Growth in Hybrid Cloud

It is probably no surprise to anyone reading this that the move to Hybrid Cloud is picking up pace. IT organizations are moving data and workloads offsite for protection or to expand resource capacity more dynamically without increasing their capital spend. Of course, protection and capital management are just a couple of examples.  The reasons and use cases for the growth of Hybrid Cloud are evolving nearly as fast as the technology that makes the hybrid infrastructure more viable than ever before.

As a storage focused Solution Architect, my perspective is data-centric. I look for ways to get data to the cloud most efficiently. My interests are motivated by how we use, migrate, and protect that data once it’s there. I need to answer questions about presenting the data to applications and compute resources, how to migrate it from one Cloud provider to another, and how to restore it back to on-premise resources.

 

Options for Managing Data in a Hybrid Environment

Management of data in a hybrid environment is facilitated by an increasing number of solutions today. This week, I’d like to highlight three cloud-based data solutions from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).  Two of the HPE solutions I’ll be summarizing here are part of an HPE Cloud Suite. Those solutions include HPE Cloud Volumes Block and HPE Cloud Volumes Backup. The third solution has been around for some time and is not officially considered part of the Suite. However, I think it is important as a consideration in an overall Data in the Cloud strategy. That third solution is HPE Cloud Bank Storage.

 

The HPE Cloud Suite

As I mentioned before, the HPE Cloud Volumes Suite consists of a pair of enterprise-class, on-demand data services from HPE that provide Block and Backup storage on an HPE Cloud platform. Each of these services leverage technologies from HPE that can also be found in their on-premise solutions. Cloud Block utilizes Nimble Storage and Cloud Backup utilizes the StoreOnce Catalyst Store.

Together, these services can provide an on-premise experience. But, to be clear, you don’t need to have Nimble or StoreOnce on-premise in order to use these HPE data services. The idea behind Cloud Volumes is to provide access to your data from anywhere and allow you to move data between workloads across the major cloud providers that include Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

The HPE Cloud Volumes Suite is a pay-as-you-go service. You only pay for what you use. Because your data is on an HPE platform, you don’t need to worry about egress fees as you would with the other cloud providers. However, because the HPE platform has data locality beside the other service providers, you can present your data to compute resources located on the other platforms. This means you can move data between the other cloud services providers quickly and without additional charges. The result is the elimination of cloud provider lock-in.

So, let’s take a quick look at each of the Suite data services.

 

Cloud Volumes Block:

This service provides enterprise cloud-based Block storage to use for volumes that will connect to workloads running in Azure, AWS, and GCP. The storage is located on HPE’s cloud platform but with data locality near the cloud provider(s) of your choice. Because HPE Cloud Volume Block is separate from the workload platform, you can migrate data from one provider to the other without egress charges; the data doesn’t change its location, only the workloads change locations.

As mentioned earlier, HPE Cloud Volumes Block uses HPE Nimble technology and all the features you’d expect on that array platform. And, as with HPE Nimble on-premises solutions, you can expect six 9’s (99.9999%) availability with HPE Cloud Volumes Block. While the management interface is different than the on-premise Nimble Array, the ease of provisioning volumes still exists.

Using the HPE Cloud Volumes Portal, you can choose your Workload Cloud Provider, Cloud Application, Volume Type, Performance Characteristics, Size and Application Hosts to which you will present volumes. And, of course, you can specify snapshot schedules, whether to encrypt the volume, cloning, etc.

Features of HPE Cloud Volume Block include:

• Multi-cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Instant Snapshots and Clones
• 256-bit volume encryption
• Nimble replication from on-premise to Cloud
• REST API
• CLI
• Container support (Docker, Kubernetes, Mesophere)
• SoC2 Type 1-certified
• HIPAA-compliant

So, what are your workload requirements? Test/Dev? Production? HPE Cloud Volumes Block is suited for either of these use cases.

 

Cloud Volumes Backup:

As the name implies, this part of the HPE Cloud Volumes Suite provides a cloud-based backup target. We are all familiar with the 3-2-1 backup/recovery strategy where you maintain 3 copies of your data on 2 types of media with 1 copy off-site. HPE Cloud Volumes Backup fulfills the off-site part of that strategy.

 

 

The HPE Cloud Volumes Backup service integrates with some of today’s leading backup ISV’s, including Commvault, Veeam, and Veritas. There is also support for MicroFocus Data Protector. What this means is that you can start using Cloud Volumes Backup immediately if you already use one of these ISV backup/recovery solutions. In addition to the ISV’s mentioned, Cloud Volumes Backup integrates with HPE RMC (Recovery Manager Central) for protection directly from on-premise HPE Primera, HPE 3PAR, and HPE Nimble. But, to be clear, if you are using a supported backup/recovery software solution, you can protect data on any storage array supported by the ISV.

