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A Security Fabric for the Internet of Things

Do you know what is connected to your network right now? If you don’t, your network is vulnerable to attacks you might never see coming. You can’t protect what you don’t know exists. You’re in good company if you’re mistaken about what’s connecting to your network. Cisco’s 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report found a large discrepancy between the number of IoT devices that IT managers thought were on their networks, and the actual quantities. For example, government IT underestimated IoT connected devices by 12%, healthcare by 33%, technology by 43%, and finance by 50%. How did we get this so wrong? Shadow IT gets some of the blame. Individuals, acting on their own or their departments’ interests, purchase devices that they connect to corporate networks without giving IT the opportunity to manage, or even enumerate them. Yet these devices and apps may be able to freely connect to sensitive enterprise resources as well as the open internet. That’s a dangerous network security vulnerability.

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Pulse Secure

Pulse Secure, LLC is a leading provider of secure access solutions to both enterprises and service providers. Enterprises from every vertical and of all sizes utilize the company’s virtual private network (VPN), network access control (NAC) and mobile security products to enable end-user mobility securely and seamlessly in their organizations. Pulse Secure was formed in 2014 from Juniper Networks’ Junos Pulse business. Pulse Secure’s mission is to deliver secure access solutions for people, devices, things, and services.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

Ensuring Compliance in IaaS: Addressing Regulatory Requirements in Cloud

Article | October 10, 2023

Stay ahead of the curve and navigate the complex landscape of regulatory obligations to safeguard data in cloud. Explores the challenges of maintaining compliance and strategies for risk mitigation. Contents 1. Introduction 2. 3 Essential Regulatory Requirements 2.1 Before migration 2.2. During migration 2.3. After migration 3. Challenges in Ensuring Compliance in Infrastructure as a Service in Cloud Computing 3.1. Shared Responsibility Model 3.2. Data Breach 3.3. Access Mismanagement 3.4. Audit and Monitoring Challenges 4. Strategies for Addressing Compliance Challenges in IaaS 4.1. Risk Management and Assessment 4.2. Encryption and Collaboration with Cloud Service Providers 4.3. Contractual Agreements 4.4. Compliance Monitoring and Reporting 5. Conclusion 1. Introduction Ensuring Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) compliance in security is crucial for organizations to meet regulatory requirements and avoid potential legal and financial consequences. However, several challenges must be addressed before and after migration to the cloud. This article provides an overview of the regulatory requirements in cloud computing, explores the challenges faced in ensuring compliance in IaaS, a cloud implementation service and provides strategies for addressing these challenges to ensure a successful cloud migration. 2. 3 Essential Regulatory Requirements When adopting cloud infrastructure as a service, organizations must comply with regulatory requirements before, during, and after migration to the cloud. This ensures avoiding the challenges, firms may face later and suggest solutions if they do so. 2.1 Before migration: Organizations must identify the relevant regulations that apply to their industry and geographic location. This includes: Data Protection Laws, Industry-Specific Regulations, and International Laws. 2.2. During migration: Organizations must ensure that they meet regulatory requirements while transferring data and applications to the cloud. This involves: Ensuring proper access management, data encryption, and data residency requirements. 2.3. After migration: Organizations must continue to meet regulatory requirements through ongoing monitoring and reporting. This includes: Regularly reviewing and updating security measures, ensuring proper data protection, and complying with audit and reporting requirements. 3. Challenges in Ensuring Compliance in Infrastructureas a Service in Cloud Computing 3.1. Shared Responsibility Model The lack of control over the infrastructure in IaaS cloud computing is caused by the shared responsibility model of IaaS, where the cloud service provider is responsible for the IaaS security while the customer is responsible for securing the data and applications they store and run in the cloud. According to a survey, 22.8% of respondents cited the lack of control over infrastructure as a top concern for cloud security. (Source: Cloud Security Alliance) 3.2. Data Breach Data breaches have serious consequences for businesses, including legal and financial penalties, damage to their reputation, and the loss of customer trust. The location of data and the regulations governing its storage and processing create challenges for businesses operating in multiple jurisdictions. The global average total cost of a data breach increased by USD 0.11 million to USD 4.35 million in 2022, the highest it's been in the history of this report. The increase from USD 4.24 million in the 2021 report to USD 4.35 million in the 2022 report represents a 2.6% increase. (Source: IBM) 3.3. Access Mismanagement Insider threats, where authorized users abuse their access privileges, can be a significant challenge for access management in IaaS. This includes the intentional or accidental misuse of credentials or non-protected infrastructure and the theft or loss of devices containing sensitive data. The 2020 data breach investigations report found that over 80% of data breaches were caused by compromised credentials or human error, highlighting the importance of effective access management. (Source: Verizon) 3.4. Audit and Monitoring Challenges Large volumes of alerts overwhelm security teams, leading to fatigue and missed alerts, which result in non-compliance or security incidents going unnoticed. Limited resources may also make it challenging to effectively monitor and audit infrastructure as a service cloud environment, including the implementation and maintenance of monitoring tools. 4. Strategies for Addressing Compliance Challenges in IaaS 4.1. Risk Management and Assessment Risk Assessment and Management includes conducting a risk assessment, including assessing risks related to data security, access controls, and regulatory compliance. It also involves implementing risk mitigation measures to address identified risks, like additional security measures or access controls such as encryption or multi-factor authentication. 4.2. Encryption and Collaboration with Cloud Service Providers Encryption can be implemented at the application, database, or file system level, depending on the specific needs of the business. In addition, businesses should establish clear service level agreements with their cloud service provider related to data protection. This includes requirements for data security, access controls, and backup and recovery processes. 4.3. Contractual Agreements The agreement should also establish audit and compliance requirements, including regular assessments of access management controls and policies. Using contractual agreements, organizations help ensure that they are clearly defined and that the cloud service provider is held accountable for implementing effective access management controls and policies. 4.4. Compliance Monitoring and Reporting Monitoring and Reporting involves setting up automated monitoring and reporting mechanisms that track compliance with relevant regulations and standards and generate reports. They should also leverage technologies such as intrusion detection and prevention systems, security information and event management (SIEM) tools, and log analysis tools to collect, analyze, and report on security events in real time. 5. Conclusion In accordance with the increasing prevalence of data breaches and the growing complexity of regulatory requirements, maintaining a secure and compliant cloud environment will be crucial for businesses to build trust with customers and avoid legal and financial risks. Addressing these requirements, the cloud helps companies maintain data privacy, avoid legal risks, and build customer trust. Organizations create a secure and compliant cloud environment that meets their needs by overcoming challenges and implementing best practices, working closely with cloud service providers. Ultimately, by prioritizing compliance and investing in the necessary resources and expertise, businesses can navigate these challenges and unlock the full potential of the cloud with confidence.

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Application Infrastructure, Application Storage

