We're taking a look at our clients' journey to a hybrid-cloud architecture, exploring the benefits private cloud boasts over on-premise infrastructure and how this helps an organisation's digital transformation.
The adoption of cloud technology is determined by where data originated and is held, and how it is used.
For businesses, this creates a simple spectrum of ownership:
At one end, an on-premise strategy features data centres where a company holds and processes its own data, in its own facility, on its own equipment.
Moving slightly away from that is colocation. Here, a business cedes control of the facility by renting space for their IT equipment. The business maintains operational control over servers and networking.
Beyond colocation, we enter into the realms of private cloud where the storage, processing and transit of data is provided by a third party, to a business, as a single organisation.
Finally, at the opposite end to on-premise, is public cloud. Here a third-party provider offers all of these facilities, often using the public internet, to more than one organisation.
Historically, most businesses begin from the ‘on-premise’ position when they are assessing their cloud needs. This usually begins when an organisation outgrows the limitations of its existing technology or arrives at the natural point of a refresh.
Financially, this is an opportunity to transition from a large capital expenditure (capex) on technology assets and facilities, to a much more manageable operational expenditure (opex).
However, as equally important as the savings, is the opportunity to align investment to a level of service provided to the business.
Consequently, the decisions of where to situate IT workloads on this spectrum are driven by an array of issues.
Regulation (and thus, compliance), resilience, security, privacy, sustainability, efficiency and costs, are the most prevalent and pressing of these issues.
The cases for shifting right
Data sovereignty is currently the hottest topic in compliance. In the UK, it has been enshrined in two pieces of legislation: The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018)[1] and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)[2]. In addition, for heavily regulated industries such as financial services or pharmaceuticals, there is a host of additional requirements.
In practice, much of this regulation comes down to storing and transmitting UK data, within UK borders – and being able to prove it. Private clouds within a given set of national borders – often called sovereign clouds – have become a key tool in addressing this issue.
Resilience often follows regulation in cloud purchasing discussions. Businesses frequently move beyond on-premise capabilities because it has experienced, first-hand, issues where there has not been sufficient resilience or business continuity in its technology.
As a result, the operational considerations of redundant systems and back ups are front of mind. However, ‘doubling up’ on servers and networks (as well as the power and staff they need) soon gets both expensive and time-consuming, so outsourcing this non-core activity to a private cloud is attractive.
Similarly, ensuring the security and privacy of an on-premise data centre and the associated networks can become very costly, very quickly. It is an exposure to risk that organisations mitigate by engaging with a trusted, digital infrastructure partner.
That sense of partnership extends to the related issues of efficiency, sustainability and cost. One of the opportunities presented by moving to a private cloud is that the partner will be able to use economies of scale in purchasing newer, more energy efficient hardware – and be able to account for these advancements to help improve the sustainability reporting of the customer business.
Pulsant's Private Cloud (PPC) is a sovereign cloud platform enabling businesses to seize upon these opportunities when ‘shifting right’. Based on our owned and operated data centres and UK-wide 400Gb network, with access to a private ecosystem of partners, and private on-ramps to public cloud, PPC helps businesses ensure compliance with emerging regulations, remain resilient, secure and sustainable, as they continue to grow and embrace the opportunities in a data-driven world.
[1] As at Data Protection Act 2018
[2] As at The UK GDPR | ICO
