Categories
News

MULTI-CLOUD: HOW TO MANAGE CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURES

MULTI-CLOUD: HOW TO MANAGE CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURES

The cloud has reshaped the way we do business. Thanks to this technology, companies have had the opportunity to upgrade system management as well as their overall services. Unfortunately, many companies still don’t use this technology to rise to their full potential.

Decision-makers in many organizations are helpless in front of too many technical details shared online, which, most of the time, remain too hard to understand by the non-tech savvy. That’s why we decided to write a practical guide to multi-cloud, in which we focus on the services offered by cloud technology.

An increased number of companies have decided to replace the limited possibilities of a single cloud system with multi-cloud, as it’s faster and more effective.

multi-cloud

As a result, they registered a 75% growth from the previous year. However, experts recommend a small-step approach to multi-cloud, which allows companies to learn gradually about the various functions of this technology.

 

What is multi-cloud?

The multi-cloud system operates on more public clouds, sometimes offered by multiple third-party providers. The main advantage of this environment is its flexibility, as it can adapt to carry out different tasks in total autonomy.

It’s an ambitious goal, as the system is aiming to connect different types of software or apps (for example, using advanced API or RESTful). At the same time, it should reduce or abolish the so-called vendor lock-in which is the relationship of dependency established between the provider (that tends to tie customers to specific services) and the beneficiaries of the service.

 

The ideal multi-cloud service provider

Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all provider of multi-cloud services. But, various general criteria can guide you to the perfect choice. In the era of big data and the Internet of things (IoT), companies are pressed by the need to improve performances on a medium and large scale. This involves the continuous design and re-definition of the architectures that guide various systems. Under this light, the use of the multi-cloud becomes necessary to streamline operations and make them smart.

Multi-cloud service providers must be able to offer a high performing and adequate network infrastructure, based on the Fault-Tolerant paradigm. Therefore, it can perform disaster recovery and fast recovery of backup, as well as ensure a low probability of breakdowns or inefficiencies during use.

Before entrusting yourself to the first provider you find, you should check that it meets these requirements, as well as whether it has qualified technicians available to solve any potential problems. Otherwise, you risk finding yourself handling an ineffective cloud, which is blocked and difficult to manage. You can learn more about the advantages of an effective multi-cloud service by checking out our multi-cloud offer.

 

The benefits of multi-cloud systems

Not only does the multi-cloud give you the possibility of customizing services, but it also tends to enhance workload distribution on multiple nodes of the network, minimizing the risks of congested nodes. As you distribute the work differently, you speed up packet delivery on the network and improve routing management. These features open up scenarios that were impossible to imagine a few years ago.

The multi-cloud has become fundamental for fast and hard-to-predict technological development. As a consequence, companies need to develop an ability to adapt quickly to new technologies, too, to stay competitive and meet the needs of potential customers.

 
 
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Contact us

Fill out the form and one of our experts will contact you within 24 hours: we look forward to meeting you!

Categories
News

CALCULATING THE TCO: CLOUD VS ON PREMISE INFRASTRUCTURE

CALCULATING THE TCO: CLOUD VS ON PREMISE INFRASTRUCTURE

TCO (Total Cost Of Ownership) is a financial estimate approved by Gartner in 1987 to help companies calculate precisely economic impact during the whole life cycle of IT projects. 

Knowing the total costs allows companies to evaluate solutions and products more consciously than simply evaluating purchase price.

Migration to the cloud is an unstoppable trend, companies evaluate the advantages of cost-saving that a pay-as-you-go system offers when you need to replace your equipment on-premises, lower costs or switch to an agile model of business by developing cloud native applications.

Despite the growing trend, we still see how the decision-making process slows down due to complex cost calculations.

THE TCO IS WORTH MORE THAN THE PURCHASE PRICE

In front of a new IT project we ask ourselves the eternal question: should we buy the physical equipment or go in the Cloud direction.

To understand the long term economic impact that owning an infrastructure vs cloud services will have, it is necessary to correctly calculate the TCO.

 
 

Calculating the TCO for the on premise infrastructure, what should you consider?

