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A look at the companies who can help keep your data safe  It’s going to happen eventually. The power will go out, a major storm will come through, or a ransomware attack will hold your data hostage. Whatever it is, it will take your business down if you’re not prepared.
Your options when that disaster strikes will depend greatly on the decisions you’ve made beforehand. Specifically, how you back up your data and with whom. The world of data backups is crowded with different vendors. Most of them can do the job. Which one you choose will depend on your needs. To help you pick the right partner for your business, here are some of the most popular backup and recovery vendors and their use cases. Why Back Up? Put simply: You backup so that you can recover. But recover from what? That’s where times are changing. What used to be called disaster recovery is now called business continuity. It’s the science of ensuring that your business will continue if the worst case scenario occurs. One of the most important aspects of business continuity is protecting your data. That’s where backup and recovery come in. Why is backing up important? For example, let’s look at what happened on September 11, 2001. The world remembers that two planes struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, ending the lives of thousands of people. Far less tragic, but still worth remembering, is the fact that the towers also housed hundreds of businesses. Many ceased to exist after the attack. Not only was their physical infrastructure in the towers, but their data infrastructure was mostly housed in data centers also in the towers. The attack destroyed both their physical infrastructure and their data. Afterward, these businesses were effectively gone and unrecoverable. A disaster on the scale of 9/11 doesn’t have to occur to pose a major threat to your business. Storms, power outages, and ransomware are all existential threats to your data. Backing up your data is how you ensure that, should that data be damaged, you can recover it. Testing Is Key A key part of any backup strategy is testing. Remember, the idea of backing up anything in the first place is that, at some point, you will need to recover it. So it’s important to test that process. It can be more complicated than you expect, and the last thing you need when something bad has happened to your data is to run into complications while trying to restore it. Testing is also important because sometimes a backup will simply not work. Companies fail, outages happen, and sometimes things break. So you want to test your backups from time to time to ensure that the process works and that the data you need will be there when you need it. Ransomware In the past, the main driver of backup and recovery solutions was the threat of physical loss — a fire, flood, or terrorist attack. That was then. Now, the main threat to data is ransomware. Nearly 500 million ransomware attacks were detected in 2022, and the projected cost of ransomware attacks is expected to reach $265 billion every year by 2031. If you’re not protecting your data, the next attack could be against you. In a ransomware attack, someone is intentionally trying to move your data from where it lives (your system) to another location (their system) so that they can hold it hostage and demand payment. In the process, your data is likely to be deleted from your system entirely and potentially corrupted. Even if you were to pay the ransom, what you get back might be useless. Malicious actors only have to get it right once to take your business for everything you have. You have to be secure every single time. Business continuity requires an enterprise solution provided by reputable backup and recovery vendors. Backup and Recovery Vendors Backup and recovery vendors come in roughly three flavors:
We’ll take a look at and give some examples of each. Legacy Vendors Legacy vendors are the “old guard” of backup options. These are typically large companies that have made their reputations on hardware and have bolted on backup and recovery services after the fact. These vendors have huge install bases, but their businesses are built on legacy infrastructure using old technology. Commvault is probably the largest example of this type of vendor. They offer comprehensive data backup and recovery for both physical locations and cloud servers, and they do it very well. The advantage of using a legacy system provider like Commvault is familiarity. It’s always worked, your IT department understands it, and it’s reliable. The downside is they’re often expensive and lack the modern features of modern, hyperconverged solutions. IBM and Dell are also very strong competitors in the legacy vendor space. Software Only These vendors offer predominantly on-site backup solutions that are software only. This means they require access to hardware you already have installed or will install. Veeam is likely the biggest name in this space, offering backup and recovery solutions to businesses of all sizes. HYCU is also a major player in this space, especially with its Nutanix integration. HYCU positions itself as a Backup as a Service (BaaS) provider with hybrid cloud and multi-cloud services. The major advantage to backup and recovery vendors like Veam and HYCU is cost. When you’re only buying software, you can save