Leading IaaS Providers - Unlocking the Power of Cloud Computing

Article | July 19, 2023

Simplify server maintenance with managed services! Hybrid and multi-cloud systems work together in harmony, gaining advantage of both storage systems. Explore IaaS providers for your business needs. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Multi-Cloud vs. Hybrid Cloud 2.1. Multi-Cloud Storage Systems 2.2. Hybrid Cloud Storage Systems 2.3. Choosing between Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud 3. Managed and Unmanaged Services 4. 5 top companies providing IaaS platforms 4.1. ScaleMatrix 4.2. Faction 4.3. Expedient 4.4. PhoenixNAP 4.5. Rackspace Technology 5. Conclusion 1. Introduction Several leading companies are providing IaaS platforms, offering managed and unmanaged services, and multi-cloud and hybrid cloud solutions to meet the growing demands of businesses in today's digital landscape. In addition, these companies offer various services to help organizations manage their IT infrastructure, including computing power, virtual machines, storage, and networking, while also providing additional value-added services such as security, disaster recovery, and automation. 2. Multi-Cloudvs. Hybrid Cloud Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud are cloud deployment infrastructure models 2.1. Multi-Cloud Storage Systems: Multicloud refers to an organization utilizing cloud computing services from at least two cloud providers to run their applications. Instead of relying on a single-cloud stack, multi-cloud environments usually consist of two or more public clouds, two or more private clouds, or a mix of both. 2.2. Hybrid Cloud Storage Systems: A hybrid cloud refers to a heterogeneous computing environment where applications are executed using a blend of computing, storage, and services across distinct environments, such as public clouds, private clouds, on-premises data centers, or edge locations. 2.3. Choosing Between Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud 2.3.1. Opting for a Hybrid Cloud: For businesses that require control over certain data or workloads, a hybrid cloud strategy may be necessary. This involves hosting some applications in the public cloud while running critical workloads locally to balance the benefits of cloud technology with the need for local data control. - To avoid vendor lock-in, carefully select the best cloud services for each application or task. - Choose cost-effective services to engage in more effective business planning. - Ensure flexibility and adaptability for the cloud team. - Enable a company to use best-in-class services for each app/task 2.3.2. Selecting a Multi-Cloud: Businesses often rely on multiple cloud providers for different services, such as public clouds for virtual machines and SaaS for business applications. They may also access AI, ML, or language cloud services from other providers. - To test and validate a cloud computing platform before migrating its resources and workloads. - To enable a centralized identity infrastructure across disparate systems. - To ensure a blend of self-service resources (private cloud) and a platform to run test workloads (public cloud), for DevOps based firms However, hybrids and multi-clouds can operate together. For example, a company can establish a private cloud for internal operations and then merge it with a public cloud to form a hybrid cloud. Additional clouds, whether IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS, can be added or integrated to provide specific resources or services to the business. Alternatively, a company can create a hybrid cloud with one public cloud provider and still use resources and services from other public clouds outside the hybrid cloud environment. 3. Managed and Unmanaged Services IaaS comes in two main forms: managed and unmanaged. Managed services can simplify server maintenance by providing support and expertise. With managed dedicated servers, clients can focus on other aspects of their business while the host takes care of day-to-day maintenance, including software upgrades. This option is also safer, as self-managing a server without the necessary expertise can create security vulnerabilities. Unmanaged services are cheaper but don't include extras or support. Standard or custom control panels are used for task management. However, managing servers can only be done with experience. In addition, unmanaged hosting services are limited to providing a default solution configuration, and the applications must be installed on the cloud server by the user. 4. 5 Top Companies Providing IaaS Platforms 4.1. ScaleMatrix ScaleMatrix offers IaaS solutions that empower businesses to manage their IT infrastructure while minimizing expensive capital expenditures (CAPEX) and reducing operational costs (OPEX). With ScaleMatrix's IaaS solutions, companies can have complete control over their infrastructure, utilizing the Ping, Power, Pipe, and server hardware. This allows businesses to tailor their infrastructure to fit their specific needs, with the option to make changes as required. Additionally, businesses can deploy hardware without significant capital investment, avoiding a CAPEX spike. Instead, they can pay for their infrastructure on an OPEX basis, allowing them to manage their expenses more efficiently. 4.2. Faction Faction is a top-tier IaaS provider that offers a wide range of customizable solutions to meet the unique needs of its clients. Their IaaS offerings provide flexibility and agility to grow businesses while controlling costs. Clients can choose from various infrastructure options, including dedicated servers, private clouds, and hybrid cloud solutions. Faction's managed services portfolio differentiates it from other IaaS providers. The company's managed services are designed to provide clients with a more integrated ecosystem of managed services that can handle complex business needs across client on-premises and cloud environments. This includes services like monitoring and management, security and compliance, cloud backup, and disaster recovery, providing clients with a complete end-to-end solution for their IT infrastructure needs. 4.3. Expedient Expedient provides infrastructure as a service solutions, including their flagship Expedient Enterprise Cloud, enabling clients to purchase resource pools and dedicated nodes. This cloud offering allows businesses to quickly scale resources without needing to refractor applications or learn a new platform. The platform offers a single management interface with self-service network provisioning, monitoring, and analytics. Expedient also provides a dedicated private cloud solution for applications like Citrix, reducing the infrastructure maintenance burden while maintaining scalability and flexibility. Expedient's Private Cloud Anywhere service allows businesses to have a cloud node within their own data center, providing a cloud-like experience within the proximity of mission-critical functions like manufacturing lines or retail stores. 4.4. PhoenixNAP PhoenixNAP is a leading provider of bare metal cloud infrastructure solutions that empower businesses to innovate and achieve agility by deploying a flexible, cloud-native-ready infrastructure. Another significant advantage of PhoenixNAP's Bare Metal Cloud is the flexible billing models, which allow for fast scalability and cost optimization. The solutions offer the performance of dedicated hardware with cloud-like flexibility, allowing for automated provisioning of physical servers in minutes. Reserved instances are available for up to three years, providing cost-effective options. As a cloud-native-ready IaaS platform, PhoenixNAP's Bare Metal Cloud delivers high-performance, non-virtualized servers for even the most demanding workloads. 4.5. Rackspace Technology Rackspace Technology is a leading provider of IT-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions that enable businesses to leverage the latest technologies and gain a competitive advantage. Their IaaS solutions are designed to meet the unique needs of the FinTech industry, which demands highly secure, scalable, and reliable infrastructure to support mission-critical applications. Its IaaS offerings are designed to provide flexible and scalable infrastructure that can be customized to meet the specific needs of businesses. They offer a range of infrastructure services, including public and private clouds, dedicated servers, and managed hosting, as well as hybrid cloud solutions that combine the benefits of both public and private cloud environments. 5. Conclusion The future of the top leading companies providing IaaS platforms looks promising as the demand for cloud computing services continues to grow. With the ever-increasing need for businesses to store, manage, and analyze large amounts of data, the demand for IaaS platforms is expected to increase in the coming years. This includes enhancing their security measures, network capabilities, and data center footprints. Furthermore, as the industry moves towards hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments, these companies will need to adapt and provide solutions that can seamlessly integrate with various cloud platforms. This will require collaboration with other cloud service providers and investment in interoperability technologies. As businesses increasingly rely on data-driven decision-making, cloud providers will need to offer services that enable customers to process and analyze large amounts of data quickly and efficiently using AI and ML. The future of the top leading companies will require continuous innovation, collaboration, and investment in new technologies to meet the changing needs of their customers. As cloud computing continues to transform the business landscape, these companies will enable businesses to scale and grow in the digital age.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, IT Systems Management

WIRELESS DATA CENTERS AND CLOUD COMPUTING

Article | September 14, 2023

One of the most exciting areas of Vubiq Network’s innovative millimeter wave technology is in the application of ultra high-speed, short-range communications as applied to solving the scaling constraints and costs for internal data center connectivity and switching. Today’s limits of cabled and centralized switching architectures are eliminated by leveraging the wide bandwidths of the millimeter wave spectrum for the high-density communications requirements inside the modern data center. Our patented technology has the ability to provide more than one terabit per second of wireless uplink capacity from a single server rack through an innovative approach to create a millimeter wave massive mesh network. The elimination of all inter-rack cabling – as well as the elimination of all aggregation and core switches – is combined with higher throughput, lower latency, lower power, higher reliability, and lower cost by using millimeter wave wireless connectivity.

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Application Infrastructure, Application Storage