Purchase of hardware and software: 

  • Costs for the purchase of servers 
  • Storage costs (SAN) 
  • Security devices (Firewall, Crypto Gateway, etc) 
  • Network  
  • Design and implementation of a backup plan
  • IP 
  • Software licenses (Office package, Management, OS, DB, Antivirus and so on) 
  • Colocation in one or more datacenters 
  • If a disaster recovery plan is required, it is necessary to use 2 server farms at a distance of at least 50 km between them

Associated costs: 

  • Cost and time related to infrastructure design
  • Costs of updates and improvements during the use
  • Energy consumption and constant temperature monitoring
  • Maintenance 
  • Technical support 
  • Staff training 
  • End of life disposal 
  • Inefficiency losses related to the over-dimensioning of the physical environment * 

*during the design phase the resources are estimated roughly, therefore the proprietary hardware is used at approximately 60% of its capacity after being put into production

A quick look at the costs shows that some are one-off costs, such as the purchase of physical equipment, others are recurring costs (maintenance staff, colocation fee, energy consumption) that will occur throughout the whole period of use of the environment.

We recommend calculating the TCO for a 3-5 year period because the lifespan of physical equipment is about to end after 5 years of use.

After 3-5 years it will be necessary to evaluate the state of the hardware and place a budget for the entire purchase cost again to design a modern and performing infrastructure.

 

Cloud Infrastructure Costs

Cloud costs:

  • Absence of Capital costs (CAPEX), it is replaced by a pay-as-you-go approach
  • No maintenance costs, technical management is done by the Cloud service provider
  • No risks associated with maintaining the infrastructure

Cloud convenience:  

  • Fast time-to-market: the provider will prepare the necessary environment in a very short time
  • Ability to solve multiple tasks in a single platform
  • Immediate scalability of resources as needed
  • We only use Enterprise level hardware
  • 24/7 assistance in Italian, English, German

Cloud performance and security:

  • All the data are in one of our datacenters tier III and IV 
  • SLA guaranteed at 99.9998% 
  • Business continuity at zero cost 
  • Guaranteed security, protection against attacks
  • High services performance, low latencies 

To summarize, we should remember that the TCO consists of both design and implementation costs (CAPEX) as well as maintenance, electricity, and other day-to-day costs. By migrating to the Cloud there is a significant reduction of the total costs (TCO) by 20% based on 3 year period calculus and this economic convenience will become greater every year.

Criticalcase has been operating since 1999 as a High Availability Cloud provider, specializing in the provisioning of tailor-made full managed solutions. Additionally, Criticalcase is Autonomous System (AS48815), therefor it guarantees total flexibility of management and assignment of IP classes. Here you can read the detailed description of our Cloud architecture.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Contact us

Fill out the form and one of our experts will contact you within 24 hours: we look forward to meeting you!

Categories
News

TOP 5 REASONS TO START USING JELASTIC CLOUD BY CRITICALCASE

TOP 5 REASONS TO START USING JELASTIC CLOUD BY CRITICALCASE

Jelastic is one of the most interesting Cloud software solutions present on the market today, the reason it has become so popular is because it simplifies complex cloud deployments by automating the creation, scaling, clustering and security updates of microservices or monolithic applications.

Jelastic Cloud by Criticalcase perfectly suites developers and Enterprises that want to focus on the development, pay attention only to the application layer and do not worry about the network and infrastructure layers below.

The top 5 advantages Jelastic Cloud brings:

  • Fast Deployment
  • Easy Scaling
  • Simple Management
  • No Code Changes
  • Enterprise Class Infrastructure

Jelastic Cloud is a robust solution for the enterprises and developers, it combines the advantages of PaaS services and those of CaaS (Container as a Service) in a single platform hosted in Criticalcase datacenters.

With Jelastic time-to-cloud is measured in hours, not days!

The platform supports most of the programming languages like Java, PHP, Ruby, Node.js, .NET, Python application servers, SQL and NoSQL databases and other software stacks, as well as Docker containers – Jelastic cloud has everything it needs to deliver the full stack for rapid installation.

The platform provides a very easy horizontal scaling creating rapidly new units and as well a vertical scaling adding speedily the necessary resources of your applications.

