Determining the Right Data Center Architecture for Your Organization

Many of the customers I interact with have on-premises data centers, and they swear that they will never go to the cloud. On the other side of the spectrum, some customers have fully embraced cloud, to the point where they are running all their workloads in the cloud. In the middle, I have customers who are running some applications in the cloud and some on-premises—a hybrid environment, if you will. As a Solutions Architect, I feel the need to expand on why organizations choose between these varying architectures when designing their data center.

A business process outsourcing (BPO) provider with 5,000 global agents was primarily focused on customer experience and contact center outsourcing for large companies. Like many in its industry, the BPO ran on very tight margins and wanted to move away from spending capital money. It preferred operational expenses because it billed its customers on a monthly usage basis (i.e., how many phone calls it took), so it desired to match its cost structure with its revenue structure. Having to pay money upfront with the hope that the customers would use the system would not benefit the BPO; instead, it desired for its underlying technology and business costs to be paid when its clients made payments. For this reason, an “As-a-Service” model best suited the BPO from a financial and technology perspective.

Microsoft has announced that a March 2020 security update for Windows Server will disable unsigned LDAP connectivity in Active Directory DS and LDS. There has been an identified, critical exploit of LDAP where an elevated permissions exploit can be performed via unsigned LDAP.

The demands on enterprise networks have never been greater. More and more applications are moving to the cloud, connected endpoints are increasing exponentially, and distributed workforces are demanding secure access and optimal performance wherever they go.

I recently had a meaningful conversation with a customer as we spoke of a three-year plan to move “everything” into the cloud. I hear this statement over and over again, and it always brings visions to my mind of jumping into the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim. For most, the perception is that the cloud provides a robust data center for multiple use cases—anywhere from dev, test, disaster recovery, and, of course, production workloads. Organizations look to the cloud as a way to solve their challenges in operating on-premises primary, secondary, or multi-tier data centers. I certainly agree with that mindset. Cloud would not be a multibillion-dollar business today if it wasn’t ready for primetime. 

It’s no secret that CEOs desire to lead their industry with the help of digital transformation. According to Gartner’s 2018 CEO Survey, 78% of CEOs believe that their companies are either industry pioneers or fast followers. In order to maintain the pioneer title, CEOs are looking to their CIOs and IT departments to continually drive transformation efforts that bring immediate value to the business.

More than ever, business leaders are focusing on how to optimize the customer experience they’re delivering. Gartner studies indicate that 89% of companies plan to compete primarily on customer experience. Optimization always starts with understanding and measuring the customer experiences you’re currently delivering. The only way to do that accurately is via technology solutions that can automatically mine and compile the wealth of unstructured customer interactions data hidden in Call Recordings, IVR Logs, and so on.

We hear about major breaches taking place seemingly every day and in reality, new breaches are happening every minute—but what is it all worth? What are you worth to a hacker, and is it worth their effort? The answer to the latter question is an undeniable “Yes.” Monetarily, to an attacker, you (and your data) are worth every second and penny it takes to generate a successful intrusion.

With all the talk about ransomware and cybersecurity breaches, many have wondered – what data protection strategy should I be deploying? How can I ensure that I have another copy of my data that is isolated (and by isolated, I mean that if ransomware does crypto-lock my data, I can go to my “safe deposit box” and restore my data center)? Ironically, we have been preaching to our customers over the last few years that tape is dead and should be replaced with disk-based backup storage or cloud repositories for long-term retention. Now I have to face those same customers and tell them that the best way to airgap their data is to archive their backups to tape. Yes, it sounds old school, but it is the best way to remain protected from all the modern threats to your data.

A northeastern city had developed an initiative to provide free, public WiFi in a downtown, outdoor area. The city had invested a great deal of money into revitalizing the area, and improving the wireless infrastructure was part of the mayor’s vision for creating a 21st century, connected city that would attract tech-savvy young professionals and leading conferences to the area. Municipal wireless would also add value for residents of the city, particularly lower-income residents who lacked access to internet in their homes.