RES HyperDrive changes all this. It solves the problems other storage and file-sharing platforms struggle with. RES HyperDrive is a solution with the potential to make the way you do business quicker, easier and more secure.

File-sharing problems

Dropbox is the platform people often refer to when talking about web-based storage and file sharing. It allows you to share data and synchronise updates across the world using any device with an internet connection. It lacks the key features of business IT, however: security and control.

Instead of Dropbox, some businesses use shared network drives. These are fine for storage but poor for collaborative work. They don’t have mobile device access or the ability to share data externally.

Other companies opt for document management systems. These are costly to run. They also don’t have the flexibility many businesses need to stay ahead in their industries.

The RES HyperDrive solution

RES HyperDrive is a new product. It starts with the concept of web-based storage and file sharing. To this it adds everything you need from a secure, easily-controlled platform.

With RES HyperDrive, you get:

• A private cloud under your control.

• Support for your current storage infrastructure.

• Local data encryption for compliance and security.

• Remote data wiping. If someone loses a mobile device, you can remove your data from it.

• Flexibility. This fits in perfectly with BYOD.

• A high value virtual appliance. You take out a monthly licensing agreement on a per-user basis. You pay for what you use, and no more.

• Free read-only access to your data for suppliers and customers.

• Integration with Outlook so you can attach large files. You can ensure file-sharing traffic doesn’t overload your current Internet line.

Access data securely anywhere

RES HyperDrive lets you access data anywhere with any device. You can use Windows Explorer, Mac Finder or a browser. If you have a tablet or phone, RES HyperDrive is compatible with Android, Windows, BlackBerry and Apple’s iOS.

Discover how RES HyperDrive can give you the security, control and flexibility you need from a storage and file-sharing app. Contact LETN.

The advantages of Dropbox

Imagine you have a file you want to share with a group of people in various locations. You can post it to Dropbox and send it straight to your groups’ folders.

Each member of the group can view the file on a PC, laptop, tablet or mobile phone. They can use operating systems such as Windows, Mac, Android or Apple’s iOS. Or they can access Dropbox by simply connecting to the web no matter what device they have.

This simple principle allows you to collaborate with customers, suppliers and colleagues, wherever they are. What’s more, people can revise your file and send the latest version to everyone in the group.

The drawbacks

As you read this, you may well be making a note of the drawbacks of such file storage and sharing. Your concerns may include lack of security, uncertain audit trail, unknown storage point, and poor control of your data’s whereabouts. You may even have wondered about bandwidth consumption.

None of these issues challenge the basic idea behind Dropbox. But they pose challenges you have to overcome to make a storage and file-sharing platform a viable business tool. For example:

• To comply with audit policy and commercial agreements, you may need to encrypt your data before you share it. With Dropbox, you cannot control encryption.

• To allow sensitive data to go to diverse uncontrolled devices in any location, as you can with Dropbox, carries a serious risk. If someone loses a device, you may put your business in jeopardy.

• The frequent flow of data to and from Dropbox accounts could clog your internet line. You may not have the bandwidth to cope. Your other web-based services may suffer as a result.

Resolution

RES HyperDrive has addressed these problems. It is an easy-to-install private cloud platform for file sharing and storage. It builds on the principles established by services such as Dropbox but with added central control.

For instance, you can:

• Encrypt files
• Retain storage
• Remotely wipe data on lost devices
• Send large files without blocking your internet traffic

RES HyperDrive combines the principle of file sharing and storage with practical solutions for business users. It allows you to make the rules.

This is file storage and sharing which takes itself seriously.

HP 3PAR Thin technology enables you to reduce costs, cut back on administration, and use fewer disks.

This approach to data storage employs Thin Built-In hardware architecture. The HP 3PAR Thin Suite software within the architecture includes:

• HP 3PAR Thin Persistence. When you delete stored items, Thin Persistence software claims back the space. You make the best use of available storage.
• HP 3PAR Thin Conversion. This software converts ordinary storage into Thin storage quickly and simply. It cuts your need for storage capacity by up to 75%.
• HP 3PAR Thin Provisioning. With Thin Provisioning, you reduce the cost of your storage area network (SAN), and bring your energy bills down by up to 75%. You also need less storage hardware.

By switching to HP 3PAR Utility Storage and Thin technology, you spend up to 90% less time on administration. You reduce the cost of a storage technology refresh by up to 60%. And when you make these savings, you achieve the best storage ROI you’ve ever had.