Criticalcase’s Jelastic Cloud allows developers to specify the maximum limit of resources (RAM and CPU), distribute the traffic evenly between multiple servers and server farms in Italy and across Europe in its datacenters.

There is no longer need to be a network architect or an experienced system administrator, Jelastic Cloud provides a user-friendly graphic interface to easily manage everything from a single dashboard. It is both powerful and particularly useful for the developers with drag-n-drop autonomous management.

It’s the only platform that you can start using right away, there are no complex APIs for you to code and you can make run microservice and legacy applications in Criticalcase Jelastic Cloud with no changes to the code.

Criticalcase’s Jelastic cloud infrastructure is based on 7 datacenters across Europe with no single point of failure, all completely redundant and connected with fiber channel allowing to have very low latency (Turin and Milan under 4 ms!).

The containers are isolated, load balancer is automatic, and we enable database replication to ensure the highest possible availability with 99,998% SLA guaranteed.

Find out more about Jelastic.

Book a session with Criticalcase expert and start your free trial right now. Get in touch right now to see the magic happening.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Contact us

Fill out the form and one of our experts will contact you within 24 hours: we look forward to meeting you!

Categories
News

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SAAS, PAAS, AND IAAS MODELS

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SAAS, PAAS, AND IAAS MODELS

There’s no doubt; cloud computing has become crucial for the development of new apps and technologies. It supports most of the services we benefit from every day, thanks to the facility with which it allows us to manage both hardware and software with only an internet connection.

Generally, any cloud computing system is based on three elements:

  • The storage, the disk space available for the application (and, consequently, for the end-user).
  • The nodes, the architecture on which the app is functioning.
  • The so-called controller, the logic or operating policy of the cloud software in question.

The use of the cloud is possible thanks to a provider that offers its services under a supply contract and a scalable payment plan (which is proportional to the actual use: in general, the more we use it, the more we pay). Within the industry, there are three distinct types of services, which correspond to as many methods of distribution and usage of applications: PaaSSaaS, and IaaS. Let’s take a closer look at the characteristics of these three methods and how they’ve evolved over the years.


Cloud computing is a business model in which users benefit from the product or service remotely, based on their needs. All three delivery levels, PaaS, Saas, and IaaS, allow you to virtualize any level of use of the apps and software available on platforms, with a significant advantage in terms of scalability of use. As we’ve seen, the main difference between PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS consists of the respective service delivery levels that are made available to the end-user.


Regarding the target audience, Software as a Service is aiming at the end-user level of any software (for example, an employee or a freelancer who isn’t necessarily a computer scientist). The Platform as a Service is designed for the “new generation” programmers (and only for them), while Infrastructure as a Service is targeting system engineers and programmers with more advanced skills.

On a marketing level, SaaS can be a good fit for ready-to-use IT solutions (possibly also for reselling). On the other hand, PaaS is useful for developing and updating these solutions (consulting) while the IaaS model helps to host services and new generation servers (also with the possibility of reselling to third parties). For example, if we have a ready-to-use invoicing software as SaaS, PaaS could be its maintenance and development model, which is, in turn, based on a hardware and software infrastructure (IaaS). Any available tool is managed, maintained, and updated directly by the suppliers. This way, the users are free from the administrative burden, with additional costs benefits, as they don’t have to hire people specifically for the job.

 
 
internet-delle-cose

Another critical aspect of the SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS models regards the straightforward and practical way of offering high-level services. From video streaming, films, and TV series to sports events and IoT services (Internet of Things), they’re all based on cloud computing.

This leads to a further aspect of these services. All three are models that can be replicated with relative ease, thanks to the fact that we have access to user-friendly and easy-to-use interfaces, as well as the cutback of maintenance and development costs.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Contact us

Fill out the form and one of our experts will contact you within 24 hours: we look forward to meeting you!

Categories
News

DATA CENTER FOR BUSINESS CONTINUITY

DATA CENTER FOR BUSINESS CONTINUITY

The relationship between business continuity and data center is crucial in online services, whether they’re provided as cloud computing or through virtualized machines. It’s essential to define the services regarded as having priority that the data center should guarantee. This way, you avoid definitions that are too abstract or incomprehensible to non-experts.