One of the goals for any backup/recovery strategy these days is to provide an extra layer of protection from a Ransomware attack. After all, it is reported that there is a ransomware attack happening every 40 seconds. To provide protection from ransomware, HPE Cloud Volumes Backup incorporates the HPE Catalyst protocol. This protocol creates data Stores that are not directly accessible by the OS, making the backup images invisible and inaccessible to ransomware.

With high-profile reports of data loss and increasing levels of government legislation for data security, companies are seeking to encrypt their data. With Cloud Volumes Backup, data is encrypted in-flight and at rest. Data on the wire travels under an AES-protected SSH tunnel to HPE Cloud Volumes Backup. Data at rest can be encrypted with 256-bit AES-encryption.

And, in case you were wondering, HPE Cloud Volumes Backup offers built-in multitenant security. Backup volumes created by one user are not visible to others, even if they are stored on the same device. Management or provisioning access, as well as data access, is also multitenant.

In addition to security, you are also likely concerned about being able to assure the integrity of the data you are trying to protect. The reliability of your backed-up data sets is critical. It would be a disaster to restore your data from a backup location only to find it is corrupt. HPE Cloud Volumes Backup provides data integrity throughout its lifecycle by providing built-in protection that checks data at multiple stages. Data is checked during backup, while at rest, and during recovery.

Finally, in addition to being ready in the event of a data recovery event, where you would be restoring data back to your on-premise array, HPE Cloud Volumes Backup can be used to restore data to HPE Cloud Volumes Block. It leverages public cloud compute resources for disaster recovery, test/dev, reporting, analytics, etc.

 

Cloud Bank:

So far, we’ve talked about cloud-based storage for production and test/dev workloads as well as storage for your off-site, standard retention backup target. An important consideration for any backup/recovery strategy is how you will manage your long-term, archive storage. To that end, HPE Cloud Bank is designed to be used as long-term archive object storage.

Cloud Bank is an extension to the HPE StoreOnce Backup Appliance. The design assumes you will store short-term retention data on an on-premise HPE StoreOnce appliance. Then, it tiers that data to HPE Cloud Bank for longer-term retention and archival data. Cloud Bank leverages a customers’ provisioned object storage in either Azure or AWS. It funnels data to and from those objects stores through StoreOnce.

In contrast, HPE Cloud Volumes backup is an as-a-service offering. A customer can have backups near to the cloud without managing a cloud infrastructure, or any on-premises appliances or licenses. You can also restore from Cloud Volumes Backup directly to any array, or, to Cloud Volumes Block, so that data can be used with GCP, AWS, or Azure compute.

Depending on your use case, all three of the cloud-based storage solutions presented here may work for you. Whatever you are looking to achieve with your cloud-based data footprint, one of these options is likely to get you there.

Contact Zunesis for more information on how to manage data in a hybrid cloud environment.

 

Reliable Cloud Platforms?

 

2019 has been filled with extensive outages from prominent cloud platforms including Google and AWS. These outages impacted huge numbers of end users and businesses. This resulted in a myriad of issues including missed opportunities and significant revenue loss.

 

 

With 2020 around the corner, it seems only natural that your company revisit the reliability of the infrastructure you have deployed in the public cloud.

 

Loss of Visibility and Accountability

 

It is inevitable that outages will happen. The critical question is how your company responds to an outage.  Because you need to be accountable to your clients and end-users, you must have some level of control over your data.  However, as data migrates into a shared cloud space, you lose visibility into its exact whereabouts, into the actual infrastructure that is supporting it. You are essentially losing control over your infrastructure.

 

If you are outsourcing your infrastructure, you are also outsourcing accountability. Your mission-critical data no longer lives in the server down the hall or in a nearby colocation facility. It is no longer monitored by people you can call by name, on the phone, or contact in the middle of the night. This loss of visibility and control has serious implications for businesses.

 

When an outage happens in the cloud, it can be exponentially more difficult to trace the source. Downtime can be much longer and costlier as a result. You may find yourself at the mercy of circumstances you cannot control or mitigate. This threatens your ability to be accountable to your clients and users.

