In our last blog post on how cloud computing is revolutionising the retail industry, we talked about the big players in the marketplace.
Amazon Web Services is the world’s largest cloud computing platform, hosting the likes of Netflix, LinkedIn, Facebook and the BBC. But Microsoft Azure is also one to watch, particularly how global retail giant Walmart plans to expand its use of Microsoft cloud services, to include using machine learning, artificial intelligence, and business analytics.
Earlier this year, virtualDCS adopted Azure as a hybrid cloud solution. We are now fully signed up as a Tier 1 partner, offering services such as Azure Site Recovery for business continuity and disaster recovery as a service.
But our ethos at virtualDCS has never been about selling one particular package or service to clients. We have always taken a holistic approach, looking at ways to utilise whatever is out there to best meet our clients’ needs. Often this involves creating a hybrid cloud solution.
We have previously compared ‘on-premise vs in the cloud’. Of the 94% of organisations use the cloud, 58% have a hybrid strategy. As an IT partner, virtualDCS is unique in having in-house expertise for both “on-premise” and “in the cloud” environments. So we can develop solutions for either or both.
Where are the “innovation gaps”?
We’re interested in where innovation is needed. What are the weaknesses in solutions that have already been built? Where are the gaps that the big players can’t deliver?
We call this “WACD” or “What Amazon (AWS) / Azure Can’t Do”. And we spend a lot of time researching and developing for these gaps, so we can deliver a complete solution for any kind of business need.
If you’re at the stage of deciding between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure for your organisation, then this useful and simple comparison on eWeek should give you an overview of things to consider. (Although we can discuss this in much more detail with you if you contact us for a review of your requirements.)
But if your company is already using Amazon or Azure, we know there are workloads that you can’t put there. We want you to know that you can put them with us!
A couple of “WACD” examples:
Azure does not support OS upgrades, so (for example) a VM running Red Hat Linux 6 cannot be upgraded to Red Hat Linux 7. Instead a new VM must be provisioned and the data moved, which could be very complex for some older application workloads.
The same is true even for Windows virtual machines. Thus any legacy systems (potentially already unsupported) sat in your computer room must be either upgraded or migrated to a new solution in advance of a migration to the cloud.
And our solutions:
By using a hybrid cloud model from virtualDCS, you can migrate these complex legacy environments to the cloud immediately to take advantage of the enhanced availability and performance of the virtualDCS cloud.
This allows you to continue your ‘cloud-first’ strategy without excluding critical business systems.
Why choose virtualDCS as your “WACD” partner?
We are often approached by fast-growth SMEs and start-ups that want feature rich solutions in a cost effective way. Typically they might want us to work with them to deliver a hybrid environment, with an Azure distribution of the front end to give them a global presence.
As a partner who works across all environments, we don’t need to “sell” a particular platform or approach. We can create bespoke solutions to meet specific needs, and give practical advice on how best to use public cloud environments to fit with an organisation’s existing infrastructure.
Another key advantage of working with us is that we can give up front agreed costs per month, which is difficult to do with other solutions.
Obviously we can also mix things up a bit with co-location, so companies can still use their own kit in our data centre. We have customers hosting their Palo-Alto firewalls or their F5 load balancers etc, which then integrates into the virtual machine environment.
In short – we can be flexible and adapt to your needs. And we LOVE finding innovative solutions to client challenges!
If you have a problem that can’t be solved within your existing infrastructure – whether it’s based on AWS, Azure or a hybrid set-up – why not contact us and see if we can help. Our developers genuinely relish this kind of challenge!
Call us today on 0345 3888 327, drop us an email to enquiries@virtualDCS.co.uk or fill in our online contact form for a callback.
