Taking the Myth Out of Hybrid Cloud Computing

The terms hybrid computing and cloud computing have been in the news for some time but, for many people, they are confusing and ambiguous terms. So what is hybrid cloud computing?

 

In very simple terms it is when an organization uses both the public cloud and their private cloud to do their computing. This needs further explanation before this concept can be properly understood.

 

The Public and Private Cloud

 

In cloud computing, the term cloud is a metaphor for the internet, so cloud computing is computing using computers linked though an internet connection, utilizing shared computing resources.

 

The public cloud is cloud computing where a company uses a third-party vendor to supply computing services in the form of servers, software applications, and data storage over the internet. Another form of public cloud computing is where a service provider provides a service to the public, for example, social networking services.

 

A key aspect of the public cloud is that it is available to the public who share the resources provided by the vendor.

 

A private cloud is similar to the public cloud, except that it is run privately for use by an organization and is behind that organization's firewall. It has many of the same features, but the essential difference is that the resources are owned and controlled by the company. Some companies choose this solution because of security concerns.

 

What Is Hybrid Cloud Computing?

 

If your operation is large, and you use both your own network of interconnected servers and those of a third party web-based service provider so that your applications and data are spread over these servers, you are performing hybrid cloud computing, as, your computing and, specifically your data, is shared between the private and public cloud.

 

Another form of hybrid computing is cloud storage, where a company would store critical data in their private cloud and other data in the public cloud.

 

Management of the Hybrid Cloud

 

The hybrid cloud is a great concept, freeing critical resources and providing flexible off-site resources that can meet short term needs.

 

However, if it is to function efficiently, it is important that the cloud is properly mapped out, that a database of all critical parameters is maintained, and that you have a management strategy in place to administer change control, data security, fault monitoring, and resource management.

 

Another consideration is the availability of, and access to, essential critical applications and data. This can be achieved by ensuring that critical information is stored within the company's private cloud so that access is unaffected should external network issues affect access to their public cloud

 

What Is Hybrid Cloud Computing All About?

 

A common use of the hybrid cloud is to expand your data storage capability without the purchase of additional hardware. This is especially useful if your need is transient or temporary, such as for a product launch, political campaign, or major project. This is often called cloud bursting, where applications move from the private cloud to the public cloud to take advantage of additional computing resources available in the public cloud.

 

Another reason for hybrid computing is cost, as instead of purchasing more servers for your internal data center, it may be more cost effective to use the servers of a cloud service provider, such as AWS or Rackspace.

 

Companies and organizations with global operations can use hybrid cloud computing to provide their operations with readily available and reasonably secure access, taking advantage of the internet's resilience.

 

Users of Hybrid Computing

 

Hybrid computing is a growth industry and Gartner predicts that by 2017, 50% of enterprises will adopt it. In many ways, hybrid cloud computing offers the best solution for large and diverse organizations.

Bit by Bit can provide the resources and expertise to make your move to the cloud a success, if you would like to learn more, please contact me at 800.860.5831 x190

Help River Legacy - Please help us get this $25,000 grant

Please click on the link below and submit for this grant.  Hurry only the first 4000 entries will be accepted.

Here is the link:

https://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?client_id=107426122768295&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.state-assist.com%2F&state=ab1063215dd7f948bf1739d0431f9314&scope=publish_stream

Here is an example of a submission. It doesn't have to be this long. This is from our grant writer.

Thank you in advance!! We need this money for our Phase II renovation!

Trouble viewing? Please click here To ensure delivery to your inbox, please add neighborhoodassist@statefarm.com to your address book.

