Why Use IBM Power Systems in the Cloud?

Cloud based IBM applications and/or data have several significant advantages:

1. Distributed workforce

With so many employees working from home, it’s important to have a reliable way for them to access applications and data. One advantage of cloud infrastructure is its ability to provide application access for widely distributed and remote end users.

By connecting to the cloud through a virtual private network (VPN) over the Internet, employees can access systems from any location. For example, DSC’s ezHost service for IBM Power Systems provides public internet access with support for VPNs and other private network connections such as MPLS or metro Ethernet.

2. Disaster recovery

Using the cloud for data backup and disaster recovery can ensure that your IBM applications will never suffer extended downtime. Many cloud providers offer managed Disaster Recovery as a Service, so they manage and execute most of the backup and DR processes.

There are typically several levels of disaster recovery to choose, a critical step of your disaster recovery plan checklist is creating a list that encompasses your systems, how quickly your system needs to be backed up and the amount of data you can afford to lose, etc. Some systems, such as an ecommerce database or reservation ticketing system, can’t afford any downtime or any loss of data. Others might lose a day’s worth of data without repercussions.

3. Technology refresh

The cloud also gives IBM Power Systems customers affordable access to the newest hardware–namely IBM’s Power9 processor-based servers designed for high performance applications such as machine learning. By using a cloud provider’s IBM infrastructure, you can avoid investing in your own hardware upgrades.

You also avoid the work of procuring, maintaining, and upgrading all that hardware. Cloud customers also have access to new, innovative technologies. Many cloud services providers offer a range of technology services for developers, such as machine learning and analytics.

4. IBM and cloud expertise

Using cloud management services frees in-house IT staff from hardware and software maintenance tasks, so they can focus on more important, strategic IT projects. In addition, cloud providers have employees with expertise in cloud migration, AIX and IBM i application development, and other technologies.

Customers benefit from having access to this pool of subject matter experts and save on the cost of employing their own experts. It’s also an advantage in a market where fewer IT professionals have skills in AIX, IBM i, and other legacy platforms. Power Systems professionals are increasingly difficult to recruit. 

5. Scalable pricing

The cloud uses subscription-based billing, so IT costs shift from capital expenses to operating expenses. That predictability makes budget planning easier. Cloud services are also priced on-demand. This means a customer can decide to add more IBM Power virtual servers or storage capacity if needed, and decrease them when demand is low.

That’s especially attractive to businesses that experience seasonal fluctuation in IT usage, as well as application developers working on new programs. An engineer can spin up a new development and testing environment without purchasing any on-premises hardware or software, and then delete it when done.

6. Extend capacity

Even if you don’t plan to migrate your core IBM Power Systems applications to the cloud, you can still use it to extend your infrastructure to support new workloads. The existing on-premises Power Systems environment can be connected to new cloud resources via IBM’s Cloud Direct network services or a third-party network service such as TierPoint’s Cloud Connect Express. How DRaaS Enhances IBM Power Systems’ Resiliency. 

Providers Help Get IBM Power Systems to the Cloud

There are multiple ways to take advantage of cloud services while retaining on-premises systems. A cloud services provider can help you plan your migration to the cloud. Look for providers with experience in IBM Power Systems and customers in your industry, so they’ll be familiar with your company’s needs.

The industry-leading cloud service providers typically offer:

• robust and redundant communications networks
• resiliency and guaranteed uptime
• scalable infrastructure
• physical and operational security
• proof of compliance with government regulations
• Support for multicloud and/or hybrid cloud environments (public cloud, private cloud, colocation, etc.)

If you have employees or supply chain partners in different parts of the country, also look for providers with on-ramps to major public cloud providers.

Data Storage Corporation (DSC) is a provider specializing in IBM iSeries disaster recovery and helps organizations protect their data, minimize downtime and recover and restore data within their objectives. TierPoint is a leading provider of secure, connected data center and cloud solutions. Together, they provide a comprehensive solution for managing IBM iSeries migration, hosting and disaster recovery. Learn more about how you can protect your IBM iSeries environment and migrate to the cloud.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

As businesses look to hybrid cloud adoption solutions and migrate to hybrid environments, they want to do it quickly, but effectively. Adopting the cloud comes with benefits like cost savings and more opportunities for digital innovation, but making the change doesn’t happen at the press of a button. Even if you have the talent to manage an IT environment, it’s another thing entirely to manage hybrid cloud environments, conduct a cloud migration, and execute a cohesive hybrid cloud strategy. How can you speed up hybrid cloud adoption without running into snags?

What hinders hybrid cloud adoption?

Several factors can stand in the way of hybrid cloud adoption and that’s why having a solid cloud adoption strategy can help reduce the following obstacles including, the cost of implementation, challenges with existing architecture, security concerns, and conflicts with other business challenges and requirements.

Another way to overcome these obstacles is by using cloud services such as Managed Azure Stack. This service enables businesses to extend their Azure cloud capabilities across both public and private environments. By taking advantage of the familiar Azure ecosystem and offering a true hybrid solution, companies can ensure a smooth transition to accelerate their hybrid cloud adoption.

Costs across multiple cloud environments

There are many costs associated with the cloud, especially when you have multiple cloud platforms within one environment. Depending on the platform, you may have the option of fixed or consumption-based pricing models. Businesses often have trouble identifying the right pricing model, but it may depend on the workload. Certain public cloud “pay as you go” pricing changes depending on time (or data), CPU, and execution usage.

Understanding these pricing models will provide better visibility for what you’re spending where. And help you see where optimizations can be made along the way.

Migration

Migrating to a cloud platform is already a complex task. Migrating to multiple cloud platforms in a hybrid environment can add even more complexity. Rushing to move your infrastructure to the cloud could mean putting things together in a less-than-ideal way – skipping key integrations, cutting corners, and creating broken pieces along the way that lead to increased costs and decreased productivity. Taking the time to do things right and create a cohesive cloud migration strategy will help circumvent any major issues.

Security & compliance

Managing security requirements across multiple cloud environments can introduce more risks. Those multiple environments also need to meet your regulatory and compliance requirements. Security teams need to account for this added complexity and supplement internal security with outside expertise when implementing best practices and frameworks.

Governance

What happens after a successful cloud migration? Many businesses fall short of having a strategy once they have deployed a hybrid cloud solution. Governing that environment requires cloud visibility and resources to maintain that environment and reduce cloud sprawl. This also means having the right staff to maintain this environment. Some organizations do not have those internal resources and look outside of their organization to fill gaps.

