Embracing IT outsourcing: How the right cloud provider can help your business harness the benefits of IaaS_

Most of us know about the benefits of cloud by now, but when it comes to actually implementing a cloud solution, it’s easy to feel like you don’t know where to start. Many CIOs find themselves with a costly and labour-intensive on-premises IT infrastructure that isn’t flexible enough to adapt to changing business needs, but are nervous to adopt the cloud themselves without specialised expertise. This is where outsourcing your IT requirements and specifically opting for cloud infrastructure services offers competitive advantages that can seamlessly optimise your IT infrastructure with no extra hassle to you.

What is IaaS and why do you need it?

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a type of cloud computing model that offers on-demand access to computing resources in the cloud, replacing the need for on-premise infrastructure. IaaS is essentially renting virtual servers from a company that has data centres running these servers, so that you don’t need to maintain your own data centre. IaaS promotes having access to computing resources without having to own computing equipment. This is how the benefits of cloud infrastructure can be enjoyed, like storing your data securely off-site, saving on total costs of ownership and scaling up your infrastructure within minutes as needed. Furthermore, by opting for IaaS solutions through a private cloud provider like BSO, you can easily and effectively outsource dedicated professional expertise that keep your infrastructure optimised through proactive monitoring and quick issue resolution, freeing you up to focus on business innovation and internal process improvements.

The benefits of IaaS and how the right cloud provider can help you harness them

When outsourcing your IT requirements, the right cloud service provider can help you meet your needs by ensuring you are able to fully leverage all of the benefits of the cloud model best suited to your business. Below are some of the main benefits of IaaS your business can look forward to when migrating your infrastructure to an experienced IaaS model provider.

1. Temporary or seasonal fluctuations

If your business is such that you see peaks and troughs in demand depending on seasonal events, for example, then IaaS can help meet these traffic fluctuations easily. With IaaS, you can provision more computing resources as needed to meet demands without investing and implementing additional hardware yourself. Your IaaS infrastructure can also provision resources automatically in accordance with your configurations so that whenever boosts in traffic or demands are seen, your infrastructure seamlessly adapts and scales up to meet demand before reducing once again during “quiet periods” to ensure you are not spending or using more than what you need. 

Here, your key requirement is availability and storage capacity performance whenever your business needs it most. Your IaaS cloud provider of choice, then, needs to be able to guarantee the power of their network and connectivity performance, during both quiet and busy periods.  

2. More resilient infrastructure

System downtime is a big risk in business, and unforeseen outages can cost you. With traditional IT infrastructure, system failure usually means scrambling to troubleshoot and rectify issues as quickly as possible, and in cases where hardware components need to be replaced, “quickly” may mean days. IaaS on the other hand allows instant recovery from outages. IaaS providers are prepped for the worst-case scenario, meaning that workloads are instantly diverted to backup resources when a system fails. The benefit for you lies in there being minimal downtime for your business, and when infrastructure problems do arise, they are not yours to solve. 

When choosing a cloud provider for your IaaS infrastructure, the availability of their customer support and resources to handle outages and recoveries is key - do they offer a comprehensive management platform or dedicated support teams, no matter the size of your organisation? Additionally, can they make your infrastructure more flexible, and therefore more resilient, through means like multi-cloud connections and data replication?

 3. Cost efficiency

Adopting IaaS can have a number of positive effects on your costs, starting with reduced capital expenditure. IaaS is typically a monthly operational expense that is far less than putting down hefty amounts of capital to build, maintain and operate your infrastructure. This frees up your IT resources and budget to reallocate to more high-priority projects such as implementing innovation into your business.

To ensure you get the most bang for your buck, and to avoid unforeseen expenses and cost fluctuates that aren’t always easy to anticipate, it’s best to partner with a cloud provider that works with your budget allocation to find the best solution. Providers like BSO, who work with your budget in mind, can make the best recommendations of services that guarantee cost predictability, ensuring optimal cloud performance that is always within budget.

4. Support and availability

With high availability being a draw card for IaaS, businesses need not worry about increasing or decreasing their infrastructure to meet demands, nor do they need to be concerned about relocating their infrastructure should they move premises. What’s more, with the level of service cloud providers are committed to providing, in the event of significant system downtime or disaster, your system is given considerable support to ensure quick restoration and disaster recovery, as IaaS infrastructures and the management teams in place to support are primed to deal with network issues swiftly due to their data centres being optimally built to handle any threats to your infrastructure.

5. Data security

Some businesses, especially those in high-profile industries like politics and finance, need to prioritise their data security above all else when it comes to the cloud infrastructure they choose. While the cloud is renowned for its data security capabilities, opting for private cloud infrastructure is the best way to ensure total data security, as your cloud infrastructure would not be shared with, or accessible to other parties. The right cloud provider should be able to offer you an entirely private IaaS infrastructure solution, guaranteeing maximum data security that meets all your specific security needs.

How BSO can help with your IaaS needs

As a leading infrastructure and connectivity provider, BSO’s global low-latency network is built for performance and to provide access across markets. BSO Cloud combines physical products with expert consultancy and managed services, which give our data-intensive customer businesses the optimal cloud experience no matter their industry. 

BSO is the right cloud provider for your business if you need:

• Sound budget control and cost predictability

• Support from a team of expert engineers, or readily available and proactive customer service

• A high-performance service that guarantees 99.999% network availability to meet your seasonal needs

• A private cloud option due to concerns around your data’s security

Our collaborative approach to building and maintaining your cloud environment means you get the right services to meet your specific technical and business needs. Our expert team ensures your infrastructure is built properly, is dependable and scales smoothly, and that your costs are predictable and data is secured. Once live, our team also helps with ongoing management and support.

Conclusion

With the vast number of benefits that come with adopting the cloud and partnering with an IaaS service provider, businesses can be certain of reliable and optimised IT infrastructures all of the time. Not only does adopting IaaS mean improved performance, saved costs and dependability, but also ongoing access to cloud experts who remain on the cutting-edge of cloud technology, ensuring you get the best of cloud on an ongoing basis. 

Partnering with an expert like BSO allows you to enjoy all the benefits of cloud with none of the traditional IT infrastructure headaches. Reach out to us today to learn how we can help your business take the leap to the cloud.