In the June 2018 issue of Signal magazine, AFCEA’s International Journal, author Kimberly Underwood spotlights how the Navy is turning to cloud computing as a means of reducing costs while advancing their capabilities in her article, “The Navy Looks to the Promise of the Cloud“. But there are many paths to the cloud, and the Navy is leveraging the most economical of them.
It’s Worth Looking Beyond Public Cloud
As Andrew Mansfield, technical director at Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SSC) Atlantic points out in the above article, cloud is a fundamental shift in how information technology services are provided. Cloud environments provide the agility and flexibility that leading edge organizations need to maintain leadership on a global scale.
While much of the focus of cloud is placed on public cloud environments, we see this as one piece of the puzzle. As-a-Service solutions take on different meanings to different people.
Many leaders look to public cloud to handle a lot of their workloads, but it doesn’t solve every challenge. Where Public cloud isn’t a viable option, Data Center as-a-Service (DCaaS) or Capacity as-a-Service (CaaS) can fill in the gaps.
Understanding What Data Center as-a-Service Means to Organizations
Fundamentally, Data Center as-a-Service (DCaaS) can provide any or all facets of data center technology as a service without the up-front investment, including:
- Storage
- Compute
- Network
- Hyperconverged infrastructure
- Data management
- Data protection
- Back-up, recovery
- Archiving
- Data analytics
DCaaS encompasses an end-to-end strategy of public, private and hybrid cloud, tailored to the customer’s specific requirements. For the Navy, DCaaS allows them to “spin up and shut down instances of capability” providing more flexibility as they modernize. The ViON Marketplace further simplifies and streamlines the process of delivering Data Center as-a-Service, providing one source to research, compare, buy and manage as-a-Service technology in a single platform, making it easier than ever.
Data Center as-a-Service delivered via Marketplace offers the promise of next-generation technology on a consumption basis that covers all aspects needed to modernize the data center.
How SPAWAR is Leveraging Capacity as-a-Service (CaaS)?
As part of the DCaaS movement, many organizations are looking at the opportunities gained through the CaaS model. SPAWAR awarded a Capacity as-a-Service contract to ViON to provide storage, network and compute to advance the objectives of accelerating and streamlining IT delivery, modernizing IT and reducing the cost of operations. This contract helps SPAWAR enable a cloud environment while moving away from traditional IT procurement. As Mr. Mansfield points out, “The government had always built our own information technology solutions, integrated our own stuff—we’ve hosted our own stuff and operated our own stuff.”
Cloud technology is instrumental in fostering innovation and forcing public and private sectors to rethink technology. Data Center as-a-Service is delivering on the promise of bringing the next generation data center, whether its public, private, hybrid cloud or a combination of the three. Read the latest white paper from ViON, “The Freedom to Modernize IT without Boundaries” to learn how agencies can gain flexibility to evolve technology for mission success and learn more about the ViON MarketPlace.