The hybrid Cloud is seen by many as the obvious long term solution for most business users – where some applications run in the public Cloud and some in more secure, and more expensive, private Cloud environment. Businesses making the transition to this, however, face a real pain point, identifying the dividing line between which applications and services are suitable for use in a public Cloud , and which are best suited to operating in a private Cloud environment.
What is more the arrival of Microsoft’s Office 365, capable of delivering the functionality of the ubiquitous Office suite via the Cloud with real cost savings, has turned that decision into a `here and now’ problem for many business users.
Microsoft is aware of the potential to lose business for Office 365 if users struggle with, and decided to back away from, the work needed to find that dividing line. So it has decided to work together with Fujitsu on providing a solution built on the latter’s Virtual Client Services offering.
This is a comprehensive set of modelling tools that can identify the interactions between business processes, the applications used to provide them, the users’ roles, the locations they are working in, the security and compliance issues involved and a wide range of other factors. Using it allows Fujitsu to help clients identify which applications and services are the most critical, which provide the least value, what the operating costs are and a range of other variables that contribute to their real value to the business.
Using this, Fujitsi has been able to pull together a packaged service aimed specifically at enterprise Microsoft Office users looking to move to Office 365, but with legitimate concerns about using it for the entirety of its needs. Known as the Productivity Suite, it is a tailored Cloud solution that delivers Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Lync in a way that enables enterprises and government bodies to benefit from the advantages of a Cloud-based approach, while addressing concerns around control, customisation and security.
According to Tina Quenault director of Cloud Services, Fujitsu UK and Ireland, the balance being aimed at here is that Microsoft is aware it runs the risk of losing potential business because it is a public Cloud . There will be businesses that would like the benefits of using Office 365 and getting the cost savings, but feel they cannot because some of their business processes require a level of security or isolation that is not possible – or at least not seen as possible – with a public Cloud environment. By the same token, however, the costs of putting all the Microsoft Office applications used by a business into a private Cloud is seen as both a technical overkill and a limited cost advantage, if it generates any savings at all.
In the private Cloud environment Fujitsu can also offer a range of additional services, such as options for archiving and full disaster recovery as well as levels of security which can be accredited by the Communications Electronics Security Group (CESG), the U.K.’s national technology authority for software assurance. This is often used by businesses to demonstrate compliance with specific security policies that may apply to organisations or government bodies.
