If you’re like most companies, that means having a heavy reliance on the cloud. See why so many businesses are turning to hyperscalers to satisfy their need for scalable architecture and increase their overall platform capacity.

What is Hyperscale Computing?

“Hyperscale computing is a distributed infrastructure that can quickly accommodate an increased demand for internet-facing and back-end computing resources without requiring additional physical space, cooling, or electrical power,” explains Tech Target. “Hyperscale computing is characterised by standardisation, automation, redundancy, high performance computing (HPC), and high availability (HA).”

Cloud service providers help organisations automate more of their business processes and can even engage in industry-specific efficiencies based on their sector. In tandem with hyperscale computing, companies can tackle their digital transformation efforts in phases, utilising more than one cloud platform simultaneously without errors or disruption.

What began as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) has evolved to platforms-as-a-service (PaaS), providing organisations with access to next-generation automation that can be optimised for their industry. Many are so powerful they’re giving on-premises solutions a run for their money.

How do hyperscalers work in practise? In a manufacturing setting, for example, the manufacturer would be able to leverage predictive analytics to help them reroute shipments before they encounter delays or automate their maintenance schedules to keep their fleet in full force.

Hyperscale Value Drivers

From improved customer experience solutions to better remote work processes, hyperscalers have numerous potential business advantages.

Particularly if you’re looking to transition to a more cloud-native environment, you’ll need a platform that’s cost-effective and scalable.

By grouping servers in this way, GAVS Tech explains that hyperscale computing also:

• Enhances Speed. Computing power increases with each new version that gets released. Hyperscale makes it possible to keep up with this escalation by allowing users to easily increase platform speed.

• Simplifies Digital Transformation (DT). Digital transformation is a complex process. Hyperscalers can increase capacity for additional applications, data, and activity across the cloud, making it possible to tackle DT in stages.

• Improves Interoperability. As Forbes points out, “The hyperscale provider’s cloud platform integrates with other systems; thus, it costs less for the customer to implement and integrate the platform.”

• Reduces Downtime and Cost. With system disruption reduced, organisations can avoid downtime, while accessing the cloud and hyperscaler tools to help them grow more cost-effectively.

Enterprises with modern workloads need modern solutions to help them manage and evolve their processes. Whether you’re looking to build out or migrate your current system, multi-cloud and hybrid environments are a great place to start. For many businesses, they’re the first stop on the road to driving value and increasing capacity.

With digital transformation, the continued expansion of cloud adoption and data processing and analysis at the edge, businesses are rethinking their networking strategies. Companies are considering customer end-user support and services across a constantly shifting landscape of physical locations.

Businesses need to be able to swiftly and safely exchange data with their data centres, the cloud, numerous offices, remote workers, partners, and customers. This presents a challenge for some businesses given the cost, time needed to set up, and the absence of private connections between some of these various interested parties or consolidation points.

According to IDC, “by 2022, more than 90 percent of organisations globally will depend on a mix of on-premise/dedicated private clouds, many public clouds, and legacy systems to satisfy their infrastructure needs”.

With firms looking to upgrade their networking while preserving control, visibility, and data security, there are several solutions to consider.

Last month we took you through Aruba’s EdgeConnect solutions. This month, we are broadening the lens to examine how two offerings together can deliver value greater to your organisation.

Aruba Edge Connect

With the acquisition of the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for WAN Edge Infrastructure – Silverpeak – Aruba has expanded its SD-WAN capabilities to incorporate solutions from flexible small branch connectivity through to the enterprise. Edge Connect is the fabric that provides secure connectivity for all locations of all sizes. It includes automated integration with cloud-based security providers, automated provisioning, intelligent traffic steering and delivers centralised QoS and security policy configuration when used with Aruba Central.

The 2020 IDC report – Worldwide SD-WAN Infrastructure Market Shares – cites the growth of the SD-WAN market with a growing trend towards partnerships between “SD-WAN vendors, public cloud providers, and “SD-Core” middle-mile players that enable enterprises to create direct connections and low-latency on-ramps between SD-WAN offerings and public clouds…More than ever, applications and workloads, which are more distributed in the cloud era and have gained unprecedented importance in the context of digital transformation, set the agenda for agile, intelligent, and secure networking across the WAN.” The integration between Aruba’s EdgeConnect Enterprise solution and Megaport Virtual Edge is one of these partnerships.

Megaport Virtual Edge (MVE)

Megaport is a software defined network (SDN) service provider that helps businesses connect public and private cloud, data centre backhaul and provides Internet Exchange Services.

Megaport Virtual Edge (MVE) is a Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) solution that connects client branches to the cloud.

MVE acts as a gateway, connecting SD-WAN equipped businesses to the Megaport ecosystem. This gateway offers cloud-agnostic, direct, and secure access to Megaport’s extensive ecosystem of cloud providers and other services.

The virtualised network design allows for greater flexibility in selecting transport services by isolating network software controls from WAN connections. These services include broadband internet, satellite, MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching), and mobile 4G/5G networks.