Green storage

With HP 3PAR Thin technology, you can have up to 75% less storage capacity for data. Such a reduction has green benefits:

• You need less energy to run and cool your storage hardware because you have fewer discs.
• You don’t need as much space to house HP 3PAR Utility Storage compared to traditional data storage systems.
• When the hardware reaches the end of its life, you have less to recycle. Less recycling gives your business a smaller carbon footprint.

Storage federation

A problem of traditional data storage is the disruption your business suffers when you move data from one storage unit to another. You face downtime for applications, and delays in service delivery.

HP 3PAR Utility Storage avoids this problem. Thin technology is compatible across your system. When you need to move data and workloads, you can do so without affecting services, users or applications. And you can achieve this without extra appliances or layers of management.

Performance, scalability and reliability

HP 3PAR Utility Storage offers unique storage solutions. These help you exceed the operational and budgetary demands of your business.

LETN is an HP preferred partner. Contact LETN now to discuss the benefits of HP 3PAR Utility Storage.

A comparable example, common in business, is the leasing of property. Companies dislike tying up large sums in an office building by purchasing it. In accounting terms, a purchased building is a dead asset.

Rather than buy buildings, companies prefer to lease them. This way, they don’t use vital capital. They also have the option of moving to other premises at a later stage without the problem of selling the original property first.

Another example is vehicle leasing. For a business, a vehicle is not just a “dead” asset; it also depreciates rapidly in value. Leasing is almost always the preferred way for companies to acquire transport.

“Dead” assets and hosted solutions

Investing capital in IT is the equivalent of buying a dead asset. Like vehicles, the asset also depreciates in value.

This depreciation lowers the worth of your ROI. IT performs a vital function in a business. But does it give an effective return on Capex when it loses value and falls behind newer and more-effective technology?

The Opex option helps keep IT up to date

Just as Opex makes more sense for the acquisition of business assets such as buildings and vehicles, so it makes sense for IT. And there’s one additional benefit. By using Opex on a hosted infrastructure solution, you keep IT up to date.

When you buy IT hardware and software outright, you can be sure something better to replace it will appear within a year. If you choose to buy the upgrades or replacements, you’re spending yet more capital. If you don’t, you run the risk of your business falling behind the competition.

With a hosting and infrastructure service, you can receive upgrades and new applications as part of your lease package. The latest IT becomes part of your Opex.

The right infrastructure matters to your business

When it comes to your IT infrastructure, there’s more to Capex and Opex than you might initially think. By using a hosting and infrastructure service provider such as LETN, you cut capital costs and move to an Opex business model. You also give your business a flexible, scalable IT system. You can react to business challenges far more quickly than ever before. And you can possess the edge you need to grow your business and strengthen it.

The costs of this approach are a mix of capital and operational expenditure. The capital expenditure is the cost of the servers plus any set-up fee the rack space company charges. The operational expenditure is the monthly rental fee for the rack space and the bandwidth.

Disadvantages of rack space rental

At first glance, renting rack space may seem attractive. If you don’t have room in your office for servers and their cooling requirements, why not look elsewhere? But renting rack space is a half-measure. It addresses one problem and disregards others:

• You still have to buy your servers. When you do, you need to ask yourself whether the servers will be suitable for your business in a few years’ time. You may well have to find money to replace or upgrade them in the not too distant future.

• The average business uses just 5-15% of server capacity. Moving your server to rented rack space doesn’t solve this problem.

The point is this: if you’re thinking of renting rack space, why not consider renting your servers and infrastructure as well?

Benefits of a hosting and infrastructure service

• When you move to a hosting and infrastructure service, you reduce your capital expenditure. You lease hardware and software instead.

• You don’t have to worry about replacing servers or other related equipment. Your service provider gives you everything you need.

• Hosting and infrastructure service providers employ servers efficiently. Capacity use jumps from 5-15% to around 80%. This keeps leasing costs down.

Additional benefits

A hosting and infrastructure service can also bring other benefits. For example, LETN uses VMware software to create a bespoke virtual environment. Rather than just opting for rented rack space, you can run your own private or hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Such an infrastructure gives you flexibility and scalability. You can meet new business challenges with confidence. And you can ensure your IT keeps pace with business growth.

With an IT hosting and infrastructure service, you go beyond the idea of simply renting rack space for your servers. You outsource your IT infrastructure and give yourself the time to manage your business the way you’ve always envisaged.

If you’d like to know more about whether you should rent rack space or choose a hosted service, contact us.

HP and VMware offer some of the most effective virtualisation solutions. By working together, the two companies have eliminated the teething problems of first-generation hosting and infrastructure services. Their solutions are improving IT around the world.