The secret to hybrid cloud adoption, deployment, and management

We’ll level with you. The secret to successful adoption, deployment, and cloud management is not as complicated as you think. It all comes down to bringing in the right qualified people. Most businesses can be more successful with cloud infrastructure by relying on expertise from a managed services cloud provider. The right partner can help you accomplish the following:

Identify the right roadmap

After looking at the current state of your IT environment, an experienced cloud provider can help you figure out the best pathway to success. The process would look something like this: They would start with understanding your business goals and outcomes. Then, they will survey your entire IT environment to understand your current infrastructure. What does your infrastructure look like, including storage, hardware, software, and networking? This cloud partner would examine your workload needs and identify the right cloud platforms for each one. Depending on what they find, the options can vary. A cloud provider might suggest the use of a private cloud, multitenant, on-premises infrastructure, or public cloud deployments.

Private cloud

Private cloud infrastructure can either be located on-premises or at a separate data center facility that you lease or own. When it comes to the private cloud, you own your infrastructure and resources. If you use hosted private cloud, however, a third party will manage your resources. Hosted private clouds come with additional peace of mind.

Also read: The Big Benefits of Private Cloud

Public cloud

Hyperscale, also known as public cloud, is generally a multitenant cloud model where you pay for cloud services but skip the large infrastructure expenses. The public cloud enables businesses to scale their infrastructure. All while saving money on power, space, cooling, and facilities.

A public cloud is a type of multitenant architecture, where your resources are stored in a shared environment. While the private cloud involves a dedicated environment, multi-tenancy architecture has multiple customers operating on the same servers. There are many benefits of public cloud and it can be a great, budget-friendly option for organizations, but cost control and expertise are also up for question and need to be evaluated carefully.

On-premises

Many businesses have critical legacy systems that still need to be supported. Often, they are not workloads they need to sunset or rebuild. You don’t have to remove on-premises data centers and workloads from the mix. Eventually, you’ll probably want to migrate everything to make updates and continued innovation more seamless, but in the meantime, some of your workloads could be hosted in on-premises environments.

Hybrid cloud or multicloud

And lastly, all of these efforts can be combined in different iterations to form hybrid cloud and multicloud models. A multicloud is any infrastructure that includes a combination of cloud options (e.g., one private and two public cloud environments). Hybrid cloud can include a mix of cloud and non-cloud, on-premises environments. Using either of these approaches can mean getting the best of a few worlds all rolled into one.

Understanding these options, building a roadmap and strategy, and helping you deploy can mean your business adopts the cloud at a quicker rate. Working with an expert to sift through the flavors of the cloud and picking the combination that’s just right for your organization also optimizes your cloud spend – you can rest assured that you aren’t spending money or resources on things you don’t need.

Provide expertise that would otherwise not be available

When you work with an experienced cloud partner, there’s no need to search high and low for top IT talent. Your cloud partner has hired staff with specific expertise tailored to cloud deployments. They can strategize and migrate to a hybrid cloud for your business with ease because they’ve done it before. Experts are at your fingertips through your partner relationships. They have the techniques, knowledge, and advanced tools needed to successfully lead a hybrid cloud migration.

Spearhead cloud automation projects

Are there certain tasks your team engages in repeatedly? Ones that involve pressing the same sequences of buttons over and over? Repetitive tasks that change with few variables could benefit greatly from cloud automation. Automating tasks can cut down on redundancies and improve productivity; however, creating automation takes time and expertise.

A skilled cloud partner can not only help you identify opportunities for automation, but they can also create, test, and implement automation projects. Your employees will have some time freed up for other, more strategic tasks, and you may see fewer errors on the simpler tasks that are now performed automatically.

Help companies overcome IT skill and resource gaps post-migration

As more businesses compete for the small pool of cloud experts and engineers, the global IT worker shortage continues to grow. This shortage runs in direct opposition to the digital transformation goals of most businesses, with 58% of IT leaders increasing, or hoping to increase, investments in emerging technology. For 64% of the new tech these firms would like to take on, they have found that talent shortages have been the biggest thing standing in their way.

A cloud partner can bring in outside help. Day-to-day cloud operations can be handled by an external team, and the configuration of skills you have at your disposal can change alongside the changing needs of your digital transformation projects, all without having to hire, fire, or train additional internal employees. With access to varied talent, your staff has more time for business-critical projects, such as product development.

Cloud modernization can consist of a lot of heavy lifting, but it doesn’t have to. If you’re looking to sell hybrid cloud adoption or a modernization project to leadership, and you’re looking for more resources, check out our eBook, How to Sell Cloud Modernization to Your Leadership.

“It has been a dream for us,” the CEO of Gatesway Foundation explained of the non-profit’s leap from an outdated, server-based traditional hosting IT infrastructure to a robust, cloud-based server infrastructure for its enterprise resource planning software. When making the switch, you could opt for a dedicated server in private cloud, or a shared multi-tenant solution in public cloud. Either way, by hosting applications in the cloud, you can improve business management software and automate back-office functions.

A simple swap from legacy infrastructure to the cloud isn’t always easy. A cloud migration strategy will help you determine the key steps needed to make the move. This includes defining the 7 Rs of a  migration strategy (rehost, replatform, refactor) for each of your applications. Once you have this figured out, you’ll be able to enjoy the advantages of cloud hosting.

Hosting applications via a cloud service allows organizations to align business applications with IT and digital transformation initiatives, improve availability and reliability, simplify application delivery and end-user access, and enhance business continuity.

Why you should consider hosting applications in the cloud

1. Ensure high availability and reliability

Applications in the cloud are often more reliable than software running on in-house infrastructure. A provider who specializes in cloud hosting offers redundant infrastructure and dedicated personnel with the specific skill sets and resources needed to ensure continuous availability. Service-level agreements will guarantee 24/7/365 and 99.9% availability of your applications in real-time.

2. Simplify application delivery across the user base

With web-enabled applications, local installation becomes a thing of the past. Applications in the cloud ensure that all of your employees and partners are using the same version of software – including security and feature updates – without depending on users to do anything.

3. Improve application access and connectivity

The right people have access to the right information at the right time. Ease of access and ease of use are greatly improved when a business application is web-enabled and hosted in the cloud. Mobile? Off-site? Working from home? Traveling? Having your application in the cloud means employees can access work from anywhere in the world with any device that can connect to the internet. Everyone can get the information they need when they need it, without having to remember to download it in advance.

4. Reduce IT operations headaches

Time and resources spent maintaining hardware and concerns over lack of redundancy can be major stressors for IT when self-hosting a legacy platform. Imagine, no more worries about pushing multiple servers to the end of their useful lives.

When you host your applications in the cloud, especially if they are hosted in a managed provider’s cloud, you allow more time for your IT staff to focus on revenue-generating projects. By outsourcing mundane and time-consuming operational tasks to a managed cloud provider, you can have someone else take over the operational headaches.

