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Windows Server 2012: Navigating the New Licensing Structure

March 20th, 2013
Posted by: admin

 

By Bill Peters, AIS Network Director of Sales

Windows Server 2012, which was released last fall, is the latest among Microsoft’s Windows Server product offerings, and it delivers a dramatically simplified licensing experience.

What went away? Away went the Enterprise edition, which was retired.  Windows Server 2012 Standard edition includes all the premium features previously included in Enterprise edition.    Away went the Web Server, and now web workloads running on a Windows Server 2012 edition will continue to receive the “CAL waiver” that is in effect for these workloads today.  Windows Server CALs will not be required to access the licensed server if it is only being used to run web workloads.  Away went HPC Products.  Microsoft will now deliver the HPC Pack 2012 as a free download that can be used with any Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter license.   HPC workloads running on Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter editions will continue to receive the “CAL waiver” that is currently in effect for these workloads.

So what’s new? Well, now there are just four Windows Server 2012 editions from which to choose.  And, shaped by feedback from customers and partners, the new Windows Server licensing approach should help make choosing the right Windows Server a whole lot easier too.

Windows Server 2012 Licensing Overview

Microsoft holds that its new licensing approach will deliver the following benefits to its Windows Server customers:

Simple. It’s easier than ever to determine the right Windows Server edition for you.  Choose from just four editions of Windows Server 2012, based on the size of your organization and your requirements for virtualization and cloud computing.

Economical. All editions of Windows Server 2012 deliver excellent economics and ROI for your business. For example, the Datacenter edition, with its unlimited virtualization rights, provides the benefits of cloud-level scale with predictable, lower costs. The Standard edition now offers all of the same enterprise-class features as the Datacenter edition and is differentiated only by virtualization rights.

Cloud-optimized. Businesses today are rapidly adopting a hybrid approach across private and public cloud computing.  Windows Server 2012 offers the right edition for you, no matter where you are on your path to the cloud.  Use the Datacenter edition for highly virtualized cloud environments, the Standard edition for lightly virtualized environments progressing toward cloud, or the Essentials edition for an ideal cloud-connected first server.

Here’s the Windows Server 2012 licensing at a glance:

*CALs are required for every user or device accessing a server. See the Product Use Rights for details.

Why a streamlined licensing model for core infrastructure? In short, this new model enables easier assessment and management of your server environment.  For one thing, a single licensing model makes it easier for you to purchase the right product for your organization’s needs and also compare the cost of alternatives.  Another plus is that it allows for a single, familiar and easy-to-track metric for all infrastructure products (reducing management overhead).   Finally, as part of the alignment with the Microsoft private cloud licensing model, Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012, as well as Enrollment for Core Infrastructure (ECI), now all have the same licensing and packaging structure.  Simple and convenient, right?

Choosing Between the Windows Server 2012 Standard and Datacenter Editions

Obviously, the Foundation and Essentials editions are for small business.  If you are a mid-size business or a large enterprise, like the majority of AISN customers, your choice lies between Standard and Datacenter.  When it comes to determining which of the two editions is best for your enterprise, there are only two words to keep in mind: virtualization rights.

Both the Standard and Datacenter editions provide the same set of features (including high availability features like failover clustering).  The only differentiator between the editions is the number of Virtual Machines (VMs) being used.  If your strategy calls for a highly virtualized environment, then the Datacenter edition provides you with optimum flexibility, since it allows for unlimited virtualization.  If you aren’t ready to heavily virtualize your environment, a Standard edition license entitles you to run up to two VMs on up to two processors.

Calculating Your Windows Server 2012 License Needs

So, how do you decide how many licenses you’ll need? Good question.  Because the Datacenter edition allows for an unlimited number of VMs, only physical processors need to be counted when determining licenses for the Standard edition.  Here’s a quick formula:

1 license = 2 physical processors

To determine the number of licenses needed to fully license a physical server, simply count the number of physical processors in the server and divide that number by two.  That will tell you the number of licenses you need.

Each Standard edition license provides you with the right to run up to two VMs.  If you want to run additional VMs but do not require the highly virtualized environment that Datacenter provides (which is unlimited VMs), then you can simply purchase additional Standard edition licenses and assign them to a single physical server in order to increase your VM entitlements on that server.