tremendous amounts of money. The challenge is you have to get the hardware from somewhere. If you already have a large investment in hardware resources that are robust and reliable, a software-only vendor might make sense for your enterprise. But if you’re investing in a backup and recovery solution from scratch, an all-in-one provider like the ones below might make more sense. Modern Software and Hardware Vendors Cohesity backup is a modern backup and recovery solution that utilizes hyperconverged architecture and a “single plane of glass” management console, allowing users to manage the entire backup and recovery process from a single UI. Cohesity offers on-site hardware to store your backups and host the Cohesity software. It works with the public cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) environments. Rubrik is another reputable hyperconverged backup and recovery vendor. These two modern backup and recovery vendors have essentially rearchitected the way backup and recovery works. Instead of starting with legacy systems and bolting on hyperconverged architecture and backup and recovery systems, they’ve built their backup and recovery systems from the ground up. In the case of ransomware, Cohesity backup as a service also offers a service called “Fort Knox,” named after the gold repository in Kentucky. Fort Knox is a truly last-line-of-defense solution. It stores a copy of your data in a server located somewhere other than the main backup server in a location the user can’t access. That way, if an attacker gains access to your servers and backups, they will not have access to Fort Knox. It’s called an immutable backup, and it could mean the difference between saving your data and having to make a payout to attackers. You Backup So That You Can Recover Remember, you backup so that you can recover. Whatever the size of your business or the investment you have already made in IT infrastructure, there’s a backup and recovery vendor that’s right for you. For more information about backup and recovery vendors or to get a consultation on the right solution for your business, reach out today.
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Successful migration ultimately comes down to time, effort, and cost — discover which strategy offers the best outcomes for your business  If you’ve already weighed the cost of moving to the cloud and are dead-set on migrating, there is no shortage of options. However, choosing the most effective cloud migration strategy is not a decision to be taken lightly, and making the wrong decision can lead to spending more money on infrastructure than it brings in.
During the opening months of the pandemic, many organizations needed to rapidly transform their infrastructure to continue remote operations. As a result, they wasted a lot of money because they simply didn’t have the time to do the research. Now that things have settled down, it’s worth it to take the time to investigate all the options. No one gets extra credit for overspending, so applying an intelligent, research-based approach to determining the most appropriate cloud migration strategy will help you minimize costs while maximizing operational efficiency in the cloud. We’ll break down the four most common cloud migration strategies, provide the pros and cons of each, and give you our recommended approach. That way, you’ll have the information you need to make smarter, more informed decisions about the cloud-based future of your business. 4 Common Cloud Migration Strategies Strategy #1: Lift and Shift A lift and shift strategy is exactly what it sounds like: You are lifting the applications out of your current on-premises data center and shifting them to a public cloud data center. Lift and shift migrations are fast and cost-efficient — at least at first. Because you’re just moving infrastructure to a new location, it will operate exactly as it did on your old data server. You’re not unlocking the real benefits cloud infrastructure provides, and if it ran poorly before, it will run poorly on the public cloud. What’s worse is that now you’re effectively paying double for the same outcomes you had before. This is the fallacy of the public cloud — you’re moving applications over just to spend more money without receiving additional value. Pros: Migration is quick and less expensive than other strategies. Cons: You won’t see added benefits from the cloud without significant time investment, meaning you’re paying more for the same output. Strategy #2: Refactoring Refactoring is the process of taking your current setup and rebuilding it from scratch to take advantage of the unique benefits of the public cloud. It’s a software optimization process — your applications are effectively running on different hardware, so you’re reoptimizing the software to run in this new environment. Refactored public cloud infrastructure is typically far more efficient than those that undergo a lift and shift migration. This sounds great on paper. The problem with refactoring is that doing it right takes an enormous amount of time to set up and a significant amount of effort to pull off. Many businesses use hundreds of applications to keep day-to-day operations running smoothly. IT departments must refactor each of these applications to maximize efficiency within the cloud. No team has the staff or finances available to complete a project of this