By Subashini Selvaratnam
Most companies are still taking the “wait and see” approach when it comes to deploying cloud computing in their workplace, according to Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd.
“The companies in most countries including Malaysia are still learning from those who have implemented cloud computing in their workplaces. They are learning the benefits and pitfalls of deploying cloud computing so that they would not make the similar mistakes,” explained its Enterprise Architect for Regional Infrastructure Services and Solutions, William Ho.
He also said the implementation of cloud computing in a workplace varies from country to country, depending on their cultural values, legislation requirements or even the type of industries the companies are operating in.
“Having said that, data security is always the top priority for any companies in any countries because companies are concern about safeguarding their information, at all times,” he said.
“Companies want their data to be secured at all times from data in transit from one point to another to data stored in the data centre or storage devices to protecting data in use during application,” Ho explained
He added that Fujitsu has data centres in Japan, Australia, Britain, Germany, Singapore and the United States of America. All these data centres are connected in the cloud to serve its customers. In the case that disaster occurs in a particular country, customers can still access their services from other data centres via cloud.
NIE implements private cloud
One of Fujitsu’s customers that have implemented private cloud in their workplace is the National Institute of Education (NIE), which is Singapore’s national teacher training institute. The institute wanted to have its own cloud to support its ongoing research projects.
According to Ho the challenge for NIE was that it was looking for a solution that gives them the flexibility in deploying its ICT resources effectively and efficiently.
Every project team is allocated a budget to purchase ICT equipment independently with no leveraging or reusing of equipment. The equipment was returned to the IT department to manage after the project was completed, leaving the IT team with the arduous task of managing an increasing pool of equipment while trying to match the existing hardware inventory to new project requests.
“For the IT department, this resulted in longer turn-around time while the excess equipment and data centre space constraints were creating an internal hardware depot,” he said.
“The institute needed to have its own cloud platform as it would be able to provision computing resources to its researchers quickly. Moreover, users can request for computer resources anytime and anywhere. The IT department is relieved from processing requests manually,” explained Ho.
“The other benefit is creating a common computer resource pool to allow users to request for the resources they require for their projects in easy manner,” Ho added.
Fujitsu took six months to deploy private cloud at NIE.
Having a safe journey to the cloud
Before embarking on an exciting journey to the cloud, companies need to have a roadmap in place to ensure cloud projects are implemented successfully, said Ho.
“Similar to the cloud project that we carried-out with NIE, Fujitsu helps companies to create and navigate roadmaps towards cloud adoption,” he said.
“We help customers to explore and understand the changes and opportunities cloud brings to their companies, in terms of business value. Here, users can engage our services through our Fujitsu Cloud Professional Services,” he added.
The Fujitsu Cloud Professional Services consist of a service methodology that helps companies to transit from traditional computing infrastructure to cloud computing. The services include feasibility study, cloud inception program, cloud architecture design, implementation services, cloud education as well as cloud expansion and bridging services.
Ho said feasibility study includes helping a company to identify the objectives of embracing cloud in business, understanding the benefits that cloud bring to business as well as recommending the right deployment models (private, public or hybrid clouds).
“We would also study and assess the corporate culture in the company to better understand its business operations,” said Ho.
The next step is the cloud inception program, which focuses on identifying the different data protection schemes that are suitable to ensure data security and availability. This step also covers the roles and responsibilities between the cloud provider and the users of the cloud as well as policies, standards, guidelines to ensure the cloud is managed properly.
Cloud architecture design as the name says relates to developing building blocks to form the ideal cloud architecture. Companies have a better understanding on the cloud components and its strategic mapping to business objectives.
In implementation services, Fujitsu provides the necessary resources (hardware, software, etc) to implement the cloud solution that the company adopts. Cloud education focuses on training and workshop, helping users to build their competencies and capabilities in cloud computing while cloud expansion and bridging services focuses on companies who intend to deploy hybrid cloud spanning across private and public clouds. It helps companies to review the necessary security policies, service level agreements and among others.
