CLOUD8: Microsoft Azure services in Cyprus at CL8 - Azure Stack HCI

Public Cloud, Local Data Centers and on-premises IT

Enterprises  now have the choice not to buy and manage their own IT infrastructure  and outsource to the Cloud and Private Data Centers. Enterprises move to  Private Data Centers and to the Cloud because they can’t scale inside  their own data center and some still don’t have a Disaster Recovery (DR)  plan.

The cloud benefits are very important and necessary;  technology, financials, business, scalability, seasonality, technology  on-demand, time to market and off course lower costs.

Businesses  can enjoy the benefits such as simpler maintenance and improved  scalability, by combining local data center services with worldwide  cloud leaders.

The optimum is to engage both, depending of course on the business and technical needs.

Our Value Proposition: Extent your local Data Center Infrastructure to the Public Cloud

Businesses  may need local presence for a number of reasons. There are regulatory  and compliance reason depending on the type of Industry you are in. It  may be a must to have IT presence in the country to be compliant. Those  who need presence in the EU may be based in Cyprus due to attractive  taxation and the country’s standard of living, low crime and  geographical position; between Asia, Africa, the Middle East and EU off  course.

Utilizing a local data center which can extend to the  public cloud in a unified, high available and secure architecture is a  great advantage for the following reasons:

• Local Presence, complete potential skill gaps with a personalized approach;

• Point-to-point connections, member of the local internet network, no dependency on international Internet;

• Guaranteed network latency at local network levels;

• Flexibility: Colocation and Bare-Metal;

• Easier to control costs;

• DR office available. Designated office to work;

Combining the above benefits of a local data center with the public cloud increases the benefits even further by offering:

• Global presence;

• Economies of scale;

• Rich product offerings;

• Unlimited scalability;

Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

The  hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is the preferred way to deploy  servers in the data center and the preferred way to lower costs, improve  performance and availability, and simplify operations. In short, HCI is  a software-defined, unified system that combines all the elements of a  traditional data center: storage, compute, networking and management.  With HCI you can Build a private cloud, Extend to the public cloud and  build a hybrid cloud!

Microsoft has recently announced the new  Azure Stack HCI – a hyperconverged infrastructure host operating system  delivered as an Azure service, seamlessly connecting to Azure public  cloud.

You can run Windows and Linux virtual machines (VMs) in the  data center or at the edge using existing tools, processes, and skill  sets. It consists of between 2 and 16 physical and validated servers  running a specialized operating system purposely defined for  hyperconverged infrastructure. You can then extend your data center to  the cloud with Azure Backup, Azure Monitor, and Azure Security Center.

Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/overview

There  are many use cases for Azure Stack HCI and the most popular are: Data  center consolidation and modernization, Virtual desktop infrastructure  (VDI), Highly performant SQL Server, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS),  Disaster recovery for virtualized workloads and Scale-out storage.

Who are we?

Cloudlayer8  (CL8) is the only carrier neutral, state of the art Tier III Data  Center in Cyprus offering cutting-edge Data Center services, Cloud and  Managed services. The company’s mission is to provide secure, scalable  and highly available Data Center services to business whose Information  Technology is critical to their business success.

Why CL8?

CL8  can be the business strategic partner in Digital Transformation. Our  unique capabilities to offer technology as-a-service elevate our  deliverable to the top. We offer the technology transformation building  block at a reasonable cost justifying the investment.

The CL8  Cloud can enable you to support your business 24-hour and engage with  your customers, adapt to demand and unexpected circumstances in real  time. CL8 Unified Public Cloud Architecture enables businesses to  utilize Office 365 and Azure offerings like IoT, Big Data from a single  provider. Work from home, mobility, collaboration and teamwork are the  building foundations of digital transformation and CL8 is in the unique  position to offer them being located in Cyprus, avoiding the need to use  international internet, when not needed.

Our challenger mindset  drives our customer transformation engagements. We actively listen,  study the business needs, and “challenge” the decision makers to  evaluate new ideas, from different points of view, because we understand  their business and technology.

Cloud computing is a service, not a  tangible item; so we guarantee our services and support with money back  guaranteed Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to ensure our customers of  our dedicated services.

Feel free to contact me any time to discuss your cloud and data center modernization at +357 25 022900 or email me at tt@cl8.com

Theodosis Theodosiou

Business Development Manager