Enterprise Cloud: 7 Must-Haves
By Siki Giunta
Getting the most from your cloud investments is important, of course. But did you know that the biggest returns will come from an enterprise cloud — one that is always on, secure, easy to manage, and able to provide transparency you're your cloud's performance, availability and usage. And to ensure you're getting the greatest return from your enterprise cloud, make sure it offers these seven essential properties:
A business-tailored approach: Each and every enterprise cloud is unique, based as it is on the equally unique requirements of your mission-critical workloads and applications. The primary focus of any enterprise cloud should be on agility, lowering costs and mitigating risk. Yet your focus should also include maintaining guaranteed service levels and providing options for disaster recovery.
Data protection: An enterprise cloud supports your mission-critical data while helping you meet government and industry regulations. This includes encrypting all data that enters or exits the cloud; providing backup and disaster-recovery services; offering physical segregation of resources where needed; providing dedicated networking; and offering data-storage options within your national borders.
Security: From the edge to the endpoint, security should be baked into all tools, processes, practices and procedures. Security in the enterprise must be 24x7, and it should support a security framework that includes firewalls, intrusion detection, vulnerability scanning, and both group- and role-based access control.
Enterprise support: Support for integration with your traditional IT infrastructure, a 24x7 multilingual help desk, and an assigned personal delivery manager should all be included at no extra cost.
Governance: Enterprise clouds should be easy to use and simple to administer. Business users are supported with self-service provisioning; IT staff, enabled with control.
Operational excellence: Enterprise clouds are reliable, resilient, flexible and responsive. Always on, they employ automated workflows, allow customization, offer consistent implementation to simplify hybrid-cloud management, and offer professional support for onboarding.
Transparency: This means a clear, detailed view into your enterprise cloud's real-time performance, security levels (including vulnerability alerts), usage, and billing.
At CSC, we've created an enterprise cloud service that incorporates all seven of these must-haves. Learn more about your cloud of opportunity at: http://www.csc.com/enterprise_cloud