5. Reduce IT infrastructure costs

Eliminating hardware makes cloud application hosting a smart financial decision for many businesses. The elastic pricing of the cloud may reduce your outlay for IT equipment, high-cost data center facilities to store it, and staff to maintain it. Elasticity lets you only pay for what you use. Save yourself from capital expenditure, investing too much in soon-to-be-obsolete hardware to deliver maximum capacity data storage “just in case.”

6. Safeguard disaster recovery and backup

The cloud is disaster-ready, cutting your risks significantly. Of all the benefits of hosting your application in the cloud, effective DR may be the most critical. Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) with cloud-to-cloud recovery can replicate systems from any cloud, help restore day-to-day and sensitive information, and failover to another cloud in minutes.

An IT manager will likely always remember the day a mission-critical system crashed. When the system went down, business came to a halt. It’s likely the organization could never restore all of the lost information – some of it was simply lost to the ether. Failure to recover is much more likely to occur when critical applications are hosted in-house than in a cloud.

See how we helped a non-profit organization move to the cloud

TierPoint client, The Anchor Group, helped Gatesway Foundation modernize their back-office applications to gain the operational benefits of cloud computing. Anchor provides a robust flexible solution for their client with the help of TierPoint’s Multitenant cloud.

Are you considering cloud application hosting?

Do you have applications that would be more useful in the cloud? We can help make that a reality. At TierPoint, we offer customized IT services including managed hosting and application management to support an organization through your cloud migration. Our team of cloud advisors can help you to work through your cloud strategy and consider your options. Contact us today to learn more.

According to the 2021 State of the Cloud report:

• 92% of enterprises have a multicloud strategy
• 82% have a hybrid cloud strategy
• respondents use 2.6 public and 2.7 private cloud resources on average.

“Multicloud and hybrid cloud architectures are the new normal because it’s important to put the right workload in the right environment,” explains Dominic Romeo, Director, Product Management at TierPoint.

The growth of the Public Cloud

The global public cloud services market is expected to grow to over $397 billion in 2022, according to research by Gartner. The largest market segment is Software as a Service (SaaS), estimated to surpass $145 billion by the end of 2022. Infrastructure and desktop services are also growing rapidly.

The growth mostly benefits leading cloud providers, which include Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, according to the Gartner Magic Quadrant Case Study. Amazon retains its position as the leading public cloud infrastructure company with the largest market share.

Because cloud providers have different strengths, customers may choose different ones to meet various requirements. Requirements like geographic range, storage options, disaster recovery, or capabilities related to the type of applications or data they have. A company may be drawn to IBM due to their machine learning and AI capabilities, and opt for AWS due to their database experience. It isn’t uncommon to pick providers for specific use cases.

Hybrid cloud connectivity is critical

Connectivity – the bandwidth, latency, and resilience of a connection – is an increasingly important consideration. As multicloud and hybrid infrastructures become more prevalent, having a reliable and fast connection between cloud providers is critical.

“It’s important to know your latency requirements and to put the right data on the right transport,” said Romeo. “If I have ten seconds of latency, I need to ask, ‘How will that affect the end user or the data processing?’”

You may want to think about factors like load balancing. Load balancing is how you’ll support traffic to endpoints that serve your users best and strike an ideal balance from one data center to another. You may also want to consider your cloud interconnect options.

In the initial stages of cloud migration, an organization may have only non-critical data in the cloud, with a VPN as the connection. However, a VPN offers no guarantee in terms of throughput, latency, or performance as it travels over the internet. Once a company moves production applications and data to the cloud, they typically upgrade to a dedicated connection.

“While Internet VPNs can work great, there are many situations when you want the guaranteed performance, latency, and bandwidth of a dedicated connection,” explains Romeo.

Also read: The Cloud’s Importance in a Hybrid IT Strategy

Cloud connectivity options

Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute

Cloud infrastructure providers generally offer a range of connectivity options, from VPNs to high-bandwidth private circuits, at metered or flat-fee pricing. For example, along with VPN services, Microsoft also offers the Azure ExpressRoute private circuits, which provide direct network connectivity between Azure data centers and on-premises or colocated systems.

ExpressRoute connections are available in bandwidths ranging from 50 Mbps to 10 Gbps. For more bandwidth, Microsoft’s ExpressRoute Direct is a physically separate line that connects a customer to a Microsoft peering location and can provide up to 100 Gbps.

Cloud exchange

Another trend in cloud connectivity is the “cloud exchange.” It’s a term for cloud computing and managed service providers that also connect multiple cloud platforms under one umbrella. We have also been expanding services in colocation, backup, security, disaster recovery, and management services.

In order for a customer to have access to a range of hybrid and multicloud options, all they need to do is connect to the exchange provider. The arrangement makes it more cost-effective and low risk for customers to experiment with different platforms for best results.

As organizations adopt multicloud environments and require interoperability between platforms, the exchange model of cloud connectivity may well become the norm.

Key considerations for cloud connectivity

When evaluating cloud connectivity in accordance with your needs, remember – the optimal path to the cloud isn’t necessarily the shortest one. When you’re evaluating hybrid cloud connectivity, ask yourself the following questions:

• How do I ensure the resiliency and redundancy of my connections?
• How much bandwidth will I need?
• What are the latency connection requirements of different systems?
• Do I need to purchase additional network gear?
• Do I have the right staff to support it?
• What service providers can offer high-performance hybrid connectivity?

Also read: Network Infrastructure Trends: Long-Term Strategy

Is your hybrid environment optimized for cloud connectivity?

Is your cloud connectivity aligned with your business goals? If not, we can help you evaluate the best connectivity options for your hybrid cloud environment. To learn more about multicloud and hybrid cloud connectivity, contact us today.

Ongoing complications from the COVID-19 pandemic have taken their toll on businesses. While October 2021 saw a rebound, with 85% of small businesses reopening after temporary closures due to the pandemic, the most recent Small Business Pulse reported that 43.8% of businesses experienced a moderate negative effect from COVID-19 on their business, while 22.1% of businesses experienced a large negative effect.

The sectors hit the hardest were accommodation and food services (45.8% said it had a large negative effect), educational services (39.8%), and arts, entertainment, and recreation (39.7%) Even with businesses reopening, things are still in flux, and many “non-essential” mid-sized enterprises lost a significant portion of their revenue that will take a while to recover.

While many businesses experienced negative setbacks due to the pandemic, 25.1% of respondents said it had little to no effect on their business. Some even felt a positive effect – 7.2% experienced a moderate positive effect, and 1.8% saw a large positive effect.

This is to say that COVID-19 hasn’t and won’t impact every business equally. Businesses deemed essential early on, especially those that were able to pivot based on needs they identified in the market, may have a strong cash position now.