How IaaS Services Help Drive Digital Transformation of Businesses

Article | May 17, 2023

Without IaaS services, businesses face high upfront costs and slower time-to-market, hindering its growth. Embracing IaaS services with compliance to regulatory measures fosters digital transformation. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Regulatory Requirements 2.1 Adhering to Regulations Before Migration 2.2. Confirming to Standards During Migration 2.3. Complying with Requirements After Migration 3. Role of IaaS in Digital Transformation 3.1. Overview of Digital Transformation in Business 3.2. Benefits of IaaS for Digital Transformation Initiation 4. Key IaaS Services for Digital Transformation 4.1. Compute Services 4.2. Storage Services 4.3. Networking Services 4.4. Security Services 5. Use Cases of IaaS in Digital Transformation 5.1. Cloud Migration 5.2. DevOps and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) 5.3. Big Data Analytics 5.4. Internet of Things 6. Leading Providers of IaaS 6.1. Deft 6.2. Virtuozzo 6.3. DigitalOcean 6.4. Vultr 6.5. Linode 7. Conclusion 1. Introduction The article highlights infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) services, which are crucial in driving digital transformation for businesses. By delivering scalable computing resources, reducing IT infrastructure costs, and enabling a greater focus on core competencies, IaaS is helping businesses innovate faster and stay competitive in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Further, the article elaborates on the three significant regulations to be considered for regulatory requirements. As businesses continue to embrace digital transformation, IaaS has emerged as a key enabler for organizations looking to achieve their goals. IaaS allows businesses to quickly and easily scale their computing resources up or down while reducing their IT infrastructure costs. This, in turn, enables businesses to focus on their core competencies, innovate faster, and stay competitive in today's fast-paced digital landscape. In this article, we will explore the ways in which IaaS is driving digital transformation, as well as the various services offered by IaaS providers that are helping businesses achieve their objectives and the use cases that follow. 2. Regulatory Requirements During cloud adoption and migration to IaaS, organizations must comply with regulatory requirements before, during, and after migration to the cloud. 2.1 Adhering to Regulations Before Migration Organizations must identify the relevant regulations that apply to their industry and geographic location. This includes: 2.1.1. Data Protection Laws These laws define how personal and sensitive data should be handled and protected. Organizations must comply with these laws when collecting, storing, processing, and sharing private and sensitive data. Examples include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States. 2.1.2. Industry-Specific Regulations These regulations apply to specific industries like healthcare, finance, and government. In addition, these regulations may define particular security and data protection requirements that organizations must comply with. Examples are the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the healthcare industry and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) in the finance industry. 2.1.3. International Laws These laws apply to organizations operating in multiple countries or transferring data across international borders. These laws may vary based on the countries involved and define specific data protection and privacy requirements. Examples include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) in the Asia-Pacific region. 2.2. Confirming Standards During Migration Organizations must ensure that they meet regulatory requirements while transferring data and applications to the cloud. This involves: 2.2.1. Access Management This refers to controlling who can access data and applications in the cloud. Organizations must ensure only authorizedpersonnel can access sensitive data and specific applications during migration. This can be achieved by implementing access controls such as multi-factor authentication and role-based access control. 2.2.2. Data Encryption This refers to converting data into code to prevent unauthorized access. During migration, organizations must ensure that sensitive data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. This can be achieved by using encryption technologies, such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). 2.2.3. Data Residency This refers to the legal requirements around where data can be stored and processed. Organizations must comply with these requirements during migration to avoid potential legal and regulatory consequences. This may involve ensuring data is stored and processed within specific geographic locations or complies with industry-specific regulations. 2.3. Complying with Requirements After Migration Organizations must continue to meet regulatory requirements through ongoing monitoring and reporting. This includes: 2.3.1. Regular Review and Updation of Security Measures This refers to the ongoing process of reviewing and improving the security measures that are in place to protect data and assets from potential threats. This includes identifying vulnerabilities, updating software and hardware, implementing new security policies and procedures, and training employees on best practices. 2.3.2. Data Protection This refers to the measures taken to safeguard sensitive and confidential data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. Proper data protection includes using encryption, access controls, firewalls, and other security technologies to prevent unauthorized access to the data center and implementing processes and procedures for securely handling and disposing of data. 2.3.3. Audit and Reporting This refers to businesses' legal and regulatory requirements to regularly audit and report on their security practices and data protection measures. This includes complying with industry-specific standards and regulations, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and conducting internal and external audits to ensure compliance with these standards and regulations. 3. Role of IaaS in Digital Transformation The role of IaaS in businesses is to configure, deploy, and manage cloud infrastructure environments or applications through cross-technology administration (virtual networks, operating systems, databases), scripting, monitoring automation execution, and managing incidents with a focus on service restoration. 3.1. Overview of Digital Transformation in Business IaaS provides a flexible, scalable, and customizable infrastructure that can easily be managed and optimized, allowing organizations to focus on their core business objectives and maximize their productivity and efficiency. IaaS provides businesses access to virtualized computing resources, such as virtual machines, storage, and networking, which can be provisioned and managed through a web-based interface or API. This allows businesses to quickly deploy and scale their infrastructure without worrying about the underlying hardware and infrastructure. IaaS enables businesses to focus more on their core competencies. By outsourcing IT infrastructure management to IaaS providers, businesses can focus more on their core business functions and leave control of their IT systems to the experts. In addition, by leveraging the cloud, businesses can reduce their capital investment in buying, deploying, and managing physical servers and storage devices. A report found that companies that have embraced digital transformation are 23 times more likely to acquire new customers, 6 times more likely to retain existing customers, and 19 times more likely to be profitable. (Source: McKinsey & Company) According to a study, the top benefits of digital transformation for businesses include increased efficiency (43%), better customer satisfaction (41%), and increased profitability (36%). (Source: Accenture) 3.2. Benefits of IaaS for Digital Transformation Initiation Apart from the benefits like improved agility, robust security, quick scalability, better flexibility, and cost savings, IaaS has the following benefits: Predictable Costs: IaaS providers typically offer transparent pricing models, which enable businesses to predict their IT costs more accurately and avoid unexpected expenses. Enhanced Compliance: IaaS providers often have compliance certifications, such as SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, which can help businesses meet their regulatory compliance requirements more efficiently. Geographic Flexibility: IaaS enables businesses to deploy their IT infrastructure across different geographic regions, allowing the customer experience to soar in other markets with low latency and high availability. Disaster Recovery: IaaS providers typically have built-in disaster recovery capabilities, allowing businesses to quickly recover from data loss or infrastructure failures without significant downtime or data loss. Increased Innovation: By outsourcing their infrastructure management to IaaS providers, businesses can focus on innovation and new product development rather than infrastructure maintenance and management. 4. Key IaaS Services for Digital Transformation 4.1. Compute Services Compute services provide the processing power and resources needed to run applications in the cloud. This includes virtual machines, containers, and serverless computing. Compute services are essential for digital transformation, allowing organizations to scale their applications and infrastructure to meet changing demands. According to a report, the global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from USD 371.4 billion in 2020 to USD 832.1 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 17.5% during the forecast period (2020-25). The growth of the market is driven by factors such as the increasing adoption of multi-cloud strategies and the growing demand for scalable and cost-effective computing. (Source: MarketsandMarkets) 4.2. Storage Services Storage services provide the capacity and durability needed to store and manage data in the cloud. This includes object storage, block storage, and file storage. Solutions such as cloud storage services are essential for digital transformation, as they allow organizations to store and manage large amounts of data and make it easily accessible to users. According to a report, the global data sphere is expected to grow from 33 zettabytes (ZB) in 2018 to 175 ZB by 2025, at a CAGR of 61%. The growth of the data sphere is driven by factors such as the increasing use of digital technologies and the growing amount of data generated by connected devices. (Source: IDC) 4.3. Networking Services Networking services provide the connectivity and performance needed to access and use cloud resources. This includes virtual networks, load balancers, and content delivery networks. Networking services are essential for digital transformation, allowing organizations to connect their applications and infrastructure across different regions and providers. According to a research report, the global multi-cloud networking market will grow from USD 2.7 billion in 2022 to USD 7.6 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5% during the forecast period (2022-27). (Source: MarketsandMarkets) 4.4. Security Services Cloud security services provide the protection and compliance needed to secure cloud resources and data. This includes identity and access management (IAM), encryption, and threat detection and response. Security services are essential for digital transformation, as they allow organizations to secure their applications and data from cyber threats and comply with regulatory requirements. The Global Cloud Access Security Broker Market size is expected to reach $18 billion by 2028, rising at a market growth of 17.8% CAGR during the forecast period (2022-28). (Source: ReportLinker ) 5. Use Cases of IaaS in Digital Transformation 5.1. Cloud Migration Cloud Migration: One of the primary use cases for IaaS is cloud migration, where organizations move their existing applications and infrastructure to the cloud platform. This can help organizations reduce their IT costs, improve scalability, and increase flexibility. IaaS providers offer tools and cloud services to make the migration process easier and more efficient. For example, Accenture helped global manufacturing companies migrate its IT infrastructure to the Microsoft Azure IaaS platform. One of the migrations involved moving more than 1,200 virtual machines and 150 TB of data to the cloud. As a result, the company was able to reduce its IT infrastructure costs by 40% and improve scalability and flexibility. (Source: Accenture) 5.2. DevOps and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) IaaS provides the infrastructure needed to support DevOps and CI/CD processes, allowing organizations to deliver software faster and more reliably. IaaS providers offer tools and services to automate deployment, testing, and monitoring, as well as to manage infrastructure as code. For example, GE Digital used the Amazon Web Services (AWS) IaaS platform to implement DevOps and CI/CD processes for its Predix Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform. As a result, GE Digital reduced its mean acknowledgment time from one day to less than one hour and its mean remediation time from three days to 80 minutes. It moved from zero to a 100 percent real-time visibility. (Source: Amazon) 5.3. Big Data Analytics IaaS provides the processing power and storage needed to support big data analytics, allowing organizations to extract insights from large amounts of data. IaaS providers offer tools and services to manage and process data, as well as to enable real-time analytics and machine learning. For example, Netflix uses the AWS IaaS platform to support its big data analytics needs. Netflix processes over one billion events daily using AWS services such as Amazon Kinesis, Amazon S3, and Amazon EMR. As a result, Netflix is able to rapidly scale, operate securely, and meet capacity needs worldwide thanks to AWS's provision of computation, storage, and infrastructure. (Source: Amazon) 5.4. The Internet of Things IaaS provides the infrastructure needed to support IoT devices and applications, allowing organizations to collect and analyze data from connected devices. IaaS providers offer tools and cloud services to manage and secure IoT devices, as well as enable real-time data processing and analysis. For example, Siemens uses the Microsoft Azure IaaS platform to support its IoT initiatives. Siemens uses Azure services such as Azure IoT Hub, Azure Stream Analytics, and Azure Cosmos DB to collect and process data from over one million IoT devices. This allows Siemens to optimize its industrial processes and improve efficiency and productivity. (Source: Siemens) 6. Leading Providers of IaaS 6.1.Deft Deft is a trusted provider of managed IT services for SMBs and the Fortune 500. Deft's cloud services offer flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solutions for organizations looking to move their IT infrastructure to the cloud. Customers can choose from a range of cloud options, including public, private, and hybrid clouds, all hosted in Deft's secure data centers worldwide. Deft's cloud experts can also help customers design and implement custom solutions that meet their business requirements. 6.2. Virtuozzo Virtuozzo is a leading provider of hyperconverged cloud software and services for cloud service providers (CSPs). Virtuozzo makes cloud computing easy, accessible, and affordable for all. The company's offerings include infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) with its production-ready OpenStack cloud platform, a key component of its IaaS offerings. The platform is designed to reduce costs and improve margins for CSPs by providing them with a highly efficient and scalable cloud infrastructure. 6.3. DigitalOcean DigitalOcean is a cloud computing provider offering a range of solutions to simplify infrastructure management for developers and businesses. One of the key benefits of working with DigitalOcean is its simplicity. The company's solutions are designed to be easy to use and accessible to developers of all skill levels, with an intuitive user interface and straightforward pricing plans. This allows businesses to focus on building innovative applications rather than spending time managing their infrastructure. 6.4. Vultr Vultr is a leading provider of cloud computing solutions designed to simplify infrastructure deployment for developers and businesses. The company's infrastructure is built on the latest technology, with state-of-the-art data centers and advanced networking capabilities. Vultr's cloud platform is designed to provide frictionless provisioning of public cloud, storage, and single-tenant bare metal services. This allows businesses to quickly and easily deploy infrastructure wherever needed, with fast network speeds and low latency. 6.5. Linode Linode is a leading cloud computing solution provider that makes it easy, accessible, and affordable for individuals and businesses of all sizes to innovate and grow. Linode's cloud infrastructure is open-source, making it highly flexible and adaptable. They are designed to be simple and easy to use. The company offers various services, including virtual private servers (VPS), object storage, load balancing, managed Kubernetes, and more. In addition, these solutions are fully scalable and can be customized to meet each customer's specific needs. 7. Conclusion IaaS services are expected to continue to play a critical role in driving the digital transformation of businesses. IaaS services are expected to see significant growth in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning. With the rise of big data and the increasing importance of data-driven decision-making, IaaS providers are expected to be critical in supporting these initiatives, providing the scalable computing power required to support advanced analytics and machine learning workloads. IaaS services are also expected to support the increasing demand for edge computing. With the proliferation of IoT devices and the rise of real-time applications, IaaS providers are expected to provide the necessary infrastructure and tools to support these initiatives, enabling organizations to process data and perform analysis. As a result, many organizations have turned to IaaS to support their digital transformation efforts, leveraging cloud computing services to implement new technologies and services that enable them to serve customers better, improve operational efficiency, and drive revenue growth. The future of IaaS services looks promising and will continue to be a critical enabler of digital transformation for businesses of all sizes and industries.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