Cloud performance

In an IDC (International Data Corporation) report, HP VirtualSystem for VMware proved its dominant position in the virtualisation market. It gained the world record for performance in a benchmarking test.

HP VirtualSystem for VMware delivers a complete IT solution. This incorporates management, software, hardware and services. When you employ HP VirtualSystem for VMware, you can:

• Grow your IT with modular components whenever you need to
• Use best-practice reference architectures
• Use a private or hybrid cloud with HP CloudSystem or VMware vCloud

According to another IDC report, you can cut your IT labour costs by up to 86%. You can focus on innovating rather than managing.

The fastest way to virtualised data centres

HP VirtualSystem for VMware is the fastest way to virtualised data centres. It integrates with VMware vSphere 5 and vCentre. This means you cut back on the time and effort needed for IT planning, purchasing and implementation. You speed up the process of acquiring new applications, and help keep your business competitive.

Cutting data storage costs

Archiving, retrieval and security of data are problems for many businesses. Data grows by the day. HP VirtualSystem for VMware helps to cut the expense of acquiring data storage. Clients who use HP VirtualSystem for VMware report reductions as high as 50%.

HP VirtualSystem for VMware also reduces the complexity of managing stored data. Client feedback shows administration costs can fall by up to 90%.

Make IT simpler

Aside from saving time and money, HP VirtualSystem for VMware makes IT simpler. You can spend your time growing your business rather than battling problems with traditional IT.

Contact LETN to find out more about HP VirtualSystem for VMware. LETN is a preferred HP partner with specialist hosting and infrastructure expertise.

You may worry about losing control when you outsource IT. Rest assured: you remain in the driving seat. Talk to your service provider about the level of management control you want. The provider can arrange exactly what you ask for.

Reliability

The reliability of a hosting and infrastructure service is certain to be better than a traditional in-house system. The latter suffers from outdated technology and the frequent need for upgrades and fixes. A hosting and infrastructure service uses the latest technology, and takes care of upgrades automatically.

Data security

Data security is an obvious concern for anyone who outsources IT. A hosting and infrastructure service provider can give you full data encryption and other security measures. These include anti-spam, spyware security and anti-virus solutions.

Backup

A hosting and infrastructure service can improve data backup and disaster recovery. You can use hybrid cloud solutions to safeguard your data and applications.

Integration

Traditional infrastructures often date back a number of years. As a result, integration of new hardware and software can prove difficult. Integration of your applications with a hosting and infrastructure service is far easier. Your provider ensures everything matches your specifications.

Performance

Companies using a hosting and infrastructure service see an improvement in IT performance. The service provider filters out the redundant aspects of your previous in-house infrastructure, and gives you a leaner, more efficient system.

Agility

With a traditional infrastructure, you may have to wait weeks before you receive the technology to meet your latest business needs. With a hosting and infrastructure service, you can have this technology within a day.

Scalability

As your business grows, your data increases. With a traditional infrastructure, you have to create space by purchasing new servers or storage hardware. A hosting and infrastructure service can give you the extra storage you need immediately.

Bespoke infrastructure

Traditional infrastructures are static. A hosting and infrastructure service is not a rigid solution. You can adapt it to suit your business. The service provider can build a virtual infrastructure around your requirements.

Complexity

All IT can be complex. This applies to in-house systems and outsourced solutions. The advantage of outsourcing, however, is the chance you have to reduce complexity by using only the IT you need.

Contact us today if you would like to find out how LETN can help your business adopt a hosting and infrastructure service. We can also arrange a free site survey and audit report.

When you choose a hosting and infrastructure service, you adopt a business model based on leasing your IT. With leasing, the temptation is to view what a service offers as pre-packaged commodities such as Office 365. After all, you probably apply the same thinking to other leased items such as company vehicles. But this approach to IT is a mistake.

One of the benefits of the cloud is the way it can help you avoid the limitations of pre-packaged concepts. The cloud is flexible and scalable.

A good hosting and infrastructure service provider listens to your business needs and provides exactly what you request. This could include increased storage when required, upgrades the moment you want them, and the ability to expand IT services across the board and to all locations.

Nothing about your cloud should be pre-packaged. This also extends to helpdesk and managed support services. You should be able to specify the level of support your business needs.

Save money with a bespoke cloud service

Tailoring a service may seem expensive, of course. Traditionally, anything with the word “bespoke” in it suggests quality and high prices.