scope in a reasonable amount of time, and many refactoring projects simply never get finished. Pros: Allows infrastructure to unlock the full potential of public cloud infrastructure efficiencies. Cons: Requires excessive time to achieve, and many refactoring projects are never completed. Strategy #3: Lift and Shift on Bare Metal A lift and shift approach on bare metal moves your infrastructure onto private compute environments rather than shared ones. Bare metal also provides direct access to the hardware. This allows for far greater control over configuration, potentially making your infrastructure faster and more efficient. Conceptually, it’s no different than paying for your own on-premises infrastructure — you’re merely paying a platform like AWS or Google Cloud for the privilege. However, building cloud infrastructure on bare metal is far more expensive than running infrastructure on shared servers. On the public cloud, you’re sharing the platform’s infrastructure with other users, where both the cost savings and provider profits come from — choosing a private configuration increases costs significantly. And if you’re not refactoring your infrastructure to take full advantage of the additional compute benefits, you’re better off sticking with on-premises infrastructure. The additional benefits of bare metal won’t outweigh the cost. Pros: Offers more granular control over leased hardware and is not shared with other public cloud customers. Cons: More expensive than shared public cloud options. Strategy #4: Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) on Bare Metal Hyperconverged infrastructure uses bare metal cloud hardware as its base but places a software layer between the hardware and your applications, allowing you to run your applications as if they were on-premises. HCI allows your infrastructure to receive both the benefits of bare metal hardware configurations and application refactoring for a fully performance-optimized compute environment without the labor, knowledge, or time required to do so. The software layer essentially does the refactoring for you — so while you’re paying more for the bare metal hardware and software integration, you’re saving both money and time that would typically result from a lengthy migration process. Pros: Offers significant improvements to infrastructure efficiency with little investment in time or labor. Cons: Bare metal infrastructure and necessary software are more expensive than other strategies. Which Cloud Migration Strategy Should You Choose? Bare metal configuration options are more expensive than shared public cloud infrastructure. But if you can’t get your applications refactored quickly enough, shared infrastructure will increase your costs without adding any benefit. So, what cloud migration strategy should you choose? If management requires that your business moves its operations to the cloud, we recommend an HCI on bare metal approach, utilizing Nutanix public cloud software — specifically, Nutanix NC2. Nutanix NC2 provides the efficiency of refactoring for the public cloud without the time and financial expense required to actually refactor your infrastructure. You won’t need to change any configuration, so you can move applications back and forth between the cloud and on-premises infrastructure as required. Your team won’t need any additional knowledge beyond what you’ve already gained by operating on premises, and it won’t need additional staff to manage the extra load. Migration becomes a relative snap compared to other options, and you can quickly satisfy upper management’s requirements by moving operations into the cloud. Nutanix also eliminates the need for separate servers, storage, and storage network components by putting everything in a single box. Because these components operate much closer to the core, performance will be higher than infrastructure configurations where these components are spread out. And unlike public cloud costs — which arrive monthly and fluctuate based on unforeseen spikes — Nutanix is paid for up-front, and pricing is based on how many processing cores you need over a specific period. Ultimately, all the decisions surrounding cloud migration come down to which option will allow you to sell more products more efficiently and with the optimal ratio between expenses and revenue. HCI on bare metal with Nutanix NC2 will help you achieve the added benefits of the public cloud without spending too much time, energy, or resources to get there. Still Unsure? Let Us Help If you’re looking for more information about these migration strategies or want to learn more about what a cloud migration with Nutanix NC2 looks like, we can help. At Roundstone, we pride ourselves in being able to help businesses build modern, more efficient IT infrastructure that makes sense for their unique use cases. We’ve spent years connecting organizations with the knowledge they need to make smarter decisions and vendor partners that can make those decisions a reality. Want to get started? Contact us today. More businesses than ever before are turning to public cloud infrastructure — but does it actually save you money? Every organization wants to be more efficient and innovative; many see the public cloud as the easy and smart solution. But will the public cloud will actually help organizations achieve this goal while saving money? Maybe. Maybe not.