The Megaport SDN is a private network that is not open to the public.  MVE, in contrast, is connected to the Internet, allowing SD-WAN devices to connect to Megaport’s private network. The Megaport SDN is accessible from one or a few hops across the public internet connection. 

MVE and Aruba

MVE integrates with Aruba. EdgeConnect to advance enterprise cloud transformation with a comprehensive edge-to-cloud networking solution covering all aspects of wired and wireless local area networking (LAN) and wide-area networking (WAN).

We, as your IT partner delivering EdgeConnect can install and configure the private overlay network, along with managing the connections between networks and the policies that govern them.

As a Megaport user, your business can instantiate virtual Aruba EdgeConnect instances on MVE, enabling the extension of Aruba’s SD-WAN fabric to the very edge of Megaport’s global, private SDN.

MVE keeps applications and traffic on the Aruba SD-WAN fabric for a longer time, reducing the risk and unpredictability of using the public Internet while simultaneously providing the immediate benefits of higher performance, increased security and efficiency. With Aruba EdgeConnect traffic riding on Megaport’s global, private network, organisations can drastically reduce egress costs. The joint solution can accelerate data transfer to better service the edge and simplify commissioning and maintenance. What does it all mean for your business?

The combination of Aruba EdgeConnect and MVE offers a branch-to-cloud connection over Megaport’s worldwide SDN.

You can use SD-WAN and internet connections to streamline your IT connectivity while lowering costs. Virtual instances of Aruba EdgeConnect on Megaport’s global platform mitigate the challenge of the unpredictability of end-to-end internet connections and latency that can affect the performance, availability, and security of important services and resources.

Businesses using Aruba EdgeConnect can now take advantage of Megaport’s worldwide ecosystem, which consists of more than 700 data centres and over 360 service providers, in addition to more than 230 cloud on-ramps, some of which include AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and Salesforce.

Conclusion

MVE unifies computing and networking. Unlike traditional networking systems, Megaport provides flexible networking capabilities that minimise operational costs and enhance time to market. Megaport collaborates with the world’s leading cloud service providers, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as the world’s major data centre operators, systems integrators, and managed service providers.

Combining the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN technology with Megaport’s SDN allows clients to improve network and application performance while cutting cloud expenses. As your IT partner, we can help determine if MVE and Aruba EdgeConnect are the right fit for your business.

As companies embrace digital transformation, mission-critical legacy applications are not always ready for the cloud. Establishing separate data centre facilities can be advantageous for various reasons, including ensuring regulatory compliance, improving overall performance, and preserving data security.

Colocation is the process of renting space in a third-party provider’s data centre facility for servers and other computing equipment. Colocation services frequently include the building in which everything is housed, as well as networking, power, cooling components, and physical security. These components support the business’s servers and storage requirements. Using a colocation data centre allows organisations to reduce the capital expenditures (CAPEX) of building and managing the facility while owning and managing their physical servers.

One of the primary motivators for businesses to migrate from their own data centre to a colocation facility is the cost benefit. While the initial costs of IT equipment remain, the operating costs of running a data centre are significantly reduced. The level of detail and granularity of control is similar to that of a traditional in-house data centre. Organisations can focus on other business needs while leaving the details of running a data centre facility in the hands of contracted experts.

Top challenges and opportunities of colocation

According to Allied Market Research, the global market for data centre colocation is expected to increase at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 15.7% from $46.08 billion in 2020 to $202.71 billion by 2030. Colocation facilities are increasingly using their scale to offer clients faster on-ramps and connection points, as well as access to a diverse ecosystem of partners, services, and connectivity choices. While colocation offers various benefits to a hybrid IT estate, there are also several factors to consider prior to migration:

• Readiness – Assessment and preparation must be done in advance whenever a significant change is undertaken, and the move from an on-premise data centre to colocation is no exception. Experience in personnel and project management is essential for the successful migration process. This includes identifying the type, amount, and location of racks and servers.
• Operation – Assessment and preparation must be done in advance whenever a significant change is undertaken, and the move from an on-premise data centre to colocation is no exception. Experience in personnel and project management is essential for the successful migration process. This includes identifying the type, amount, and location of racks and servers.
• Costs – Moving to colocation incurs two types of costs: one-time fees for migration and setup that can be substantial, and ongoing monthly fees based on capacity used, power usage, and other factors. Organisations may postpone a colocation move to avoid incurring large upfront costs.

A hybrid approach to your workloads

Distributed data needs to be handled at near-real-time speeds to match user expectations for ubiquitous, always-on digital experiences, pushing organisations to embrace a cloud-first approach. However, businesses are becoming more conscious of cloud limitations and starting to rely on hybrid cloud solutions to provide greater security, performance, and data privacy.

As businesses recognise that some workloads are unsuitable for the public cloud, alternatives such as HPE GreenLake with colocation are becoming increasingly popular. HPE GreenLake and colocation can help businesses obtain more room for their assets, shift out of data centre administration, and reduce data centre costs. Organisations can begin building a complete infrastructure plan that integrates on-premise and cloud-based assets, allowing them to move up the stack to the application or Software as a Service (SaaS) level.

