Our big message is that cloud is about business strategy and benefits; rather than clutter our pages with jargon and technicalities, our aim is to keep things clear and focus on that important point.
However, we also understand that you will have specific questions about our cloud platform, the technologies that are used and the underlying infrastructure.
Cloud Utilities™ platform overview:
- What type of cloud model is Cloud Utilities based on?
- What do I get with Cloud Utilities?
- What is the software technology behind Cloud Utilities?
- Is Cloud Utilities secure?
- What is the payment model for Cloud Utilities?
- What is the underlying physical infrastructure of Cloud Utilities?
What type of cloud model is Cloud Utilities based on?
Cloud Utilities is a public cloud that offers individual, virtual data centres with enterprise-class service levels. Until recently, the view of public cloud services has perhaps been associated with relatively low-grade storage and compute resources. However, as organisations have increasingly sought to use cloud for business-critical workloads, a new tier of regulated, commercial-standard public clouds has emerged to cater for this new and exacting demand. Cloud Utilities is one of these trusted public clouds.
Another important way in which businesses are seeking to maximise the advantage of their cloud investment is by extending their on-premise private cloud into trusted public clouds. Fulfilling this resultant hybrid cloud model is a key role for Cloud Utilities, providing guaranteed service levels for organisations that wish to outsource strategic workloads, or acting as a temporary overflow resource for when on-site infrastructures reach capacity.
What do I get with Cloud Utilities?
You get your own virtual data centre, and you get to do things your way. Cloud Utilities gives you the freedom and flexibility to take the resources that you need, when you need them, for as long as you need them — take a look at our payment model FAQ for a bit more information on the way that this works.
More specifically, a Cloud Utilities public cloud gives you access to an individual instance of VMware's vCloud Director cloud management portal. Through this online interface, you can create virtual machines with as much RAM, processing power and storage as you need. You can even choose from a range of storage grades depending on the requirements that you have for specific tasks: from our day-to-day SAN storage option for booting up virtual machines, applications and databases, to ultra high ("six nines") availability storage for deploying mission-critical workloads that simply can't go down. Ever.
What is the software technology behind Cloud Utilities?
Cloud Utilities is built on software from the established global leaders in virtualisation and cloud technology, VMware. Over 250,000 customers worldwide use VMware technologies, including 100 percent of the prestigious Fortune 100 and Fortune Global 100 companies. So by choosing a cloud service that's built on VMware technology, you're choosing a proven platform that's trusted by the world's largest and most successful enterprises.
As VMware Service Provider Partners, our technical and sales staff are required to complete in-depth training and achieve certification in key areas of cloud delivery. So by choosing to work with 1st Easy, you're investing in proven knowledge, understanding and application of VMware technologies.
Is Cloud Utilities secure?
Absolutely. We know that there are lots of questions about security in the cloud — for organisations that are thinking about deploying data outside of their physical boundaries, knowing that their assets are secure is a priority, so it's a priority for us too.
Cloud Utilities is protected by a combination of VMware vShield Manager, VMware vShield Edge, and off-net virtual data centre private networks. What's more, we've designed the architecture with three layers of network: the outside public network, an inside private network (connected as required to the outside public network) and a final inside private network for inter-system connectivity.
As with all public clouds, Cloud Utilities hosts multiple organisations. VMware technology ensures privacy and security in this so-called "multi-tenancy" environment by deploying each virtual data centre as a private local network, and using port group isolation to completely segregate individual customers.
The bottom line? Your data is secure with Cloud Utilities.
What is the payment model for Cloud Utilities?
Cloud Utilities offers a choice of payment options so that you can choose the model that best fits the needs of your business.
- With our "Allocation" model, IT and end-user management can decide on what resources they need access to on a permanent basis: an ideal baseline for a stable requirement.
- Alternatively, our "Reserve" model allows planners to earmark guaranteed resources over and above general operating levels.
- For the ultimate in flexibility, our "Pay-As-You-Go" (PAYG) model caters for rapidly changing or unpredictable scenarios, giving you the efficiency of paying for resource use as it scales up and down in response to real-time changes in demand.
Furthermore, VMware's cost reporting technology helps our customers to better manage their IT consumption costs. By enabling IT accountability throughout a business and providing a choice (or combination) of the Allocation, Reserve or PAYG resource pools, departments are encouraged to plan more accurately and consume resources more efficiently.
With this overall picture, organisations can also see which projects are delivering the best return on investment, and which areas of business are expensive cost centres.
That's our idea with Cloud Utilities: a next generation of infrastructure computing that allows you to buy resources just as you buy electricity and gas.
What is the underlying physical infrastructure of Cloud Utilities?
The hardware layer of Cloud Utilities comprises of the following:
- Ultra high performance host servers featuring 32 cores of CPU capacity, 128GB RAM and 4 x 1TB SAS-2 disks. The systems also have 2 x 10GE and 6 x 1GE network interfaces.
- The 10GE interfaces provide a dedicated, resilient connection to the SAN storage systems (Qsan and EMC CLARiiON).
- A further two 1GE interfaces connect to 47Gbps backplane switch pairs to deliver resilient, high performance core management functions. For example, VMware vMotion delivers virtual machines (VMs) from one place to another, while Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS) automatically load balances VM operations across the host servers.
- Another two 47Gbps backplane switch pairs deliver Virtual Distributed Switches (VDS) that form the isolation port group layers between virtual data centres and external IP transit delivery.
All servers and pairs of switches are independent of power, with dual feeds delivering A and B power sources to each switch leg and PSU in each server.
- Let's talk cloud: speak with a cloud sales consultant by calling 0808 222 2221, or contact us online
- Why cloud? read our guide: "The Business Case for Cloud"
- How does cloud help businesses like yours? Get a cloud hosting blueprint for your business type
