Is your network ready for the cloud environment?

IT solutions in the cloud are now a reality in the global market as cloud computing has helped companies leverage business and attract new opportunities. The trend is that the cloud market will increase even more as companies seek to gain more efficiency and make use of available resources to provide the best service to clients. According to Forrest Research, an American technology research company of global IT, 38% of over 1000 American and European decision-makers of IT infrastructure interviewed said that they are building private cloud environments, 32% are acquiring public cloud services, and the rest intends to implement any form of cloud technology in the next 12 months. Apart from that, 59% of the people questioned said they are implementing hybrid cloud models. (empresa americana de pesquisa de tecnologia na área de TI mundial), 38% dos mais de 1000 decisores norte-americanos e europeus de infraestrutura de TI informaram que estão construindo nuvens privadas, com 32% adquirindo serviços de nuvem pública e o restante planejando implementar alguma forma de tecnologia na nuvem nos próximos 12 meses. Além disso, 59% dos entrevistados informaram que estavam adotando um modelo de nuvem híbrida.

Types of cloud environments

What are private, public, and hybrid clouds? The answer is very simple and will impact directly your business. The private cloud is essentially an environment built in the company’s datacenter, with physic servers, data links, and other necessary components. This cloud also uses the company’s network to provide connection to external users with its own local resources. Therefore, by using a private cloud your company will need to have a few crucial components such as servers where the applications are hosted in the DMZ network. These components will bridge between external users and local resources provided in the company’s datacenter. The public cloud is an environment made available through a network open for public use and the resources are not provided directly by the company’s data center but by another one spread around the world through the WAN network. It has open access and can be used through the internet (WAN), nonetheless credentials are required so that the external connection can happen. Amazon Web Services is one of the drivers in this business branch, created in 2016 and currently moving over $11 billion. The hybrid cloud is a blend of the public and private cloud, so the company provides resources to external users coming from its own datacenter (DMZ network) and third-party datacenters.

The market of cloud solutions

Cloud solutions (public, private and hybrid) are popular not only in the US and Europe, but also have grown in Brazil, and the main reasons for that are:

• Facility and simplicity for end-users to access applications without needing technical interventions.
• Accessibility. Data can be reached anywhere in the world, only requiring internet connection without being restricted to local environments and dependent on synchronization of removable media.
• Lower costs. It reduces the need for maintenance of the physical infrastructure of networks client/server, as well as the installation of software in computers. In the cloud, these tasks are attributed to the provider of the software, requiring only that clients have a computer connected to the internet. There is also lowering of costs in reduction of energy consumption, cooling and physical space, which contributes to preservation and rationed use of natural resources.
• Acquisition and usage model. The company won’t need to invest in software perpetual licenses which makes it more expensive along with maintenance expenses. Bearing in mind that the IT area is constantly changing, there will still be a real possibility that in less than a 5 years’ time, the purchased software will not meet the company’s expectations and needs, implying the purchase new software in the future, with the obsoletion of the previous acquisition.

The migration to cloud-based services is increasingly popular in Brazil every year.

The rush is an enemy or is it just lack of knowledge?

Considering the pieces of evidence mentioned, many companies in Brazil have worked hard to fit into this new reality. The answer to the question above is simple and objective: companies need to lower costs and provide end-users with the best functionalities in a practical way. A classic example of this is Skype for Business, a solution used by a number of companies and that is most of times hosted in the cloud. Due to the urgent need to migrate to cloud environments, several companies do not meet all the requirements to do so, leading not so rarely to negative experiences both for users and IT departments.

Is your company ready for the cloud?

Now, is your company ready for using a cloud environment? This is a simple question and oftentimes there is a misconception that hosting such an environment requires only connecting with the internet and hiring an external provider like Amazon Web Services. However, I should tell you this is not the truth. If we are talking about the public cloud, it is necessary to acknowledge that each network spot where each user will be allocated will have the minimum bandwidth needed for connection (this is a pre-requisite both for external users outside the office and internal users located inside the company). Otherwise, your cloud service will be jeopardized to some extent. Please note that we haven’t mentioned the security element, because even if there is just a single access to the internet, it is essential that we make sure that only necessary and permitted network ports will be available for use by internal users, thus avoiding that internal and confidential content (not hosted in the cloud) of the company is hijacked or corrupted in any form.

Preparing the environment and structure

The first step is to have the whole view of the current network since it is vital to know if the company has the necessary resources for this. If your company has trouble with network traffic without having a cloud service, it might be a sign that it must solve internal problems before migrating partially or completely to a cloud environment. Doing this, before taking any actions your company will know that whatever provider it hires, it will deliver only what is necessary, allowing also the company to cancel data links that are not indispensable and request essential data links not included, for example.

A solution to manage traffic

At this point, the TRAFip application by Telcomanager will surprise you with what is consumed by your network through accurate charts and reports about each location and bandwidth consumption on links. If we are talking about private and hybrid cloud, we highly suggest you call off your plans to migrate to a cloud environment. This might sound a little harsh, but it can be verified by one question: if your company is not aware of information locally about traffic in the internal network, how will it become a provider to external users? There are other important questions: how does your company know that it will support x number users if it doesn’t have at the moment any idea of how much is consumed in traffic and how much it will be increased after the migration? With that said, Telcomanager is a company focused in the present-day IT market and it has applications which will assist companies with the great milestone of migrating to the cloud.

Measuring your network correctly

Now that you know that your network is working internally as it should, the second step is to make sure that it will handle the migration. If it is a public cloud, you need to identify how much bandwidth the application will consume, then calculate the number of users versus the amount of necessary bandwidth. TRAFip will help you obtain this information. If it is a private or hybrid cloud, this information is even more critical. TRAFip will provide you with technical evidence through detailed reports and you will find out if your network will support the migration to both types of cloud.

Environment migration

The third step, after the measuring is correctly carried out, is to start the migration and then the maintenance. The maintenance is oftentimes overlooked by companies even though it is an essential task. If there is no maintenance of what is consumed in your network in the cloud, this will likely damage directly your business and bring unnecessary costs. Through TRAFip, you can monitor daily traffic and what is consumed in your network, granting you better visibility and return of your investments in the cloud.

What distinguishes TRAFip from other applications is also the alarm tool, which can help you with the maintenance of the cloud environment. The alarms can be set as TRAPs SNMP, e-mail, SMS, and Telegram messages. It is possible to monitor an application when it exceeds a set rate of consumed bandwidth on all your links, for example, if it happens that a department consumes more traffic than it should. In sum, the TRAFip will make it easier for you to inspect the resources used by your company in the cloud, as well as it will make sure that the IT policy used is fully compliant. Try Telcomanager and find out what you can do to have control over your network traffic and ensure that your infrastructure is ready for migration to the cloud.