If you experienced success during a time of uncertainty, you may be looking at opportunities for expansion in the year to come. While you’re assembling your due diligence teams and performing your cost/benefit analyses, you’ll want to remember to include the cost of adopting a hybrid cloud strategy.

What is hybrid cloud infrastructure?

A hybrid cloud model encompasses multiple cloud platforms, like public cloud services (Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure), hosted private cloud, cloud storage, and multitenant cloud.

If you’re leveraging cloud resources, you probably already have workloads deployed across multiple clouds, often from different cloud vendors. It’s not uncommon for an acquisition to leave you with a true hybrid infrastructure, including private and public cloud resources that are unfamiliar to your team.

Company A: Stuck on Tradition

Imagine this scenario: Company A has weathered the ongoing storm, and finds itself in a strong position by the end of the year. They have some money to spend, but they’re not sure where to go with it. Company A is an older organization with a somewhat traditional approach to business and IT.

In the back office, they’re running financial applications that haven’t been updated in 20 years. In fact, the core application is still green screen, running on AS/400 hardware. The company, in short, is the opposite of the poster child for digital transformation. What they could use is help from a company that isn’t afraid to try something new.

Company B: Ready for Innovation

Knowing they need to innovate to survive long-term, management is taking a good look at Company B. They’re a young organization in the same market with a deep talent pool and a lot of cutting-edge ideas. Unfortunately, they lost funds and are actively looking for an infusion of cash to keep their dream alive.

Sounds like a match made in heaven. Company A can provide the cash to continue to fuel R&D, as well as a ready-made customer base for upsell opportunities. Company B has a small, but no insignificant, customer base already.

They provide the talent and the innovative spirit to propel the combined organization into a market leadership position. Culturally, the companies are different, but with a strong, top-down direction, these minor differences can be easily overcome.

So, what can go wrong, outside of the obvious hurdles that come from the management complexity of navigating cultural differences during an acquisition?

Hybrid cloud infrastructure on accident

The odds of these two diverse organizations having a similar approach to IT are extremely low. We already know Company A has legacy applications and data. Company B, on the other hand, sees IT as a strategic advantage. Every application they use is in the cloud, and most of it is subscription-based.

Company B’s strategy of empowering employees has served them well in R&D, but it’s led to a hodgepodge of solutions in IT and an overall lack of control. In fact, they’ve never quite gotten around to creating a configuration management database (CMDB), and they’re not really sure how many applications the organization has deployed.

Post deal, the combined IT organization will be tasked with managing a hybrid environment, with a mix of cloud and non-cloud resources, such as on-premises resources, virtual machines, public cloud environments, and operating systems.

Consolidating IT into a centrally managed, or at least consistent, environment, across divisions can have several benefits, including tighter hybrid cloud security and compliance, greater resiliency, and lower spend. The challenge in this situation is that no one on either team has the expertise they need to lead such a consolidation.

Also read: The Cloud’s Importance in a Hybrid IT Strategy

Working with a Managed Cloud Hosting Provider

The newly combined organization could benefit from what Gartner calls a Managed Hybrid Cloud Hosting (MHCH) provider, which is hosting that includes a cloud-enabled system infrastructure (CESI) platform and cloud infrastructure framework software. An MHC provider has broad experience across multiple types of clouds. They also provide common tools and services across resources to create a unified experience for the customer.

The unified experience provided by an MHCH provider gives the customer visibility into the resources that they need to manage them more effectively. Here are some recommendations for finding and working with the right MHCH:

• Assess what is and isn’t covered in the managed service provider’s (MSP’s) offered statement of work (SOW) and service-level agreements (SLAs) to minimize operational risk.
• Proactively and frequently review the market for changes. Don’t wait for contract breakpoints to reassess provider options.
• Examine the providers’ hyperscale partner certifications and how they can assist your organization. Third-party certifications are more reliable.
• Actively manage the division of operational and support responsibilities between in-house staff and the MSP to minimize disruptions.
• Have a strategic exit plan or multi-cloud strategy in case of a change in vendor status and viability to mitigate risk.

How TierPoint can help with your hybrid infrastructure

As a Managed Hybrid Cloud Hosting Provider, TierPoint has helped dozens of clients consolidate unfamiliar IT systems after a merger or acquisition. This often involves a significant re-platforming effort, for example, migrating from on-premises infrastructure to public and private clouds with time for development and testing.

Sometimes, we’re just called in to assess the situation to give our client a clear view of the challenges that lie ahead. Occasionally, we’re even called in pre-acquisition to assist in the due diligence efforts. To learn more about our services that can assist with your hybrid cloud architecture, reach out to one of our cloud experts.

Why Pennsylvania for a data center?

When developing a data center location strategy and selecting a data center location, it’s not always about what the location offers. Just as often, it’s what the location doesn’t have that makes it suitable for housing sensitive workloads and meeting high-availability computing needs. Pennsylvania is one such location:

• Not a very seismically active part of the country.
• Surrounded by hills, thus less likelihood of tornados.
• Not as susceptible to flooding as other parts of the country

Population density within Pennsylvania is also low compared to many other Northeastern states. Philadelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania (1.5M people), but the number of people per square mile is less than half that of New York City. Especially when coupled with a high volume of business traffic, bandwidth used by consumers in a densely populated area can put a strain on network availability. For businesses that need reliable connectivity and lots of bandwidth, low population density is a big benefit.

While less populated, Pennsylvania is still very close to major centers of business. Three of the major markets served by Pennsylvania data centers include New York City, Baltimore, and the District of Columbia. The furthest commute from some of the popular Pennsylvania data center locations to these major metros is just over three hours; the shortest is less than an hour.

Businesses that choose to colocate will typically own (or lease) their hardware and often take all or most of the day-to-day responsibility for managing it. It’s very important to these companies that the data center is within a relatively easy commute. Distance is also a critical factor when choosing a disaster recovery site. They want their disaster recovery data center to be close enough to visit if they need to, but far enough away that it remains unaffected by a regional disruption.

The benefits of Pennsylvania for data center colocation

We’ve talked about the benefits of housing your data in a Pennsylvania data center. Let’s now turn to how a colocation facility in Pennsylvania can help meet some of an organization’s other critical requirements.

Security and compliance

Companies that choose colocation services are often trying to balance security and compliance with cost structure. They want to decommission their on-premises data center and convert at least some of their CapEx into OpEx. However, maintaining responsibility for the hardware they own or lease gives them a better sense of control.

Online gaming is another type of business served by Pennsylvania data centers. Dave Callan, TierPoint’s V.P. of Sales for the Atlantic Region recently wrote about how colocating equipment in Pennsylvania can help these businesses achieve their IT goals. Read his full blog post here: Online Gaming in PA: Finding the Right Data Center Provider

High availability and low latency

Many hospitals and major financial institutions choose to house their equipment in data centers located in Pennsylvania. These organizations have high availability requirements, and they need low latency connections so they can create a better customer experience. All of the benefits of housing workloads in a Pennsylvania data center that we have already mentioned are vitally important to them.

