Five keys for a smooth Cloud migration

Five keys for a smooth Cloud migration

The benefits delivered by hybrid cloud to businesses are so tangible that adoption levels are reaching an extraordinary extent.   Indeed, the fact that organizations have maximum flexibility to keep up with business growth, agility to assimilate high-speed changes, and resilience to ensure business continuity means that now, more than 90% of businesses are considering maintaining or increase their expenditure and use of cloud, according to Flexera Cloud Report 2023. 

Cloud migration is no longer an option — it’s the pathway for companies to lean on an always modern infrastructure with the latest technologies to innovate, generate new customer experiences, or even anticipate market demands. However, if the right steps are not taken at the right time, migration can be costly and complex. 

Five keys we would like to share for a smooth transition. 

  1. Leadership support: Cloud migration is a business decision, not just a technological implementation. Therefore, if it is part of the company’s digital transformation strategy and is endorsed by the organization’s leaders, chances of success and sustainability are significantly higher for this project. 
  1. Focus on the business: Focus your attention on how the cloud will enable business growth or how strategy is aligned with the organizational purpose. Businesses often tend to worry about technical issues, get bogged down in complex IT landscapes, or suffer disproportionately trying to protect applications and data from growing cyber threats. Reality is that all of these situations can be delegated to a technology partner’s expert hands. 
  1. Keep it simple: Certainly, hybrid and multi-cloud environments offer unlimited flexibility levels, opening the door to new management and governance challenges, though. This is why, having solutions with a single point of monitoring and control of the entire architecture is essential. Businesses need the agility of public cloud as well as the security and control of private cloud in a single, integrated solution to give you the freedom to build, evaluate, and run applications where necessary, with utmost performance and cost control. 
  1. A solution to every need: There are different cloud providers with diverse proposals. There is always one that best fits a specific company’s requirements. We need to bet on flexible contracts, since they will allow you to choose the best alternative at all times, and even change dynamically if the business so requires. Accordingly, the presence of a technology partner capable of managing these bonds becomes important again. 
  1. Metrics and improvements. Workload migration to the cloud is barely the first step in a continuous improvement process. With the right metrics, based on analytical tools, artificial intelligence and big data, companies can bet to optimize performance, costs, or usability of their cloud solutions. 

Hybrid cloud brings significant advantages for organizations.  To benefit from them, in Cirion we provide a set of solutions for cloud migration in a safe manner, with top performance and best security, scalability and connectivity levels.

Author:
Gabriel del Campo

VP Data Center, Cloud & Security
Cirion Technologies

Energy challenges that outline the future of Data Centers

Energy challenges that outline the future of Data Centers

According to different studies, data centers consume approximately 2% of the electricity produced worldwide.  The evolution of new technologies, digital transformation progress and the exponential growth in use of data and apps. could increase that figure by 4-fold globally by 2030. This increase could be higher in Latin America, which is slightly behind in its growth curve. 

Global data centers with high-availability levels, wide coverage and efficient use of energy represent an unprecedented opportunity for economic and technological development. 

Companies in this industry need to take some immediate action. The development of responsible practices through the deployment of ESG strategies (acronym in English for environmental, social and corporate governance actions) is the first step to ensure a sustainable outlook in the mid run, clear goals to reduce carbon footprint, and the necessary metrics to confirm that you are on the right pathway. 

These initiatives must encompass both construction of new data centers, and management, operation and delivery of existing services.  Among the best practices to reduce consumption we have solid-state drive technologies, way more efficient; archive to avoid having online information, which is not accessed frequently; virtualization of anything we can, and data deduplication to gain efficiency in backup and storage operations. 

On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence is getting to new data-based decision-making levels to optimize the need for servers that are on, or workload distribution. 

Efficient from the ground up

From the new data centers standpoint, it is essential to think about efficient architectures and technologies from scratch. The fact that data are increasingly distributed drives the adoption of edge type infrastructures, which must be installed away from big cities.  Data centers increase their capillarity and coverage.  Therefore, a careful choice of the site where it will be installed matters, ensuring there will be energy available for its development, emphasizing the availability of clean or renewable energy. 