Thanks you for submitting! Here's a copy of your cause for your records... and to inspire neighbors! Check back on April 28th to see if it was chosen by the State Farm® Youth Advisory Board to be in the voting round. Your Name:: Denise Wilkerson Your Birthday:: Jun 14th, 1961 Zip or Postal Code:: 76013 Email:: wilkerd@yahoo.com Phone:: (817) 832-3859 Cause Name:: Environmental Education Category:: Education Related Nonprofit Organization:: River Legacy Foundation Which city will benefit most from this cause?: Arlington Which state/province would your cause have the most impact?: Texas How much does your cause focus on an unmet need of the community?: Since it was built in 1996 in collaboration with the Arlington Parks Department, the River Legacy Foundation has educated over 200,000 North Texas students through its environmental education programs. Our Living Science Center offers a range of environmental education programs, including Field Investigations for the local school districts, public programs and festivals, summer classes, pre-school, home school and after-school classes. The building's exhibits are key in its mission to educate students and other visitors about the surroundin! g habitats, challenging them to become environmental stewards in their communities. After 18 years of service, the classrooms and interactive displays in the Living Science Center are dated, require frequent repairs, and need to be renovated in order to maximize usability. Evidence-based research indicates that children who are connected to the natural world and are active outdoors lead healthier, happier lives and even perform better in school. How would $25,000 support your cause?: New museum-quality interactive education displays will allow River Legacy Foundation to better connect tomorrow's environmental stewards with the natural world. The Science TEKS places increased emphasis on hands-on investigations and field experiences, making River Legacy programs more important than ever. Renovated exhibits in the Living Science Center will reinforce environmental concepts of our curriculums and expose more North Texans to information about protecting our watersheds and thereby our natural resources. All AISD Title 1 second graders attend Field Inve! stigations at River Legacy. We determined that it was necessary to provide this early additional training for the students in the Title 1 schools so that they could fully participate in the Field Investigations as fourth graders. All AISD fourth graders participate in Field Investigations including the 70% who attend Title 1 schools. First-hand educational experiences in nature help kids learn and improve their scores. How much of a lasting impact on your community will your cause have?: River Legacy Parks and the Living Science Center were created as part of a broader vision for our community to promote healthy habits for both children and adults. Starting with our very youngest students, River Legacy offers children, in the words of environmental educator David Sobel, "an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it and feel comfortable in it, before being asked to heal its wounds." This early connection, tapping into children's inborn fascination with the plants and animals that they enc! ounter, lays the foundation for a lifetime of environmental stewardship.River Legacy's hands-on learning adventures invite children to connect with their world on a personal level. Building on their sense of wonder, these connections help them to see the natural world's inhabitants through the same lens as they see themselves and their family and friends, with similar needs, and deserving of the same respect and protection. Have you received funding through this program before?:no If yes; what has been the impact of that funding?: Blank. The age group most in need of community involvement is:: 0 - 18 What inspired you to submit this cause? : It is important to me to support my local community and its specific needs. What else (other than funding) would most benefit your cause?: Additional volunteers How did you hear about State Farm Neighborhood Assist®: Nonprofit Got questions? Email us: neighborhoodassist@statefarm.com FAQs | Official Rules | Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe

©2014 State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Bloomington, IL State Farm Insurance, One State Farm Plaza, Bloomington, IL 61710

Have you seen who has registered for AIIM14?

The AIIM Conference has quickly established itself as the go-to place for Information Professionals looking for the best investment of their time. In just 3 days and in 1 place, you can tap into experts and peers for ideas and practical solutions to the challenges you face every day. Have you seen who has already signed up to attend AIIM14? Sample Companies: Bank of America Columbia University ExxonMobil GE General Motors JP Morgan Chase Kellogg's L'Oreal Liberty Mutual Insurance The Boeing Company Sample Titles: Business Process Analyst CIO/CTO Director, ECM Systems Director, Information Resources Director, Records Management Document Manager ECM Analyst ECM Architect ECM Manager Records Manager With organizations and titles like these in attendance, can you afford to not be there? Don't miss out on this learning opportunity. Sign up today to join them. April 1 - 3, 2014 Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Orlando, Florida, USA Win a Microsoft Surface We'll be giving away one tablet each week in February to a lucky conference registrant.

AIIM – The Global Community of Information Professionals
1100 Wayne Avenue | Silver Spring, MD 20910 | USA
Main Tel: 301.587.8202 | 800.477.2446
www.aiimconference.com

Regards, 

Robert Blake
817.505.1257

877.860.5831 x 190
robert.blake@bitxbit.com

Utilizing Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the practice of using a networked group of computers. Oftentimes, thousands of computers are networked together in order to store and process data. Data from the same database may be backed up as broken down "blocks" that are stored on hundreds of different servers. Cloud computing is cheaper than running local servers. Since the data and workload can be divided among many different servers, it is also much more efficient. Instead of fifty separate servers dedicated to a web host or program, thirty servers can be used and shifted between machines as necessary. With a good understanding of cloud computing you can save your company money and increase efficiency. 

How Cloud Computing Is Used
Cloud computing replaces supercomputers with a networked group of servers. It lets scientists build massive models of weather patterns. Cloud computing is also used in medicine to model newly discovered viruses, map genomes and track pandemics. Engineers have used computer aided modeling to run 3D computational models through simulations long before they made prototypes to run through real world stress tests. Cloud computing is now being used to assemble thousands of individual CAD models into cars and planes for environmental testing and stress testing. A recent advancement in computer-aided modeling has been the ability to use cloud computing to compare different product designs before combining their elements to generate dozens of novel designs. Each design is compared against performance criteria like energy efficiency, size and speed. Only the models that meet all of these criteria are returned for the designer's review. The process of combining elements to create several different prototypes leaves engineers with only a few models to build and test.

One cloud computing use growing in popularity is online data backup. Users pay a flat fee to have their devices or personal computers backed up to the cloud. Local disk drives may be damaged in a fire or stolen. Therefore, cloud computing is a safer back up tool than a local disk drive. It is also regularly used for online file sharing. This is especially true for files too large to send as email attachments. Data sharing through the cloud also offers an improved measure of security. Only someone with an account and the correct password can access the file through the cloud. If the link to the file's location is intercepted or sent to the wrong person, the accidental recipient will not have your company's trade secrets. 

