Why more and more businesses are moving to the Cloud

27 Aug 2021, by Slade Baylis

The old school of thought regarding IT infrastructure was that physically locating your servers at your own premises was the best approach.  The thinking behind this was that such an arrangement gave you full access and control over your own hardware.  However, as the saying goes .... “With great power comes great responsibility!”  Going with that approach means that you are responsible for providing redundant power, cooling, and networking.  It also means that you must maintain the physical security of that equipment.  Do you have security systems in place to make sure that only authorised staff can access the equipment, or cameras to keep an eye on things when you are not there? 

Then there's the question of who will support those systems?  Either you will need to have an internal  IT department to manage and monitor these for you, or you will need to bring an external  IT provider on-board.  The “per hour” charges of some of these external providers can get very high, and the delay in travel time to get to your premise is extra time that you cannot afford to waste when your systems are down.  With these pitfalls, we see more and more businesses searching for a better alternative, and so, they are turning their attention to the cloud. 

Though with all the advantages that cloud-based solutions have, businesses still have one major concern. They question whether it is still possible to have a connection that is just as fast and just as reliable as having the infrastructure stay within their office?  In the past, doing this, generally wasn’t feasible nor affordable, but now this has all changed.  The ability to have the same type of fast and reliable connection at an affordable rate is now not only a possibility, but a reality.  Advancements are now enabling all sorts of businesses to move their infrastructure entirely to the cloud, which in turn allows them to focus on their core business, rather than on  IT. 

Moving into to the Cloud, one step at a time

For businesses that already have systems physically located at their offices, the choice to move to the cloud is often a financial one.  With physical servers, the costs of operation is often entirely in the up-front capital expenditure.  With that arrangement, running the servers month-by-month is cheap, but purchasing them initially is not.  Due to the money invested, replacing that physical hardware outright often doesn’t make financial sense.  Luckily there is a way you can move to the cloud whilst still gaining value out of the hardware you already own. 

By moving your infrastructure into a data centre, you immediately get the benefits of redundant power and cooling.  No longer do you need to worry if the dusty UPS you have in the back corner of your office is still working, or if today will be the day that the ancient air conditioner dies.  With Micron21 Data Centre being rated as a Tier IV (the highest rating in the industry), our customers are even more protected against power and cooling issues.

Concerns over the physical security of your equipment also becomes a problem of the past.  Data centres, like Micron21, boast advanced access controls to different parts of the facility, granting access only to authorised personnel and visitors. With our data centre specifically, the intimidating 9-foot anti-scale palisade is only the first of many security measures we have in place to protect client systems.

What about the problem of waiting for an IT person to arrive to take a look at your servers when they’re down and every precious second counts?  That’s also gone!  For example, people who colocate their infrastructure with Micron21, have access to support staff that are able to investigate and fix issues for them right away.  This is because they are physically located within the data centre building and thus able to access their hardware straight away.  This is a great deal better than having to call out an IT person who may get stuck in traffic or have trouble finding a parking space.

So we come to the final hurdle: the network connection to your infrastructure. This problem too is now one of the past.  With point-to-point solutions now becoming cheaper and cheaper, the connection to your hardware can be the same as if you had it right next to you. 

Point-to-Point Connections – extending your network into Micron21

The ability to reliably connect to and use business systems is one of the most critical aspects of any IT solution. That’s why when customers move their services into our cloud, we often recommend setting up what is called a “point-to-point” connection. 

A point-to-point connection is a fibre link directly between one location and another, which when set up, enables a network to be fully extended between the two sites.  In simpler terms, this means that the network from your business’s office can be extended all the way out to the Micron21 Data Centre. This enables you to “lift-and-shift” your hardware into our data centre and begin benefiting from our Tier IV redundancy immediately.  Depending on the type of connection, the connectivity to your infrastructure can remain just as fast and reliable as before.

With point-to-point connections, data always travels back and forth the same way across the same dedicated route.  This allows for reliably, low latency and minimal packet loss (lost data) when compared with solutions that utilise regular internet connection.  This is because regular internet connections may be routed differently at different times, leading to inconsistant speeds and increased latency. 

From a security point of view, a dedicated point-to-point connection allows for a much more secure transfer of data between you and your systems.  Without a point-to-point solution connecting to your services, you'd be connecting over a regular internet connection. This kind of regular internet connection by itself is very insecure and thus additional services like firewalls and VPNs would be required to have any sort of security.  However, with a direct point-to-point connection, your data will continue to be sent via a private network with no connection to the wider world,  just like before.

The term point-to-point encompasses a wide range of services, and here are details to help understand the differences:

NBN Solutions: 

On the cheaper side of the spectrum are point-to-point solutions that utilise NBN fibre. These solutions are cheaper due to them using infrastructure that’s already in the ground and supplied by NBN Co.  The downside of these sorts of connections is that the services are usually more contended, meaning that the speeds can fluctuate depending on the time of day.  It should be noted that the solution in question here is “business grade”.  While there is some contention, it is still a better quality of service than what is delivered to residential customers.  However, this might not be acceptable to businesses that need 100% reliability and consistency day-to-day.

With average costs for 100/40 Mbit connection ending up around the $350 mark, NBN can be an effective solution for clients where price is more of a deciding factor than the reliability of the connection itself.

Ethernet Access – Contended Fibre Connections: 

Moving up the ladder we have more traditional fibre point-to-point solutions. These are often fibre networks that are maintained by companies like Telstra, Optus, or TPG.  The connections that are available are often symmetrical as opposed to the NBN (with upload speeds matching the download speeds offered).  These services also are less contended than their NBN counterparts, meaning that speeds are much more reliable.  It should be noted though, that these connections are still contended to some degree and fluctuations in speed can still occur. 

As you can expect, the prices for this type of service are also higher than the NBN reliant offerings. The price point for this usually starts somewhere around the $600 mark and increases from this based on the speeds required.

Managed Lease Lines – Uncontended Fibre Connections:

Then we come to the third most common type of point-to-point solution, that of Managed Lease Lines.  These are sold as uncontended and highly reliable fibre connections, offering high speed (up to 10 GBit) and sometimes sold with proactive monitoring. These types of connections are aimed at businesses that don’t want any sort of contention on the connections that they heavily rely on, and are willing to pay a higher price for such a service as a result.  Usually this is for businesses with multiple premises that need to be connected to each other.

Prices for these are usually a step above the Ethernet Access connection type alternatives and are usually quoted on a case-by-case basis - depending on each organisation’s unique requirements. 

The first step into the Cloud

Micron21 is consistently helping more and more businesses transition to the cloud.  So what’s the first step to moving your systems into the cloud?   It's to reach out.  We can be  contacted either via phone (1300 769 972, Option #1) or via email (sales@micron21.com) whereby we are more than happy to have a chat about your specific requirements.  Each business is unique and different in terms of how their systems work, but having that initial conversation is the best way to determine what’s best for your business.

Overall, you’ll find it’s easier than you think!