Latin American countries are beginning to assess the inclusion of renewables in their energy matrices. However, more limited but equally high-impact measures can be taken today. For example, incorporation of solar energy for intermediate network transmission nodes, which because of their lower consumption, can be supplied this way. In any case, industry is expectant on the advancement of new renewable technologies, such as green hydrogen. Without a doubt, as soon as it reaches an adequate maturity level, it will be appropriately deployed to feed data centers. 

Another characteristic point in the region, which calls for a regulatory evolution is that, in general and apart from some specific exceptions, there is a single energy supplier for each geographical region. This means that industry players are not able to access to electricity providers redundancy, although they do have access to connections with different substations from the same provider. This represents an additional challenge in terms of design, construction, operation, and development of contingency plans to ensure high availability. 

In order to think about a future of highly sustainable data centers, the free energy market must be promoted in each of our countries in tandem with a greater drive for renewable energies. To that end, a joint and collaborative work is essential, engaging authorities of the different countries involved; utilities, and of course the companies that are part of this industry. Again, according to the definition of synergy, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Author:
Gabriel del Campo
VP Data Center, Cloud & Security
Cirion Technologies

New Technologies call for Low-latency, Processing Capacity Investments.

New Technologies call for Low-latency, Processing Capacity Investments.

Digital transformation progress demands more capacity, security, and response capacity for data processing.
It’s no secret for IT professionals that demand for hosting, traffic, and data security services will be increasingly higher over the next years. We see more than ever that in order to perform their businesses, companies rely on information crossing and analyses, for which speed, agility, and trust are essential. And this is where data centers, cloud computing, and investment thereon play their part.

Worldwide advances of 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence increasingly call for more data traffic capacity, low latency, robustness, and reliability to support and backup this growing need. And Latin America is no stranger to this trend. These demands are more complex in the region due to legacy systems integration, thus creating hybrid-digital infrastructure demands, not always easy to integrate in the most traditional public clouds.

In Brazil, for example, further to the General Data Protection Law (LGPD -for its acronym in Portuguese) enactment, in 2021, which mandated companies to gather and process sensitive and personal information, the data center market registered an increased demand, since this law demands higher investments from companies to create reliability through data protection. In other words, the data center and treatment market is very hectic

 

Forecasts encourage the sector

According to Arizton, the data center market should reach US$3,69 billion by 2027. To have an idea of this growth, the same consulting firm estimates the current sector’s value in US$2,23 billion. Please note that Brazil is the biggest representative for this sector in Latin America, primarily due to its mainland territory, large population, and significant economy.

The scenario is promising for Latin America as well. According to CBRE consulting, the Latin American market for data centers grew more than 20% during the first half of 2022. And based on ReportLinker’s report more evolution is expected, estimating a 6.97% percent regional growth for this sector from this year until 2027, something driven by the companies’ need to boost digital transformation by means of cloud computing solutions, and hosting and colocation models.

 

Is your company buying infrastructure?

Certainly, you heard about Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and this cloud model is a growing trend. According to IDC, cloud consumption by the Telecom sector should grow an average 32.2% in IaaS over the next five years. Additionally, virtualization of telecommunications networks is one of the main trends identified this year, in Brazil.

IaaS market is expected to keep on growing as the cloud becomes the main infrastructure to meet the latest technology’s needs. Working in the cloud brings

among many other benefits, the scalability and composition that innovations and advanced applications need.

 

Bare Metal Cloud

Cirion Bare Metal Cloud is a customized development example for the local market. This resource enables any platform customer to perform immediate allocation of dedicated servers through a managed portal, providing low latency, provisioning speed, self-service and self-management.

Unlike traditional hosting this service does not require long acquisition and provisioning times, or extensive agreements, providing a cloud format service with the freedom of use of a dedicated system. This model is exactly designed to tackle the conditions and challenges our customers face in their daily operations.