Now for the nitty gritty.  What activities are NOT allowed under theWindows Server 2012 licensing?  You cannot:

  • Mix Windows Server 2012 Standard and Datacenter licenses on the same server.  All of the processors on a given server must be licensed with the same version and edition.
  • Split your Windows Server 2012 license across multiple servers.  Each license can only be assigned to a single physical server.
  • Assign a Windows Server 2012 license to a virtual machine.  A license is assigned to the physical server and each license will cover up to two physical processors.
  • Use your Windows Server 2008 CAL to access Windows Server 2012. The CAL accessing the instance of Windows Server must be equivalent to or higher in version than the server being accessed.

Factoring in Software Assurance

A number of enterprise customers will be concerned about how Software Assurance will work with Windows Server 2012.  Here are some scenarios.

Software Assurance and the Datacenter Edition. If you have Software Assurance on the Datacenter edition, you are entitled to the Windows Server 2012 Datacenter edition.  On the old version, a Datacenter license covered up to 1 processor.  With Windows 2012, a Datacenter license covers up to 2 processors.  So, for every two current Datacenter licenses with Software Assurance, you will receive one Windows Server 2012 Datacenter edition license.

Software Assurance and the Enterprise Edition. If you have Software Assurance on the Enterprise edition, you’re entitled to receive two Standard edition licenses for each Enterprise edition license that you have.

Software Assurance and the Standard Edition. If you have Software Assurance on the Standard edition, you’re entitled to receive one Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license for each Standard edition license that you already have.

Software Assurance and the Web Server Edition. If you have Software Assurance on the Web Server edition, you’ll receive an additional Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license to use while also maintaining your right to run your current Web Server license.  For every two Windows 2008 R2 Web Server edition licenses, you’ll receive one Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license.

What if I want to upgrade to the Datacenter edition? Remember that the Step-Ups from the Enterprise edition to the Datacenter edition are being removed from the price lists.  Therefore, if you’ve decided to move to a more highly virtualized or private cloud environment, you should consider taking advantage of the Software Assurance Step-Up benefit to upgrade to the Datacenter edition prior to the Windows Server 2012 General Availability.

Purchasing Windows Server 2012 Licensing

Okay, now how do you get going?

You can purchase Windows Server 2012 licenses through multiple channels, which provides you with optimum flexibility and choice to acquire the software.  Microsoft Hosting Partners like AIS Network are an excellent resource in evaluating your Windows Server 2012 licensing needs.  We can help you evaluate, plan, deploy, and manage any type of hosted system—from a small business implementation to supporting the largest enterprise applications built on the latest technology.

At AISN, we recommend Service Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA) licensing (as opposed to other volume licensing), based on ease of deployment.   How does it work?  AISN tracks and manages the licensing for you.  We provide a monthly subscription-based pricing plan, including software assurance.  This eliminates any large, upfront costs needed to purchase the right amount of licensing as well as the over-purchasing of unused licenses.  However, if you own volume licensing we can utilize those licenses in our hosted environments.

Why so many options for licensing?  The various licensing options enable you to choose the program that works best for your management and operational needs.  We’d be happy to discuss with you in more detail all of your options and how they can be delivered via a custom hosted solution.  For a conversation about this and a free quote,  email me now and let me know your needs.

AISN is ready and eager to work with you on all of your hosting needs and on helping to save your business money too.

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Hosted Private Cloud Services to Surpass $24 Billion in 2016

March 1st, 2013
Posted by: admin

 

By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President

Good news from IDC yesterday — at least for those of us engaged in private cloud hosting.

The research group forecasts that worldwide spending on hosted private cloud services will surpass $24 billion in 2016.  Compare that to $5.5 billion spent on such services last year. IDC predicts that spending will rise 64% to $9.1 billion in 2013.

Have a look below at the press release, which also talks about two popular private cloud deployment models:

IDC Forecasts Worldwide Spending on Hosted Private Cloud Services to Surpass $24 Billion in 2016

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., February 28, 2013 – According to a new forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide spending on hosted private cloud (HPC) services – an operational model for deploying computing infrastructure services of many types via a cloud model – will be more than $24 billion in 2016. HPC spending will experience a compound annual growth rate of more than 50% over the 2012-2016 forecast period as companies and IT providers look to cloud in its various forms as a means to transform and make more efficient and scalable the “how” of what they provide to their customers. Along the way, Hosted Private Cloud services will become the backbone of a new set of infrastructure services, transforming existing provider models for IT outsourcing, hosting infrastructure services, and other key IT industries.