Taking a chance on different technology might be a worthwhile risk in a booming economy. At the very least, it’s easier to justify as costs aren’t under as much scrutiny. However, that’s not our current financial reality, and CIOs must increasingly defend the budgeting decisions they make now — especially when it comes to investments that are difficult to reverse. An assessment of public cloud vs on-premises cost is crucial for any CIO looking to make an informed decision on whether they should stick with their current IT infrastructure or proceed with migrating workloads to a different IT infrastructure or the public cloud. But analyzing cost is only a part of the whole picture — we’ll help you fill out the rest of the details so you can make the right decision for your organization. Public cloud vs on-premises cost: Which to choose? Providing a definitive comparison between public cloud vs on-premises cost is more difficult than crunching a few numbers and arriving at a simple numerical answer. Everyone’s needs differ; some organizations have workloads that are compute intensive, others are more storage heavy. The point is that every organization is different, which means that the best IT infrastructure for them will differ. As you’ll see, cost is the last factor to consider, not the first. It’s known that the public cloud is typically 30-50% more expensive than on-premises IT infrastructure. If you’re looking just at cost, it’s hard to say that public cloud is a more cost-effective option, because it usually isn’t. But that’s not all that goes into a proper evaluation of IT infrastructure options, so we must look at other factors. How to properly evaluate IT infrastructure options Organizations acquire IT infrastructure to run the applications necessary for the organization to operate and hopefully, succeed in their particular industry. Usually, the analysis goes no further than looking at what the cost of an IT infrastructure option is. However, these days, we’re seeing most organizations not even really doing much analysis at all. We’ve interviewed over a dozen CIOs and asked them to explain their evaluation process. To date, not one CIO has indicated their organization has a process. That’s alarming. So, let us show you how to do an effective evaluation of the available options for where to place your workloads. To begin, there are three (3) sets of factors to consider with each of the available IT infrastructure options. These are:
Let’s look at each. Operational Factors These are the features that make up the day-to-day operations of your workloads. Each workload is different and should be considered independently. Some of the operational factors that need to be considered are:
Organizational Factors These factors are less tangible than operational or financial, but they’re still important as they will affect your decision whether you realize them or not. Some organizational factors include:
Financial Factors These factors are easy to identify if you do your homework. It’s important to consider the fixed and variable nature of the costs. Here are some financial factors:
What are your IT infrastructure options? There are four (4) options to run your workloads. These are:
Please note that most organizations already run a combination of at least two (2) of the above. So how do I do the evaluation of public cloud vs on-premises? Here’s how you do it, and please note that Roundstone Solutions can help you do this. First, you evaluate the operational factors. To do this, you must list out as many factors as are pertinent to your particular workload. Since these factors are not financial, you must evaluate them based on a scale of most important to least important. We use a scale of 5-1. Rate each of the factors, in comparison to the four (4) IT infrastructure alternatives. For example, your workload might require a level of security that is only found on-premises, so you would rate the on-premises alternatives higher than the SaaS or public cloud alternatives. Next, you evaluate the organizational factors in the same way. When you’re done with the operational and organizational factor ranking, you simply total the scores and see which of the IT infrastructure options offer the highest score, and their ranking. From that point, you evaluate the financial factors, using projected real costs that you supply. When that’s done, you have a completed evaluation of all the alternatives based on what your organization’s workloads require. The cost comparison for the alternatives that pass muster in the operational and organizational factors will be clear. At that point, your evaluation is complete, and you have a clear understanding of how the alternatives compare. This is important as you’ll now be able to explain the decision that is ultimately made. Whatever your decision, you’ll have the ammunition to back it up your decision in concrete terms. It’ll help you make the best choice for your business and help you stick to your guns when groupthink tries to sway your mind. Please note that we’re not vested in one option over the other; we just want our clients to make informed, educated decisions that are right for their organization. There’s more to IT infrastructure than cost Public cloud vs on-premises cost is a crucial KPI for any business to consider. However, it’s only one part of the equation. Companies that only assess cost often miss other important factors that can impact their decision. Don’t just jump into the public cloud because everyone else is doing it. Thoroughly assess the available options for each of your workloads. If you need further guidance, don’t worry — we can help. We’ve assisted many organizations, from start-ups to large enterprises and from the public and private sectors to find the solution that makes sense and provides the best results. Contact us today to learn more. Since it was announced Broadcom was going to acquire VMware, we've heard quite a bit about how users and partners are "very concerned" about what Broadcom might do with VMware. Would they continue to invest in innovation (sorry, but VMware hasn't done that for quite some time), will they refocus the company, etc..
