Cloud Computing for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Running a small- or medium-sized enterprise (SME) can be stressful even in the best of times. In periods of economic turmoil the pressure is even more intense, especially for Information Technology (IT) budgets.

While business owners must ensure their budgets are balanced, it’s equally imperative that they ensure their critical data and systems are afforded the best protection possible. Unplanned downtime, data loss or any other IT disaster that compromises business-critical systems can have a catastrophic effect on a business. Two thirds of SMEs that suffer a major data loss go out of business within 18 months; so companies that gamble on ineffective or insufficient data backup systems are imperiling their own existence.

The dilemma facing SMEs is twofold – they rarely have the budget for the large capital expenditure that first-class backup infrastructure demands; and rarely do they have a dedicated IT department to advise and oversee such a complex project. There’s also the problem of scalability. As a company grows, the infrastructure that worked well for five users is unlikely to provide adequate support for an enlarged workforce.

Traditionally, these constraints have prevented SMEs from enjoying the benefits of the best storage and backup infrastructure, leaving them more vulnerable to data loss than their larger rivals. Now, however, smaller businesses can enjoy the benefits of enterprise-level storage and backup infrastructure, without the exorbitant cost. That’s because Cloud Computing has come of age and is finally delivering a long-promised revolution in the way that businesses buy and use IT services.
 
Cloud Computing

Until recently, the term “Cloud Computing” was a nebulous, mysterious phrase which elicited great excitement among the technical community but was met with mute incomprehension from everybody else. This is in spite of the fact that we’ve been computing in the cloud since the very dawn of the Internet: our everyday email services such as Hotmail and Gmail can be considered cloud services. But until recently, cloud computing has lacked the reliability and resilience to be considered as true business-grade services.

While it sounds highly complicated, the concept of computing “in the cloud” is simplicity itself. Cloud computing is where businesses take delivery of everyday IT services – such as backup, data storage or software applications – over an Internet connection, rather than hosting the necessary hardware and software themselves.

Key systems such as databases and software reside on a service provider’s network, so SMEs do not have to face the large capital costs of buying, implementing and managing their own IT equipment. Instead, they take advantage of their service providers’ enterprise-level services and infrastructure.

Because businesses only pay for the services they need and use, they are liberated from the constraints of traditional proprietary IT. Smaller firms gain access to the highest standards of storage, data backup and disaster recovery services which were previously prohibitively expensive.

Cloud computing gives small businesses the flexibility to adapt to changing economic conditions and sudden growth or decline in staff numbers. And because data, applications and equipment are all managed by the service provider, cloud computing slashes the time and money that smaller companies need to devote to IT maintenance.

You might expect that the privilege of using first-class infrastructure would come with a hefty price tag. But the beauty of cloud computing is that small businesses need only pay a small subscription to access these services. Economies of scale mean that service providers can invest in the best, most reliable network equipment and infrastructure for their clients.

Now, business-grade cloud computing is no longer a pipedream – businesses around the world are already reaping the benefits, while Merrill Lynch predicts that the annual global market for cloud computing will reach £95bn by 2013.

As more and more services providers begin to offer cloud services, small- and medium-sized businesses have never had a greater range of choice. It’s important, however, that businesses should not be dazzled when they see that their ISP offers cloud services. As with any product or service, not every cloud computing provider is the same. To ensure the best possible levels of availability and protection for their business-critical data and systems, SMEs need to choose their cloud provider with care.

What To Look For In A Cloud Computing Service Provider

Infrastructure

Because cloud computing requires businesses to place their critical IT systems and data onto their service provider’s network, it is vital to choose a Service Provider that has invested in the most resilient and reliable technology across its infrastructure.

While investing in market-leading components, such as servers, cabling and routers will minimize failures within individual infrastructure elements, it’s important to remember that no IT equipment is infallible – not least from unexpected power outages.

That’s why SMEs should choose a cloud service provider like Cloud Data that operates its data centres at N+1 capacity, where every component in the system has a redundant “twin”, so even if a component suffers complete failure it won’t degrade performance or availability.

Even operating at N+1 capacity isn’t enough to protect your systems and data in the event that an entire data centre suffers unplanned downtime, whether it is from a local power outage or natural disaster. Businesses should choose a service provider which splits its servers and storage infrastructure across multiple machines, in several data centres in different localities. This configuration is inspired by the Redundant Array of Interconnected Clouds (RAIC) model, whereby multiple data centres are configured to fail over to one another if one site suffers unplanned downtime, so clients can ensure they keep critical business processes running.

Server Virtualisation

Virtualisation is a key enabling technology for “cloud computing” but, just as with that phrase, it is rarely explained and remains mysterious to many laymen. Thankfully, the concept of server virtualisation is much easier to understand than the actual mechanics.

Typically physical servers running applications like file sharing and web hosting use only a small proportion of the available CPU and memory resources. Virtualisation takes advantage of this by introducing a lightweight operating system know as a "hypervisor". The hypervisor partitions the physical resources and allocates them to "virtual" machines so that each machine has a share of the available resources and is completely isolated from all the others. This means that physical servers can use more of their actual capacity, thus saving space and power, while the virtual machines continue to run as if they were on dedicated hardware.

Choosing a service provider that uses first class virtualisation technology, such as market-leader VMware, means that SMEs need don’t need to invest in and understand the technology themselves. Virtualisation also makes it much cheaper and easier to migrate systems and data for maintenance, hardware upgrades or even disaster recovery.

Backup

A business’s most important asset is its data. Staff, stock and equipment can all potentially be replaced. Once data is lost, it’s gone forever.

Every business with a modicum of IT awareness will understand the importance of conducting regular backups. The problem with traditional scheduled backups, undertaken at fixed points throughout the day, is that they do not protect any information created or changed since the last backup. If your local server goes down, then everything since the last backup is lost. This can be particularly devastating for companies whose data changes frequently.

Businesses looking to take advantage of backing up “in the cloud” should look for a service provider which, like Cloud Data, provides continuous data protection (CDP). With CDP, any changes to data and system state are backed up as soon as they occur, and sent to the service provider’s storage area network. Because every transaction is captured, businesses are able to recover data back to the most recent change or transaction.
While it’s important to make sure data is backed up, businesses still lose revenue and productivity if they don’t have access to mission-critical systems. Smaller businesses are much less able to absorb this loss of productivity, so SMEs should choose a service that enables staff to continue working, even when their local server is down. A cloud service provider should be able to “replicate” their clients’ servers from the backed-up data that they hold, and to provide remote access so that staff and carry on working as normal until service is resumed.

Finally, any form of backup should feature encryption as standard, to ensure that no-one else can access your sensitive data.

Choosing a cloud service provider with resilient infrastructure, multiple data centres and industry-leading virtualisation technology will give SMEs access to enterprise-level IT availability and business continuity. And, when the cost savings are considered, even the finance director will be on cloud nine.

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Notes to editors:

Journalists are invited to quote and use information from the backgrounder below but please ensure all comment is attributed to John Dudmesh, Technical Director, Cloud Data.

For further editorial information or to arrange an interview please contact the Cloud Data press office: clouddata [at] pwkpr [dot] com or telephone 020 7609 1900.

About Cloud Data

Cloud Data combine unrivalled technical expertise with an investment in industry-leading infrastructure to deliver hosting, business continuity and backup services through cloud computing specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises. Cloud Data ensures the availability of its clients’ business-critical IT systems and data, no matter what disaster may hit their IT infrastructure. Cloud Data are committed to providing the most personalised, professional standards of support for its customers.