HPE GreenLake colocation delivers the underlying architecture required for growth and attaining the highest performance, speed, and flexibility levels. Businesses running on-premise workloads can benefit from a cloud-like pricing model for colocation, offered by HPE GreenLake. Businesses are able to change their workloads and reap the benefits of cloud computing without a large upfront financial investment. They are also given the flexibility to construct infrastructure near the cloud and networks required to establish the best hybrid multi-cloud architectures.

The business benefits of HPE GreenLake with colocation

HPE GreenLake with colocation combines the benefits of a cloud experience while allowing businesses to control IT with the advantages of colocation, relieving them from large capital expenditures and the burden of running a data centre on-premise.

HPE GreenLake is the market-leading IT-as-a-service offering providing the cloud experience to applications and data, wherever it resides, via a single unified interface. In a fully managed pay-per-use approach, HPE GreenLake delivers cloud services and infrastructure for on-premise applications.

HPE Greenlake with colocation offers businesses:

• Agility – The whole infrastructure (compute, storage, network, and data centre facilities) is on-demand. Businesses may benefit from HPE colocation partners’ cloud adjacency by employing hybrid- and multi-cloud services with lower latency and higher performance.
• Simplicity – There is only one contract to negotiate and manage. Your IT partner is your single point of contact to discuss support needs and capacity growth plans.
• Cost-efficiency – Pay-as-you-go applies to the whole IT infrastructure, including data centre facilities, decreasing current and future capital costs.
• Greater control – The business retains full control over its data and operations, as well as total visibility into usage and spending.

How can colocation power your business?

Colocation data centres are adaptable to the needs of businesses. Whether your business requires a rack, cage, or a larger data centre, colocation enables the tailoring of space, power, and cooling requirements to your specific needs, while avoiding the traditional data centre pitfalls of over provisioning and rapid obsolescence.

HPE GreenLake, in conjunction with colocation, enables organisations to reap the benefits of consumption-based IT while avoiding the burden of data centre maintenance and hefty up-front capital outlays. HPE GreenLake with consumption-based solutions and infrastructure may be implemented in any HPE colocation partner’s data centre worldwide, giving the organisation geographic flexibility to suit their individual requirements. Contact us, as your IT partner to discuss how HPE GreenLake with colocation can benefit your business.

Our world is hurting. Disturbing images from Ukraine make visible the horrors of war. Far less tangible is the covert surge of Russian-waged cyber crimes being unleashed to destabilise their opponents.

Experts warn the targets of these attacks aren’t limited to a certain region of the world. As the conflict continues, Russian forces are likely to take aim at global financial systems, energy sectors, and communication infrastructure.

Now’s the time to evaluate your security posture and fortify your cyber defences.

Escalating Threats

The Kremlin didn’t waste any time launching cyber attacks while advancing into Ukraine. Within 48 hours of the invasion, vicious cyber incidents increased over 800% – and they’re likely just a fraction of those Russia has planned.

This modern military tactic is swift, hostile, and takes no prisoners. The threats are so pervasive and disruptive that a global council of cybersecurity authorities has formed to help the world stay cyber vigilant in the face of looming chaos.

The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) shares that “On April 20, 2022, the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory to warn organisations that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could expose organisations both within and beyond the region to increased malicious cyber activity…The advisory provides an overview of Russian state-sponsored advanced persistent threat groups, Russian-aligned cyber threat groups, and Russian-aligned cybercrime groups to help the cybersecurity community protect against possible cyber threats.”

Cyber Security Preparations

If you’re starting to feel a sense of urgency, you’re not alone. Forbes security experts remind us that, “No matter how small the company, a breach can lead to a national security emergency.”

They’re also imploring businesses to invest their resources in these six security preparations to help defend against real and impending cyber danger.

1. Double down on your security patches.

Do a methodical inventory of any internet-facing software or applications you use and make absolutely certain they’re up to date.

2. Update your recovery and continuity plans.

When you created your security plans, they probably didn’t include hostile cyber warfare. Make sure your backups have been tested, validate your responses, and scenario plan for any/all business-critical systems you operate.

3. Practice cyber “fire drills”.

Your security responses should be a well-oiled machine. Even if that means simulating a cyber emergency, make sure your organisation can immediately launch into action to contain a threat.

4. Make your network impenetrable.

Coxblue, a business and technology content hub, recommends engaging in these ten network security practices to batten down the hatches.

5. Go beyond the basics.

Businesses must act as if advanced, global cyber attacks are imminent – because they are. Security plans need to be continuous and comprehensive. Teaming up with a reputable security partner who can provide 24/7/365 surveillance is more essential than ever.

6. Take a community approach to security.

Harvard business review encourages businesses to adopt a unified front, which includes: helping their employees develop a security-first mindset, actively engaging their peer networks, vendors, and law enforcement around cyber intrusions, and ensuring corporate intelligence and IT teams work closely together on solutions.

From the electrical grid to the internet itself, every conceivable infrastructure is a potential target for attack. Is your business prepared to continue operating in an analog environment? If you don’t already know the course of action you’d take should the unthinkable happen, start thinking.