Whether it be high volume traffic during busy periods such as the holiday system, or just not having enough disk storage locally for the record, sometimes the resources in your environment are just not enough. This where IaaS solutions can be beneficial to IT consulting clients In Ottawa. IaaS allows your business to expand its local processes by utilizing the highly available resources out on the internet. IaaS can be used on a per-needed basis and removes the large costs of implementing a server that will be idle for stretches of time.
IaaS is the use of virtualized server resources to be used by your business in any way that it sees fit. For instance, you could you cloud storage solutions to hold rarely used files, so you can free up disk space within your local environment. It can also be used to augment your networks processing resources during periods of heavy use. As IaaS solutions tend to be the same across the board regardless of provider, below is a list of points and questions that users of tech support services in Ottawa should take into consideration when deciding which IaaS provider is right for their needs.
Resources: When it comes to IaaS you are leasing computer resources, so the price is going to be shown as a unit of resource per price. So in the case of processor time, it would be calculated as price per hour, in storage, it would be calculated as price per GB or TB. Users of managed services in Ottawa should look deeper than just the price. Although cost is no doubt extremely important, there are other considerations to be taken in to account. Another factor to take into consideration with some providers is the server operating system running on your virtual machine. Windows Server tends to cost more as the price includes the license fee.
Scalability: Do you potential IaaS provider allow for scalability during periods of high use? If so, are there any limitations to how many resources you can use? Is there a threshold where, if passed, the price per unit increases? These are important questions to ask when considering a potential service provider. Some providers can have a cheaper price-per-unit below a certain threshold of use within a certain time period, and a higher one beyond that threshold. Others can have a slightly higher price-per-unit but no threshold. The difference between the 2 may appear small but can become significant as time goes on. Users of computer services in Ottawa need to assess what their resource needs would be in order to be provided with the best service at the best price.
Availability. High availability is an absolute necessity, and some providers put availability as a higher priority than others. Although 99.9% uptime seems to be the standard, it means approximately 8 hours downtime a year and 99.99% means 45 minutes downtime per year. That extra .09% can mean a world difference when it comes to mission critical systems.
IaaS and other cloud-based services can provide substantial benefits to organizations and how they do business but, as with all technologies, there are always downsides. Discussed in the next article will be some of the disadvantages of cloud computing, to help companies in Ottawa who use IT decide if a cloud-based solution is best for them.