How to Build a Business Case for Cloud Migration When an organization changes how it attacks a business problem, it’s quite common for these changes to be met with resistance. Information Technology is no exception. Switching from traditional servers, storage, and other on premises IT equipment to cloud versions of these services often triggers resistance from leadership, finance, IT,...
Why Are So Many Companies Adopting a Multi-Cloud Strategy? Multi-cloud is a frequently cited topic in IT trade publications these days. Multi-cloud is defined in a few different ways depending upon the source, but for this article, we will define multi-cloud as the practice of using services from multiple, heterogenous cloud services, including public, private cloud, and software as a...
Whether power or software failures, network outage or natural disaster, major data disruptions to critical business applications are the norm, not the exception. These disruptions cost companies billions of dollars annually. Why? Businesses fail to meet basic BC/DR requirements, by not establishing true IT Resilience. During our recent “Evolution of Disaster Recovery” webinar with Zerto, we discussed critical aspects of...
Every year, more organizations are considering cloud computing as an alternative to traditional on-premises server, storage and network equipment. Change events that drive cloud consideration can include normal IT hardware refresh cycles, changes in company or IT leadership, new lines of business and new applications. How do these organizations compare cloud versus in-house both functionally and financially? Are they missing...
Are you honest with your organization (and yourself) about technical debt? Let’s start with a definition. Much of the historical discussion about technical debt is in software development, even though technical debt can exist across the entire technology environment. Technical debt is often described as inefficiency that compounds over time, like inefficiency related to maintainability, problems, performance or architecture. Some...
One of the most frequent questions I hear revolves around the rise of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications. IT professionals are asking “Why shouldn’t I use all SaaS applications if I can eliminate the need for a data center, the hardware and all the tactical IT effort that goes along with it?” The answer to this question focuses around...
All Disaster Recovery as a Service offerings look the same. How do I choose? You’ve made the decision to use a disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) solution – budget has been approved, and it’s time to start the evaluation process. What are the criteria you should use to compare seemingly similar DR solutions, and what questions should you...
2016 was my first OpenStack Summit and my eyes were opened to something new and fresh that I had not experienced before. With my closest 8,000 friends I got to hear from real OpenStack users, talking about the problems they were trying to solve and their experiences along the way. This year was much of the same content, but with...
What are the best metrics to use when comparing cloud to a hardware purchase? Many of the companies we meet with are debating between purchasing a new stack of hardware or implementing an enterprise cloud infrastructure using Expedient servers, storage, security and services. Most of these companies gather information then do a cost analysis to compare the options. Yet...
Expedient was proud to host the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s TechVibe Radio Neighborhood Tour in our Nova Place data center for two shows, airing on April 21 and April 28 at 7 pm on KDKA Radio 1020 AM in Pittsburgh. The first show, airing April 21, features an interview with Expedient President Shawn McGorry about Expedient’s Nova Place data center...
The concept of bimodal IT has been around since at least 2013, when Gartner first introduced the phrase as a way to address the burgeoning growth of agile development in IT organizations. In Gartner terms, Mode 1 is the focus on making sure the business runs reliably, while Mode 2 explores opportunities for innovation that leads to business transformation. Combining...
Data Center Hardware Refresh What business requirements are you addressing with your data center hardware refresh? What are you aiming for when you update data center hardware? I routinely talk to IT leaders about their current projects; one of the most common I hear about is a data center hardware refresh. And, as our conversation evolves, a few key...
DDoS Mitigation DDoS mitigation a focus of recent 451 Research analysis at 2017 RSA conference A March 2017 report published by 451 Research found that distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks evolved in 2016, requiring security vendors addressing such threats to take proactive measures to increase their capabilities and capacities. The research cites Arbor Networks, an industry leading...
What are the Best Use Cases for the On Premises Data Center? What are the practical use cases for an on premises (in-house) data center? When does it make sense to maintain hardware in a data center that is located in your office building or a leased office building? Here are the most common: Leveraging your on premises data...
What’s Your Cloud Strategy? Once your organization has gone through the three-step process of defining your cloud strategy and determined that the cloud is the right option, then it is time for the next decision: Choosing a cloud service platform. This is another significant choice that requires thoughtful evaluation. Is your business IT infrastructure best suited for a...
Technology Lock-In - The “Hidden Threat” of On-premises IT Infrastructure Does your on premises IT infrastructure increase your risk of staying with a technology long after it provides value to your organization? Let’s look at a typical scenario. You’re a CIO or IT director that has finally secured funding for a disaster recovery project; something beyond the backup tapes...
The Importance of a Defined Cloud Strategy Migrating your company’s IT infrastructure to the cloud can be a daunting task, but as technology and the IT industry evolve, it may be a task that can’t be put off forever. However, lacking a well-defined cloud strategy can impede your company’s transition to the cloud or halt it altogether. But where...
Desired Business Outcome Keeping data safe and secure is important to any business, but when you are located in an area that is in the prime hurricane path, reliable backup service becomes an absolute must. When you operate a business located in a state with the likelihood for weather-related disasters, having a local data center may still be an...
Partnering for Success Expedient offers the highest-performance technical solutions, in part because of an extremely reliable converged computing infrastructure built with Intel technology. Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI) is a major focus for Expedient because it enables the automation of policies in each component of the computing and networking infrastructure. These capabilities facilitate on demand resource availability leading to faster...
On-Site Private Cloud A lot of companies are looking to move away from higher capital expenses and switch over to utilizing more operational expenditures in order to budget for the ongoing costs more accurately. The utilization of Expedient’s On-Site Private Cloud with Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) allows companies to shift their IT hosting and cloud computing capabilities...