Managed Services

Banks and hospitals also have stringent compliance and security requirements, and they often feel most comfortable taking a hands-on approach to their hardware. Data center colocation in Pennsylvania gives organizations like these the best of both worlds. Data center providers often offer additional managed services, remote hands, and IT security monitoring, to help fill gaps when staff can’t be there in person.

Business Continuity options

Business continuity workspace is another benefit of data center colocation with a provider. Data center providers often allocate hundreds of seats and meeting room space for clients to use in the event of a disaster.

During COVID-19, many businesses were forced to rethink their work-from-home policies, and they discovered it was possible to send at least a portion of their workforce home. However, a different type of disaster could quickly impact connectivity to the home, and business continuity workspace gives these employees a place to go.

Our five key Pennsylvania colocation data center regions

In our experience, we found these regions to be the best data center locations for our clients. Here are some of the benefits:

Valley Forge

Our Valley Forge data center houses over 600 clients in a 137K square foot facility and offers every product in our portfolio. While many of these customers house their primary workloads in Valley Forge, the data center is also used as a recovery site for many businesses based in Baltimore.

Allentown

Our Allentown-TekPark data center, at 122K square feet, is often the choice for our D.C. clients. Although it’s a little further away than Baltimore, TekPark is set up to handle the level of computing power required by these clients. In fact, we just completed a major power upgrade to this facility to increase computing density, ensure redundant power, and make it hyperscale-ready.

Lehigh Valley and Bethlehem

Our data centers on Courtney Street and LeHigh Valley in Bethlehem are smaller sites, with 25.9K and 27.7K square feet respectively. A few hours outside the major metro zones, many of our customers choose Bethlehem for disaster recovery, so we’ve configured these data centers to handle their high-compute needs.

Philadelphia

At 25.7K square feet, our Philadelphia data center is also a great disaster recovery site, but its strategic location in the Philadelphia Navy Yard also makes it a popular choice for a primary production site.

All five of our Pennsylvania data centers are connected by a dark fiber network ring that can provide sub-2ms connections. We also have dark fiber connectivity down to 401 North Broad in Philadelphia and up to 60 Hudson and 11 8th Ave in New York City. Our fast connections to these well-known data centers allow us to offer faster recovery times to clients using our Pennsylvania data centers for disaster recovery.

Many of our clients take a hybrid approach to cloud computing (public and private), housing workloads in a mix of on-premises data centers, TierPoint cloud services, colocation, and disaster recovery sites. No matter what combination they choose, all of our Pennsylvania customers benefit from our security-first approach. This includes industry-standard security best practices such as checkpoints, gates, fences, 24x7x365 on-site personnel, badge/photo ID access, biometric access screening, secure cages, and full-building video capture.

Come and see one of our Pennsylvania colocation data centers

If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of colocation, download our Strategic Guide to the Data Center and Colocation. This resource goes deeper into how colocation works, the advantages of colocation, and how colocation can help optimize a hybrid IT infrastructure.

Learn more about our data centers to understand why we’re one of the best colocation providers in Pennsylvania. To help you decide whether one of our Pennsylvania data centers is right for your needs, we’ve posted our data center spec sheets online:

• Valley Forge
• Allentown – TekPark
• Bethlehem – Courtney Street
• Bethlehem – Lehigh Valley
• Philadelphia

Are you ready to see one of the data centers for yourself? One of our expert advisors would be happy to give you an on-site tour of any of our Pennsylvania data centers.

Schedule a tour to learn more about our Pennsylvania data centers today.

This trend suggests we’re fast approaching an era in which Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) becomes the norm. But if you’re still not sure if a cloud infrastructure is right for your business, here are nine reasons our customers choose cloud computing. We’ve even thrown in a few tips and resources that can help you maximize your return.

Why cloud computing is top of mind for businesses

1. Cost-effectiveness

Virtualized resources remove the capital expense of procuring and maintaining equipment, as well as the expense of maintaining an on-premises data center.

In addition, cloud computing services deliver economies of scale and expertise for a faster return on investment (ROI). For example, did you know that data centers already consume more than 2% of the electricity consumed in the US? All of that power requires significant cooling. Larger data center operators have the bandwidth to invest in high-efficiency cooling systems that reduce power consumption and costs.

Also read: Six Tips for Controlling Cloud Spend in a Migration

2. Speed to market

These days, almost every organization is doing some sort of software development designed to enhance market position. Cloud computing allows the organization to quickly provision resources for development and testing across a number of different types of environments.

Once these applications are ready for rollout, developers can quickly transition code to a live production environment for a smoother product launch. Because these environments are highly scalable (see Reason #3), the organization doesn’t need to worry about inaccurately estimating capacity requirements for their cloud-based applications.

Working with a managed service provider like TierPoint to manage your live environment can also help you maximize uptime and performance for greater customer satisfaction. And while we’re focusing on your infrastructure, you can be focusing on creating killer cloud applications for your customers.

3. Scalability

Estimating data center capacity requirements is one of the most difficult tasks an IT leader faces. Overestimate and you end up sinking capital into capacity you don’t need. Underestimate and you end up crippling the business’s ability to respond to opportunity.

Cloud computing resources (compute, cloud storage, and network bandwidth) can be scaled up, down, or off to meet your current needs. Public clouds like AWS and Azure even provide for elastic computing, which automatically expands compute and storage to fit unanticipated capacity requirements.

4. Increased productivity

When your team doesn’t need to spend time maintaining equipment, they can focus on higher-value add activities like IT security and data analytics. Combining cloud computing with managed services gives your team bandwidth to work on other revenue-generating projects instead of day-to-day tasks.

Also read: What Are the Different Cloud Platforms (Public, Private, and Hybrid) and How Do They Work?

5. Innovation

Have a project on your to-do list that you never seem to get to because you’re too busy managing your infrastructure and fighting fires? By offloading infrastructure management and other time-consuming tasks to a managed service provider like TierPoint, your team can focus on the innovations that drive the business forward.

6. Improved performance

High-performance computing, faster internet connectivity, and local edge computing are among the many ways cloud computing reduces latency and improves performance.

Data center hardware and software can also quickly become obsolete, but many organizations try to get every last dollar they can out of their investment before they upgrade. Third-party data center providers typically follow a hardware refresh cycle that is far shorter than that practiced by on-premises data center operators. Newer hardware frequently means higher performance.

7. Data and cloud security

Third-party cloud providers have the bandwidth to focus on IT security 24/7/365. We’ve got our eye on emerging threats and the technologies used to combat them. We also have the resources to hire high-demand cloud security professionals and the expertise to implement best-practice controls and policies for cloud security.