At the highest level, there are two types of deployment models for cloud services: public and private. Public cloud services are designed for a market and are open to a largely unrestricted universe of potential users who share the services. Private cloud services are designed for a single enterprise and have user-defined and controlled restrictions on access and level of resource dedication.

Hosted private cloud is a composite view of two private cloud services deployment models, both of which offer customers and providers very different choices about resource dedication, tenancy cost, user access/control of the computing asset, and real and perceived security structures in place. The two HPC deployment models are:

  • Dedicated Private Cloud: This model offers dedicated 1:1 physical compute and storage resources focused on the needs of one enterprise or extended enterprise. This model offers the greatest customer control over their contracted resource. Examples of dedicated private cloud service offerings include Amazon EC2 Dedicated Instances, IBM SmartCloud Enterprise, Savvis Symphony Dedicated, and Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition.
  • Virtual Private Cloud: This model is an adjunct of public cloud services with shared virtualized resources and a range of customer control and security options distinct from most public cloud services. Examples of virtual private cloud service offerings include Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), IBM SmartCloud Enterprise Plus, Savvis Symphony VPDC/Open, and Rackspace RackConnect.

“IDC anticipates that virtual private cloud will be the predominant operational model for companies wanting to take advantage of the speed and lower capital costs associated with cloud computing while cloud service providers will welcome the move away from the expense of dedicated 1:1 physical systems for delivering their business process and datacenter outsourcing and other services,” said Robert Mahowald, Research Vice President, SaaS and Cloud Services.

Virtual private cloud is expected to make steady gains in part because of its similarity to public cloud, particularly public Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), which many IT buyers are already using as a cost-saving alternative to replacing aging infrastructure. As more companies evaluate their Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) options, the need to centralize the management of all cloud-sourced capabilities will become apparent. Meanwhile, the majority of dedicated private cloud buyers will be those companies with existing IS outsourcing or hosted infrastructure services contracts. Potential buyers of dedicated private cloud services will place a premium on off-loading the asset management burden and on operational reliability, over and above other cloud features such as scalability, granular billing, and customer self-service.

When dedicated private cloud grows, the winners are likely to be large incumbent packaged software providers and equipment providers, global systems integrators, professional services firms, and telecommunications service providers. These providers are working mightily to build single-vendor stacks, providing all the underlying components from bare metal to “trusted partner applications.” But if virtual private cloud becomes the dominant provider-based model, as IDC expects, it will be more like a public cloud model with mostly standardized, virtually dedicated assets, which means a vastly different set of vendors will benefit.

“Not even the largest technology incumbents can sustain IT market leadership without achieving leadership in cloud services. Quite simply, vendor failure in cloud services will mean stagnation,” added Mahowald. “Vendors need to be doing everything they can – today – to develop a full range of competitive cloud offerings and operating models optimized around those offerings.”

The IDC study, Worldwide Hosted Private Cloud Services 2012-2016 Forecast: New Models for Delivering Infrastructure Services (Doc #238689), examines the hosted private cloud services market, composed of dedicated private cloud services and virtual private cloud services. The study includes a detailed discussion of the overall cloud services market and how public and private cloud services are distinguished from one another, as well as revenues for 2011 and a five-year growth forecast for 2012-2016.

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Is the Big Data Market Growing by Billions? You Bet!

January 28th, 2013
Posted by: admin

 

By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President

Big data, big data, big data.  It may sound like an overused buzzword of the day, but it’s an incredibly important phenomenon that will have a lasting impact well into the future as large enterprises – particularly health care, banking, retail and educational organizations – focus their operations around developing more sophisticated big data tools and technologies to collect, manage and analyze large information sets.

Goodbye, filing cabinets. Online storage is a convenient, collaborative and flexible solution to creating and managing a centralized, secure data store.

Big data is a fast growing market, and it has enormous potential to transform your organization (as it simultaneously transforms your customers, partners and competitors).  Just how big is the big data market?  Well, according to a recent report by Transparency Market Research, the global big data market was worth around $6.3 billion last year.  The projections are staggering, however.   Projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of about 41 percent, the big data market will be worth $48.3 billion by 2018.  The research firm said that North America will be responsible for roughly 55 percent of the market through 2018, followed by Europe.

What is driving this market growth?  Well, mostly, unstructured data.  Conventional database management tools just don’t cut it when it comes to unstructured data, so better tools are required.  “The exponential growth in the quantum of big data is leading to the development of advanced technology and tools that can manage and analyze this data,” confirms Transparency Market Research.