The purpose of this approach is to determine an optimal quality level of the service provided by the company that owns, manages, or buys it from third-parties. Even more so, the request for professional guidance in finding the best data solutions is so high among companies that risk management has become a subject of university studies.

sistema-elaborazione-dati

A data center is a short name for a data processing center: the core of the activity carried out by high-level hosting services. It usually resides in huge rooms located either in the company’s headquarters or in external locations, sometimes under the surveillance of specialized staff.
Most of the time, this structure is organized in server racks–the “cabinets” in which the various machines are recessed, connected and programmed/managed by system engineers.
The connected servers can be controlled directly (which occurs in the case of resets, restarts, or some types of updates) or remotely (which guarantees maximum flexibility).
The operators are often called upon (sometimes at unpredictable times) for complex, but necessary, timely interventions. And it’s here that the idea of business continuity comes into play as an essential parameter to be optimized.

The concept of business continuity, on the other hand, is expressed in the enhanced capacity, guaranteed at any level, of being able to continue providing the service even in critical conditions or in the unfortunate event of damages or accidents.
Beyond what it entails at first glance relating to security (read: avoid losing your data forever), business continuity is essential for maintaining an adequate image of the company from the outside, avoiding receiving excessive criticism from unsatisfied users. In simple words, it’s a mix of good marketing and technical warranties that all companies operating on the web need to thrive.
As already noted in a previous article, business continuity is a more extensive concept than data recovery. Not only does business continuity imply the possibility of providing the service in all situations, but it also includes the ability to recover data thanks to a series of adequate procedures at a strategic, operational, and tactical level.

Once you understand the importance of it, how can you make sure that the data center guarantees business continuity? On an engineering level, this occurs in two different ways.

First, by equipping the infrastructure with an adequate level of electric machines capable of guaranteeing a constant voltage in the event of sudden changes or power outages (therefore, for example, uninterruptible power supplies). Second, through backup systems that should be present in multiple copies, possibly also in the cloud or on machines virtually inaccessible by any intruders or malware.

This discussion also includes various requirements on energy efficiency, to avoid waste and guarantee, at the service level, maximum productivity and safety for customers and data center operators.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Contact us

Fill out the form and one of our experts will contact you within 24 hours: we look forward to meeting you!

Categories
News

KUBIFY: THE NEW WAY TO PROVIDE HOSTING

HOW TO MANAGE MULTIPLE WEBSITES THROUGH A SINGLE PLATFORM

Choosing quality IT services for your digital company is crucial when looking to reach maximum performance for you and your customers. It’s an element that is easily forgotten or undervalued nowadays, with many low-cost services becoming very popular online. That’s why we’ll evaluate the three key points you should check before purchasing platform services.

In the era of PaaS and IaaS, you can focus entirely on the general functionality of sites and apps. These services allow you not to worry about the implementation details and entrust the technical information to developers. They have a high-level framework, almost always well documented, entirely open source, and based on a management that is, before anything else, modular and unified.

computer-connection

1 – Modularity both for individuals and workgroups

The modular approach benefits all workgroups in the field of IT, whether you think of a web agency, a group of professionals, or a freelance managing multiple clients. They all need to manage various sites and apps through a single platform.

Modularity means that all your clients’ sites can be accessed, managed, and updated starting from a single access point. This way, you avoid using as many hosting services as the number of clients you’re working with. A unified hosting solution is the ideal choice and requires a change of mindset, as you switch from the traditional model to a more simplistic one based on shared hosting.

This solution requires a scalable service. The scalability in this area is fundamental to guarantee a functional autonomy and management capacity for the operator (or technician) who will take care of it.

This multi-level service is possible thanks to an architecture based on container software or an abstract over-structure that replaces everything else. Beneath the structure, you have various sub-levels, as is the case with our hosting solution designed for web agencies that allows users to manage websites through unique panels.

In this case, scalability refers to the possibility of adapting the same structure not only for websites but also for other types of apps. For instance, our model can work with apps made with Redis (fast and practical storage based on the Remote Dictionary Server model) and some apps based on Big Data. Either way, we’re looking at solutions with variable quotas available in terms of CPU, RAM, and disk space.