Most on-premises data center operators can’t afford to expend this kind of effort on their in-house IT security efforts. Read our Strategic Guide to IT Security to learn more about cybersecurity and IT security fundamentals.

8. Availability

If you’re managing an on-premises data center, chances are you vividly remember the last time you experienced planned or unplanned downtime. It was likely not a walk in the park. Well-established third-party cloud providers have the resources to invest in redundant infrastructure, UPS systems, environmental controls, network carriers, power sources, etc., to ensure maximum uptime.

9. Resiliency

Before cloud computing, enterprises needed to invest in redundant infrastructure to protect themselves in the event of a disaster. Cloud computing makes disaster recovery far more cost-efficient and effective by enabling replication and failover to an alternate location in the cloud.

Cloud computing also gives you the flexibility to choose the failover location and model that optimizes your RTO (recovery time objectives) and RPO (recovery point objectives). For example, many organizations are using the public cloud, like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, for faster, more cost-effective recovery solutions.

Unfortunately, too many organizations don’t have the time, expertise, or bandwidth to do adequate disaster recovery planning. A Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution can help ensure you have the bases covered.

Thinking of migrating to the cloud?

The benefits of cloud computing are many but maximizing the return on your investment takes careful planning. A well-thought-out cloud migration plan can minimize downtime, ensure the safety of your data in transit, and help you maintain compliance and security throughout the process.

Don’t just take our word for it, see how our customer adopted the cloud for their ERP application to improve their non-profit operations.

Are you considering a move to the cloud? We offer a cloud readiness assessment that will help you create a comprehensive roadmap for migrating your data and applications to the cloud. Sign up today.

Originally published in May 2019, this post was updated on March 29, 2021, to reflect changes in stats and add more context around the benefits of cloud computing.

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Our blog authors have covered the developments, technologies, and best practices of 2020. We assembled the following roundup of the leading cloud computing trends of 2020, below, to provide an in-depth review of the past year.

Remote working soars in 2020

The biggest IT event of 2020 was the Covid-19 pandemic and sudden surge in demand for remote work capabilities. As stores and offices shut down in March and April, people turned to the Internet to access their offices and school, buy essentials, and collaborate with colleagues. As employees moved en masse to their home offices, Skype and Zoom replaced the conference room and water cooler. Demand for VPNs and bigger bandwidth soared.

IT professionals had to quickly pivot from providing support to office workers to provisioning and troubleshooting telecommuters. Besides expanding VPNs and bandwidth, IT departments also had to troubleshoot remote access and security problems, and learn different brands of laptops, desktops, headphones, Wi-Fi routers, and other accessories. For companies that hadn’t yet adopted collaborative applications such as Zoom, Slack, and Google Workspace, the year provided them with a crash course in video conferencing and file sharing.

The lessons learned in 2020 will continue to be of value. IT departments have improved their adaptability to sudden change and resilience in the face of disruptions. In addition, virtual offices are likely to remain with us for the foreseeable future. PWC’s remote work survey found that 83% of office workers hope to work from home, at least part time, after the pandemic, and 55% of employers expect them to.

• Equip Your Workforce with the Right Remote Working Tools
• Adapting IT Services for a Remote Workforce: A COVID-19 Pandemic FAQ
• Can Your Network Bandwidth Support Your Remote Workers and Customers?
• BraveIT Spotlight: How the Pandemic Amplified Remote Work
• VDI Brings Big Benefits to Remote Workers and Customers

Hybrid and multicloud dominate

The cloud has become the global enterprise platform for 2020, providing millions of employees with access to critical work applications and data. Most companies already had at least two cloud services and the pandemic has heightened adoption. Multiple cloud services, platforms, and providers is now common.

Hybrid and multicloud models can ensure that each workload and application has the right environment for optimal performance and cost efficiency. Cloud providers offer different types of applications, services, and prices. By choosing a best-of-breed approach, an IT department can optimize performance and minimize costs.

In early 2020, a few IT professionals were still learning the difference between hybrid and multicloud.

• A hybrid computing environment is a mix of cloud services and non-cloud applications, including legacy on-premises apps, private clouds, and collocated servers, as well as public cloud services from one or more cloud providers.
• A multicloud environment could include multiple cloud providers, platforms, and services, but no non-cloud systems. A typical multicloud environment might have cloud storage services from one provider, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application from two other providers, and a cloud platform for application development from a major hyperscale provider such as Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure.

Flexera’s 2020 State of the Cloud report finds that 93% of respondents have a multicloud strategy and 87% are taking a hybrid approach.

The main challenges that companies with hybrid and multicloud environments now face are integration and management. Cloud providers have begun offering unified cloud management applications so that customers can orchestrate and administer processes across cloud environments. Customers that don’t use a unified management application risk creating multiple cloud silos that offer no real benefits. Another option is to turn to a new type of cloud services provider that specializes in hybrid and multicloud management. These hybrid cloud computing providers assist businesses in creating and implementing hybrid and multicloud strategies and manage the integration and orchestration of these complex cloud and non-cloud environments.

• BraveIT Spotlight: The Data Experience & Hybrid Cloud Computing
• Hybrid Cloud vs. Multicloud – What’s the Difference?
• What Are the Different Cloud Platforms and How Do They Work?
• The Four Pillars of Provider Multicloud Management
• Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure Helps Address M&A Challenges
• Facts Over Myths: Multicloud Strategies That Work

Renaissance of private clouds

While the public cloud is, by far, the dominant cloud platform, private clouds are slowly regaining market share. Often private clouds are implemented as part of a hybrid cloud strategy, along with public cloud services to meet application needs that the public cloud cannot. In the past, IT departments rushed to put workloads in the public cloud, certain that it was both cheaper and more convenient. Now they are discovering not all workloads belong in a public cloud and are moving some of those workloads to on-premises and collocated private clouds.

There are a number of reasons for this:

• Faster and more consistent performance. Some workloads require consistent performance which the public cloud often can’t guarantee.
• Greater control over security. If you own the hardware and software, you control the security technologies and configuration as well.
• Workloads that require extra storage or processing resources can be expensive to run on a public cloud.
• Legacy applications. Often, older systems aren’t architected for the public cloud, but could be migrated to a customized private cloud.

In the past, IT departments shied away from private clouds because of their cost to develop and complexity in management. However, that is rapidly changing thanks to the emergence of hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). HCI offers a plug-and-play architecture that simplifies the development of private clouds. HCI products merge the hardware and software components needed to operate an IT environment—CPU, storage and networking hardware, hypervisor, and software for file serving, security, and networking—into a single unit. An HCI appliance operates as an integrated building block that can be clustered with other HCI blocks to scale up capacity.