Ensuring Long-Term Reliability of Technology Partners using HCI

Article | October 10, 2023

Stay ahead of the curve and navigate the complex landscape of regulatory obligations to safeguard data in cloud. Explores the challenges of maintaining compliance and strategies for risk mitigation. Contents 1. Introduction 2. 3 Essential Regulatory Requirements 2.1 Before migration 2.2. During migration 2.3. After migration 3. Challenges in Ensuring Compliance in Infrastructure as a Service in Cloud Computing 3.1. Shared Responsibility Model 3.2. Data Breach 3.3. Access Mismanagement 3.4. Audit and Monitoring Challenges 4. Strategies for Addressing Compliance Challenges in IaaS 4.1. Risk Management and Assessment 4.2. Encryption and Collaboration with Cloud Service Providers 4.3. Contractual Agreements 4.4. Compliance Monitoring and Reporting 5. Conclusion 1. Introduction Ensuring Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) compliance in security is crucial for organizations to meet regulatory requirements and avoid potential legal and financial consequences. However, several challenges must be addressed before and after migration to the cloud. This article provides an overview of the regulatory requirements in cloud computing, explores the challenges faced in ensuring compliance in IaaS, a cloud implementation service and provides strategies for addressing these challenges to ensure a successful cloud migration. 2. 3 Essential Regulatory Requirements When adopting cloud infrastructure as a service, organizations must comply with regulatory requirements before, during, and after migration to the cloud. This ensures avoiding the challenges, firms may face later and suggest solutions if they do so. 2.1 Before migration: Organizations must identify the relevant regulations that apply to their industry and geographic location. This includes: Data Protection Laws, Industry-Specific Regulations, and International Laws. 2.2. During migration: Organizations must ensure that they meet regulatory requirements while transferring data and applications to the cloud. This involves: Ensuring proper access management, data encryption, and data residency requirements. 2.3. After migration: Organizations must continue to meet regulatory requirements through ongoing monitoring and reporting. This includes: Regularly reviewing and updating security measures, ensuring proper data protection, and complying with audit and reporting requirements. 3. Challenges in Ensuring Compliance in Infrastructureas a Service in Cloud Computing 3.1. Shared Responsibility Model The lack of control over the infrastructure in IaaS cloud computing is caused by the shared responsibility model of IaaS, where the cloud service provider is responsible for the IaaS security while the customer is responsible for securing the data and applications they store and run in the cloud. According to a survey, 22.8% of respondents cited the lack of control over infrastructure as a top concern for cloud security. (Source: Cloud Security Alliance) 3.2. Data Breach Data breaches have serious consequences for businesses, including legal and financial penalties, damage to their reputation, and the loss of customer trust. The location of data and the regulations governing its storage and processing create challenges for businesses operating in multiple jurisdictions. The global average total cost of a data breach increased by USD 0.11 million to USD 4.35 million in 2022, the highest it's been in the history of this report. The increase from USD 4.24 million in the 2021 report to USD 4.35 million in the 2022 report represents a 2.6% increase. (Source: IBM) 3.3. Access Mismanagement Insider threats, where authorized users abuse their access privileges, can be a significant challenge for access management in IaaS. This includes the intentional or accidental misuse of credentials or non-protected infrastructure and the theft or loss of devices containing sensitive data. The 2020 data breach investigations report found that over 80% of data breaches were caused by compromised credentials or human error, highlighting the importance of effective access management. (Source: Verizon) 3.4. Audit and Monitoring Challenges Large volumes of alerts overwhelm security teams, leading to fatigue and missed alerts, which result in non-compliance or security incidents going unnoticed. Limited resources may also make it challenging to effectively monitor and audit infrastructure as a service cloud environment, including the implementation and maintenance of monitoring tools. 4. Strategies for Addressing Compliance Challenges in IaaS 4.1. Risk Management and Assessment Risk Assessment and Management includes conducting a risk assessment, including assessing risks related to data security, access controls, and regulatory compliance. It also involves implementing risk mitigation measures to address identified risks, like additional security measures or access controls such as encryption or multi-factor authentication. 4.2. Encryption and Collaboration with Cloud Service Providers Encryption can be implemented at the application, database, or file system level, depending on the specific needs of the business. In addition, businesses should establish clear service level agreements with their cloud service provider related to data protection. This includes requirements for data security, access controls, and backup and recovery processes. 4.3. Contractual Agreements The agreement should also establish audit and compliance requirements, including regular assessments of access management controls and policies. Using contractual agreements, organizations help ensure that they are clearly defined and that the cloud service provider is held accountable for implementing effective access management controls and policies. 4.4. Compliance Monitoring and Reporting Monitoring and Reporting involves setting up automated monitoring and reporting mechanisms that track compliance with relevant regulations and standards and generate reports. They should also leverage technologies such as intrusion detection and prevention systems, security information and event management (SIEM) tools, and log analysis tools to collect, analyze, and report on security events in real time. 5. Conclusion In accordance with the increasing prevalence of data breaches and the growing complexity of regulatory requirements, maintaining a secure and compliant cloud environment will be crucial for businesses to build trust with customers and avoid legal and financial risks. Addressing these requirements, the cloud helps companies maintain data privacy, avoid legal risks, and build customer trust. Organizations create a secure and compliant cloud environment that meets their needs by overcoming challenges and implementing best practices, working closely with cloud service providers. Ultimately, by prioritizing compliance and investing in the necessary resources and expertise, businesses can navigate these challenges and unlock the full potential of the cloud with confidence.

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Application Infrastructure, Application Storage

Mastering Infrastructure: Hyperconvergence Courses and Certifications

Article | July 19, 2023

Simplify server maintenance with managed services! Hybrid and multi-cloud systems work together in harmony, gaining advantage of both storage systems. Explore IaaS providers for your business needs. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Multi-Cloud vs. Hybrid Cloud 2.1. Multi-Cloud Storage Systems 2.2. Hybrid Cloud Storage Systems 2.3. Choosing between Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud 3. Managed and Unmanaged Services 4. 5 top companies providing IaaS platforms 4.1. ScaleMatrix 4.2. Faction 4.3. Expedient 4.4. PhoenixNAP 4.5. Rackspace Technology 5. Conclusion 1. Introduction Several leading companies are providing IaaS platforms, offering managed and unmanaged services, and multi-cloud and hybrid cloud solutions to meet the growing demands of businesses in today's digital landscape. In addition, these companies offer various services to help organizations manage their IT infrastructure, including computing power, virtual machines, storage, and networking, while also providing additional value-added services such as security, disaster recovery, and automation. 2. Multi-Cloudvs. Hybrid Cloud Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud are cloud deployment infrastructure models 2.1. Multi-Cloud Storage Systems: Multicloud refers to an organization utilizing cloud computing services from at least two cloud providers to run their applications. Instead of relying on a single-cloud stack, multi-cloud environments usually consist of two or more public clouds, two or more private clouds, or a mix of both. 2.2. Hybrid Cloud Storage Systems: A hybrid cloud refers to a heterogeneous computing environment where applications are executed using a blend of computing, storage, and services across distinct environments, such as public clouds, private clouds, on-premises data centers, or edge locations. 2.3. Choosing Between Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud 2.3.1. Opting for a Hybrid Cloud: For businesses that require control over certain data or workloads, a hybrid cloud strategy may be necessary. This involves hosting some applications in the public cloud while running critical workloads locally to balance the benefits of cloud technology with the need for local data control. - To avoid vendor lock-in, carefully select the best cloud services for each application or task. - Choose cost-effective services to engage in more effective business planning. - Ensure flexibility and adaptability for the cloud team. - Enable a company to use best-in-class services for each app/task 2.3.2. Selecting a Multi-Cloud: Businesses often rely on multiple cloud providers for different services, such as public clouds for virtual machines and SaaS for business applications. They may also access AI, ML, or language cloud services from other providers. - To test and validate a cloud computing platform before migrating its resources and workloads. - To enable a centralized identity infrastructure across disparate systems. - To ensure a blend of self-service resources (private cloud) and a platform to run test workloads (public cloud), for DevOps based firms However, hybrids and multi-clouds can operate together. For example, a company can establish a private cloud for internal operations and then merge it with a public cloud to form a hybrid cloud. Additional clouds, whether IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS, can be added or integrated to provide specific resources or services to the business. Alternatively, a company can create a hybrid cloud with one public cloud provider and still use resources and services from other public clouds outside the hybrid cloud environment. 3. Managed and Unmanaged Services IaaS comes in two main forms: managed and unmanaged. Managed services can simplify server maintenance by providing support and expertise. With managed dedicated servers, clients can focus on other aspects of their business while the host takes care of day-to-day maintenance, including software upgrades. This option is also safer, as self-managing a server without the necessary expertise can create security vulnerabilities. Unmanaged services are cheaper but don't include extras or support. Standard or custom control panels are used for task management. However, managing servers can only be done with experience. In addition, unmanaged hosting services are limited to providing a default solution configuration, and the applications must be installed on the cloud server by the user. 4. 5 Top Companies Providing IaaS Platforms 4.1. ScaleMatrix ScaleMatrix offers IaaS solutions that empower businesses to manage their IT infrastructure while minimizing expensive capital expenditures (CAPEX) and reducing operational costs (OPEX). With ScaleMatrix's IaaS solutions, companies can have complete control over their infrastructure, utilizing the Ping, Power, Pipe, and server hardware. This allows businesses to tailor their infrastructure to fit their specific needs, with the option to make changes as required. Additionally, businesses can deploy hardware without significant capital investment, avoiding a CAPEX spike. Instead, they can pay for their infrastructure on an OPEX basis, allowing them to manage their expenses more efficiently. 4.2. Faction Faction is a top-tier IaaS provider that offers a wide range of customizable solutions to meet the unique needs of its clients. Their IaaS offerings provide flexibility and agility to grow businesses while controlling costs. Clients can choose from various infrastructure options, including dedicated servers, private clouds, and hybrid cloud solutions. Faction's managed services portfolio differentiates it from other IaaS providers. The company's managed services are designed to provide clients with a more integrated ecosystem of managed services that can handle complex business needs across client on-premises and cloud environments. This includes services like monitoring and management, security and compliance, cloud backup, and disaster recovery, providing clients with a complete end-to-end solution for their IT infrastructure needs. 4.3. Expedient Expedient provides infrastructure as a service solutions, including their flagship Expedient Enterprise Cloud, enabling clients to purchase resource pools and dedicated nodes. This cloud offering allows businesses to quickly scale resources without needing to refractor applications or learn a new platform. The platform offers a single management interface with self-service network provisioning, monitoring, and analytics. Expedient also provides a dedicated private cloud solution for applications like Citrix, reducing the infrastructure maintenance burden while maintaining scalability and flexibility. Expedient's Private Cloud Anywhere service allows businesses to have a cloud node within their own data center, providing a cloud-like experience within the proximity of mission-critical functions like manufacturing lines or retail stores. 4.4. PhoenixNAP PhoenixNAP is a leading provider of bare metal cloud infrastructure solutions that empower businesses to innovate and achieve agility by deploying a flexible, cloud-native-ready infrastructure. Another significant advantage of PhoenixNAP's Bare Metal Cloud is the flexible billing models, which allow for fast scalability and cost optimization. The solutions offer the performance of dedicated hardware with cloud-like flexibility, allowing for automated provisioning of physical servers in minutes. Reserved instances are available for up to three years, providing cost-effective options. As a cloud-native-ready IaaS platform, PhoenixNAP's Bare Metal Cloud delivers high-performance, non-virtualized servers for even the most demanding workloads. 4.5. Rackspace Technology Rackspace Technology is a leading provider of IT-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions that enable businesses to leverage the latest technologies and gain a competitive advantage. Their IaaS solutions are designed to meet the unique needs of the FinTech industry, which demands highly secure, scalable, and reliable infrastructure to support mission-critical applications. Its IaaS offerings are designed to provide flexible and scalable infrastructure that can be customized to meet the specific needs of businesses. They offer a range of infrastructure services, including public and private clouds, dedicated servers, and managed hosting, as well as hybrid cloud solutions that combine the benefits of both public and private cloud environments. 5. Conclusion The future of the top leading companies providing IaaS platforms looks promising as the demand for cloud computing services continues to grow. With the ever-increasing need for businesses to store, manage, and analyze large amounts of data, the demand for IaaS platforms is expected to increase in the coming years. This includes enhancing their security measures, network capabilities, and data center footprints. Furthermore, as the industry moves towards hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments, these companies will need to adapt and provide solutions that can seamlessly integrate with various cloud platforms. This will require collaboration with other cloud service providers and investment in interoperability technologies. As businesses increasingly rely on data-driven decision-making, cloud providers will need to offer services that enable customers to process and analyze large amounts of data quickly and efficiently using AI and ML. The future of the top leading companies will require continuous innovation, collaboration, and investment in new technologies to meet the changing needs of their customers. As cloud computing continues to transform the business landscape, these companies will enable businesses to scale and grow in the digital age.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, IT Systems Management

