Cost-effectiveness is one of the key benefits of the cloud. But that doesn't mean that all cloud solutions are equally cost-effective.
This is because "cost-effectiveness" isn't just one thing. It depends on the size of your company, the resources you use and your business objectives.
Without taking these into account, it's impossible to say that one solution is objectively better than another. Each company needs to measure its needs and objectives against each solution's use cases.
This can be a time-consuming task. Many enterprises find it helps to get a cloud consultant on board to offer expert advice. Go it alone and you could end up feeling like you're choosing between 20 different white hankies. They all look pretty much the same but the manufacturers swear there are crucial differences.
On the face of it, Oracle Cloud VMware Solution may not seem radically different from other major providers' offerings. But its differentiating factors could make it the perfect platform for you.
Here, then, are five use cases for Oracle Cloud VMware Solution. We hope it helps you choose the destination for your cloud migration.
1. You want full administrative control
Are you running VMware workloads on an on-premise server? You might hesitate to migrate to the cloud for a couple of reasons. One is that, as the proverb goes, it's better the devil you know. The other is that you're used to full administrative control and don't want to give it up.
Well, with OCVS, you don't have to. Instead, you get to keep full administrative control over the cloud stack – no need to rearchitect or refactor your workloads or reskill your internal teams. But on top of those familiar processes, you get to unlock new efficiencies from OCI.
2. You want to expand your data centre on demand
Whatever the advantages of an on-premise data centre, there's one big and undeniable drawback. It's extremely difficult to increase or decrease capacity to meet demand.
This puts many businesses in the position of over-provisioning and under-using their infrastructure. It's not so different from having the heating on at the same level all year round.
OCVS lets you expand data centre capacity to meet demand. This gives you greater control over your spending, adjusting costs as you go.
3. You want to ensure business continuity
Data breaches can be disastrous. But not all businesses realise just how disastrous they can be.
It's not just that you've lost data. It's also that a data breach can give your company's reputation a significant knock.
Then there's the question of GDPR. If there's an avoidable data breach on your watch, you could end up paying a hefty fine.
Every business needs a disaster recovery solution. If you use the VMware stack, Oracle Cloud VMware Solution could be just the ticket.
Aside from anything else, you can deploy the stack within any of OCI's 49 regions, whether as a primary or secondary DR site.
Incidentally, those 49 regions are a big plus in OCVS's favour. This is a solution with impressive reach, all but guaranteeing high throughput and low latency.
Case study: Maxim's Group
Maxim's Group is a food, beverage and restaurant chain based in Hong Kong with more than 1,000 outlets in Hong Kong, mainland China, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The company decided to up its DR game and turned to OCVS for help. It now has DR workflow automation protecting around 70 VMs.
No one wants to think about disasters. But with OCVS, you can be sure that if disaster strikes, VMware can be scaled to multiple hosts to deliver business as usual in a matter of minutes.
4. You want a smaller data centre footprint
Is your company overrun by small VMs? OCVS lets you consolidate these, creating a smaller set of larger VMs. It also enables you to migrate any vSphere-based workloads without unwanted disruption.
Take food retailer
Ahold Delhaize, which brought its footprint down to zero by migrating over 400 VMs to OCVS – all while staying in full administrative control.
In the words of chief technical officer Gerhard van der Bijl, this enabled them to "lift and shift our workloads without having to make impactful changes to the underlying infrastructure". In turn, this meant that they could "continue to operate while we migrated workloads overnight."
This is just one example of a business with a complex infrastructure consolidating mission-critical VMs quickly and easily.
5. You want to deploy VDIs
Virtual desktops allow employees to access their desktops from any device and any location. These desktops are managed centrally, ensuring security, flexibility and scalability.
OCVS can be used to spin up and manage VDIs in the cloud. This can be of use both to companies wishing to deploy VDIs for the first time and to existing providers who want to expand their offerings without splashing out on infrastructure.
The bottom line
If it's time to switch providers, businesses can find themselves confronted with options that are, on the face of it, hard to choose between.
As with all tech solutions, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. The solution you go for will depend on your business's specific needs, budget and time scale.
Ask yourself this: do you want to achieve one or more of the five goals listed above? Are you looking to unlock the efficiencies of the public cloud while maintaining complete administrative control over the VMware stack? Do you want to ensure business continuity while expanding your data centre and consolidating VMs? Are you interested in exploring virtual desktop infrastructure?
If this sounds like you, OCVS could be just the solution for you – one that has the agility, flexibility and cost-effectiveness that will satisfy IT, finance and management.
Interested in switching to Oracle Cloud VMware Solution? At Ascend Cloud Solutions, we offer pre-packaged
Oracle Cloud migration services to meet your business's requirements and budget.
Speak to a cloud expert today to find out more.