
Private clouds offer the highest levels of control, security, customization, and performance guarantees compared to other deployment models. They can meet even stringent compliance, governance, regulatory, and localization requirements. Private clouds also facilitate easier data and application integration with existing on-premise systems.
However, private cloud infrastructure incurs higher upfront and ongoing costs for hardware, facilities, maintenance, and continuous updates. Scaling can also be challenging, requiring sufficient capacity planning.
Hybrid Cloud
As the name implies, hybrid clouds blend public and private clouds, balancing their pros and cons. They link infrastructure across the two deployment types while enabling data and application portability between them.
Businesses can run sensitive, mission-critical workloads and data in a private cloud under their control while tapping the on-demand scalability of a public cloud for things like development, testing, analytics, storage backups, and disaster recovery.
The flexibility to move data or shift workloads between deployment models also mitigates risks like vendor lock-ins in some single-provider public clouds. However, performance issues can crop up when porting applications between environments with diverse architectures.
As cloud technologies advance rapidly, providers offer more customizable deployment models. Organizations must assess their priorities, such as costs, customizability, control, security, and scalability, to determine the right managed cloud solutions aligning with their business needs
The Importance of a Managed Service Provider
Handing cloud solution ownership fully over to a managed service provider allows organizations to focus on business innovation rather than infrastructure management. While some organizations choose to run cloud platforms in-house, a managed services model provides compelling advantages, including:
- Reduced recruitment and training costs for niche cloud infrastructure skills
- No need to invest in licensing, hardware, and data center resources
- 24/7 expert monitoring and management that are not feasible internally
- Access to enterprise-grade security tools and threat intelligence
- A usage-based cost model, where you only pay for what you need
- Flexibility to scale capacity up or down on demand to align with business needs
Additionally, for highly regulated industries like healthcare and financial services, outsourcing to a specialized managed cloud provider may be the preferred route to enable security and compliance. Small and mid-sized businesses rarely have the in-house resources to architect, implement, and manage consistent cloud solutions across public and on-premises environments.
How to Implement a Managed Cloud Solution
To implement a managed cloud solution that fits you, take the following steps:
1. Identifying Your Business Needs
Prior to implementing a managed cloud solution, businesses should carefully evaluate their specific needs and requirements. This includes:
- Understanding the volume and types of data that will be stored and accessed on the cloud platform. For example, whether you will be storing documents, media files, sensitive customer information, etc.
- Considering the required access controls and permissions, such as which users or employee roles should have access to what data.
- Evaluating necessary integrations with existing on-premises or legacy systems. The managed cloud solution may need to connect with internal databases, CRM tools, or other business applications.
- Defining budget constraints for monthly/annual spending on cloud infrastructure and managed services.
Additionally, companies should document their performance, scalability, security, and compliance expectations. Setting clear technical requirements and metrics will help in finding the right managed cloud provider.
It’s also crucial to get buy-in from key stakeholders across business, IT, security, and other teams before choosing a managed cloud platform. Cross-departmental alignment is key for successful adoption.
2. Choosing the Right Managed Cloud Solutions Provider
Selecting the most suitable managed cloud solutions provider requires careful consideration of several key factors:
- Industry experience with clients similar to your business and use cases
- Expertise with the types of cloud services you intend to use (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)
- Breadth of technology stack and services offered beyond basic infrastructure
- Service level agreements (SLAs) and the ability to guarantee uptime or performance
- Customer references and reviews from current managed services clients
- Capability to tailor and customize cloud solutions based on your needs
- Security certifications and compliance with regulations such as NIST, PCI DSS, etc.
Additionally, the provider’s responsiveness, account management process, and technical support capabilities should be vetted. Visit their operations center if possible to view first-hand how client infrastructures are monitored and managed.
Avoid choosing providers purely on price alone—the level of service and expertise also matters greatly for business-critical cloud implementations.
3. Starting the Process
Jumpstart the implementation process by:
- Migrating business data and applications to the new cloud environment
- Configuring user permissions, network settings, storage rules, etc.
- Integrating the cloud systems with on-premises tools, if required
- Training employees on how to access and use the new cloud platform
- Testing for performance, security vulnerabilities, backup integrity, etc.
4. Setting Post-Implementation Standards
Post-implementation, a high-quality managed services provider handles continuous administration and optimization of the cloud infrastructure, including:
- Installing periodic software/OS patches and updates
- Configuring and testing data backup processes
- Monitoring for system issues 24/7 and resolving any incidents
- Managing underlying server hardware/networks
- Optimizing for performance and efficiency based on usage
- Ongoing security controls and defense against threats
Find Cloud Computing Solutions for Your Business With 12 Points Technologies
Step confidently into the cloud with 12 Points Technologies, LLC, your partner in crafting customized, secure, and cost-effective cloud solutions tailored to your unique business needs. Don’t let the complexity of migration and cybersecurity concerns hold you back—connect with us today to future-proof your operations and safeguard your valuable data.
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