How Managed Service Providers Drive Management in HCI

Article | September 14, 2023

One of the most exciting areas of Vubiq Network’s innovative millimeter wave technology is in the application of ultra high-speed, short-range communications as applied to solving the scaling constraints and costs for internal data center connectivity and switching. Today’s limits of cabled and centralized switching architectures are eliminated by leveraging the wide bandwidths of the millimeter wave spectrum for the high-density communications requirements inside the modern data center. Our patented technology has the ability to provide more than one terabit per second of wireless uplink capacity from a single server rack through an innovative approach to create a millimeter wave massive mesh network. The elimination of all inter-rack cabling – as well as the elimination of all aggregation and core switches – is combined with higher throughput, lower latency, lower power, higher reliability, and lower cost by using millimeter wave wireless connectivity.

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Application Infrastructure, Application Storage

How IaaS Services Help Drive Digital Transformation of Businesses

Article | May 17, 2023

Without IaaS services, businesses face high upfront costs and slower time-to-market, hindering its growth. Embracing IaaS services with compliance to regulatory measures fosters digital transformation. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Regulatory Requirements 2.1 Adhering to Regulations Before Migration 2.2. Confirming to Standards During Migration 2.3. Complying with Requirements After Migration 3. Role of IaaS in Digital Transformation 3.1. Overview of Digital Transformation in Business 3.2. Benefits of IaaS for Digital Transformation Initiation 4. Key IaaS Services for Digital Transformation 4.1. Compute Services 4.2. Storage Services 4.3. Networking Services 4.4. Security Services 5. Use Cases of IaaS in Digital Transformation 5.1. Cloud Migration 5.2. DevOps and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) 5.3. Big Data Analytics 5.4. Internet of Things 6. Leading Providers of IaaS 6.1. Deft 6.2. Virtuozzo 6.3. DigitalOcean 6.4. Vultr 6.5. Linode 7. Conclusion 1. Introduction The article highlights infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) services, which are crucial in driving digital transformation for businesses. By delivering scalable computing resources, reducing IT infrastructure costs, and enabling a greater focus on core competencies, IaaS is helping businesses innovate faster and stay competitive in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Further, the article elaborates on the three significant regulations to be considered for regulatory requirements. As businesses continue to embrace digital transformation, IaaS has emerged as a key enabler for organizations looking to achieve their goals. IaaS allows businesses to quickly and easily scale their computing resources up or down while reducing their IT infrastructure costs. This, in turn, enables businesses to focus on their core competencies, innovate faster, and stay competitive in today's fast-paced digital landscape. In this article, we will explore the ways in which IaaS is driving digital transformation, as well as the various services offered by IaaS providers that are helping businesses achieve their objectives and the use cases that follow. 2. Regulatory Requirements During cloud adoption and migration to IaaS, organizations must comply with regulatory requirements before, during, and after migration to the cloud. 2.1 Adhering to Regulations Before Migration Organizations must identify the relevant regulations that apply to their industry and geographic location. This includes: 2.1.1. Data Protection Laws These laws define how personal and sensitive data should be handled and protected. Organizations must comply with these laws when collecting, storing, processing, and sharing private and sensitive data. Examples include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States. 2.1.2. Industry-Specific Regulations These regulations apply to specific industries like healthcare, finance, and government. In addition, these regulations may define particular security and data protection requirements that organizations must comply with. Examples are the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the healthcare industry and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) in the finance industry. 2.1.3. International Laws These laws apply to organizations operating in multiple countries or transferring data across international borders. These laws may vary based on the countries involved and define specific data protection and privacy requirements. Examples include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) in the Asia-Pacific region. 2.2. Confirming Standards During Migration Organizations must ensure that they meet regulatory requirements while transferring data and applications to the cloud. This involves: 2.2.1. Access Management This refers to controlling who can access data and applications in the cloud. Organizations must ensure only authorizedpersonnel can access sensitive data and specific applications during migration. This can be achieved by implementing access controls such as multi-factor authentication and role-based access control. 2.2.2. Data Encryption This refers to converting data into code to prevent unauthorized access. During migration, organizations must ensure that sensitive data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. This can be achieved by using encryption technologies, such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). 2.2.3. Data Residency This refers to the legal requirements around where data can be stored and processed. Organizations must comply with these requirements during migration to avoid potential legal and regulatory consequences. This may involve ensuring data is stored and processed within specific geographic locations or complies with industry-specific regulations. 2.3. Complying with Requirements After Migration Organizations must continue to meet regulatory requirements through ongoing monitoring and reporting. This includes: 2.3.1. Regular Review and Updation of Security Measures This refers to the ongoing process of reviewing and improving the security measures that are in place to protect data and assets from potential threats. This includes identifying vulnerabilities, updating software and hardware, implementing new security policies and procedures, and training employees on best practices. 2.3.2. Data Protection This refers to the measures taken to safeguard sensitive and confidential data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. Proper data protection includes using encryption, access controls, firewalls, and other security technologies to prevent unauthorized access to the data center and implementing processes and procedures for securely handling and disposing of data. 2.3.3. Audit and Reporting This refers to businesses' legal and regulatory requirements to regularly audit and report on their security practices and data protection measures. This includes complying with industry-specific standards and regulations, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and conducting internal and external audits to ensure compliance with these standards and regulations. 3. Role of IaaS in Digital Transformation The role of IaaS in businesses is to configure, deploy, and manage cloud infrastructure environments or applications through cross-technology administration (virtual networks, operating systems, databases), scripting, monitoring automation execution, and managing incidents with a focus on service restoration. 3.1. Overview of Digital Transformation in Business IaaS provides a flexible, scalable, and customizable infrastructure that can easily be managed and optimized, allowing organizations to focus on their core business objectives and maximize their productivity and efficiency. IaaS provides businesses access to virtualized computing resources, such as virtual machines, storage, and networking, which can be provisioned and managed through a web-based interface or API. This allows businesses to quickly deploy and scale their infrastructure without worrying about the underlying hardware and infrastructure. IaaS enables businesses to focus more on their core competencies. By outsourcing IT infrastructure management to IaaS providers, businesses can focus more on their core business functions and leave control of their IT systems to the experts. In addition, by leveraging the cloud, businesses can reduce their capital investment in buying, deploying, and managing physical servers and storage devices. A report found that companies that have embraced digital transformation are 23 times more likely to acquire new customers, 6 times more likely to retain existing customers, and 19 times more likely to be profitable. (Source: McKinsey & Company) According to a study, the top benefits of digital transformation for businesses include increased efficiency (43%), better customer satisfaction (41%), and increased profitability (36%). (Source: Accenture) 3.2. Benefits of IaaS for Digital Transformation Initiation Apart from the benefits like improved agility, robust security, quick scalability, better flexibility, and cost savings, IaaS has the following benefits: Predictable Costs: IaaS providers typically offer transparent pricing models, which enable businesses to predict their IT costs more accurately and avoid unexpected expenses. Enhanced Compliance: IaaS providers often have compliance certifications, such as SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, which can help businesses meet their regulatory compliance requirements more efficiently. Geographic Flexibility: IaaS enables businesses to deploy their IT infrastructure across different geographic regions, allowing the customer experience to soar in other markets with low latency and high availability. Disaster Recovery: IaaS providers typically have built-in disaster recovery capabilities, allowing businesses to quickly recover from data loss or infrastructure failures without significant downtime or data loss. Increased Innovation: By outsourcing their infrastructure management to IaaS providers, businesses can focus on innovation and new product development rather than infrastructure maintenance and management. 