Here's a different take: You should be happy Broadcom is buying VMWare. They're doing you and your organization a huge favor. By announcing this acquisition, they've forced you to THINK. You're now forced to think about why you're paying so much money for what are features, not products. ESX/ESXi was at one time an innovative product, but has now become only a feature. And as such, you shouldn't be paying anything for it. Nutanix and all of the Public Cloud vendors provide both virtualization and management functions for free as part of their offerings. Specifically, Nutanix provides their virtualization feature, AHV, with every node, at no additional charge. Nutanix users who use AHV avoid large VMware bills. So can you. The same goes for vCenter. Nutanix's Prism management tool comes free with every node. It's got everything you're using vCenter for. Why pay for vCenter? So rather than lamenting that Broadcom is acquiring VMware, be glad. Because they've forced to you to realize you no longer need to pay for VMware. It's no secret everything seems to be getting more expensive these days. Fuel, food, rent, interest costs, clothing, and pretty much all other expense categories.
If you're in Information Technology, you've been experiencing long lead times for new technology due to issues with the supply chain, particularly in China. Network equipment and servers have been especially hard hit. Cisco and HPE seem to have pretty long lead times on most products right now. Nutanix doesn't really have problems delivering their technology however. Just an FYI. What I really wanted to talk about it the cost of running your IT. For the past few years, many IT executives ran headfirst towards the Public Cloud, as if it was some sort of Holy Grail. Now, the reality of what Public Cloud really costs is about to hit home...HARD. You see, when things are going well and companies are making lots of money, budgets are pretty easy. Everyone hires, and no layoffs occur. No one really questioned "moving to the Public Cloud" as a strategy, because it SEEMED to make sense. But now that things aren't quite as flush, businesses are going to look to cut costs. You know where they should look? DIRECTLY AT WHAT THEY'RE PAYING FOR THE PUBLIC CLOUD. Let me say that I'm not "anti-Public Cloud". What I am, however, is anti-not doing your homework. Especially when you can create a Private Cloud at about half the cost of the Public Cloud. You know that not every workload/application is the same, and where it should run is not necessarily the same. You have to look at each workload individually and make the determination of which type of IT deployment serves your business best BY WORKLOAD. What's going to happen when the CEO and CFO come to you and ask for some money out of your budget? Will they be surprised at how much you're spending with the Public Cloud? What if they found out the cost could be about half using Nutanix? What if they ask to see the rationale you used? Something to think about. Let us help you avoid that uncomfortable situation. Call us at 925-217-1177 or email tim@roundstonesolutions.com. Roundstone Solutions is hiring for two (2) Sales Development Reps/Account Managers.
We're experiencing significant growth in our business, and we anticipate this growth to continue into the future. A bit about our business:
We're looking for a couple of people who have at least 2 years of IT sales, in a customer facing position. What we mean by that is we want you to have already learned the basics of what it takes to generate new prospects for business. While some of you have been the beneficiary of having inbound leads, we're all about finding the leads ourselves. If you're afraid of the phone or talking to strangers, this isn't for you. The role is to take the Northern CA territory and generate new business. You'll work closely with our Vendor Partners, and you'll learn all about their solutions. Our CEO will mentor you so that in a reasonable period of time you'll be an Outside Account Manager...based on your efforts and success. Your success and income will be dependent on a few things, including how hard you work, how organized you are, your personality and acumen for sales, and how many qualified opportunities you're able to develop into sales. We're offering a salary and bonus/commission plan, along with benefits. As stated above, we're a VAR in the IT infrastructure business. We're in a market that's already developed, so we're not selling products that no one yet understands. You don't have to convince prospects about the products areas we sell...they already understand, unlike in a lot of startups. If this sounds like something you might enjoy, reach out via email to us at tim@roundstonesolutions.com (no phone calls). Thanks.  Like many things in the US these days, intelligent discourse is pretty hard to find. Politics aside, if someone holds a different opinion than another, they tend to be either minimized or just ignored. That's not a smart way to be...it's from differing opinions that we learn.