Rodrigo Oliveira

Business Director – Data Center, Cloud & Security

With over 30 years of experience at the Data Center and Telcos segment, Rodrigo provides Cirion’s customers with the necessary guidance to leverage technology for business expansion. He worked for several multinational companies in Brazil, and contributed to build Diveo’s operation in the country. He was as well President of UOL Diveo’s unit in Colombia, while performing the affiliate sale to Riverwood/Synapsis. He also directed Matrix Datacenter.

Public, private or hybrid clouds? What are they and how do they support your business?

Public, private or hybrid clouds? What are they and how do they support your business?

In companies’ digital transformation processes, the cloud is a very important tool, as it allows them to be adaptable, scalable, and resilient. 

According to the IDC study FutureScape: Global IT Industry 2002 – Forecasts and Implications in Latin America, it is estimated that by 2023, 80% of companies will use cloud-related services.  This growth is leveraged by the interest companies have developed around cloud utility to handle large volumes of data and manage applications that are critical to the business.  

Considering the increasing demand for data generation, cloud applications, and companies’ current demands, Felipe Gómez, Director of Data Center, Security and Cloud at Cirion Technologies for the Andean region, shares some basic concepts about the cloud, its features and the advantages offered to companies according to their needs.   

The cloud is an enormous network of global connected remote servers working as a single ecosystem.  It enables data storage and management, as well as the execution of applications and delivering content or services (email, social networks, streaming, etc.). This means that users can access this data, information and services from any device with an internet access.   

“Deciding to use the cloud gives companies greater agility, security, and dynamism in their operations.   There are three options for implementing cloud usage in corporate management: the public cloud, the private cloud, and the hybrid cloud”, adds Gómez.  

Public cloud, the fastest 

Selecting a public, private or hybrid cloud is determined according to the company’s needs and forecasts. 

Public clouds are the most common type of implementation of cloud computing; the web features (such as servers or storage) belong to a service provider, which manages and offers them through the Internet.   AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft- Azure, and Google Cloud are a few examples of public cloud providers.   

One of the main advantages of the public cloud is its ability to scale quickly, enabling a faster implementation of environments.   The costs depend on the type of servers or peripherals required.  

Private cloud: greater security and availability, and lower latency 

This type of cloud offers a greater level of security and control than those of the public cloud because the services offered aren’t always shared and remain available to the user through an internal private network hosted in a local environment.   The private cloud is closer to the end customers’ applications and gives them the capacity to obtain lower latency and better performance.   The private cloud will always be an alternative for its stable costs in relation to the contract period. 

It is ideal to access applications’ services such as SAP or application virtualization, call center platforms or unified communications.   

Many companies also feel more comfortable with a private cloud, as they have local support in Spanish, which represents an important differential for many IT Directors.  

For most, the future is hybrid 

The adoption of cloud solutions brings organizations closer to the latest digital technologies and facilitates the development of innovative projects to achieve business objectives. 

To have a proprietary technological structure or just a private cloud, or to migrate the entire business to the public cloud are options that are becoming increasingly less contemplated by companies.  Operating with a mix of both clouds (public and private) will be the alternative adopted in the coming years; this is called hybrid cloud, clarifies Gómez. 

Many organization decided to have their productive environments in private clouds and their development environments in public clouds, because this type of scheme can offer greater security and speed and lower latency for critical applications. 

The IT infrastructure is becoming increasingly complex and companies must look for a scalable data management solution in order to remain afloat.   This type of data management in the cloud has become the solution of choice for many companies.   This is because companies are broadly adopting the cloud (public, private or hybrid) because it offers cost-savings, data availability, flexibility, scalability and many other advantages.  

According to the study “Cloud Computing Survey 2022”, almost three fourths (72%) of those responsible for IT decision making say that their organization is adopting cloud-based services when acquiring new technical capabilities.  

Information security is a priority for companies 

Any cloud migration process requires a decision from management, but also employee training and the support of experts to achieve an appropriate security governance.  

Whatever the choice for companies, when this task is trusted to specialists, they can obtain a correct scaling of needs and an efficient migration.   Cirion Technologies centers its efforts in offering companies a solution that can be adjusted to their expectations and guarantee increased security when managing business-critical information.  

