Tips for Optimizing Technology Infrastructure for Start Ups

Hello Friends in this blog post I am going to share my experience of optimizing technology infrastructure for Start Ups

Any business idea is vital for success of start ups and technology is the key ingredient to transform business idea into reality and help start ups to achieve their desired goals but cost and optimization of Technology Infrastructure is a major factor for achieving success

So today let me tell you some strategies and best practices which I have implemented for my Start Up clients and helped them to achieve cost and performance optimization by providing maximum ROI

a) Go for Cloud :

Recently cloud computing has shifted paradigm from desktop computing to anywhere access and global collaboration. You can choose from various cloud service providers for office collaboration tools like Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 etc, for software development infrastructure like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS etc. They all reduce your dependence on physical infrastructure costs and maintenance and enable you to focus on your core business.

Following cloud strategies can be adopted depending on your business goals and planned technology investment

1) Public

Public clouds are made available to the general public by a service provider who hosts the cloud infrastructure. Generally, public cloud providers like Amazon AWS, Microsoft and Google own and operate the infrastructure and offer access over the Internet. With this model, customers have no visibility or control over where the infrastructure is located. It is important to note that all customers on public clouds share the same infrastructure pool with limited configuration, security protections and availability variances.
Public Cloud customers benefit from economies of scale, because infrastructure costs are spread across all users, allowing each individual client to operate on a low-cost, “pay-as-you-go” model. Another advantage of public cloud infrastructures is that they are typically larger in scale than an in-house enterprise cloud, which provides clients with seamless, on-demand scalability. These clouds offer the greatest level of efficiency in shared resources; however, they are also more vulnerable than private clouds.
A public cloud is the obvious choice when:

Your standardized workload for applications is used by lots of people, such as e-mail.
You need to test and develop application code.
You need incremental capacity (the ability to add compute resources for peak times).
You’re doing collaboration projects.

2) Private

Private cloud is cloud infrastructure dedicated to a particular organization. Private clouds allow businesses to host applications in the cloud, while addressing concerns regarding data security and control, which is often lacking in a public cloud environment. It is not shared with other organizations, whether managed internally or by a third-party, and it can be hosted internally or externally.
There are two variations of private clouds:

On-Premise Private Cloud: This type of cloud is hosted within an organization’s own facility. A businesses IT department would incur the capital and operational costs for the physical resources with this model. On-Premise Private Clouds are best used for applications that require complete control and configurability of the infrastructure and security.
Externally Hosted Private Cloud: Externally hosted private clouds are also exclusively used by one organization, but are hosted by a third party specializing in cloud infrastructure. The service provider facilitates an exclusive cloud environment with full guarantee of privacy. This format is recommended for organizations that prefer not to use a public cloud infrastructure due to the risks associated with the sharing of physical resources.

Undertaking a private cloud project requires a significant level and degree of engagement to virtualize the business environment, and it will require the organization to reevaluate decisions about existing resources. Private clouds are more expensive but also more secure when compared to public clouds.
When is a Private Cloud for you?

You need data sovereignty but want cloud efficiencies
You want consistency across services
You have more server capacity than your organization can use
Your data center must become more efficient
You want to provide private cloud services

3) Hybrid

Hybrid Clouds are a composition of two or more clouds (private, community or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together offering the advantages of multiple deployment models. In a hybrid cloud, you can leverage third party cloud providers in either a full or partial manner; increasing the flexibility of computing. Augmenting a traditional private cloud with the resources of a public cloud can be used to manage any unexpected surges in workload.

Hybrid cloud architecture requires both on-premise resources and off-site server based cloud infrastructure. By spreading things out over a hybrid cloud, you keep each aspect of your business in the most efficient environment possible. The downside is that you have to keep track of multiple cloud security platforms and ensure that all aspects of your business can communicate with each other.

Here are a couple of situations where a hybrid environment is best:

Your company wants to use a SaaS application but is concerned about security.
Your company offers services that are tailored for different vertical markets. You can use a public cloud to interact with the clients but keep their data secured within a private cloud.
You can provide public cloud to your customers while using a private cloud for internal IT.

4) Community

A community cloud is a is a multi-tenant cloud service model that is shared among several or organizations and that is governed, managed and secured commonly by all the participating organizations or a third party managed service provider.

Community clouds are a hybrid form of private clouds built and operated specifically for a targeted group. These communities have similar cloud requirements and their ultimate goal is to work together to achieve their business objectives.

The goal of community clouds is to have participating organizations realize the benefits of a public cloud with the added level of privacy, security, and policy compliance usually associated with a private cloud. Community clouds can be either on-premise or off-premise.

Here are a couple of situations where a community cloud environment is best:

Government organizations within a state that need to share resoures
A private HIPAA compliant cloud for a group of hospitals or clinics
Telco community cloud for telco DR to meet specific FCC regulations

b) Virtualize :

Virtualization helps you to use same resource for multiple purpose. It also gives you benefits of lower maintenance costs and management efficiency.

Following Virtualization strategies can be implemented

Server Virtualization – consolidating multiple physical servers into virtual servers that run on a single physical server.

Application Virtualization – an application runs on another host from where it is installed in a variety of ways. It could be done by application streaming, desktop virtualization or VDI, or a VM package (like VMware ACE creates with a player). Microsoft Softgrid is an example of Application virtualization.

Presentation Virtualization – This is what Citrix Met frame (and the ICA protocol) as well as Microsoft Terminal Services (and RDP) are able to create. With presentation virtualization, an application actually runs on another host and all that you see on the client is the screen from where it is run.

Network Virtualization – with network virtualization, the network is “carved up” and can be used for multiple purposes such as running a protocol analyzer inside an Ethernet switch. Components of a virtual network could include NICs, switches, VLANs, network storage devices, virtual network containers, and network media.

Storage Virtualization – with storage virtualization, the disk/data storage for your data is consolidated to and managed by a virtual storage system. The servers connected to the storage system aren’t aware of where the data really is. Storage virtualization is sometimes described as “abstracting the logical storage from the physical storage.

c) Adopt Open Source :

Adopt Open Source software platforms enable you to scale your applications without involving license restrictions. Ope Source helps to save costs involved in software license investment

Here are some Open Source applications which you can use in your business :

Odoo (Formerly Open ERP) :Odoo is a suite of open source business apps that help you grow your business. Over two million people use Odoo to grow their sales, run their operations, organize marketing activities, boost productivity and empower their human resources.

Wordpress for Website : Wordpress is an Open Source web development CMS. It has various themes and plugins to make your website standout and best part is you can create website without any requirement of coding provided you take interest and expand your vision
Linux for computing :Today, Linux powers 98% of the world’s super computers, most of the servers powering the Internet, the majority of financial trades worldwide and tens of millions of Android mobile phones and consumer devices. In short, Linux is everywhere.
Xen Server for Server Virtualization : XenServer is the leading open source virtualization platform, powered by the Xen hypervisor. It is used in the world's largest clouds and enterprises

The above list is indicative, you can find various Open Source Apps and Solutions for deploying to your business environment

Above mentioned Tips can help Start-Ups to achieve cost and operational efficiency by leveraging Technology Infrastructure

Please share this article in your circles and do let me know your comments and feedback below

Tips for Optimizing Technology Infrastructure for Start Ups

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