I find discussions about the Public Cloud follow the same pattern. If you have any opinion other than the Public Cloud is the ONLY place to run your workloads, you're branded 1) a dinosaur, 2) someone who clearly doesn't get it, or 3) an idiot. I beg to disagree. Having an educated opinion used to be valued, and in my world, it still is. I remember the line my Mom (and probably everyone's Mom) would say, "If everybody jumped off the roof, would you jump too?" In other words, don't just do what everyone else is doing, because there's no guarantee that all the others are right. Another way to think of this is "don't be a lemming". Think for yourself. Which brings us to the Public Cloud. Let me start by saying that the Public Cloud appears to be an excellent option FOR SOME WORKOADS. The operative point in that statement is the "for some workloads" part. Not all workloads are suited for the Public Cloud, for a variety of reasons. Maybe the Cloud is actually fog. I think organizations should evaluate where your workloads should run based on three types of factors; operational, organization, and financial. Clearly, just looking at the financial facts don't seem to be preventing many from moving workloads to the Public Cloud, despite the significant difference in cost. I don't know about you, but if someone came to me with an offer for me to pay double in the Public Cloud than what I could do with my own infrastructure on-premises, I'd definitely say no. It's worth realizing that business moves in cycles. What seems like a great idea today might not be a great idea in a few years. Especially when you've doubled your cost. Gartner Group and other thought leader groups are out there touting the Public Cloud as the savior to all that ails your IT organization. Did you ever stop and think who pays Gartner Group and others like them for such glowing recommendations? It's two groups...users who think Gartner Group is smarter than they are and the other are the vendors who benefit. To be so bold...maybe things are a bit slanted? Again, I'm not saying Public Cloud is bad...it's not. But neither is on-premises. Here's a check for you...since Public Cloud held the promise of eliminating the "hassle" of managing your own IT infrastructure, how many jobs have been eliminated in your organization by the Public Cloud? How many infrastructure guys are doing higher level tasks? Probably none, because you need someone to manage an additional infrastructure now. I think overall you have to be smart. Do the homework. Do an evaluation of ALL of the options using all of the factors. Only then will you really know that you made the right decision. If it comes up Public Cloud, great..do Public Cloud. If it comes up on-premises, run the workload on-premises. Feel free to comment. All intelligent discourse welcome here...  Today is the last business day of 2021. While we always look forward to the New Year, we're kind of sorry to see this one go. It's been a very good year for Roundstone Solutions.
It looks like we will finish 2021 with our business having doubled. That's at a time when it's been hard to do much business in person. Almost all of our Clients have remained remote, and in-person meetings have consisted of lunches, golf games, coffee meetings, etc. No in-office meetings. For a company that favors doing business in-person, it's been a big change for us. But, we all adapted and things went well. Our decision to focus on a small number of innovative companies has been paying off for us. We remain dedicated to Nutanix, Cohesity, RingCentral, and Arctic Wolf. This allows us to cover data center infrastructure, backup and recovery, unified communications as a service, and security. Not surprisingly, these are the immediate focus areas for many of our Clients. We're well positioned to continue our success into 2022. Most of all, we want to thank our Clients and Partners for their continued interest in working with Roundstone. While we're certainly not the biggest IT solutions provider in the market, we'd like to think we're one of the best. The continued trust our Clients and Partners place in Roundstone is very gratifying, and what keeps us going. Thank you for that. For those who haven't yet worked with us, what are you waiting for? Let us help you in 2022 and beyond. Find out how much easier doing business can be. Happy New Year to you and yours. Thank you again for a great 2021! I've posted in the past about how end users rarely do much evaluating of alternatives before they decide where to run their applications. Instead, it's pretty much "let's keep buying 3-tier from our current vendor (HPE, Dell, etc.)" or it's "the Public Cloud holds magical benefits for all and we should put everything there".