Data Center Certifications and Compliances strengthen quality of service and contribute to market competitiveness

Data Center Certifications and Compliances strengthen quality of service and contribute to market competitiveness

With 18 Data Centers in Latin America, Cirion’s services are certified by ISO, by the Uptime Institute’s Tier III, comply with PCI-DDS and AICPA’s SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3. 

Just think about all the activities you do online daily.  Now, imagine 4.66 billion people doing the same[1]. These are millions of terabytes generated every day.  And, for all this information to be quickly and securely processed and circulated around the world, data centers are needed.  

A good data center infrastructure has been an imperative for organizations to escalate their operation – providing, of course, data security, capacity, and efficiency. But how can we know if these attributes will be delivered?

In the same way that diplomas endorse an individual’s aptitude for a given profession, companies also receive certifications for their performance, products, or services, attesting to their quality and security. Therefore, when viewing a data center, you can search for the certifications obtained and evaluate its capacity to provide services that will meet your business needs.

Why are certifications so important?

Data center certifications ensure the efficiency of processes and attest that the service meets international rules and standards for Quality, IT Services Management, and Information and Infrastructure Security, among others.  As an example, we can name Uptime’s Institute certifications ISO 9001, ISO 20000-1, ISO 27001, and Tier.

Compliances also play an important role.  Although they are similar to certifications, they are issued as compliance reports rather than certificates. Thus, they should be called compliances instead of certifications.  Included here are PCI-DSS e AICPA’s SOC1, SOC2, and SOC3.

The data center market is in increasing demand.  GlobalData predicts that the sector’s revenue will go from US$ 466 billion (2020) to US$ 949 billion by 2030 [2].  Amidst this whirlwind of data processing, the certifications benefit all parties: they are a differential for companies, contribute to market competitiveness, and help customers select a qualified provider. 

Proven quality

Cirion offers one of the most interconnected Data Center platforms in Latin America, with 18 proprietary data centers – 3 of them in Brazil:  São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Curitiba.  Our services portfolio offers an IT platform to support business applications through Cloud and Security solutions, in addition to infrastructure such as Hosting and Colocation, developed with architecture based on strict security standards (physical and logical) to provide reliable services.

To verify and maintain quality levels, our services count on several certifications and compliances:

ISO Certifications

Created in 1947, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international non-governmental organization which aims to facilitate globally the coordination and unification of industrial standards.  You’ve probably heard about it, since it is applied in several sectors, including data centers. 

The entire certification process occurs in three stages.  First, there’s an internal auditing, carried out by auditors who are certified in the respective rules and generate a report with recommendations and non-compliances, in addition to informing the strengths of the Management System audited.  Then, there’s an external auditing, endorsing the company if it meets all norm requirements and recommending it as fit to receive the certification, with the final approval occurring in Germany.  ISO certifications are valid for three years and annual auditing is necessary to ensure that they are maintained.  When expired, there must be a recertification process, which will ensure validity for 3 more years.

Cirion’s data centers in Brazil possess the following certifications:

  • ISO 9001 – centered on Quality System. Data Centers in Cotia (SP), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), and Curitiba (PR) have been certified since 2014;
  • ISO 20000-1 – centered on Service Management System. Data Centers in Cotia (SP), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), and Curitiba (PR) have been certified since 2018;
  • ISO 22301 – centered on Business Continuity Management System. Data Centers in Cotia (SP), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), and Curitiba (PR) have been certified since 2021;
  • ISO 27001 – centered on Information Security Management. Data Centers in Cotia (SP), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), and Curitiba (PR) have been certified since 2016;
  • ISO 27017 – centered on Information Security Management System – Practice code for Information Security Controls for cloud services. Data Centers in Cotia (SP) and Rio de Janeiro (RJ) have been certified since 2017;
  • ISO 27018 – focused on Information Security Management System – Practice code for the protection of Personal Identification Information for cloud services. Data Centers in Cotia (SP) and Rio de Janeiro (RJ) have been certified since 2020;

 Tier – Uptime Institute

Founded in 1993 in the United States, the Uptime Institute is a globally recognized entity which created the Tier certifications, aiming to measure and qualify the availability of a data center’s infrastructure. It currently counts on 1,883 certifications, in 107 countries.