 

 Hybrid IT Option

 

Many companies today are born in the cloud but even for these companies there are some options that will maximize control, accountability and the ability to mitigate an inevitable outage. The solution lies in diversification or hybridization of one’s IT infrastructure.  You can achieve this by adopting a hybrid IT or a multi-cloud strategy.  A diversified approach allows you to achieve greater control and greater accountability as your company will no longer be outsourcing all of the accountability for your infrastructure.

 

When it makes sense to retain a significant amount of on-premises IT infrastructure, you can still improve the quality and efficiency of those operations by operating them as a private cloud.

 

Consider your options, most notably using Microsoft’s Azure Stack. By bringing consistent services on premises, you can run on your own hardware that meets its requirements. The benefit is that Azure is a proven platform with a vast ecosystem of third-party support and expertise available. If you don’t have the right skillset for Azure cloud, you may need help from outside experts.

 

 

The hybrid cloud is best defined as the combination of your public and private cloud assets, both on and off prem.  A hybrid cloud is an effective way of hedging your bets on the big trends in technology. You may think a public cloud can do all you need for your organization. But, it is possible that some of the use cases for on-premises IT will take hold in your organization. A hybrid cloud environment gives you the resources, skillsets, processes, and tools to deploy new systems where they belong.

 

Contact Zunesis for an assessment on what strategy works best for you infrastructure.

Cloud computing has definitely impacted how most enterprise IT Departments are managing their overall IT architecture. Businesses are constantly reevaluating what infrastructure will work best for their environment. Is it private cloud, public cloud, or hybrid cloud? What are the differences between these types of clouds? All three options provide similar benefits, including cost-effectiveness, performance and reliability but ultimately which deployment method a business chooses is dependent upon their business needs.

 

Public Cloud

 

Public cloud is a term for cloud computing services offered over the public Internet and available to anyone who wants to purchase them. This type of cloud typically offers the greatest level of efficiency in shared resources however they are typically more vulnerable than private clouds. Microsoft Azure is an example of a public cloud. All hardware, software, and other supporting infrastructure is owned and managed by the cloud provider. You share the same hardware, storage, and network devices with other organizations or “cloud tenants.” You access your services and manage your account using a web browser.

 

A public cloud may be a good option when:

 

• Your workload for applications is used by lots of people, such as email
• You have SaaS (Software as a Service) applications from a vendor who has a well implemented security strategy
• You  need incremental capacity (ability to add computer capacity for peak times)
• You are doing collaboration projects
• You are doing an ad-hoc  software development project using a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering cloud
• Testing and developing environments

 

Public cloud storage is for the most part cheaper than on-premises storage especially when you look into the upkeep and upgrades you may need with your hardware. Most cloud-storage services can accommodate periodic surges and typically have security protocols in place to protect your data including backup in a second location.

 

The biggest warning is to make sure that your business takes the extra time and due diligence to ensure you have security and governance issues well planned. This option may work best for small businesses since they typically do not have a lot of proprietary information that requires extra security.

 

 

Private Cloud

 

A private cloud consists of computing resources used exclusively by one business or organization. It can be located physically at a business’ on-site datacenter or it can be hosted by a third-party service provider. The services and infrastructure are always maintained on a private network and the hardware and software are dedicated solely to the organization to allow your business to customize its resources to best fit your specific IT requirements. Private clouds are often used by government agencies, financial institutions and other mid to large size organizations where its critical to have control over their IT environment.

 

Advantages include:

 

• Ability to customize the cloud environment to meet your specific business needs
• Improved security since your resources are not shared with others
• High Scalability

 

Here are some additional indicators that your application may be a good fit for the private cloud:

 

• Application has very predictable usage patterns and low storage costs
• You need high performance access to a file system. For example, a media company that creates or produces large videos
• An application that may be poorly written or infrequently used that may not be worth the effort of moving it to the public cloud

 

Hybrid Cloud

 

A hybrid cloud is becoming a more popular choice for businesses of all sizes. In 2015, almost 90% of enterprises said they were looking to pursue a hybrid cloud solution. It is where both public and private cloud are utilized to host your data. In a hybrid cloud, both data and applications can move between private and public clouds for greater flexibility.

 

Cloud bursting is also an option when using a hybrid cloud. Its when an application or resource runs in the private cloud until there is a spike in demand such as during the holiday season when online shopping is at its peak and then at that point, the organization can “burst through” to the public cloud to tap into additional computing resources.

 

Advantages of hybrid clouds:

 

• Control: you can maintain a private infrastructure for sensitive assets
• Flexibility: take advantage of additional resources in the public cloud when you need them
• Cost-effectiveness: You pay for extra computing power only when needed
• Ease: You can migrate to the cloud gradually and phase in workloads over time.

