What Makes Up Cloud Infrastructure in Maryland?

What exactly is cloud storage or cloud computing? Today, most people could give you a pretty good answer. Answers will probably range from “It’s a virtual site that can house your files so you can work remotely,” to “It’s the place I upload stuff so I don’t use so much space on my computer.” Cloud infrastructure in Maryland is still more.

Both answers are technically correct. Thanks to the news, commercials, etc., everyone pretty much knows about “the cloud.” However, a majority of people might not know what actually makes up the cloud. In fact, if you asked a random person “what is cloud infrastructure?” there’s a good chance they might not know at all.

So, What Exactly IS Cloud Infrastructure in Maryland?

Basically, cloud infrastructure is the guts of cloud computing, if you will. It is the hardware and software framework that supports the computing requirements of a private or public cloud storage service. Servers, computers, hard drives, networking equipment, you name it, all falls under cloud infrastructure.

It’s important to know what goes on beyond the cloud to understand the cloud. With that in mind, here are a few reasons why you need to understand cloud infrastructure and its role in cloud computing.

Without Cloud Infrastructure, There is No Cloud Computing

This one should be rather self-explanatory – if you don’t have the necessary tools to do the job, then you can’t do the job.

So many things to into building a great cloud infrastructure. Including what was previously mentioned, you also need to make sure security is at the forefront. If you store sensitive data in the cloud, you don’t want just anyone to be able to access it.

The Need for a Cloud Infrastructure that is Reliable and Available

While the model and infrastructure for how IT services are delivered and consumed may have changed with cloud computing, it is still critical for these new solutions to support the same elements that have always been important for users.

It doesn’t matter how you use the cloud, you expect it to be functioning every minute of every day. To be fully reliable and available, the cloud needs to be able to continue to operate while data remains intact in the virtual data center regardless if a failure occurs in one or more components.

Integration with Data Center Management Tools

Many components of traditional data center management sill require some level of integration with new cloud management solutions, even though the cloud is a new way of consuming IT. Within most data centers (that would be the location of the infrastructure), a variety of tools are used for provisioning, customer care, billing, systems management, directory, security and more.

Cloud computing management solutions do not replace these tools and it is important that there are open application programming interfaces (APIs) that integrate into existing operation, administration, maintenance and provisioning systems (OAM&P) out of the box. These include both current virtualization tools from VMware and Citrix, but also the larger data center management tools from companies like IBM and HP.

Visibility and Reporting

The need to manage cloud services from a performance, service level, and reporting perspective becomes vitally important to the success of the deployment of the service. Without strong visibility and reporting mechanisms, the management of customer service levels, system performance, compliance and billing becomes increasingly difficult.

Data center operations have the requirement of having real-time visibility and reporting capabilities within the cloud environment to ensure compliance, security, billing, and chargebacks as well as other instruments, which require high levels of visibility and reporting.

Administrator, Developer and End User Interfaces

One of the primary attributes and successes of existing cloud-based services on the market comes from the fact that self-service portals and deployment models shield the complexity of the cloud service from the end user. This helps by driving adoption and by decreasing operating costs as the majority of the management is offloaded to the end user.

Within the self-service portal, the consumer of the service should be able to manage their own virtual data center, create and launch templates, manage their virtual storage, compute and network resources and access image libraries to get their services up and running quickly.

Now that you Know About Cloud Infrastructure in Maryland, Go with the Experts for Cloud Computing

In a digital world, there is an incredible and ever-increasing demand for scalable, economical network structures. Managed cloud service provider options for both Maryland businesses include private, semi-private, onsite, offsite, and hybrid designs – let us analyze, customize, and deploy cloud hosting options that best meet your company’s needs.

Swift Systems has a proven track record of providing virtual private cloud services for regional and Maryland business customers through our own state-of-the-art data centers. No matter if you’re a large or small business, from Rockville to Frederick, Hagerstown to Columbia – we design and implement set-it-and-forget-it information systems and virtual private cloud computing solutions that offer universal access and allow companies to focus on what they do best.

Contact us today to find out just how we can help your business.

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