Digitize or die! – At the beginning of this year, such a statement seemed too radical, but the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that day by day digitization was no longer the future of business. It has become necessary here and now.
Meanwhile, according to the first Polish edition of the Deloitte survey, conducted at the beginning of 2020, “Industry 4.0 in Poland – revolution or evolution?” as many as 70% of the leaders of Polish companies believed that digital transformation is crucial for maintaining profitability, but at the same time they did not have a specific digital transformation strategy prepared. The problems of the business of the pandemic have become painful proof for many companies that time has sped up and instead of talking about digitization, it must be implemented so as not to fall on the market verified by COVID-19.
– The cloud can make a company resistant to adversities to a large extent, and the costs of such a solution often turn out to be like the costs of maintaining the existing infrastructure – says the vice president of Intratel, whose original solution is One Step Cloud.
One Step Cloud – Polish cloud for business
One Step Cloud is a flexible cloud resource, thanks to which you can reduce the need to buy and maintain a physical IT infrastructure in the company.
– We have been an integrator of IT solutions for 23 years. When implementing One Step Cloud, we not only deliver the product, but also advise, optimize solutions and help in data migration – says Mariusz Prószyński.
One Step Cloud’s processors, memory, network and disk space can be used through an easy-to-use portal. OSC also allows you to create a hybrid cloud by integrating the resources of the client company with the resources of the Intratel data center.
Cloud is not “all or nothing”
-I insist that now is the best time to move to the cloud – laughs Mateusz Bohonos, Product Manager One Step Cloud at Intratel. – Before the coronavirus hit the world and the global economy, hardly anyone wondered what would happen when the administrator in the company will be quarantined and lost the ability to manage the environment.
Remote work was also a theoretical possibility rather than a real solution on the labor market. Now we have all seen with our eyes that digitization is able to make an organization resistant to many negative phenomena.
So the question is no longer “whether”, but “how” to carry it out as quickly as possible and 100 percent safely – he adds.
The latter is particularly important because – as research shows – almost half of the organizations in Poland are restrained by concerns about security before implementing the cloud. Meanwhile, cloud providers – thanks to access to more advanced technology and high security standards – are much less susceptible to external threats than the infrastructure of an average company.
– Earlier, large purchases of equipment, often made with EU subsidies, can be another obstacle in transfering of infrastructure to the cloud. After all, they have to be amortized. But this is an apparent barrier – explains Krzysztof Bielawski, Technical Director of Intratel.
– There are many models of migration to the cloud. While implementing it, both the existing and new corporate resources can be adapted to meet various needs. Everything with full cost control, because in the One Step Cloud we pay only for what is actually used, and the billing is carried out in real time. Connecting to the cloud can even lower the sum of the existing costs if we take into account power consumption, cooling, etc. – he adds.
The transition to the cloud is also often associated with a radical return and the transfer of all the company resources immediately outside the organization. In fact, changes of this kind are made gradually, taking into account the technology at the customer’s site and his real needs.
Hybrid cloud, i.e. realistic and optimal
Integrated resources can be used to process data, run applications, systems and services owned by the client.
A hybrid cloud is the optimal solution for many companies. It combines the advantages of private infrastructure and public cloud – explains Filip Zwierzyński, Systems Engineer Dell Technologies Polska.
– It’s one coherent system, preferably managed by one portal, where it is convenient to transfer resources – he explains. – The advantages relate to several spheres. Certainly, one of the key factors is to maintain the security and confidentiality of information. In the private part of our cloud, we should keep, for example, the personal data of our clients. We are often prohibited by the law or internal company regulations from transferring data that we own to external servers. In the second case, most often in this way, key information is protected, such as the company’s development strategy or its key projects – he explains.
The second important aspect for using the hybrid cloud is the profitability of this solution – emphasizes the Dell Technologies expert. – There are applications that have low resource requirements and can be run for a few hours a week. Running them outside the organization can be a much cheaper solution than the cost of purchasing and installing servers and the cost of the administrator’s work. This does not mean, however, that systems that work non-stop, generating high demand, cannot operate on a cloud such as One Step Cloud. In the hybrid cloud, we can freely decide what we have where. In addition, if during the course of action it turns out that it is more advantageous to transfer resources from the public to the private cloud or vice versa, we are able to react flexibly in this way – adds Filip Zwierzyński.
Data security in the cloud
– For many years, Intratel has been a Platinum Partner of Dell Technologies and a partner of VMware, the most popular virtualization standard in the world – emphasizes Mariusz Prószyński. – These are enterprise-class solutions with the highest security class. While creating the cloud for business, we knew that the security of their data would be a priority for our clients. The technology that we use in our data center – Dell EMC servers and arrays – gives them such a guarantee.
This is especially important when a pandemic on such a large scale brought key processes out of companies and forced them to implement remote work. Legal security counts just as much as appropriate technology.
– In One Step Cloud, data is located in Poland, protected by European Union law, and their safety is guaranteed by ISO 9001, 27001 and 27018 certificates. It is a Polish cloud and a Polish data center, which also guarantees that this system meets legal requirements and the recommendations of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, which recommends its subordinate organizations to process data in our country – explains Mateusz Bohonos.
Cloud implementation with a partner
– As an integrator, we pay special attention to how the implementation of One Step Cloud affects the whole functioning of the client’s company. Because whether we like it or not, technological change is always a strategic change – emphasizes Krzysztof Bielawski. – The greatest defining feature of One Step Cloud is its “personality”. It is a service for which an engineer, a living man, is already at the initial stage of communication.
– One Step Cloud’s advantage is also the interface. It simplifies the creation and management of virtual machines – adds Mateusz Bohonos. – We provide an API, thanks to which the entire process can be automated, so that the machines turn on and off when scheduled. The method of billing according to consumption generates several dozen percent savings per month. We also support clients in developing of strategies, implementation, migration. They are also supported by a professional helpdesk – calculates Product Manager OSC.
This is especially important now, when many companies do not know whether they will have funds for IT development.
They do not have knowledge and experience in migrating or managing cloud systems. In OSC, the duties related to the maintenance, servicing and administration equipment are fully transferred to the supplier.
– One Step Cloud gave us flexibility. We do not need to maintain a large IT department in the company. We are not interested in maintenance, software upgrades, energy costs and physical security, server room maintenance – lists Marek Siergiej, president of Promotech. The company is one of the leading European manufacturers of power tools, and has been using the One Step Cloud for several years. –Instead of redundant servers, we use resources as we need them, scaling both up and down. IT in the company is not only safer, but also cost-optimized, which is clearly visible in the analyzes.
The transition to the cloud – how to start?
– The transition to the cloud is associated with a revolution, but it can be carried out in a way that is not painful for users – explains Mariusz Prószyński. – If we decide to migrate the entire infrastructure in a small business, the process takes on average a few days. The implementation time increases with the level of its complexity, which is why we divide the entire process into stages. We observe the effects on an ongoing basis and work together with the client to best match the technology to the company’s needs.
One Step Cloud also implements the “test drive” model in two ways.
– We have an unlimited promotion – each new user gets a code for PLN 100 after registration to be able to test our interface calmly – says Mateusz Bohonos. – With more extensive implementations, we give the opportunity to implement the “Proof of Concept”. Then we prepare a test version of the solution that we propose to the client on our own environment. You can see how everything will work after implementation – he adds.
More about One Step Cloud at onestepcloud.pl
Edited by: Maryla Pawlak-Żalikowska
The article originally appeared on businessinsider.com.pl