2 – Developing in an agile and dynamic way

Besides the flexibility of your management environment, you should also take into account that most web solutions are meant to define development environments for programmers. This feature enables IT departments to develop and test specific software solutions (websites or web services) in an environment that is separated and inaccessible from the outside. They only transfer the changes to the online version afterward (the production version).

This way, you can streamline the development and maintenance procedures of any software. It allows you to speed up processes, which would otherwise require longer delivery times.

 

3 – The importance of managed services

A third aspect you should prioritize is the assistance service. Scalable solutions aren’t something you want to manage on your own. Any problem with the configuration of our sites or apps requires the presence of a system analyst who is familiar with the entire infrastructure you rely on. It’s fundamental that you work with a professional who knows how to set up everything for backup and restoration.

In this situation, site management becomes easier when you can count on a specialized service—something that most low-cost providers can’t offer due to a lack of skills.

In conclusion, these are the three main aspects regarding the management and maintenance of cloud services for any application you should consider when choosing an IT services provider. Without these three elements, you risk dealing with insidious and hard-to-counter problems.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Contact us

Fill out the form and one of our experts will contact you within 24 hours: we look forward to meeting you!

Categories
News

BUSINESS DATA BACKUPS: ESSENTIAL, BUT UNDERRATED

BUSINESS DATA BACKUPS: ESSENTIAL, BUT UNDERRATED

Technical cybersecurity reports show that viruses and malware are still the most widespread threats online. Among them, ransomware remains an insidious form of cyberattacks, particularly dangerous because most users tend to underestimate its effects.

Ransomware: the most widespread and risky viruses for companies

Ransomware is particularly dangerous amongst various viruses because it can encrypt and turn useless all files on your computer. Moreover, it can affect other devices from the same network, being able to completely delete all files–which makes you wonder whether to pay the ransom or not.

backup-per-aziende

Users rarely pay attention to such a threat before it happens, despite the possibility of losing all data (for example, your corporate billing documentation). Ransomware only needs a simple click on a malicious link included in a deceptive email received. Even worse, when dealing with ransomware, once the damage is done, it’s usually not reversible. The only way to counter its effects is by keeping updated backup copies of your data.

 

Backup solutions save your system

A company’s backup policy is fundamental to countering the problems caused by ransomware attacks. Under this light, it becomes clear that leaving this responsibility to your employees or collaborators is often undoable due to several reasons.

First of all, it’s a matter of time. Your employees can’t stay productive if they have to handle technical issues regularly. Another reason is the lack of expertise—for your employees, it may be challenging to save data while they’re working with it.

The ultimate purpose of a backup is to have an updated copy of the latest version of your data. It can be anything, shared documents, electronic invoices, a website or blog, the code that makes your app run, or the emails sent and received by employees.

In most cases, you already protect your data with network protocols like HTTPS and various authentication levels, such as passwords and OTP codes on the phone. In many cases, however, this isn’t enough, either because the company network doesn’t benefit from adequate protection or due to new information leaks that are discovered every day.

 

Why backups are necessary

Companies discover the importance of having a backup only when things go wrong. Data recovery procedures allow you to instantly restore the state of the system (such as files, database, your business website) as it was in the exact moment you made the last backup copy. Therefore, it automatically removes old data and replaces it with the new one.

 

It’s a solution that wouldn’t be possible with manual backups unless relying on external supports via USB or network. However, in these conditions, you risk not having useful data to use, because it could also be corrupted.

It’s necessary to allocate resources and time to make sure you backup all your data. You should implement an automated backup solution, which allows you to be more relaxed in the case of software or hardware errors, or ransomware.

Furthermore, the backup service is often based on cloud technology. That’s because storing backups in the same place with the original files and database isn’t the safest solution.