With the cloud, a bespoke service should certainly deliver high quality. But it doesn’t have to impose high charges. A bespoke cloud service can reduce your IT costs.

These reductions occur because you are leasing a specific IT solution for your business. You can cut back on capital expenditure for hardware and software. Instead, you pay for what you use and no more. The bad old days of costly, under-used servers and redundant infrastructure equipment are in the past.

A bespoke cloud complies with regulations

A further issue in favour of a bespoke cloud service is data privacy and compliance. In 2011, a major defence contractor considered using Office 365. The company eventually decided against the software. The supplier was unable to confirm the company’s data would not leave Europe.

When you use a bespoke cloud service, you specify compliance issues. You receive guarantees of data privacy, and adherence to regulatory frameworks.

A bespoke cloud service can transform your business. Contact LETN and see how the cloud can work for you.

Virtualisation provides an answer to these problems. It can transform storage. In particular, the HP 3PAR Utility Storage family offers you the flexibility and efficiency you need.

Utility storage

Utility storage is a term related to the cloud. It has developed as part of hosting and infrastructure services. It allows users to pay only for the storage they require.

3PAR began as a leading provider of utility storage around the world. HP acquired the company in 2010. HP 3PAR Utility Storage now provides three distinct benefits for your business:

• Reduced capital expenditure
• Reduced operational expenditure
• Better ROI for services and applications

Reduced capital expenditure on storage

HP 3PAR Utility Storage lets you consolidate all your storage needs. You can cut back on your storage infrastructure. At the same time, you can increase storage capacity immediately if you need to.

In effect, you can begin on a small-scale and build your storage as you go along. Furthermore, if your information is mainly in the form of written data, you can buy storage solely for this. You don’t have to pay for unnecessary image and video storage.

Reduced operational expenditure on storage

When businesses adopt hosting and infrastructure services, IT capital expenditure falls and operational expenditure generally increases. HP 3PAR Utility Storage however, can reduce operational expenditure.

It does this by making the best use of storage. It also simplifies storage management. The overall process of storing data becomes cheaper.

Better ROI for services and applications

If you’re in the information business, you need to access stored data quickly and accurately. HP 3PAR Utility Storage provides the tools to enable this.

With HP 3PAR Utility Storage, you can also achieve a better ROI on business services and applications by:

• Ensuring business continuity with fast and economical disaster recovery
• Increasing the availability of storage at short notice
• Improving storage performance by up to six times compared to traditional storage infrastructures
• Allowing easy upgrades, configurations and data migrations
• Accelerating the deployment of new projects

Learn more about the positive impact the HP 3PAR Utility Storage family can have on your business. Contact LETN, a preferred HP partner.

Candidates who’ve done their homework could begin their essays with some pertinent facts:

• Almost three-quarters of IT budgets go on data centre maintenance
• Anyone who works with data spends a quarter of their working lives coping with information overload
• By 2050, the greenhouse gas emissions from data centres will exceed those of the airline industry
• The IT infrastructure of a well-established, large-scale financial business may have 35 programming languages, 30,000 servers, 20,000 databases and 200,000 desktops
• Data centre efficiency runs at an average of 5-15%
• There are more than 4,000 business applications available, some of which are 20 years old

Infrastructure review

Each one of the above issues complicates the job of working out how much IT infrastructure actually costs to run. Candidates should mention the financial impact of each one.

At this point in their essays, candidates should also be fair to businesses. They should say companies are not entirely responsible for the complexity. Infrastructures have become challenging and high-priced because of technological development and business growth. IT managers often struggle to keep up with the demands the modern working environment places on hardware and software functions.

Simplifying and reducing IT infrastructure costs

After the candidates have covered this ground, they should propose solutions. There are three aspects to cost simplification and reduction for an IT infrastructure:

• Making full use of the right technology
• Using technology in an easier, more manageable way
• Spending less on capital-intensive hardware and software, and moving to flexible outsourced contracts

Above all, if a business embraces the third point and uses a hosting and infrastructure service provider, the first two points follow. By outsourcing its IT infrastructure, a business achieves an agile, scalable solution based on the latest and most suitable technology. Costs fall by 50% or more, and cost control improves. Predictable monthly operational expenditure linked to a leasing agreement replaces variable capital expenditure.

The perfect answer

To receive full marks, candidates’ answers to the exam topic should include the points raised here. The next challenge is to opt for a hosting and infrastructure service in the real world. Many businesses have already done so. You could be one of them. LETN, with its VMware and NetApp infrastructure solutions, can provide the help you need.