IDC industry research also supports the healthy growth of big data.   IDC projects that the global market for big data technology and services will expand at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 32 percent between 2012 and 2016.  Roughly speaking, that’s seven times faster than the information and communication technology market.  IDC indicates that by 2016, we can expect to see revenue from the big data sector near $24 billion.

Unquestionably, big data is not just the trend of the moment.  It’s here to stay.  Companies will continue to capture, analyze and store enormous volumes of data.  According to The McKinsey Quarterly, “In 15 of the U.S. economy’s 17 sectors, companies with more than 1,000 employees store, on average, over 235 terabytes of data—more data than is contained in the U.S. Library of Congress.”

It’s becoming increasingly clear that businesses that succeed in managing these enormous information sets, while grasping fully how to find value in them, will improve their ability to make strategic decisions and enhance their customer service.  That’s a likely recipe for more business expansion and revenue growth.

So, what does this mean for the hosting industry and AIS Network?

The big data technology and services industry represents a global opportunity for companies like ours, not to mention job seekers with the right industry domain expertise.  Increasingly, the spotlight will be on the hosting industry’s ability to host these new database technologies successfully and provide secure, reliable, easy-to-use online storage for massive amounts of data – much of it quite sensitive.

Because most of our clients have stringent security and compliance requirements tied to SOX, PCI, HIPAA and FISMA, they use our online storage for their big data needs.  Rather than choosing to store their data on physical, local storage devices, most have opted to store it to a secure, remote database in the cloud that may be accessed via the Internet.

Cloud storage is rapidly becoming the go-to solution for managing and analyzing big data.  It eliminates the need for unsecure physical storage devices and allows authorized employees, partners and vendors ready access to the data.  It’s a convenient, collaborative and flexible solution to creating and managing a centralized, secure data store.   Let us know if you’d like to learn more about online storage.

Are you interested in learning more about big data technologies and tools?  Check out this conference, Big Data DevCon, which is scheduled to take place in Boston this spring.

Happy data crunching!

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Bob McDonnell, Virginia’s Governor, Calls for 4% Reduction in Agency Budget

December 6th, 2012
Posted by: Donna Hemmert

By Donna Hemmert
AIS Network Vice President, Strategic Development

AIS Network is a proud provider to the Commonwealth of Virginia and its agencies and so we are always concerned where our customers are concerned.  We know the pressure many of the Virginia agencies are under to provide top-of-the-line IT services so recently when Bob McDonnell, Virginia’s governor, called for a 4% reduction in agency budgets, we knew our eGov customers would be looking to us to collaborate on ideas.

Luckily, there are strategies in IT that definitely allow you to cut costs without cutting service.   The place where most organizations have recently found savings is by moving to the Cloud and a Software as a Service (SaaS) model.  According the KPGM, the Cloud/SaaS market has been growing for this very reason – cost savings.  SaaS pricing is helping organizations do more IT with less money.

With this model, you really are focusing your IT budget on resources, as opposed to hardware or software.  The benefit is that you can purchase the exact resources you need (processing, storage, memory) and upgrade them quickly as required.  This eliminates planning around hardware including the expensive hardware replacement cycle.

An additional benefit of Cloud and the SaaS model is that the ability to apply temporary IT resources becomes very easy and is no longer nearly as costly.  This can be beneficial if you have a temporary project, such as a website around a promotion or project, or in the case of software development where developers really appreciate the flexibility of quickly deploying virtual machines as needed.

Because in the cloud, the cloud provider does all your support, maintenance, and performs any emergency support, man-hours are reduced and the need for around-the-clock staff is reduced.  This is especially relevant in the case of mission-critical applications where the servers need to be working around the clock.

So, if you want to save money while still delivering top-level service, consider the  Cloud and SaaS.  And, as always, we are here to answer any questions.

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Understanding Cloud Deployment Models

November 27th, 2012
Posted by: Donna Hemmert

By Donna Hemmert
AIS Network Vice President, Strategic Development

Public Cloud, Private Cloud or Hybrid Cloud?  Which one is for me?

First of all, let’s define the Cloud.  A Cloud is a consolidation of hosted computer services (storage, computing power) and is delivered as a service.