 

A hybrid environment is only as strong as the integrations that unite them. The team managing the infrastructure should always be running performance monitoring, regular testing, and data ingress and egress procedures to reveal possible areas of difficulty and when to further evolve the application.

 

When deciding what cloud platform works best for you, its best to analyze your business’ needs and what will work the best for your budget, security, and compliance. Zunesis account managers and solution architects are available to sit down with you for a discovery of what will work best for your organization. We have relationships with several great partners including Microsoft and HPE that can take your business to where you want to go in terms of cloud computing. Contact us today to find out more on how we can help.

 

Cloud computing has definitely impacted how most enterprise IT Departments are managing their overall IT architecture. Businesses are constantly reevaluating what infrastructure will work best for their environment. Is it private cloud, public cloud, or hybrid cloud? What are the differences between these types of clouds? All three options provide similar benefits, including cost-effectiveness, performance and reliability but ultimately which deployment method a business chooses is dependent upon their business needs.
 

Public Cloud

 
Public cloud is a term for cloud computing services offered over the public Internet and available to anyone who wants to purchase them. This type of cloud typically offers the greatest level of efficiency in shared resources however they are typically more vulnerable than private clouds. Microsoft Azure is an example of a public cloud. All hardware, software, and other supporting infrastructure is owned and managed by the cloud provider. You share the same hardware, storage, and network devices with other organizations or “cloud tenants.” You access your services and manage your account using a web browser.
 
A public cloud may be a good option when:
 

• Your workload for applications is used by lots of people, such as email
• You have SaaS (Software as a Service) applications from a vendor who has a well implemented security strategy
• You  need incremental capacity (ability to add computer capacity for peak times)
• You are doing collaboration projects
• You are doing an ad-hoc  software development project using a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering cloud
• Testing and developing environments

 
Public cloud storage is for the most part cheaper than on-premises storage especially when you look into the upkeep and upgrades you may need with your hardware. Most cloud-storage services can accommodate periodic surges and typically have security protocols in place to protect your data including backup in a second location.
 
The biggest warning is to make sure that your business takes the extra time and due diligence to ensure you have security and governance issues well planned. This option may work best for small businesses since they typically do not have a lot of proprietary information that requires extra security.
 
 

Private Cloud

 
A private cloud consists of computing resources used exclusively by one business or organization. It can be located physically at a business’ on-site datacenter or it can be hosted by a third-party service provider. The services and infrastructure are always maintained on a private network and the hardware and software are dedicated solely to the organization to allow your business to customize its resources to best fit your specific IT requirements. Private clouds are often used by government agencies, financial institutions and other mid to large size organizations where its critical to have control over their IT environment.
 
Advantages include:
 

• Ability to customize the cloud environment to meet your specific business needs
• Improved security since your resources are not shared with others
• High Scalability

 
Here are some additional indicators that your application may be a good fit for the private cloud:
 

• Application has very predictable usage patterns and low storage costs
• You need high performance access to a file system. For example, a media company that creates or produces large videos
• An application that may be poorly written or infrequently used that may not be worth the effort of moving it to the public cloud

 

Hybrid Cloud

 
A hybrid cloud is becoming a more popular choice for businesses of all sizes. In 2015, almost 90% of enterprises said they were looking to pursue a hybrid cloud solution. It is where both public and private cloud are utilized to host your data. In a hybrid cloud, both data and applications can move between private and public clouds for greater flexibility.
 
Cloud bursting is also an option when using a hybrid cloud. Its when an application or resource runs in the private cloud until there is a spike in demand such as during the holiday season when online shopping is at its peak and then at that point, the organization can “burst through” to the public cloud to tap into additional computing resources.
 
Advantages of hybrid clouds:
 

• Control: you can maintain a private infrastructure for sensitive assets
• Flexibility: take advantage of additional resources in the public cloud when you need them
• Cost-effectiveness: You pay for extra computing power only when needed
• Ease: You can migrate to the cloud gradually and phase in workloads over time.

 
A hybrid environment is only as strong as the integrations that unite them. The team managing the infrastructure should always be running performance monitoring, regular testing, and data ingress and egress procedures to reveal possible areas of difficulty and when to further evolve the application.
 
When deciding what cloud platform works best for you, its best to analyze your business’ needs and what will work the best for your budget, security, and compliance. Zunesis account managers and solution architects are available to sit down with you for a discovery of what will work best for your organization. We have relationships with several great partners including Microsoft and HPE that can take your business to where you want to go in terms of cloud computing. Contact us today to find out more on how we can help.