Networks are complex systems because the devices that form them are not all the same type. A typical network comprises of data centers, servers, storage, routers, switches, firewalls, and various end-user devices like printers, laptops, and mobile phones. These devices effectively form the body of the network and help you deliver services to your customers.
Traditionally, companies will assign a dedicated team to purchase, install, and configure these devices, as well as monitor them regularly to maintain their health and perform upgrades. But this can be a costly and painstaking approach.
The traditional method of using a physical network infrastructure might incur high costs for your business in the form of:
On top of all this, it takes a significant investment of time to procure the devices that form your network. And, depending on the scale of your organization, deployment can take many months.
However, there is a cost-effective way of managing your network infrastructure without compromising on operational agility and performance. With cloud services, you can circumvent the laborious process of setting up a network, optimize the time and costs incurred, and ultimately get the networking resources needed for your business.
IaaS is a cloud-based resource provisioning model that enables companies to reduce the CapEx and eliminate the OpEx incurred in traditional IT.
In the traditional model, an on-premise hardware layer is paired with the monitoring tool, or software layer, to manage the physical network.
IaaS removes the underlying hardware layer and provisions all the resources over the internet. While the IaaS vendor supplies all the necessary computing resources such as CPU, memory, and storage, you still have to perform other duties, including:
With the cloud-based IaaS model, you don't need to invest up front to set up the on-premise network, but pay only for the resources you require. This pay-as-you-use system offers a huge advantage when it comes to cost optimization. Compared to the traditional on-premise model, scaling is also made easy since you consume all the resources virtually.
Likewise, if you plan to downsize your business, you can easily scale down your resource consumption and reduce your costs. This gives you the liberty to take an innovative, disruptive approach in your business.
There is a caveat though. Since scaling up resources is simple, users may request resources as needed and forget to downsize the resources when the consumption goes down. This may lead to cloud sprawls, which effectively increase the fee of your cloud services.
To avoid this, it is important to grant access rights to users based on their roles and requirements and institute a policy-driven mechanism to constantly monitor how resources are being used.
You can store your data in two or three different locations, known as cloud zones. This is a data redundancy model which enables you to protect your data.
For example, your applications can be hosted from two different data centers that are geographically separated. If one data center is impacted by a disaster, your data is safe because it is stored at another data center.
Enterprises are increasingly shifting to the cloud to improve agility and end-user experience.
Cloud migration also becomes very simple with IaaS, as companies don't need to build applications from scratch or modify fundamental app configurations.
They can simply lift-and-shift their workloads to the cloud in a relatively inexpensive and quick way. In the future, most companies will adopt the industry cloud model. Industry cloud uses the traditional IaaS approach combined with software to create an industry-specific platform to resolve the requirements of a particular business such as healthcare or city traffic management.
Companies will begin to use the packaged business capabilities of cloud service providers, and on top of that, build customized features to solve their business-specific needs. This level of customization gives companies the edge to address complex market requirements more effectively and thereby improve time to market, drive innovation, and improve overall efficiency.
There are three major cloud service models. IaaS, platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).
PaaS
The difference between PaaS and IaaS is that, apart from the computing resources offered, PaaS provides the platform tools required to build applications from scratch.
You still have to code and build the application, but the basic platform and associated tools are provided. Zoho Creator and Google Cloud Run are examples of PaaS.
With PaaS in place, the development teams don't need to worry about the associated aspects such as updating software and the provisioning and monitoring of storage. PaaS is an extension of IaaS, providing both the software and hardware computing requirements including run time libraries, email, and HTTP servers.
This effectively helps developers develop and deploy software or applications with faster turnaround times than with traditional development.
SaaS
SaaS refers to the cloud-based approach of provisioning of software or applications. Customers usually have to subscribe to the SaaS application and access the application via a web browser.
With SaaS you do not have to be concerned with the operating system used in the development phase or what coding language was used to build the app. The vendor provides a finished version of the app which you can access from anyplace and any device, provided you have the credentials and the license to use it. Zoho CRM and Microsoft 365 are examples of SaaS applications.
Migrating your physical infrastructure to a cloud-based service like IaaS can simplify day-to-day operations, reduce tasks, and help you realize your business goals.
However, it is critical to monitor all the services and applications hosted in the cloud. Most companies adopt a hybrid approach, wherein certain applications are hosted in the cloud and others are hosted from the on-premise servers.
So while considering a solution, it is important to select a monitoring tool that can support both your cloud-native applications as well as your on-premise devices.
But, is there a single solution with such a wide range of capabilities?
ManageEngine OpManager Plus is a comprehensive monitoring solution that can monitor your IT network and cloud-based applications hosted from a multi-cloud environment, all from a unified console. You can monitor web-based and on-cloud applications hosted by major vendors like Microsoft Azure and AWS.
OpManager Plus also offers capabilities, such as network compliance and risk management, traffic bandwidth monitoring, firewall log analysis, and switch port management, at an affordable cost, making cloud and IT operations management a simple task.
Interested in trying OpManager Plus? Check out our 30-day, free trial or request a personalized demo with a product expert.