Cloud services are often fully managed by the provider and are usually sold based on usage (for example, per hour or even by the minute). One of the main benefits of the Cloud is that it is elastic, allowing organizations to use as much resources as they need.  They can easily add or reduce those services without the need to deploy equipment.  This can be really useful in situations where companies have a project (for example, a development project or marketing promotion that requires a special new temporary website) or their business has a lot of associated seasonality (i.e., they need more computing resources for the Christmas season).  In that case, a company can call a company such as AISN and simply request another “virtual machine” or more storage.

Many of our customers like the cloud model also since they don’t have to put out upfront capital for equipment and software, but instead can pay a set amount each month.  It’s more predictable and it is captured as an operational expense, which can be beneficial.

As for the deployment models, here are the main types of Cloud:

  • Public Cloud is a cloud that is available to all customers and these customers share the resources of the cloud.  Examples of public clouds are Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure  and Google Cloud.
  • Private Cloud allocates resources to be used solely by your organization from a shared infrastructure.  Your data is stored in dedicated, segregated silos.  With Private Cloud, adding more storage or CPU is easy and often instantly available.
  • Dedicated Private Cloud is a cloud infrastructure built solely for your organization’s use – with all services and hardware dedicated to your organization.  Some organizations prefer dedicated private cloud for additional security but the down side is that there are reduced economies of scale. That being said, adding and reducing computing resources is much easier to do as with any cloud.
  • Community Cloud shares infrastructure between several organizations from a specific community with common concerns (security, compliance, jurisdiction, etc.).  This allows the community to customize the cloud based on these concerns and spread the cost – making it generally more cost effective than a private cloud, but less so than a public cloud.
  • Hybrid Cloud is a combination of more than one cloud type.  For example, you can combine a private cloud with a public cloud.  This will give you benefits of more than one deployment model.  Often an organization will deploy hybrid clouds to provide the flexibility of in-house applications with the fault tolerance and scalability of cloud-based services.

 

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Cloud Events: Where Can I Find Them?

November 8th, 2012
Posted by: Donna Hemmert

By Donna Hemmert
AIS Network Vice President, Strategic Development

If you are looking for events at which to network and learn more about the Cloud and related topics, whether you are a newbie or an expert, there is an excellent source to find (and broadcast) those events.  Check out Cloud Events (sponsored by @TheCloudNetwork), who hosts a calendar for the industry.   They gather events from the community through email here.

You can find their calendar here.

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The Datacenter Tiers – What Are They?

October 20th, 2012
Posted by: Donna Hemmert

By Donna Hemmert
AIS Network Vice President, Strategic Development

We’ve heard from some of our clients recently that there is some confusion about what the hosting tiers are and why they matter.  Well, we’d love to shed some light.

So, why are there tiers at all? The tiers help people understand the capabilities of a datacenter by describing the availability of data from the hardware at the datacenter. The Tiers are the requirements for “each level” of data center infrastructure. Overall, the higher the tier, the greater the availability.

Tier One

  • Basic site infrastructure with expected availability of 99.671%
  • Single non-redundant distribution path with non-redundant capacity components
  • Planned work and outages will require most or all of the site to be shut down

Tier Two

  • Meets or exceeds all Tier 1 requirements
  • Redundant site infrastructure capacity and single, non-redundant distribution path with expected availability of 99.741%

Tier Three

  • Meets or exceeds all Tier 1 and Tier 2 requirements
  • Concurrently maintainable site infrastructure with expected availability of 99.982%
  • Multiple independent distribution paths, but only one path required
  • Equipment is dual-powered & fully compatible with the topology of site’s architecture

Tier Four

  • Meets or exceeds all Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 requirements
  • Fault-tolerant site infrastructure with electrical power storage and distribution facilities with expected availability of 99.995%
  • Fault-tolerant with multiple, independent, physically isolated systems that provide redundant capacity components and multiple, independent, diverse, active distribution paths simultaneously serving the computer equipment.  Independently powered Cooling and power provided after infrastructure failure.

I hope that answers some of  your questions.  Feel free to comment with questions.

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Cloud Computing Benefits for Accounting Firms

August 19th, 2012
Posted by: Julia Uglietta


By Julia Uglietta
Associate, Marketing and Sales

Accounting firms deal with data day in and day out. The volume of numbers that go through an accounting office each day is unimaginable. The number of emails that go in and out of the offices is inundating.

It’s not only the size issue that challenges accounting offices every day.  Rather, it’s also the need to work faster while remaining efficient – in addition to improving better client and interoffice communications. These goals sound fairly standard for a successful business, right?  But in fields such as accounting, where large amounts of data are being received and stored, achieving these goals can be onerous.  The good news is, however, that new technology known as cloud computing is helping accounting firms attain these goals and save money too.