 

Using external services also allows you to save data periodically according to a pre-established schedule (for example, twice a day on working days). Another advantage is the fact that you can get multiple backups, which gives you multiple choices in the case of an attack. You can also save data on CD or tape (which is more resistant support than the classic ones). The current trend is to exploit the cloud for its versatility and speed in the case of disaster recovery. Also, the cloud also counters possible space problems that might occur with traditional devices, as it operates similarly to a real external hard disk, where you can safely store an intact and working copy of your company data.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Contact us

Fill out the form and one of our experts will contact you within 24 hours: we look forward to meeting you!

Categories
News

HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR E-COMMERCE SALES FUNNEL

HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR E-COMMERCE SALES FUNNEL

As the manager of an e-commerce website, perhaps hosted on a cloud platform, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that maintaining a reasonable conversion rate—translated into the actual sale of the products—can often turn out to be pretty complicated.

While the site architecture is fundamental to complying with Google’s quality standards (and meeting the expectations of website visitors), it can’t generate conversions alone. It’s essential that you also analyze the journey that website visitors go through before buying. Unfortunately, most e-commerce owners tend to underestimate this vital process, with lousy effects on their bottom line. In short, a high number of website visitors to your online store can be entirely useless unless you can describe and measure the efficiency of the so-called conversion funnel.

In practical terms, optimizing a funnel allows you to track, manage, and monitor the average behavior of your website visitors, identifying tipping points and any bottlenecks in the buyers’ journey. The easiest way to achieve this is by drawing information from the analytics of your e-commerce website, which can be easily set up to provide useful data.

However, there’s no one-size-fits-all recipe for conversion funnel optimization. Each e-commerce is unique and has different problems and strengths that could influence outcomes. Under this light, analyzing user behavior becomes the most critical element of your strategy.

If you want to improve your conversion funnel, you should focus on the “journey” that your visitors make—from the first time they arrive on your e-commerce site to the moment they make a purchase. It’s a path that includes an intricate web of factors. For instance, users don’t often become customers upon their first visit—they’re more often looking for an initial understanding of the offering so they can then compare your prices with those of your competitors. Most website visitors will return to your site and/or engage with your brand several times before actually buying.

Even people who have already made a buying decision could interrupt the process due to some unforeseen blockage factors. For example, if you haven’t optimized your e-commerce for mobile, smartphone users will find it difficult or impossible to complete the purchase. Therefore, eliminating the blockages becomes a tricky and vital operation to your success.

processo-acquisto-ecommerce

The journey taken by potential customers during the buying process starts with the awareness stage—when people learn about the existence of a specific product—and ends with the long-awaited buying decision. The process explains the name of the funnel: from a significant number of people who arrive on the site, only a few will become real buyers. That’s because people will be “filtered” with various intermediate stages.

The funnel is constructed out of three stages. The first is known as TOFU (Top Of the FUnnel). It targets the majority of website visitors and should include engagement through site content that’s dedicated to newbies (for example, FAQs or articles in which you present the products that you sell).

The second stage is called MOFU (Middle Of the FUnnel) and regards the passage from website visitor to potential customer (for example, when someone subscribes to your newsletter).

Finally, we have the third stage, called BOFU (Bottom Of the FUnnel). It refers to the crucial moment in which the prospect decides to buy your product and becomes a buyer by making a purchase—and hopefully turns into a loyal customer.
The ugly truth is that this model for optimizing the funnel isn’t a universal solution that can be applied to all e-commerce websites. The conversion path is, in fact, sometimes more complicated than a simple “funnel”. However, it can still provide you with a solid guideline to optimize your conversion rates.

As you move on with your e-commerce business, you’ll see that various factors can disturb users’ interactions with your site and influence their perception. Sometimes, they’re positive (when someone gets to your website through word of mouth, the buying decision could come faster) or negative (a user can’t buy because your site doesn’t support a specific credit card).

In short, optimizing the conversion funnel on your website involves an audit of your e-commerce site. For the best chances to succeed, you should review everything, from the website architecture to its functionality, and define how and where you can improve your current assets and operations, as it’s the most powerful way to improve the purchase rate of your e-commerce.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Contact us

Fill out the form and one of our experts will contact you within 24 hours: we look forward to meeting you!

Richiedi la tua prova gratuita

Ehi! Stai già andando via?

Iscriviti alla nostra newsletter per restare aggiornato sulle novità dell’universo Criticalcase