Provide a brief description of the Solution?
In the past the customer relied on their own people to manage their IT infrastructure. The management was reactionary and was performed by people in the company that were not IT people. They had other jobs within the organization and would split their time as was necessary. The time to resolution was very long as they really did not have the training nor the time to spend on resolving issues. When Insite was contacted to assess their Infrastructure, we showed them how a complete managed solution will make their organization more efficient and save them money. The efficiency was the guarantee their systems would not be down as often as their infrastructure would be placed into a state of the art facility on new machines with redundancies in place. Less system failure equates less dollar loss. The cost of having corporate partners work on IT issues was far greater than having Insite manage it for them. These partners are now able to focus on billing their time rather worrying about IT user issues.
Describe what elements of the cloud computing architecture were deployed in this solution, such as private vs. public cloud, how those decisions were made, and how security concerns were factored into the project design and implementation?
Insite discussed a variety of options with the customer. The final result was to implement a private virtual cloud solution within Insite’s own data centre. A fully public cloud was not an option as the company would not truly know where they data was being held. Security was also a concern and Insite was able to provide a similar network secured environment within the data centre as was provided to the customer at their own offices. Physical security was increased 10 fold as the data centre has security personnel as well as multiple barriers to access including building, elevator, data centre suite and finally their cabinet within the data centre. Fire suppression is state of the art multiple power and internet redundancies are in place. By choosing Insite’s Virtual Private Cloud the customer was assured no finger pointing and a single support number to call in case of issues. In a public cloud scenario, the customer may have multiple cloud provisioners and when issues arise they may have multiple support numbers to call to resolve the problem. Even if Insite was to take on the helpdesk for the public cloud, time to resolution would be increased for the same reasons as listed above.
Describe what makes your cloud computing solution unique or innovative, and how you pushed the boundaries of a typical cloud computing architecture in designing and implementing this solution for your client?
Our Managed Services offering from our Data centre allows us to ensure the utmost in security, efficiency and reliability. We own the infrastructure, which mean s we have the control over it. We have our people monitoring the systems and are available physically 24 hours a day. Insite was also able to provision a private T1 back to the data centre allowing for an additional layer of security and efficiency. When systems are hosted at the customer site, although we may be the preferred provider, there are too many variables involved that can cause infrastructure failure that would be beyond our control. If something were to happen within our own Infrastructure, there would be no finger pointing as we would be the only entity involved and resolution would be quick. At a customer location, we may have multiple parties that may cause potential problems such as ISP’s, Third Party providers and employees within the company which would all be beyond our control making time to resolution a very lengthy process.
Discuss why a cloud computing-based solution was the right choice for your client in this business case, rather than a traditional IT architecture?
GCSE really wanted to focus on their business and wanted to ensure their data was secure and was accessible 24×7. They moved from a traditional on premises environment to a cloud based environment and never looked back. One of the factors that sealed the deal was their transient increase in staff during tax time. 20 additional staff would be hired over a period of 3 months. Moving to the cloud allowed them to add these employees for 3 months, pay for use for that period and at the end of the period, the employees would be removed from the system and monthly costs would be reduced back to their current full time users. They were also guaranteed software upgrades as they come out for most of their productivity software. Insite also offered a Business Continuity solution whereby in case of a major disaster their servers and data could be spun up at a secondary data centre with access to data from anywhere with an internet connection.
Describe the business need this solution was expected to fill for your client, and how this solution has meet or exceeded those expectations. What measurable metrics, such as reduced costs or other efficiencies, can be provided to support the customer’s return on investment?
The ROI was immediate, The customers electric bill was reduced. The software refresh that they required was no longer required once they moved into a monthly utility fee per use model within the cloud. The company did not have to invest up front in new licenses for their servers and productivity software. Insite’s onsite monthly service bill to the customer was reduced substantially. Overall the customer saved over $90,000 the first year.
Discuss how designing and implementing this cloud computing solution challenged or broke new ground for you as a solution provider. How did it differ from other cloud computing implementations you have done, and what new challenges were faced by your technical and sales staff?
This was the first accounting firm Insite placed in the cloud. We did not realize the amount of updates that would be required for their multiple accounting specific software. Insite created a process methodology by having all updates and upgrades directed to them and through a schedule perform regular updates for GCSE, so that they are always up to date. Since Insite has been in the cloud business for a few years, the basic infrastructure is already in place.
How does this solution further your customer’s green or environmentally friendly plans?
GCSE was placed in one of the city’s greenest data centres. Cooling is performed via lake water and lights turn on only when movement is detected. The suite itself is lights up in sections only where work is being performed. Insite reduced the server count in half and therefore was able to use virtualization in place of additional servers, reducing further power consumption.