Why your business should invest in Infrastructure-as-a-Service

Gartner predicts that Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) will achieve an annual growth rate of 41.3% through 2016, the fastest growing area for public cloud computing. Why? Because Iaas offers three components every IT decision maker wants from their IT infrastructure: security, mobility and scalability.

What’s clear is that organisations are slowly shifting away from on-premise data centres and IT resources, with 30% of computing workloads expected to run in the public cloud by 2018. As a result, IaaS is fast becoming a market dominator - generating just over $2.4 million last year. In spite of this rapid uptake, research has found that half of CIOs (53%) fail to see how cloud computing can save them money and a similar number (53%) are concerned about intellectual property being stored in a public cloud because of potential security breaches.

The problem falls down to a lack of education about IaaS, cloud services and the benefits these services bring to a business. While many IT decision makers are starting to understand the benefits, they are often put off by the associated overheads and upfront costs that come with an IT system rehaul; rather than concentrating on the long term benefits and Return on Investment (ROI) from streamlining IT functions.
In this article Mike Wheeler, EMEA Go To Market Director, Hybrid Cloud at Insight, takes a look at the core benefits of IaaS and puts forward his case to invest in a Hybrid Cloud model.
Making your business scalable

There is often a misconception that IT infrastructure must be built to accommodate maximum capacity in order to run processes effectively, but this is no longer the case. The introduction of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) means that networking, storage and compute resources - owned and hosted by a service provider - can be offered on demand; allowing businesses to scale up and down services to account for peaks in usage.

Businesses no longer have to pay for maximum storage capacity in anticipation of future growth; IaaS allows them to invest as they grow. This means upfront costs have been reduced and investment can be made in a ‘just-ahead-of-time’ approach to account for real-time increases in usage. From an SME point of view this levels the playing field; allowing SMEs to remain nimble and agile while benefitting from IT systems previously only available to (and affordable) by large corporations.

Keeping your assets secure

With an anticipated 59 percent increase on security spend over the next year, security is becoming an industry-wide concern. You only have to look as far as the high profile security/data breach cases that have dominated the news agenda to realise the severity of the issue.

While most IT decision makers understand that a solid IT infrastructure will help mitigate against security threats, there is often scepticism when it comes to the security of cloud services. What organisations need to realise is that technology has moved on. Nowadays, IaaS and cloud based offerings provide additional layers of security that again can be scaled up or down depending on the needs of the business.

Taking it back to basics, it’s the same as when you put a lock on your house; it becomes private. The same applies for IaaS - privacy policies allow you to put a lock on your cloud, making a secure environment for your organisation where only the key holders can gain access.

What organisations – big and small – need to realise is that when implemented correctly, IaaS offers the same level of security as managed services. As with other managed services, organisations still require policies for identity, access management and encryption (for data at rest and in transit). With Iaas, privacy/security policies are encapsulated inside a virtual machine, meaning only authorised employees and clients can gain access to and share materials.

Keeping your business mobile

The amount of employees wanting to work from home has increased to 4.3 billion over the past six years, mainly a result of technological advancement and the consequent rise in mobile working. Before the days of cloud services, organisations would purchase a separate server and storage system; meaning the data housed on the two systems ran independently. Unfortunately for those wanting to deploy a mobile workforce/Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, these siloed systems made and continue to make it difficult for employees to access the server while on the move.

IaaS has contributed towards ‘mobilising’ the mobile workforce by offering organisations a blended system which creates cross platform collaboration and improves communication between stakeholders. If businesses are savvy in the application of IT services, they can save time and money by deploying a single IT infrastructure that allows employees to access the network from any location on any device.

IaaS: Think long term not just the here and now

As with most IT related purchases, IaaS should be viewed as an investment. While the initial upfront cost might be hard to swallow – and will likely receive a few raised eyebrows from the board – it’s important to communicate the long term benefits. IaaS provides security, protecting the business from threats; scalability, to accommodate peaks in usage; and mobility, to future proof your business for the mobile workforce.