Tag : IaaS

After nearly 20 years providing Managed Infrastructure Services, Cartika has continually evolved our services and now integrating Big Data into our offerings to keep up with the ever-changing reality of Data Services and Cloud Computing. With the NSA toolkits being made public last year, security and breaches both increased in severity and frequency. Sadly, as we slowly discovered, the NSA toolkits did not just impact a few out of maintenance Windows Operating Systems as was originally reported. Every Operating System was impacted to various degrees, and the "toolkits" themselves was more than just a pre-fab set of existing hacks, they were literally a set of "toolkits" that became weaponized in the hands of skilled hackers across the globe. Organizations were simply not prepared to handle breaches of this scale and magnitude, leaving software and Operating System vendors scrambling to patch software, and IT departments scrambling to ensure their data, and their customer's data was safe. Resultant outcry regarding data security and privacy has resulted in new compliance standards (ie GDPR) being created, as well as restructuring existing compliance requirements (PIPEDA, HIPAA, SOX/FISMA) to modernize their scope and penalties in cases where compliance is not met.

IaaS meets Scalability and Agility challenges. Wouldn’t it be lovely if the flow of business was entirely predictable? Of course it isn’t, so the hallmark of a well-run business is that it has plans on how to augment and adapt to market shifts. Seasonal businesses have long faced the issue of troughs and peaks, but most early phase businesses only plan for continual growth. When that stutters, bi-directional scalability becomes a major issue. Harvard Business Review identified confusion between growth and scaling – vastly preferring the latter, and listing “building capacity to scale” as a key business success factor. A subset of scalability is agility – the ability to quickly adapt. This frequently means being able to take advantage of emerging technology and trends. Adaptation requires resources – both to plan and implement the change. This is an area where mega-lithic corporations have traditionally fallen on their faces. They see the iceberg, but can’t turn quickly enough to avoid it. Forbes called agility “the new currency of growth”, equating it with innovation in importance.

We have recently announced the launch of our new reseller model called the Premium Partner Program. The goal of this innovative new approach is to give our reselling partners complete control over the environments they manage for their clients while Cartika takes care of the day-to-day infrastructure management tasks and support. Also, our partners have access to a wide range of add-on solutions that can be seamlessly added to the platform, giving them a broad portfolio of on-demand IT services to help grow revenues.

Is fear of losing control holding you back from realizing the many benefits of an external Managed Services Provider (MSP)? Some IT managers oppose outside help fearing it will somehow weaken their position. But in practice, augmenting internal IT teams with missing skills and resources has the opposite effect, providing better results and increasing the value of the IT function to the organization. Particularly when it comes to infrastructure and supporting non-standard applications.

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) have played a silent, but critical role in the success of cloud computing. Vendors have been using APIs for years as a cornerstone in building today's complex IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS applications. As a result, APIs continue to work tirelessly behind the scenes connecting systems around the world, making our lives that much easier.

Keeping up with the complexities and costs of information technology is no easy task and especially true for SMBs. To solve this challenge, many now leverage the cloud for their infrastructure needs. But, as valuable as the cloud can be, IT environments must still be deployed, optimized, monitored, managed, and secured. This is why outsourcing IT managed services in addition to infrastructure has become increasingly attractive.

NETSCOUT, the world leader in application and network performance management products and solutions recently sat down in an interview with Cartika  CEO Andrew Rouchotas as he gave his thoughts on how business owners should be using cloud services to manage their IT assets. Below is the transcript of that interview. The original post was published HERE.

Cyber-attacks and natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, and fires always grab the headlines. But, what causes the high majority of business interruptions are ordinary, everyday events such as power failures, human error, and faulty software or hardware. As a result, most companies will experience a significant IT disruption at some point. Many are turning to cloud-based backups as a way of providing faster, and more reliable recovery.

When dealing with critical aspects of your business, you can’t afford to take risks! Yet many companies don’t do enough due diligence when buying add-on IaaS managed services. Some buy standard off-the-shelf packages and assume everything they need is in place and will work as advertised.

If you are considering hosting any data covered by the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act either in the US or Canada, know what you are getting into. Outsourced SOX hosting has specific implications for your Managed Services Provider (MSP) and if they are not compliant, you're both at risk.

HIPAA is a big deal in the US for most businesses involved in health and medical related sectors. And if these companies are compliant - and want to outsource HIPAA hosting or store data north of the border - they need to work with a Canadian provider that offers HIPAA compliant managed services.

Over the past 10 years, public cloud, widely known as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) has created a profound and fundamental shift in IT thinking and consumption. Today, IaaS is changing still as prices and differentiation both continue to decline.

Earlier this month, our CEO had an in-depth and candid conversation with Bryan Kim of Hosting ReviewBox. The interview focused on how Cartika began, its evolution over the years, changing market demand and how Cartika has managed to stay ahead of the game.

Small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are afforded a great deal more opportunity today than in years past. Cloud-based infrastructure and software offerings have provided smaller organizations the ability to leverage technology in ways previously limited to big enterprises. CDNs or Content Delivery Networks for SMBs highlight one such example.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) helps companies significantly reduce costs by outsourcing underlying IT infrastructure to a cloud provider. However, treading a sensible path through the many available options can be difficult. A poor choice or inadequate planning may actually end up costing more over time. When buying IaaS, don't be swayed by a flashy user interface or exaggerated technological specifications.

For years, we have heard horror stories and read disturbing headlines about the exploitation and mismanagement of corporate and private data. Regulatory compliance has evolved as a result of these unfortunate events and now we must all deal with it.

In today's IT world, technology lets people "set it and forget it" in many areas that once required constant attention. Cloud backups for public cloud and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) are perfect examples. During a cloud deployment, it's easy to pick a backup option without much thought, and this can cause problems later when it really counts. Users need to understand their cloud backups, ensure they have the right solution, and know what to do if disaster strikes. Before we move on, let's take a step back and review the current types of backups typically used. The backup method provided by the vendor - or managed by your company with another solution - can affect network and storage costs. It can also impact your Recovery Point Objective (RPO). 

At this point in the evolution, most companies understand the many benefits of Cloud computing. When it comes to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) - better known as Public Cloud - the flexibility, performance, and cost-effectiveness are unbeatable for many applications. However, small-to-mid size businesses (SMBs) seldom have the luxury of having people with infrastructure or hosting expertise on staff. This means that at times they must lean on the Cloud vendor for support and that's when things can get frustrating.

The use of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) has become more of a necessity today than ever before. When company website pages load quickly, and navigation is seamless, the user experience sharply increases. The obvious benefit is that your site will be more engaging for users and potential prospects. A second significant advantage is that Google and other search engines will reward your user-focused approach with favorable rankings - by contrast, sites with poor performance get penalized. Another virtue of CDNs is that they help shield websites from DDoS attacks.