4. Key IaaS Services for Digital Transformation 4.1. Compute Services Compute services provide the processing power and resources needed to run applications in the cloud. This includes virtual machines, containers, and serverless computing. Compute services are essential for digital transformation, allowing organizations to scale their applications and infrastructure to meet changing demands. According to a report, the global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from USD 371.4 billion in 2020 to USD 832.1 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 17.5% during the forecast period (2020-25). The growth of the market is driven by factors such as the increasing adoption of multi-cloud strategies and the growing demand for scalable and cost-effective computing. (Source: MarketsandMarkets) 4.2. Storage Services Storage services provide the capacity and durability needed to store and manage data in the cloud. This includes object storage, block storage, and file storage. Solutions such as cloud storage services are essential for digital transformation, as they allow organizations to store and manage large amounts of data and make it easily accessible to users. According to a report, the global data sphere is expected to grow from 33 zettabytes (ZB) in 2018 to 175 ZB by 2025, at a CAGR of 61%. The growth of the data sphere is driven by factors such as the increasing use of digital technologies and the growing amount of data generated by connected devices. (Source: IDC) 4.3. Networking Services Networking services provide the connectivity and performance needed to access and use cloud resources. This includes virtual networks, load balancers, and content delivery networks. Networking services are essential for digital transformation, allowing organizations to connect their applications and infrastructure across different regions and providers. According to a research report, the global multi-cloud networking market will grow from USD 2.7 billion in 2022 to USD 7.6 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5% during the forecast period (2022-27). (Source: MarketsandMarkets) 4.4. Security Services Cloud security services provide the protection and compliance needed to secure cloud resources and data. This includes identity and access management (IAM), encryption, and threat detection and response. Security services are essential for digital transformation, as they allow organizations to secure their applications and data from cyber threats and comply with regulatory requirements. The Global Cloud Access Security Broker Market size is expected to reach $18 billion by 2028, rising at a market growth of 17.8% CAGR during the forecast period (2022-28). (Source: ReportLinker ) 5. Use Cases of IaaS in Digital Transformation 5.1. Cloud Migration Cloud Migration: One of the primary use cases for IaaS is cloud migration, where organizations move their existing applications and infrastructure to the cloud platform. This can help organizations reduce their IT costs, improve scalability, and increase flexibility. IaaS providers offer tools and cloud services to make the migration process easier and more efficient. For example, Accenture helped global manufacturing companies migrate its IT infrastructure to the Microsoft Azure IaaS platform. One of the migrations involved moving more than 1,200 virtual machines and 150 TB of data to the cloud. As a result, the company was able to reduce its IT infrastructure costs by 40% and improve scalability and flexibility. (Source: Accenture) 5.2. DevOps and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) IaaS provides the infrastructure needed to support DevOps and CI/CD processes, allowing organizations to deliver software faster and more reliably. IaaS providers offer tools and services to automate deployment, testing, and monitoring, as well as to manage infrastructure as code. For example, GE Digital used the Amazon Web Services (AWS) IaaS platform to implement DevOps and CI/CD processes for its Predix Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform. As a result, GE Digital reduced its mean acknowledgment time from one day to less than one hour and its mean remediation time from three days to 80 minutes. It moved from zero to a 100 percent real-time visibility. (Source: Amazon) 5.3. Big Data Analytics IaaS provides the processing power and storage needed to support big data analytics, allowing organizations to extract insights from large amounts of data. IaaS providers offer tools and services to manage and process data, as well as to enable real-time analytics and machine learning. For example, Netflix uses the AWS IaaS platform to support its big data analytics needs. Netflix processes over one billion events daily using AWS services such as Amazon Kinesis, Amazon S3, and Amazon EMR. As a result, Netflix is able to rapidly scale, operate securely, and meet capacity needs worldwide thanks to AWS's provision of computation, storage, and infrastructure. (Source: Amazon) 5.4. The Internet of Things IaaS provides the infrastructure needed to support IoT devices and applications, allowing organizations to collect and analyze data from connected devices. IaaS providers offer tools and cloud services to manage and secure IoT devices, as well as enable real-time data processing and analysis. For example, Siemens uses the Microsoft Azure IaaS platform to support its IoT initiatives. Siemens uses Azure services such as Azure IoT Hub, Azure Stream Analytics, and Azure Cosmos DB to collect and process data from over one million IoT devices. This allows Siemens to optimize its industrial processes and improve efficiency and productivity. (Source: Siemens) 6. Leading Providers of IaaS 6.1.Deft Deft is a trusted provider of managed IT services for SMBs and the Fortune 500. Deft's cloud services offer flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solutions for organizations looking to move their IT infrastructure to the cloud. Customers can choose from a range of cloud options, including public, private, and hybrid clouds, all hosted in Deft's secure data centers worldwide. Deft's cloud experts can also help customers design and implement custom solutions that meet their business requirements. 6.2. Virtuozzo Virtuozzo is a leading provider of hyperconverged cloud software and services for cloud service providers (CSPs). Virtuozzo makes cloud computing easy, accessible, and affordable for all. The company's offerings include infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) with its production-ready OpenStack cloud platform, a key component of its IaaS offerings. The platform is designed to reduce costs and improve margins for CSPs by providing them with a highly efficient and scalable cloud infrastructure. 6.3. DigitalOcean DigitalOcean is a cloud computing provider offering a range of solutions to simplify infrastructure management for developers and businesses. One of the key benefits of working with DigitalOcean is its simplicity. The company's solutions are designed to be easy to use and accessible to developers of all skill levels, with an intuitive user interface and straightforward pricing plans. This allows businesses to focus on building innovative applications rather than spending time managing their infrastructure. 6.4. Vultr Vultr is a leading provider of cloud computing solutions designed to simplify infrastructure deployment for developers and businesses. The company's infrastructure is built on the latest technology, with state-of-the-art data centers and advanced networking capabilities. Vultr's cloud platform is designed to provide frictionless provisioning of public cloud, storage, and single-tenant bare metal services. This allows businesses to quickly and easily deploy infrastructure wherever needed, with fast network speeds and low latency. 6.5. Linode Linode is a leading cloud computing solution provider that makes it easy, accessible, and affordable for individuals and businesses of all sizes to innovate and grow. Linode's cloud infrastructure is open-source, making it highly flexible and adaptable. They are designed to be simple and easy to use. The company offers various services, including virtual private servers (VPS), object storage, load balancing, managed Kubernetes, and more. In addition, these solutions are fully scalable and can be customized to meet each customer's specific needs. 7. Conclusion IaaS services are expected to continue to play a critical role in driving the digital transformation of businesses. IaaS services are expected to see significant growth in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning. With the rise of big data and the increasing importance of data-driven decision-making, IaaS providers are expected to be critical in supporting these initiatives, providing the scalable computing power required to support advanced analytics and machine learning workloads. IaaS services are also expected to support the increasing demand for edge computing. With the proliferation of IoT devices and the rise of real-time applications, IaaS providers are expected to provide the necessary infrastructure and tools to support these initiatives, enabling organizations to process data and perform analysis. As a result, many organizations have turned to IaaS to support their digital transformation efforts, leveraging cloud computing services to implement new technologies and services that enable them to serve customers better, improve operational efficiency, and drive revenue growth. The future of IaaS services looks promising and will continue to be a critical enabler of digital transformation for businesses of all sizes and industries.

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Pulse Secure

Pulse Secure, LLC is a leading provider of secure access solutions to both enterprises and service providers. Enterprises from every vertical and of all sizes utilize the company’s virtual private network (VPN), network access control (NAC) and mobile security products to enable end-user mobility securely and seamlessly in their organizations. Pulse Secure was formed in 2014 from Juniper Networks’ Junos Pulse business. Pulse Secure’s mission is to deliver secure access solutions for people, devices, things, and services.