Hey, I'm not saying the end result of your evaluation shouldn't be either of those two options, but if that's the sum total of your "evaluation", you'll be looking for work soon. There are really 4 platforms to run your IT infrastructure; 3-Tier on-prem, HCI on-prem, Private Cloud/SaaS, or Public Cloud. We're almost at the end of 2021, meaning we've been in the new century for 22 years now. But most companies still decide what infrastructure to use for its applications like it was the 1980s or, at best, the 1990s. The new millennium requires a new way to evaluate things. You don't evaluate a Tesla car based on how many miles per gallon it gets, nor do you buy a TV based on how many VHF/UHF stations it gets (IYKYK). I've spoken with many CIOs about this, and I'm blown away that there's not an intelligent evaluation of every infrastructure decision made. But, these are smart people, so I figure there's gotta be a reason. Well, I think I've figured it out...no one is looking at all of the alternatives because THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO IT. Fair enough...I spent some time putting together a new way to evaluate things. Check it out... No one really buys into vendors doing financial analyses of alternatives, because the result is always "buy our stuff, and lots of it". Not a lot of objectivity there. But if it was all about financials, why would anyone put their workloads into the Public Cloud at twice the cost of other options? That tells me it's not about cost, apparently, although if my IT guy ever came to me with a proposal to double my cost, he wouldn't be my IT guy for long. Nope, the right way to do things is by looking at 1) operational factors, 2) organizational factors, and 3) financial factors. We've created a very easy way for YOU to do the evaluation using your own factors, so the evaluation is not biased. Contact us about the Evaluation tool. We'll be happy to provide it and show you have to use it for your own benefit. Unless you still want to be stuck in the 1990s... I've got a reputation in our industry of being someone who knows the IT infrastructure business very well, and also as one who isn't afraid to speak the truth about how the business works. Sometimes, that means pointing out how some vendors take advantage of customers, in hopes of educating our prospects so they can get the best value for their money spent.
Lately, though, I've been speaking plainly about how many end users are just blindly migrating to "the Public Cloud" as if it's some magic formula that all the smart guys are using. It isn't. And it's time you guys started doing your homework. Amazon makes most of its profit from Amazon Web Services. AWS makes BIG profits off its customers...much bigger than most other computer companies. It's not because they're smarter than others; it's because they've got customers that aren't doing their homework. As I've said before...what if you, an IT manager, had to explain to your management why you doubled your cost of IT infrastructure by moving to the Public Cloud? If your manager was smart, they'd drill into the evaluation you did before you decided on the Public Cloud. And most times, they'd see you didn't do any! How do you think that's going to end for you? I've discussed this with at least 5 CIOs over the past few months. Not one of them said their guys do much of an evaluation on IT infrastructure decisions. They all felt that the Public Cloud made sense, mostly because their guys told them so, or they read about how all the smart guys were going to the cloud. I asked them how they could possibly know that if they didn't even do an evaluation? My pointing this out to them was interesting...they quickly realized their guys didn't do the work...and that going forward they were going to have to. Understand I am not against the Public Cloud. I AM against being lazy and not doing the hard work of looking at all of your options. Public Cloud is ideal for some workloads, but not most. And it's almost always about twice as expensive as doing it yourself. Why would you EVER spend twice as much as you had to? C'mon...be smart! we can help. Just ask! |
AuthorTim Joyce, Founder, Roundstone Solutions Tim’s Personal Blog…more good stuff  Archives
September 2023
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