How Cloud Computing Evolved 
Software providers started offering distributed computing and applications that ran on their computers. This was an alternative to users having to buy and install software. This allowed users to avoid installation problems. They would simply receive the next software version automatically. Software vendors saw this as a constant stream of revenue from subscribers. Virtualization techniques from web hosting service providers for virtual servers were adopted wholesale by data centers.

Cloud computing providers opened up their platforms to let smaller applications offer their software as a service on the provider's platform. The infrastructure became a way for service providers to give customers a virtual machine. Customers could then set up any platform and software. Cloud computing was originally a public cloud owned by large IT firms where customers could access software applications and databases. However, the declining cost of hardware and the changed cloud computing infrastructure meant that mid-sized and large businesses could now set up private clouds. Private cloud computing lets businesses save on IT support costs and software licensing fees while keeping data on their own private network. 

The Next Generation of Cloud Computing 
More companies are adopting a hybrid cloud computing model. This includes private clouds for sensitive data, and public clouds for other applications. A company may use a cloud-based version of PTC's Autodesk to create drawings, but save them on a product data management application on a private cloud to keep proprietary drawings secret. Cloud computing providers will need to evolve to develop public/private cloud interfaces. 

One of the recent advances of cloud computing is the virtualization of infrastructure. Networking has remained the last major labor cost in IT. The virtualization of infrastructure means that this work is replaced by artificial intelligence. The next great challenge of cloud computing is authentication methods, standardizing infrastructure, data transfer, audit methods and security. While cloud computing is now common, clouds supported by big IT firms like Amazon and IBM are not always interoperable. For customers who want to switch online data backup services, it may not be possible to move their saved backups from one cloud service provider to another. 
Software applications with high input/output cannot be moved into a public cloud, but may be run on a private cloud. Legacy software applications don't translate well to the cloud model, but can be run on a virtual desktop off of an executable file on the cloud server. Applications with low latency don't work well on the cloud. Proprietary data shouldn't be stored on a public cloud, due to security concerns.

If you would like to learn more about how cloud services can help your company, please call us at 1.877.860.5831 or visit our website at www.bitxbit.com. 

Robert Blake

877.860.5831 x190

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How Data Centers Save Energy Costs that Pass on to Your Business!

The cloud offers companies a way to move IT management and equipment to data centers. Cloud computing warehouses house thousands of computers, and each work in unison to offer small and large companies energy savings. Cloud computing lets you move applications, hardware, platforms and storage into the cloud, which reduces much of the IT overhead and real estate needed to house computer equipment. Not only does it save you money in IT costs, but most data centers work to be energy efficient.

 

Cooling Efficiency

 

Every computer warehouse needs cooling. Computers and network equipment must run in an environment that has low humidity and runs at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Even with these requirements, data center managers can customize the way the cooling systems work. For instance, data centers can take advantage of outside air to cool systems, and heat can be centralized to keep server areas cool while other areas maintain circulation of hot air for cool air.

 

Virtualization Instead of Physical Servers

 

Virtualization allows data centers to run several virtual machines on one physical machine. This means you can have dozens of servers running on one physical computer. This not only saves the data center money, but it also reduces the amount of space needed to house servers. Virtualized servers also reduce power consumption used by each customer because several customers can take advantage of one physical server.

 

Balance Server Hardware with Usage

 

It wastes energy when you have servers with the best hardware that aren't even used. This can happen with virtual servers or physical servers. Data center managers must analyze which servers have the most usage and balance hardware between high-use servers and servers that have very low traffic. Data center managers also have software that powers servers off and on depending on usage and traffic statistics.

 

Upgrading Equipment

 

Some older equipment can use much more energy than newer equipment. Energy Star equipment uses up to 40% less power than older equipment. Old monitors use much more energy than the latest flat-screens. Solid state drives (SSDs) use much less power than old hard disk drives (HDDs). These hardware components can be costly to replace, but the replacement ultimately saves the data center money in energy costs.

 

Use Data Centers at Night

 

Some big data center companies have locations in several locations. It's more energy efficient to use data centers where it's night, because it's cooler outside. If the data center company has redundancy between locations, the data center can switch usage to another location where it's night to reduce energy costs.

 

Better Emergency Response and Alerts

 

When data center equipment goes down, it can wreak havoc on employees and customers. The alerts result in a redirect of traffic and energy usage, which costs more time and energy to ensure customers are running before fixing the problem. With redundancy and alert management, the data center can lose a server without too many customers affected.

 

The company you choose for cloud computing should take steps to ensure the data center runs with the highest amount of energy efficiency. It's important for the environment, but it's also a cost-savings that passes to your own IT bill.

For more information please contact me at 877.860.5831 x190

Bit by Bit Computer Consultants: Bit by Bit partners with Time Warner Cable..

Bit by Bit Computer Consultants: Bit by Bit partners with Time Warner Cable..: Our new partnership will help our client with new and backup bandwidth needs.