HCI-based private clouds come at a good time to help IT departments create private clouds optimized for their needs.

• Big Benefits of Private Cloud and How to Take It to the Next Level
• Q&A: How Hyperconverged Infrastructure Works with Private Cloud
• What Happens When Hyperconvergence Meets the Hybrid Cloud?
• Q&A: Simplifying Private Cloud Architecture

Cloud strategies highlight a move to off-prem

Cloud migration and management requires research and planning to ensure successful implementation. Many migration experts recommend moving to the cloud in phases, starting with the easiest or most needed applications to show value early in the migration. However, with the advent of the coronavirus and need to support newly virtual workforces, IT departments have to had to speed up their migration timelines. A useful resource is consultants and managed services providers who can help plan and deploy cloud applications, as well as refactor legacy systems for cloud access.

IT organizations increasingly need outside providers to help shoulder the more complex or mundane aspects of IT operations. We mentioned earlier that companies are turning to hybrid cloud management firms to help implement and manage complex hybrid and multicloud environments. Gartner, which coined the term managed hybrid cloud hosting provider (MHCH), defines them as outsourcing companies that have broad experience with different cloud platforms as well as integration of cloud and non-cloud resources. An MHCH provider can also create a unified view of the hybrid environment to enable more effective management.

IT departments also work with service providers for other areas of IT expertise, including security, disaster recovery, help desk, and daily IT operations. One example is IT security. Managed security services providers (MSSPs) have become popular as cybersecurity has grown highly complex and the risks of suffering a cybersecurity attack has skyrocketed. Cyber-criminals launch sophisticated attacks that are difficult to prevent or identify without equally sophisticated defenses. Likewise, managed disaster recovery services help ensure there is a working backup plan should a disaster strike. Many IT departments find it challenging to develop their own DR and business continuity strategies, implement them at a remote data center, and maintain and execute them when needed.

Offloading certain day to day tasks can lower your IT staffing costs and provide access to high levels of expertise, such as in cybersecurity, cloud application development, and DR. Using a managed cloud provider is a good strategy for IT departments that prefer not to maintain large IT staffs or spend money hiring multiple IT specialists.

• Is Your Cloud Strategy Driving the Right Business Outcomes?
• BraveIT Spotlight: Mapping Your Cloud Journey
• Moving to the Cloud: Are You Actually Ready?
• Six Tips for Controlling Cloud Spend in a Migration
• What to Expect When You Move to The Cloud
• Is Your cloud Migration Strategy Helping or Hurting Your Business?
• A Guide for Choosing the Right Hybrid Cloud Provider

As IT becomes ever more specialized, and more critical to business success, IT departments must depend more on trusted partner and managed cloud services providers such as TierPoint. A trusted partner can provide a range of services, from cloud migrations and networking services to performance monitoring, DR, and private cloud development and hosting.

This past year has taught us the importance of flexibility. However, in-house IT staffs often lack the time or expertise to provide that flexibility. A trusted partner can improve an organization’s ability to adapt quickly to changes, mitigate risks, benefit from new technologies, and make the right decisions to meet current and future challenges.

Stay tuned for more cloud computing insights in 2021

Learn more about cloud strategy by downloading TierPoint’s  Cloud Computing Strategic Guide and reading TierPoint’s Talking Point’s blog on cloud trends. You can also subscribe to the TierPoint YouTube channel.

The value managed services providers offer for SaaS applications

Here are the six ways managed services are driving SaaS company success.

1. Enable multicloud environments

There are any number of reasons why a SaaS company might leverage multiple cloud types for its applications. One of the most common is to ensure the resiliency of their applications and services. Many SaaS companies house their data in a hosted private cloud and then leverage AWS or Azure as a backup solution.

Other times, there are various functions in your applications that may work better in one cloud environment than another. Or you may have pockets of customers that have a strong preference. For example, your government sector customers might prefer Azure while the pharmaceutical companies you serve might prefer a robust private cloud.

Just because your staff knows one type of cloud environment does not make them an expert across the cloud. You could hire additional staff to manage your various cloud environments. Or, you could work with a managed cloud provider to fill in the gaps.

Also read: The Four Pillars of Provider Multicloud Management

2. Help to lower costs

The most obvious way a multicloud managed service provider can help lower costs is by allowing you to get rid of the overhead of maintaining an on-premises or private data center. This includes the cost of the building and all that entails (security, HVAC, rent, energy, etc.). It includes the cost of the hardware (regular refreshes and maintenance). And it includes the cost of the personnel required to run the data center (IT, janitorial services, security, etc.). All in all, a private data center is a pretty expensive proposition.

But outsourcing your data center needs to a managed service provider can also help you spot overspending in the cloud. It’s not uncommon for a SaaS company’s developers to spin up a cloud environment to use for development purposes – and then forget to spin that instance down again when it’s no longer needed. These resources then sit idle even though you’re still paying for them.

Poor utilization of resources can happen for other reasons as well, but with so much on their plate already, many IT departments in SaaS companies find they don’t have time to keep an eye on infrastructure utilization the way they should. A managed service provider can keep an eye on utilization rates and identify underutilized cloud resources.

3. Ensure SaaS application compliance

By definition, SaaS companies are responsible for the handling and storage of their customer’s data. Sometimes that data is covered by an existing regulation such as PCI DSS (retail), FERPA (education), HIPAA (healthcare), etc. At other times, the information is simply personal and not something the user would want listed on the dark web.

According to McAfee’s Cloud Adoption & Risk Report, enterprises have an average of 14 misconfigured cloud infrastructure and platform instances running at any one time. Most notably, 5.5% of all AWS S3 buckets used to store data are misconfigured, making the data they contain publicly accessible. Whether anyone sees the data or not, this is a compliance violation that can lead to some pretty hefty fines in many regulated industries.

4. Power SaaS system security

The internet is filled with bad actors with malicious intent, but not all of these actors are human. We’ve seen a progression from first-generation bots that were designed to perform functions like scraping websites for information or filling out forms to fourth generation bots that can mimic human behavior.

These bots are capable of more than just stealing data. They can encrypt your customer’s data and demand payment, usually in bitcoin, in an attack known as ransomware. According to CyberEdge Group’s 2020 Cyberthreat Defense Report, 62% of organizations were victimized by ransomware last year, up from 56% in 2018 and 55% in 2017. The same report found that of those that paid the ransom, only 67% were able to recover their data. This type of attack can destroy a SaaS company’s reputation.

Bad bots can also overwhelm your systems in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. This is just as bad for the SaaS company because the end result is similar. Your customers can’t access their applications and data.

It’s hard for many SaaS companies to keep up with the latest threats. Because companies like TierPoint are in the business of IT security, we can afford to stay abreast of the latest threats as well as tools and strategies to combat them. We can help keep your systems secure and your customer’s data safe.