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Application Infrastructure

Fastly Launches “Fast Forward” Initiative to Support Open Source and Internet Infrastructure

Fastly | November 10, 2022

Fastly, Inc., the world’s fastest global edge cloud platform, today announced the relaunch of its industry-leading Open Source and Nonprofit Program as “Fast Forward,” with a renewed focus on building community among the builders and maintainers of an internet that is faster, safer, and more inclusive. The announcement was made at Altitude, Fastly’s annual flagship customer conference. Fast Forward is a set of broad-reaching programs designed to empower and support open source projects, nonprofit organizations, and developers in their endeavors to build great things with unmatched ease, performance, and security. Extending Fastly’s deep commitment to open source, Fast Forward will offer free services to open source projects and the nonprofits that support them. Fast Forward will also establish and foster a community of these stakeholders so they can interact with and learn from one another, as well as with the broader developer and open source community. Fast Forward stems from Fastly’s mission to help make the internet a better place, where all experiences are fast, engaging, and safe. At its core, Fastly is driven to be part of an industry that is open, transparent and collaborative – working together to expand and preserve resilience, portability, and interoperability. Fastly believes companies that operate at a global scale are responsible for contributing their expertise to the communal body of knowledge which makes up the open internet: standards, protocols, open source technology, and policies. “Providing Fastly’s best in class services to open source projects and standards initiatives has the power to drive our shared mission of making the internet a better place, It’s important for us to support the organizations that fuel Internet innovation” -Fastly CEO Todd Nightingale Fast Forward is just one element of Fastly’s rich heritage in open source and open standards: Fastly is a founding member of the Bytecode Alliance along with Red Hat, Mozilla, and Intel; works alongside industry partners such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple and more to contribute to Private Access Tokens; and encourages its employees to contribute to open source through projects like Pushpin, WAF Efficacy, and more – just to name a few initiatives. Fastly also has a long-standing policy for its customer community, and only works with customers and partners who reflect Fastly’s values. There’s so much great creativity on the internet that’s inspiring but doesn’t always have the support it deserves, Fast Forward is Fastly’s commitment to helping everyone build a better internet. From open source technologies, to the fundamental protocols and standards that make the internet go, we’re telling every developer and every creator that we’ve got their backs, no matter what technologies, tools or stacks they use. We can’t wait to see how they use that potential to build and scale an even better internet,said Anil Dash, VP of Developer Experience at Fastly. Fastly’s investment in open source has provided valuable support to organizations like the Rust Software Foundation, the Apache Software Foundation, and the Scratch Foundation. Their leaders talk about the benefits they get from Fastly’s Fast Forward Program: Joel Marcey, Director of Operations and Advocacy at the Rust Foundation, said, As a non-profit organization supporting the Rust Project, the Rust Foundation believes the future of software development is looking brighter every day thanks to Rust's inherent benefits such as memory safety, energy efficiency, and scalability. But for the Rust Project to meet the demands of its growing popularity, diversified and cost-effective infrastructure is critical. The Rust Foundation is grateful to be included in the Fast Forward program, which will allow the Rust Project to harness Fastly's full-site delivery and powerful Compute@Edge platform at no cost. It's partnerships like these that will contribute to the growth and sustainability of Rust into the future. Daniel Gruno, Infrastructure Architect at the Apache Foundation, said, Fastly's sponsorship allowed The Apache Software Foundation to replace a complicated mirror infrastructure with a simple content delivery network (CDN) that is largely transparent to our projects and users. In addition, it's allowed the Infrastructure team to spend less time on our distribution network and more time on higher value projects for the foundation. Colby Gutierrez-Kraybill, Principal Software Engineer at Scratch Foundation, said, Thanks to Fastly's global reach and ongoing support, we are able to fulfill our mission at the Scratch Foundation of providing young people all over the world with digital tools and opportunities to imagine, create, share, and learn. We are grateful for Fastly's partnership, allowing us to stay flexible and agile as our platforms Scratch and ScratchJr grow globally as leading creative learning tools. To qualify for free services through the Fast Forward Program, members must freely distribute their codebase and align with Fastly’s open source values: open, community oriented, inclusive, friendly to new contributors, and built on trust. If accepted, they in turn commit to sharing knowledge and resources with the Fast Forward community and beyond. About Fastly Fastly’s powerful and programmable edge cloud platform helps the world’s top brands deliver the fastest online experiences possible, while improving site performance, enhancing security, and empowering innovation at global scale. With world-class support that achieves 95%+ average annual customer satisfaction ratings, Fastly’s beloved suite of edge compute, delivery, and security offerings has been recognized as a leader by industry analysts such as IDC, Forrester and Gartner. Compared to legacy providers, Fastly’s powerful and modern network architecture is the fastest on the planet, empowering developers to deliver secure websites and apps at global scale with rapid time-to-market and industry-leading cost savings. Thousands of the world’s most prominent organizations trust Fastly to help them upgrade the internet experience, including Reddit, Pinterest, Stripe, Neiman Marcus, The New York Times, Epic Games, and GitHub.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, Application Infrastructure

Evocative Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire 9 INAP Data Centers

Evocative | September 15, 2022

Evocative, a global provider of Internet infrastructure, announces today its intent to acquire the majority of INAP’s data center facilities. The acquisition will consist of 9 data centers, including colocation and related network services. The acquisition of INAP’s data centers adds to Evocative’s existing data center footprint with new facilities in Boston, New Jersey, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles (2), Silicon Valley (2), and Seattle. With the facilities acquired from INAP, Evocative’s portfolio increases to 20 operating data center colocation facilities and 60+ global Points of Presence. In addition to the data center asset acquisition, Evocative also plans to welcome several INAP employees associated with the INAP data center business to the Evocative team. In doing so, the company will grow by 30%. The acquisition is expected to close within the next few weeks, bringing Evocative’s data center presence to: 20 carrier neutral Tier II and Tier III data centers in the United States 1,080,000 square feet of data center space with significant expansion space 108 MW of available power with an additional 25% expansion capability Over 500+ carriers across the portfolio including direct public cloud on-ramps 2,000+ carrier, content, and enterprise clients “Foremost, we welcome our new clients and employees to Evocative. We are honored and humbled to be your new partner. We are excited to share the strength of Evocative's digital infrastructure capabilities with our clients. “We know the importance of enterprise digital enablement. We built a company that offers a comprehensive suite of solutions from the physical foundation up the stack to enable the delivery of highly secure, hosted data services,” Khalili added. Arman Khalili, Founder and CEO of Evocative With organic growth and its acquisition strategy further advanced by the INAP data center purchase, Evocative has emerged as a leading enterprise digital infrastructure provider. Evocative is well positioned to continue its exponential growth with a clear focus on providing best-in-class IT infrastructure and a full suite of services. The acquisition is expected to close in Q3, 2022, following the standard closing process. About Evocative Evocative is a global leader in enterprise-class data center, bare metal, network, cloud, and managed services solutions that enable exceptional digital experiences. Evocative’s global footprint includes interconnected data centers and points of presence supporting over 68,000 servers across strategically located metros in North America, Europe, and Asia regions. Through organic growth and strategic acquisition, the company continues to expand its presence to power enterprise workloads at the edge. Evocative is dedicated to helping drive digital businesses forward, now and in the decades to come.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, Application Infrastructure

VPLS, an Evocative Company, Fortifies Management Team to Empower Enterprise Digital Infrastructure Growth

VPLS | August 23, 2022

VPLS, an Evocative company and a global provider of Internet infrastructure, data center, and managed services, announces today that it has expanded its leadership team, setting its sights on enabling enterprises with access to a full suite of digital transformation solutions including colocation, network, bare metal, cloud and managed services. VPLS added three core members to its management team including Mark Hassman, Vice President of Systems; Renée Lawrence, Vice President, Global Marketing; and Steve Rubin, Vice President of Network Engineering. Mark, Renée, and Steve bring complementary digital infrastructure experience to the company, fortifying operations, product and service capabilities, marketing, and customer experience for VPLS’s global roster of customers. “VPLS has experienced tremendous growth in these past few years. “In 2019, Evocative acquired VPLS and its full suite of enterprise-class solutions including Internet, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud solutions, and managed services, followed by the acquisition of facilities in Dallas and in Silicon Valley. As we bring together additional team members with proven track records of successfully integrating and innovating enhanced infrastructure solutions for the enterprise, our organization is well positioned to empower future generations of digital solutions.” Arman Khalili, CEO of VPLS Mark Hassman brings more than 25 years of Internet technology experience to his role as Vice President, Systems at VPLS. Commenting on his new role, Hassman states, “I’m pleased to bring the cumulation of my experience in systems architecture, automation, and infrastructure services to VPLS. Our colocation solutions, combined with our broad data center footprint, global network backbone, capabilities for private, public, and hybrid cloud, and managed services offer companies exceptional options for their evolving digital infrastructure requirements.” Renée Lawrence is a corporate communications and brand strategist joining the team as Vice President, Global Marketing. She brings to this role extensive experience in product and solutions marketing, product management, partner program development, digital marketing, and competitive insights and analytics. Lawrence remarks, “I am very happy to be joining the team at VPLS. It’s an exciting time for our organization and I’m looking forward to bringing our brand and our product and services portfolio into this next phase of our growth.” Steve Rubin’s more than 30 years of experience in the digital infrastructure industry brings core backbone engineering, data center connectivity, hardware, software, and cloud interconnection expertise to his role as Vice President of Network Engineering. Remarking on his new role, Rubin said, “I am thrilled to be fortifying the VPLS network infrastructure as we focus on scale and security. Our clients are confronted with challenging network and security decisions and it’s an honor to be a trusted partner, advisor and resource.” About VPLS VPLS, an Evocative company, is a global leader in enterprise-class data center, bare metal, network, cloud, and managed services solutions that enable exceptional digital experiences. VPLS’s global footprint includes 18 data centers supporting over 68,000 servers across strategically located metros in North America, Europe, and Asia regions. Through a series of acquisitions including VPLS, assets from Carrier-1 Data Centers, Wave Broadband, and more, the company continues to expand its presence to power enterprise workloads at the edge. VPLS is dedicated to helping to drive digital businesses forward, both now and in the decades to come. VPLS is a brand under its parent company, EVODC LLC.

