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The business case for cloud application migration is never complete without taking the target cloud platform into consideration. The migration and overhead costs vary widely based on the target cloud platform and thus will skew the estimated cost savings. Cost analysis helps decide whether to go ahead with moving a particular application to the cloud or not from a return on investment perspective. Cost should include capital expenditure, operational expenditure, and the overhead costs involved with migration.

Up to now, the success of applications in the Cloud, both virtual and physical, has been viewed in only two ways, availability and performance. Perhaps however, the most important dimension is cost, and it is this cost that will dramatically influence what, when and where businesses deploy to the cloud. Cost can increase exponentially without proper cloud monitoring and cloud cost modeling. The result of this is that it has become crucial for IT to tie cloud success to cost analysis, in addition to overall system performance.

To date, companies have been oblivious to the workload cost of an application running in the cloud, apart from unclear monthly billing. We are entering a new era where performance and availability will be baseline requirements, but workload cost efficiency will be the new key to success.

Netcetera’s Managed Windows Cloud Server offers ease and simplicity with scalability and resilience. All this, for as little as £40.98/pm and it includes the Essential Management Pack, FREE Site Migration and a 7 day RISK Free money back guarantee.

Previous posts:

• Step 1 – Are your applications ready to run in the Cloud?
• Step 2 – How important is Technical Support for Cloud success?
• Step 3 – Do you have ownership and access to your data in the cloud?
• Step 4 – Understanding what fluctuating data volumes means to you.
• Step 5 – Is any part of the Cloud infrastructure Outsourced or Subcontracted?
• Step 6 – Helping you answer your Compliance Queries in the Cloud

Next posts:

• Step 8 – Have you prepared a Migration Strategy?
• Step 9 – The importance of Considering Downtime and How to Deal with it.
• Step 10 – The importance of Data Migration.

Questions? Let us help!

To speak to one of our Sales Consultants about what our services can do for you, or for any other queries, please fill out our Enquiry Form or call 0800 061 2801 or click our Live Chat

Companies considering using Cloud services should perform a gap analysis between the specific requirements identified in relevant regulations and the set of controls provided by the cloud service provider. Virtually every regulation requires organizations to adequately protect their physical and informational assets. You should be asking yourself these questions:

• What information is stored on a system?
• Where is the information stored?
• Who can access the system?
• What they can access?
• Is the access appropriate?

All of these questions imply some level of ownership of the assets in question, and that is where cloud compliance issues become apparent.

Using Cloud Computing services for data and applications subject to compliance regulations requires a high degree of transparency on the part of service providers. If you are considering these services, you need to closely review contracts and service-level agreements and understand how the Cloud service meets your specific compliance requirements.

So what can you do? Ensure that the provider you use is able and willing to work with you, to provide and prove any data location restrictions you may have.

Much of compliance is about ensuring proper controls over who has access to assets, what level of access they have and how those levels are maintained.

Netcetera’s hosted Cloud infrastructure provides you with an agile infrastructure delivered from our secure, highly available data centre so you can respond quickly to your needs.

Our Cloud services allow you to focus on your business rather than your IT infrastructure. With our aim to provide our customers with top quality service, we decided to introduce a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to emphasise the importance we place on server uptime.

Previous posts:

• Step 1 – Are your applications ready to run in the Cloud?
• Step 2 – How important is Technical Support for Cloud success?
• Step 3 – Do you have ownership and access to your data in the cloud?
• Step 4 – Understanding what fluctuating data volumes means to you.
• Step 5 – Is any part of the Cloud infrastructure Outsourced or Subcontracted?

Next posts:

• Step 7 – Why is Cost analysis of the Cloud so important?
• Step 8 – Have you prepared a Migration Strategy?
• Step 9 – The importance of Considering Downtime and How to Deal with it.
• Step 10 – The importance of Data Migration.

Questions? Let us help!

To speak to one of our Sales Consultants about what our services can do for you, or for any other queries, please fill out our Enquiry Form or call 0800 061 2801.

Cloud computing can often involve chains of sub-processors or sub-contractors. If you work across Europe, it would be wise to look into this. In some parts of Europe, data protection law requires the controller to independently authorise all subcontracts and to enter into direct contracts with all processors. In most member states, it is left to data controllers or vendors to determine what amounts to appropriate technical and organisational measures. In some countries however, for example, Spain, Italy and Poland, if you wish to put data into the cloud, then, they will need the cloud computing service provider to confirm that its security arrangements meet the particular laws in these countries.

