On-demand resources, scalability, reliability, and cost-efficiency are beneficial to all manners of business, especially now, which is why Cloud is the go-to solution to efficiently deploy a remote workforce. (Click here to learn of other ways to deploy a remote workforce).
One of the most important aspects of cloud computing, especially in times of crisis, is the ability to work from anywhere. But not all cloud-based solutions are created equal in the areas of security, flexibility, and availability.
There are three main categories of cloud hosting available; public, private, and hybrid (a combination of the two.) Each has its pros and cons.
Public cloud can reduce and/or eliminate capex spending and be used to deploy a remote and flexible workforce. However, it can be less secure compared to private cloud and often requires on-premise IT professionals with proper training to design and implement the cloud for your secure remote workforce. Using a public cloud is a very "do it yourself" affair. Without proper guidance, it's easy to fail to utilize your cloud environment to its full potential or overspend and increase the total cost of ownership (TCO)
Another option is to hire a third-party solutions provider who specializes in cloud deployment. A third-party could also give the added benefit of eliminating even more of your overhead, resulting in more cost savings.
However, public cloud services consider backup and disaster recovery and business continuity solutions to be ad-on's which can make the investment more expensive. In addition, hidden charges such as network bandwidth will increase the TCO of a public cloud, sometimes surprisingly so.
There's a common misconception that public cloud is more secure than on-prem solutions. This is not true. Public cloud is considered multi-tenant, meaning you share resources with unknown entities. If you're in an industry where compliance is an issue, then public cloud may not be an option. Lastly, cloud applications like O365 and G-Suite do not guarantee backup of your data, which means that you will need a third party solution**.**
Private clouds can be planned, developed, and operated by IT technicians who can monitor and maintain your environment for you. With private cloud your resources are not co-mingled with other customers resources as with public cloud, meaning your private information stays isolated regardless of your workers' locations.
Other benefits include increased security, guaranteed resource availability, flexibility, and in some cases, cost savings over public cloud solutions (citation). With more employees working outside of the office, an organization can save money on brick and mortar costs, such as power and cooling.
However, as with public cloud solutions, you will need highly skilled IT professionals to design, deploy, and manage a private cloud environment which may be cost prohibitive for small and midsized organizations.
Consilien's VIRTUALe is another option for small and midsized organizations that combines the ease and cost savings of public Cloud with the security of private Cloud. VIRTUALe is a custom semi-private cloud environment that is fully managed, designed, built, and implemented by experienced IT engineers. VIRTUALe includes remote desktop services which are designed to augment a corporation's current solution. Consilien can host one application such as your ERP system or an entire network.
This is not a public-facing cloud, meaning out of the office employees still have to authenticate their credentials via their corporate firewalls and safeguards instead of simply logging in via a public website. Dedicated circuits can be established between a business and Consilien's secure data center to ensure a lack of outside interference.VIRTUALe's capability to scale up or down effortlessly means expansion or compression is quick and painless.
Data backups are housed not only in Consilien's data center, but redundant copies are located in Pennsylvania and Utah to ensure your business can quickly get back on its feet in the event of a disaster.
However, VIRTUALe isn't for every organization.
It's best suited for manufacturers, distributors, and professional services. Contact us for virtual tour and cost analysis today.