AIS Network accounting

Taking business to the cloud allows accountants to work from anywhere, at any time.

Taking accounting firms to the cloud is a way to reduce costs, improve efficiency and make data more accessible.  Throughout the industry, the discussions about cloud computing and how many accounting practices are moving to an outsourced cloud computing model has people thinking.  Accountants can see clearly that cloud computing is moving up and moving fast.  Now, more firms are looking into cloud solutions before they buy that next new sever.  They’re performing a cost benefit analysis, and in the process, they’re discovering that the operational expenditure associated with implementing an outsourced model is more desirable than the large capital expenditure associated with buying and maintaining all those new servers.

Not only does migrating to a cloud-based, paperless environment cut costs for accounting firms, but it also introduces new efficiencies.  When you put your data and applications in the cloud and entrust a cloud provider to care for them round-the-clock, you’re achieving IT efficiencies such as:

  • Eliminating the need for physical storage (throw out those old filing cabinets!)
  • Upgrading to industrial strength physical security (including partial or full fault tolerance, fire protection, etc.)
  • Improving backup and disaster recovery processes
  • Enhancing data security
  • Increasing availability (through improved power redundancy,  etc.)
  • Extending IT resources with a 24x7x365 team of hosting experts

For many accounting firms, this makes the decision to switch to the cloud even easier.

The most brilliant feature of the cloud is, in my opinion, its “anywhere” accessibility – which is an aspect that most accounting firms will find appealing.  When your data and your applications are in the cloud, they are accessible via any Internet-enabled device whenever you need them and wherever you are.  It just makes life easier.  Allowing the staff to work faster (and, I might add, without necessarily increasing billable rates) allows them more time to focus on the clients’ needs.

Most customers prefer communicating with their accountant via the Internet, and in many ways, the new cloud-based dashboards, reporting applications and unified communications systems that are now available only make this easier.  By enabling better collaboration and communication among geographically diverse staff and clients, accounting firms’ processes and workflows are vastly improved and the work gets done much faster – often with greatly reduced travel costs.

Life in the cloud has changed many industries’ ways of operating.  Slowly but surely, accounting firms will ease into cloud computing and reap benefits that were previously unachievable any other way.

 

 

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SharePoint 2010 Hosting vs. In-House Deployments? What Is the Cost Benefit?

August 13th, 2012
Posted by: admin

 

By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President

SharePoint managers everywhere are asking themselves, “Why should I spend money on SharePoint servers?”

Well, with on-premise IT costs soaring, they’re absolutely justified in asking that question.  On-premise hosting has become much less cost effective than outsourced hosting.  Quite simply, hosting SharePoint 2010 with an experienced hosting provider saves you money and worry.

Sharepoint Hosting

It's important to ask yourself a few key questions when you're weighing moving your SharePoint from an on-premise environment to an outsourced hosting environment.

In belt-tightening times, the combined expense of SharePoint 2010 servers, technical staff and data security can be painful to a company. Why have the IT staff spend half their day fixing, patching and managing SharePoint servers, when they could utilize their time in better ways to help grow the company?  Hosted SharePoint, which typically comes with a team of SharePoint hosting experts, is simply “better, faster and cheaper.” What’s not to like about that?

That’s my opinion, anyway, but how do you decide for yourself?  Well, ask yourself a few questions first.

  1. Capital. How much up-front capital is required to deploy and maintain your SharePoint infrastructure? How much does it cost you to upgrade it on a regular basis?  (After you figure this out, the predictable monthly costs of hosting may be highly appealing.)
  2. Agility and flexibility. Can you adapt to change quickly?  Can you move rapidly to deploy new features of your SharePoint infrastructure and/or make changes (we’re talking days, not weeks or months)?
  3. Maintenance. Do you have adequate resources to maintain your SharePoint installation?  Are you comfortably budgeted for staff and training?  Do you have a cushion for unanticipated expenses?  Do you have enough real estate in your data center to accommodate your growing SharePoint infrastructure?
  4. Confidence. Can you say, confidently, that your data center is physically secure, disaster resilient, fully compliant, highly available and capable of providing superior uptime?  Can it withstand a destructive storm?
  5. Expertise.  Do you have highly trained staff who can build out, configure, deploy and administer your infrastructure?

