Capitalizing On The Hybrid Cloud
With the rise of hybrid cloud computing, many of the ways IT has been traditionally deployed are about to be fundamentally changed. Hybrid cloud computing is about a lot more than just connecting data centers; where application workloads are processed at any given time is going to be different at any given time. For that reason the network winds up being the lynchpin of any given hybrid cloud computing deployment.
The challenge most organization face today when they come to realize it is that most data centers were built in places where the real estate was cheap and access to power inexpensive. That’s fine when it comes to running traditional enterprise applications. But when it comes to cloud applications the latency of the network determines the success of the project. Data centers built in rural areas don’t tend to provide many options when it comes to network connectivity.
For that reason we’re starting to see a shift where cloud applications are being deployed in hosting centers that are built on top of Internet peering exchanges. Not only do these facilities eliminate the need to build a data center in the first place; they generally give customers access to any number of network connectivity options.
This week Equinix, one of the primary players in that space formally rolled out a global channel program that the company began foreshadowing earlier this year. Like most channel programs, Pete Hayes, chief sales officer for Equinix, says that program includes the usual agent and reseller benefits along with two other key factors in the case of Equinix. Pricing of services per data center are now clearly delineated and there is a deal registration process in place through which Equinix will manage any potential conflicts between Equinix and it channel partners.
After investing heavily in its facilities over the years, Hayes says the channel program is vehicle through which Equinix hopes to expand its reach into small-to-medium (SMB) organizations. One of the key reason for this is that there is no correlation anymore between the size of the customers and the amount of IT resources they might need to consume. As such, Hayes says Equinix sees companies of all sizes moving into its facilities, which is also one of the reasons that the number of data center facilities being constructed other than by Web-scale companies such as Facebook and Google has significantly slowed.
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Rather than moving entire application workloads into the cloud it’s quite possible that one of the more widely adopted hybrid cloud computing scenarios is going to be centered around invoke inexpensive compute resources in the cloud and then storing data locally to enable the organization to comply with local data sovereignty requirements. Naturally, that’s the opposite of how most people think of using hybrid clouds that provide ways to inexpensively archive data.
In either scenario, network connectivity is critical to achieving hybrid cloud computing success. Of course, the first solution provider that shows up with an answer to how to make hybrid cloud computing an actual everyday reality inside that organization stands to benefit the most from all the downstream opportunities that should ensue from being at what is rapidly emerging to be the new core of the enterprise network.