5. Make the IT staff more agile

If your business is software, not infrastructure, you’re probably already asking your IT staff to wear a lot of hats. Chances are, you could sit down and list at least a dozen IT-related tasks and responsibilities that take you away from your core business: providing great apps and superior service to your customers. Outsourcing these tasks and responsibilities to a qualified managed service provider can free up time, allowing you to focus on the things that move the business forward.

6. Improve up-time

I’ve already alluded to many of the ways that a managed multicloud provider can improve up-time. By managing the security of your environment, you can limit your risk of downtime due to ransomware, DDoS, and other cyber threats. A managed service provider can design a well-architected disaster recovery strategy that minimizes downtime and data loss in the event of a disaster. A managed services provider can keep a watchful eye on your environment and identify potential issues, such as over utilization of resources or malfunctions in the system, that can affect up-time and performance.

We can help you manage your cloud applications

Whether you’re adopting multiple cloud platforms, improving the security and compliance of your environment, looking to save on facility costs, or just looking to free your IT staff from day to day management of your cloud environment, a provider can help your business gain the competitive edge. As a managed services provider, we can help. We operate over 40 data centers across the U.S. and offer cloud, colocation, security, network and disaster recovery solutions that work for your business. Contact us today to see how we can help you address your IT challenges.

Putting Power Systems infrastructure and applications into the cloud adds many advantages: rapid scalability, ease of management, reduced IT staff, access to new technologies, and distributed access for remote workers. Power Systems plus the cloud is really the best of both worlds. 

What you need to migrate IBM Power Systems to the cloud

Careful planning is needed before a legacy application is moved to the cloud. If you’re considering migrating some or all of your Power Systems AIX or IBM i applications, here’s a guide to help you plan your cloud migration strategy.   

Development, disaster recovery or production

Cloud-based environments can serve three basic purposes: 

• Development – The cloud can provide a development “sandbox” for writing and testing new code 
• Disaster recovery – Cloud environments are often used for disaster recovery solutions. Replicating applications and data to the cloud can give you a ready-to-use backup in case of an outage or cyber-attack on the main production system.
• Production – Re-hosting all or part of your production IBM systems to the cloud can also give you access to the latest hardware improvements and operating system updates, without your IT staff having to do a thing. The cloud also provides a convenient and cost-effective way to meet seasonal demand for IT resources without having to buy additional hardware. 

IaaS or DRaaS

There are two options for moving Power Systems applications to the cloud: infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS). 

IaaS is an infrastructure-only option which includes storage capacity, network functionality, CPU, and memory. IaaS can help extend an on-premises system by providing additional storage or virtual servers as needed, sparing the customer the cost of buying new hardware to meet occasional surges in demand. The customer can implement whatever platform it wants, which is convenient for organizations with older versions of the IBM i or AIX platforms. 

DRaaS is good for ensuring that on-premises servers can failover to an alternate system in the cloud in case of a natural or man-made disaster. The on-site applications and data are replicated to a cloud virtual server which acts as a “cold” or “hot” spare in case of disaster. By using DRaaS rather than a simple data backup to the cloud, you can significantly reduce downtime and data loss.  

TierPoint’s IBM Systems disaster recovery service is an example of a DRaaS solution. Examples of IaaS offerings include: Data Storage Corp.’s (DSC’s) eHost, the IBM Cloud with Power Systems Virtual Servers. IBM Power Systems platform for Google Cloud, and .Skytap’s cloud for AIX and IBM i on IBM Power. 

Migration help

Many cloud computing providers offer cloud migration tools and services to help you transition to their cloud environment. Alternatively, you can contract with a cloud managed services provider who can both conduct an application and data migration, and manage your environment.  

A migration isn’t always as easy as a lift and shift. Migration planning providers may need to conduct a pre-migration assessment, create a roadmap and timeline for the migration, and help carrying out the migration. Management services cover the day-to-day administration of a cloud environment—such as updates, application performance and security monitoring, and tech support. 

Pre-migration audit

You’ll need an inventory of your Power Systems portfolio including servers, applications and licenses, application interfaces, and the various categories of data (e.g., financial data, public data, personally identifiable information covered by privacy laws, etc.) Also take stock of your in-house resources. What types of Power Systems and cloud services expertise exists among your employees, and what training opportunities can the managed services provider or consultant offer? Educating your staff enables them to liaise with IBM and cloud solutions vendors, as well as troubleshoot problems in an emergency. 

Workload sizing

Before you can move application workloads to the cloud, you need to size them. Knowing the performance data on your workloads will help you cost effectively plan your cloud requirements. Otherwise, you may have to spend more to add virtual machines, memory, and storage capacity post migration. There are tools for analyzing the performance of IBM i and AIX applications, such as the IBM Workload Estimator or Systems Workload Estimator. 

Data backup

Perhaps the most critical element of any migration is a good copy of your data. No one wants to lose half their business data to an untested backup. In the past, data was copied to tape and the tapes were sent to the cloud provider for upload. However, tape backups are more time consuming and more vulnerable to loss or theft.  

Lately, transferring data directly to the cloud has become more popular. For direct transfer, you can use an ETL (extract, transfer, and load) tool or replication service from a third-party provider, such as Google, TierPoint or Data Storage Corp.   

Schedule the migration

Because migrations can go awry, it’s best to choose a date and time when few end users will need the system. Typically, migrations and backups are scheduled on the weekend or late at night. Some migration services, such as TierPoint’s DRaaS, can replicate data in the background, without impacting the end user experience.  

When you finally do migrate your systems, whether it’s in phases or all at once, make sure to build in extra time for tweaking and testing. Ultimately, a cloud migration should provide you with the flexibility and scalability you need to meet the needs of your business while retaining the Power Systems infrastructure that you’ve come to depend upon. 

Migrate and protect your IBM Power Systems environment

Managed services providers (MSPs) can help you manage all of the considerations outlined in this post and more. When working with a managed services provider, you also gain the expertise needed to manage these large and complex migration projects without adding a burden to your IT team. Along with our partner, Data Storage Corporation (DSC), we provide migration, disaster recovery, and other managed services for cloud and hybrid cloud environments (private and public cloud with other workloads). 

Data Storage Corporation (DSC) is a provider specializing in IBM iSeries disaster recovery and helps organizations protect their data, minimize downtime and recover and restore data within their objectives. TierPoint is a leading provider of secure, connected data center and cloud solutions. Together, they provide a comprehensive solution for managing IBM iSeries migration, hosting and disaster recovery. Learn more about how you can protect your IBM iSeries environment and migrate to the cloud. 

To learn more about migrating legacy systems to the cloud or protecting it with a disaster recovery solution, contact us today.