Usually, if a cloud service provider subcontracts any parts of their services, it will be invisible to the customer. This could raise issues and potential disputes not uncommon in these arrangements. These concerns include contracting and auditing requirements and questions of the distribution of payment if all goes well – and of liability if it does not. For instance, a problem may arise if two cloud computing subcontractors provide micro-services that are of good quality in themselves but do not integrate properly.  In addition to this, there is the possibility that data, which may be commercially valuable, flows from the customer to the vendor to the subcontractor. In the case of bankruptcy, can the subcontractors hold onto the customer data as an asset? Can they threaten to publish sensitive data if they are not paid for their services?  It is also not clear what rights a purchaser of the bankrupt vendor might have to the data.

Netcetera is one of Europe’s leading Web Hosting service providers, with customers in over 60 countries worldwide and in operation for over 16 years. Netcetera does not outsource any of it’s Cloud Infrastructure, which means you have peace of mind when dealing with us. We are the premier provider of Cloud Services, amongst many other services in the UK. Our state-of-the-art data centre environment enables Netcetera to offer your business enterprise level solutions.

Previous posts:

• Step 1 – Are your applications ready to run in the Cloud?
• Step 2 – How important is Technical Support for Cloud success?
• Step 3 – http://www.netcetera.co.uk/blog/2012/01/30/do-you-have-ownership-and-access-to-your-data-in-the-cloud/
• Step 4 – Understanding what fluctuating data volumes means to you.

Next posts:

• Step 6 – Helping you to understand your Compliance queries in the Cloud.
• Step 7 – Why is Cost analysis of the Cloud so important?
• Step 8 – Have you prepared a Migration Strategy?
• Step 9 – The importance of Considering Downtime and How to Deal with it.
• Step 10 – The importance of Data Migration.

Questions? Let us help!

To speak to one of our Sales Consultants about what our services can do for you, or for any other queries, please fill out our Enquiry Form or call 0800 061 2801

We have established that cloud computing is a new way of doing business and of course it is important to understand what you are letting yourself in for. It differs from conventional outsourcing since it separates your data from your IT infrastructure, so your data is replicated ‘in the cloud’, which could be anywhere in a multitude of ‘virtual’ servers.

The Cloud is excellent for flexible computing, where extra resources such as additional power or sudden increases in additional storage are needed, perhaps as a result of extra project work. However, as your storage capability grows, so does the concern of moving it. Migrating 1GB of data across a wide-area network is relatively simple, but how about 1TB? That migration could take a long time, and if you also need to work with that data in real-time, you will have to plan for a degree of downtime while the data is pulled from the Cloud and reinstalled against a replacement application or function.

Netcetera Windows Managed Cloud Server offers all the ease and simplicity of shared hosting with the scalability and resilience of Cloud Hosting. With Netcetera’s Cloud services you will be able to focus on your business rather than your IT infrastructure.

Previous posts:

• Step 1 – Are your applications ready to run in the Cloud?
• Step 2 – How important is Technical Support for Cloud success?
• Step 3 – http://www.netcetera.co.uk/blog/2012/01/30/do-you-have-ownership-and-access-to-your-data-in-the-cloud/

Questions? Let us help!

To speak to one of our Sales Consultants about what our services can do for you, or for any other queries, please fill out our Enquiry Form or call 0800 061 2801

Delivering data and software services over the Cloud does have inherent security risks, which are important to understand….. however the irony is your data is most likely far safer in the cloud than in your own office!

There are different types of clouds which carry different risks. For instance, public clouds mean that your data and applications are stored on a server(s) somewhere out in the cloud, but no one could tell you where this data is, or how to retrieve it in the event of a hardware crash.

Cloud companies providing this service need to be audited fully, and one should fully understand how their disaster recovery procedures work, as well as their backup processes should the unfortunate hardware failure ever occur.  A visit to their offices to meet support staff and to gain a thorough understanding into their disaster recovery and backup process would help. You must be confident that your business critical data is being managed to the very highest levels.

Private Clouds are far safer, mainly because it is all managed in a secure Datacentre where someone can physically put their hand on your data, but it is vital you check everything for your own due-diligence. Well managed Private Clouds and Datacentres come with accreditations which you can look into.

The application, the hardware and the operating system will be owned by the cloud provider. However, the data is what your intellectual property is based on, and it has to be clearly acknowledged in the contract that you can take that data away at any time. Your cloud subscription gives you access to the functionality of the application. If that access is removed, can you still access the data so that you can take it away with you? Ensure that the contract allows for access to the back-end data, either directly or via the provider offering an export capability, even after the contract has finished.

At Netcetera we offer a range of solutions which allow you to expand your capabilities without increasing your overhead.

Previous posts:

• Step 1 – Are your applications ready to run in the Cloud?
• Step 2 – How important is Technical Support for Cloud success?

Questions? Let us help!

To speak to one of our Sales Consultants about what our services can do for you, or for any other queries, please fill out our Enquiry Form or call 0800 061 2801