Is your business ready for the cloud?

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is a cloud-ready information platform that will help organisations unlock breakthrough insights across the organisation and quickly build solutions to extend data across on-premises and public cloud.

Cloud Computing is consolidating and outsourcing your infrastructure and applications to run on a remote resource. Cloud computing offers elasticity, pay-by-use, self service and programmability. There are four implementation options with the cloud:

1. Public Cloud: implemented on thousands of servers running across hundreds of data centers deployed across tens of locations around the world where customers can choose a location for their application to be deployed.
2. Private Cloud: are normal data centers within an enterprise with all the 4 attributes of the Cloud – Elasticity, Self Service, Pay-By-Use and Programmability. Private cloud empowers employees within an organization through Self Service of their IT needs. It becomes easy to provision new machines and quickly assign them to project teams
3. Hybrid Cloud: combination of public and private cloud. It is a way of extending your infrastructure beyond the organisational boundary and the firewall in a secure way
4. Community Cloud: implemented when a set of businesses have a similar requirement and share the same context.

Done right, cloud computing can dramatically ease IT management in a cost effective manner. Organisations must evolve their strategy, in-line with their vision, to grow and remain competitive. Thus it is important to incorporate cloud into your enterprise architecture.

Worries in terms of cloud computing:

• Security: Few companies are comfortable allowing sensitive data to reside on the web, outside their firewalls.  However, Codec-dss offers strong security technologies and protocols.
• Downtime: Using cloud computing, you are dependent on the reliability of your Internet connection.
• Lack of support.

Leveraging the Codec-dss team’ knowledge with Microsoft’s SQL Server analysis and database services, directly addresses industry concerns around performance, manageability and security to deliver significant customer benefits, sych as:

• Scalability: Running SQL Server in the cloud allows companies to upgrade or downgrade their CPU and RAM to manage varying workloads leading to enhanced transparency and reduce down time.
• Cost Effectiveness:  Increase your return on investment with the pay-as-you-go model for cloud computing which provide on-demand, pay-as-you-go computer and storage, scale and manage web applications. This reduces costs as you are only paying for the resources used without purchasing on-premise hardware, software and support personnel.
• Data Availability: SQL Server offers a broad range of capabilities including database mirroring, replication and failover clustering which can be accessed anytime, anywhere.
• Ease of Use: SQL Server’s self-service business intelligence and reporting capabilities allow organisations to easily create, share and analyse that are stored in easily accessible libraries; improving the management of critical data across diverse systems; providing a deeper, more dynamic and comprehensive solution that drives innovation and change management, needed in the ever-changing needs of the market.

Microsoft has designed SQL Server 2012 to move seamlessly from a single server to a private or public cloud. Applications can be created once and deployed in any SQL environment. One piece of the infrastructure that allows this is the concept of contained databases. SQL Server 2012 provides tools to reduce the dependency of the databases on external sources, making it easier to move from one SQL environment to another. Additionally, using the Always On availability, users can host databases or groups in various physical or virtual locations.

Managing SQL Server 2012
Whatever your situation, you need to sharpen your readiness for cloud by developing a strategy that embraces change.

For companies considering moving their SQL Server databases to the cloud, the Codec-dss team can offer knowledge, assessments, recommendations and a road-map in terms of which cloud option best meets your needs, deployment, hosting and much more. This in turn, increases performance; decreases costs, and make a high availability solution at possibly the same costs of doing it in a dedicated environment. By leveraging our knowledge and expertise, Codec-dss can provide a streamlined, process-oriented workflow that enables organisations to avail of the many benefits of running SQL Server databases in the cloud; and in turn gain a better return on investment.