With fully managed SharePoint hosting services, you’ll never again have to buy another SharePoint server and figure out where to locate it in-house. You’ll never have to hassle with a flawed SharePoint deployment or wait months to deploy new features.  You’ll never have to deploy, patch, update, troubleshoot, monitor or administer your SharePoint infrastructure again. You’ll never have to shell out big bucks for storage or staff training.  Moreover, licensing is so much easier when you’re working with a hosting provider.  And, it’s highly unlikely that you will have to worry about bad storms, physical security, performance and reliability.

Most of all, however, doing it all in-house can be cost-prohibitive.  Hosted SharePoint can be a much cheaper alternative.

For example,our SharePoint hosting plans can help you get off the SharePoint-spending treadmill and save you up to 91% in hardware and support costs when compared to in-house SharePoint deployment.  Have a look at this brief chart.

SharePoint 2010: Hosting vs. In-House?

A Comparison of Major SharePoint Hardware & Support Costs. 

Hosting With AISN Slashes Your Hardware and Support Costs Significantly.


Hosted Solution On Premise
SharePoint Deployment SharePoint Deployment
Hardware Servers (each) Included ! $15,000
Software Included ! $5,000
Backup Included ! $5,000
Connection Multi – Gigabit Internet Included ! $25,000
Staff Expert Staff Included ! $75,000
Support Redundant Equipment Included ! $ ? ? ? ?
Monitoring Included ! $ ? ? ? ?
Total One Low Monthly Cost! $125,000 or more

Now, need help comparing your costs?  Bill Peters, who is in our Chicago office, is great to work with and can offer you expert guidance in this area.  Contact him now for a free hosted SharePoint quote.

Further information about hosted SharePoint is also available in our whitepaper.

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IT Outsourcing Services Spending to Top $251 Billion Globally in 2012

August 9th, 2012
Posted by: admin

 

By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President

In their latest outlook issued just two days ago, Gartner, Inc., says that worldwide spending for IT outsourcing (ITO) services is on track to reach $251.7 billion in 2012, up 2.1 percent increase from 2011 spending of $246.6 billion.

Not surprisingly, the industry analyst firm reports that the fastest-growing segment within the ITO market is cloud compute services (part of the cloud-based infrastructure as a service/IaaS segment). Cloud compute services are expected to grow 48.7 percent in 2012 to $5.0 billion, up from $3.4 billion in 2011.

Gartner expects that North American buyers will seek to transition more IT work to annuity-managed service relationships for cost take-out and IT costs. This will keep ITO growing through 2016. Enterprises’ reluctance to hire or make large capital purchases, as well as their pursuit of asset-light IT strategies, continues to push clients toward consuming externally provided services, the firm says.

According to the Gartner press release, which addressed the global outlook:

“Today, cloud compute services primarily provide automation of basic functions. As next-generation business applications come to market and existing applications are migrated to use automated operations and monitoring, increased value in terms of service consistency, agility and personnel reduction will be delivered”, said Gregor Petri, research director at Gartner.

“Continued privacy and compliance concerns may however negatively impact growth in some regions, especially if providers are slow in bringing localized solutions to market.”

Data center outsourcing (DCO), a mature segment of the ITO market, represented 34.5 percent of the market in 2011, but growth will decline 1 percent in 2012. “The data center outsourcing market is at a major tipping point, where various data center processing systems will gradually be replaced by new delivery models through 2016. These new services enable providers to address new categories of clients, extending DCO from traditional large organizations into small or midsize businesses,” said Bryan Britz, research director at Gartner.

The application outsourcing (AO) segment is expected to reach $40.7 billion, a 2 percent increase from 2011 spending of $39.9 billion. This growth reflects enterprises’ needs to manage extensive legacy application environments and their commercial off-the-shelf packages that run the business.

“Change is afoot in the AO market. The burdens of managing the legacy portfolio, along with the limitations of IT budgets, have shifted the enterprise buyers to be cautious and favor a more evolutionary approach to other application services, such as software as a service (SaaS),” said Britz. “New applications will largely be packaged and/or SaaS-deployed in order to extend and modernize the portfolio in an incremental manner. While custom applications will remain ‘core’ for many organizations, the trend in the next few years to SaaS enablement in the cloud will reflect in the growth of the AO outlook.”

You can find additional information in the report, “Forecast Analysis: IT Outsourcing, Worldwide, 2010-2016, 2Q12 Update,” which is available on Gartner’s website.

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