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Application Infrastructure

Fastly Launches “Fast Forward” Initiative to Support Open Source and Internet Infrastructure

Fastly | November 10, 2022

Fastly, Inc., the world’s fastest global edge cloud platform, today announced the relaunch of its industry-leading Open Source and Nonprofit Program as “Fast Forward,” with a renewed focus on building community among the builders and maintainers of an internet that is faster, safer, and more inclusive. The announcement was made at Altitude, Fastly’s annual flagship customer conference. Fast Forward is a set of broad-reaching programs designed to empower and support open source projects, nonprofit organizations, and developers in their endeavors to build great things with unmatched ease, performance, and security. Extending Fastly’s deep commitment to open source, Fast Forward will offer free services to open source projects and the nonprofits that support them. Fast Forward will also establish and foster a community of these stakeholders so they can interact with and learn from one another, as well as with the broader developer and open source community. Fast Forward stems from Fastly’s mission to help make the internet a better place, where all experiences are fast, engaging, and safe. At its core, Fastly is driven to be part of an industry that is open, transparent and collaborative – working together to expand and preserve resilience, portability, and interoperability. Fastly believes companies that operate at a global scale are responsible for contributing their expertise to the communal body of knowledge which makes up the open internet: standards, protocols, open source technology, and policies. “Providing Fastly’s best in class services to open source projects and standards initiatives has the power to drive our shared mission of making the internet a better place, It’s important for us to support the organizations that fuel Internet innovation” -Fastly CEO Todd Nightingale Fast Forward is just one element of Fastly’s rich heritage in open source and open standards: Fastly is a founding member of the Bytecode Alliance along with Red Hat, Mozilla, and Intel; works alongside industry partners such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple and more to contribute to Private Access Tokens; and encourages its employees to contribute to open source through projects like Pushpin, WAF Efficacy, and more – just to name a few initiatives. Fastly also has a long-standing policy for its customer community, and only works with customers and partners who reflect Fastly’s values. There’s so much great creativity on the internet that’s inspiring but doesn’t always have the support it deserves, Fast Forward is Fastly’s commitment to helping everyone build a better internet. From open source technologies, to the fundamental protocols and standards that make the internet go, we’re telling every developer and every creator that we’ve got their backs, no matter what technologies, tools or stacks they use. We can’t wait to see how they use that potential to build and scale an even better internet,said Anil Dash, VP of Developer Experience at Fastly. Fastly’s investment in open source has provided valuable support to organizations like the Rust Software Foundation, the Apache Software Foundation, and the Scratch Foundation. Their leaders talk about the benefits they get from Fastly’s Fast Forward Program: Joel Marcey, Director of Operations and Advocacy at the Rust Foundation, said, As a non-profit organization supporting the Rust Project, the Rust Foundation believes the future of software development is looking brighter every day thanks to Rust's inherent benefits such as memory safety, energy efficiency, and scalability. But for the Rust Project to meet the demands of its growing popularity, diversified and cost-effective infrastructure is critical. The Rust Foundation is grateful to be included in the Fast Forward program, which will allow the Rust Project to harness Fastly's full-site delivery and powerful Compute@Edge platform at no cost. It's partnerships like these that will contribute to the growth and sustainability of Rust into the future. Daniel Gruno, Infrastructure Architect at the Apache Foundation, said, Fastly's sponsorship allowed The Apache Software Foundation to replace a complicated mirror infrastructure with a simple content delivery network (CDN) that is largely transparent to our projects and users. In addition, it's allowed the Infrastructure team to spend less time on our distribution network and more time on higher value projects for the foundation. Colby Gutierrez-Kraybill, Principal Software Engineer at Scratch Foundation, said, Thanks to Fastly's global reach and ongoing support, we are able to fulfill our mission at the Scratch Foundation of providing young people all over the world with digital tools and opportunities to imagine, create, share, and learn. We are grateful for Fastly's partnership, allowing us to stay flexible and agile as our platforms Scratch and ScratchJr grow globally as leading creative learning tools. To qualify for free services through the Fast Forward Program, members must freely distribute their codebase and align with Fastly’s open source values: open, community oriented, inclusive, friendly to new contributors, and built on trust. If accepted, they in turn commit to sharing knowledge and resources with the Fast Forward community and beyond. About Fastly Fastly’s powerful and programmable edge cloud platform helps the world’s top brands deliver the fastest online experiences possible, while improving site performance, enhancing security, and empowering innovation at global scale. With world-class support that achieves 95%+ average annual customer satisfaction ratings, Fastly’s beloved suite of edge compute, delivery, and security offerings has been recognized as a leader by industry analysts such as IDC, Forrester and Gartner. Compared to legacy providers, Fastly’s powerful and modern network architecture is the fastest on the planet, empowering developers to deliver secure websites and apps at global scale with rapid time-to-market and industry-leading cost savings. Thousands of the world’s most prominent organizations trust Fastly to help them upgrade the internet experience, including Reddit, Pinterest, Stripe, Neiman Marcus, The New York Times, Epic Games, and GitHub.

Read More

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, Application Infrastructure

Evocative Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire 9 INAP Data Centers

Evocative | September 15, 2022

Evocative, a global provider of Internet infrastructure, announces today its intent to acquire the majority of INAP’s data center facilities. The acquisition will consist of 9 data centers, including colocation and related network services. The acquisition of INAP’s data centers adds to Evocative’s existing data center footprint with new facilities in Boston, New Jersey, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles (2), Silicon Valley (2), and Seattle. With the facilities acquired from INAP, Evocative’s portfolio increases to 20 operating data center colocation facilities and 60+ global Points of Presence. In addition to the data center asset acquisition, Evocative also plans to welcome several INAP employees associated with the INAP data center business to the Evocative team. In doing so, the company will grow by 30%. The acquisition is expected to close within the next few weeks, bringing Evocative’s data center presence to: 20 carrier neutral Tier II and Tier III data centers in the United States 1,080,000 square feet of data center space with significant expansion space 108 MW of available power with an additional 25% expansion capability Over 500+ carriers across the portfolio including direct public cloud on-ramps 2,000+ carrier, content, and enterprise clients “Foremost, we welcome our new clients and employees to Evocative. We are honored and humbled to be your new partner. We are excited to share the strength of Evocative's digital infrastructure capabilities with our clients. “We know the importance of enterprise digital enablement. We built a company that offers a comprehensive suite of solutions from the physical foundation up the stack to enable the delivery of highly secure, hosted data services,” Khalili added. Arman Khalili, Founder and CEO of Evocative With organic growth and its acquisition strategy further advanced by the INAP data center purchase, Evocative has emerged as a leading enterprise digital infrastructure provider. Evocative is well positioned to continue its exponential growth with a clear focus on providing best-in-class IT infrastructure and a full suite of services. The acquisition is expected to close in Q3, 2022, following the standard closing process. About Evocative Evocative is a global leader in enterprise-class data center, bare metal, network, cloud, and managed services solutions that enable exceptional digital experiences. Evocative’s global footprint includes interconnected data centers and points of presence supporting over 68,000 servers across strategically located metros in North America, Europe, and Asia regions. Through organic growth and strategic acquisition, the company continues to expand its presence to power enterprise workloads at the edge. Evocative is dedicated to helping drive digital businesses forward, now and in the decades to come.

Read More

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, Application Infrastructure

VPLS, an Evocative Company, Fortifies Management Team to Empower Enterprise Digital Infrastructure Growth

VPLS | August 23, 2022

VPLS, an Evocative company and a global provider of Internet infrastructure, data center, and managed services, announces today that it has expanded its leadership team, setting its sights on enabling enterprises with access to a full suite of digital transformation solutions including colocation, network, bare metal, cloud and managed services. VPLS added three core members to its management team including Mark Hassman, Vice President of Systems; Renée Lawrence, Vice President, Global Marketing; and Steve Rubin, Vice President of Network Engineering. Mark, Renée, and Steve bring complementary digital infrastructure experience to the company, fortifying operations, product and service capabilities, marketing, and customer experience for VPLS’s global roster of customers. “VPLS has experienced tremendous growth in these past few years. “In 2019, Evocative acquired VPLS and its full suite of enterprise-class solutions including Internet, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud solutions, and managed services, followed by the acquisition of facilities in Dallas and in Silicon Valley. As we bring together additional team members with proven track records of successfully integrating and innovating enhanced infrastructure solutions for the enterprise, our organization is well positioned to empower future generations of digital solutions.” Arman Khalili, CEO of VPLS Mark Hassman brings more than 25 years of Internet technology experience to his role as Vice President, Systems at VPLS. Commenting on his new role, Hassman states, “I’m pleased to bring the cumulation of my experience in systems architecture, automation, and infrastructure services to VPLS. Our colocation solutions, combined with our broad data center footprint, global network backbone, capabilities for private, public, and hybrid cloud, and managed services offer companies exceptional options for their evolving digital infrastructure requirements.” Renée Lawrence is a corporate communications and brand strategist joining the team as Vice President, Global Marketing. She brings to this role extensive experience in product and solutions marketing, product management, partner program development, digital marketing, and competitive insights and analytics. Lawrence remarks, “I am very happy to be joining the team at VPLS. It’s an exciting time for our organization and I’m looking forward to bringing our brand and our product and services portfolio into this next phase of our growth.” Steve Rubin’s more than 30 years of experience in the digital infrastructure industry brings core backbone engineering, data center connectivity, hardware, software, and cloud interconnection expertise to his role as Vice President of Network Engineering. Remarking on his new role, Rubin said, “I am thrilled to be fortifying the VPLS network infrastructure as we focus on scale and security. Our clients are confronted with challenging network and security decisions and it’s an honor to be a trusted partner, advisor and resource.” About VPLS VPLS, an Evocative company, is a global leader in enterprise-class data center, bare metal, network, cloud, and managed services solutions that enable exceptional digital experiences. VPLS’s global footprint includes 18 data centers supporting over 68,000 servers across strategically located metros in North America, Europe, and Asia regions. Through a series of acquisitions including VPLS, assets from Carrier-1 Data Centers, Wave Broadband, and more, the company continues to expand its presence to power enterprise workloads at the edge. VPLS is dedicated to helping to drive digital businesses forward, both now and in the decades to come. VPLS is a brand under its parent company, EVODC LLC.

Read More

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