The certification is based on the Tier Standard, which encompasses criteria related to power supply, engine generators, cooling equipment, security (such as fire detection and control), and automation.  It is divided into four levels:

  • Tier I – basic infrastructure, non-redundant, single distribution path;
  • Tier II – have redundant capacity;
  • Tier III – have multiple independent distribution paths and are characterized by their double power source, which means that in case of unavailability due to electrical or climate issues, another system is ready to keep up these functions.  Therefore, maintenances can be carried out without the need to shut down the data center;
  • Tier IV – independent, fault-tolerant, double-feeding equipment. They demand a high level of automation to execute corrections without manual needs.

Furthermore, it is categorized into:

  • Design Documents: evaluates infrastructure, performance, and capacity
  • Constructed Facility: endorses construction according to the project
  • Operational Sustainability: observes the process and its maturity to ensure availability.

Cirion’s Data Center in Cotia (SP) possesses the Tier III Design Documents and Constructed Facility certifications and Rio de Janeiro’s (RJ) has the Tier III Design Documents certification; we are currently in the project phase to obtain the certification for Constructed Facility, assuring that the entire structure, equipment and processes were planned and implemented for business continuity. 

Compliance with PCI-DSS

Created in 2006 by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), it is formed by MasterCard, American Express, Visa, JCB International, and Discover Financial Services, that aligned their individual policies to create PCI-DSS. This is an international security pattern which strives for creating an additional layer of protection for card issuers, ensuring that merchants meet the minimum levels of security when storing, processing, and transmitting the card holder’s information.

The evaluation process is annual and like an auditioning process, conducted through a QSA (Qualified Security Assessor); if compliant with all 12 requisites, a compliance certificate called AoC (Attestation of Compliance) is issued.

Data Centers in Cotia (SP), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), and Curitiba (PR) are compliant with requisites 9, 11.1 e 12 since 2016.

SOC Compliance

Created in 2009 by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA), it replaces the SAS 70 report. It is an international standard which intends to provide our customers’ auditors sufficient evidence on Cirion’s internal controls, information security and IT controls.

The process for obtaining the report is annual and like an auditing process, conducted by a specialized consultant; if compliant with all objectives, a report certifying the evaluated period is issued.

  • SOC 1 – SOC report centered on providing reasonable assurance that Cirion’s financial statements are reliable and put together according to the IFRS’ Internal Control over Financial Reporting (ICFR). Cotia’s Data Center (SP) has been compliant since 2007, Rio de Janeiro’s Data Center (RJ) since 2012, and Curitiba’s Data Center (PR) since 2020.
  • SOC 2 – SOC report centered on Information Security based on Trust Services Criteria. Cotia’s Data Center (SP) has been compliant since 2020.
  • SOC 3 – SOC report focused on Information Security based on the Trust Services Criteria for General Use Report. Cotia’s Data Center (SP) has been compliant since 2020.

 The 4th Industrial Revolution is already part of our reality, and it increasingly demands more agility and capacity for managing data.  Therefore, Data Centers offer high-level security, advanced network, clean and continuous energy, specialized support, and a global ecosystem.  All this with a high-availability, low-latency network – endorsed by certificates and compliances – to maintain your business connected. 

[1] Report We Are Social and Hootsuite – 2021

Data Centers – Thematic Research – 2021

 

Author:
Nelma Santos
Data Center, Cloud & Security Processes Manager
Cirion, Brasil

Nelma coordinates certifications and compliances for Cirion’s 18 Data Centers in Latin America.  She is responsible for Cirion’s Integrated Management System, centered on customer experience through an efficient practice of continuous improvement.

She has more than 30 years of experience in IT, has a post-graduate degree in Information Technology Management and Governance from FIAP, and holds certificates for ITIL 4 Managing Professional, ITIL Expert, ISO 20000 Foundation, ISO 27002 Foundation, and COBIT Foundation.

 

What are Edge Data Centers, and how do they benefit us?

What are Edge Data Centers, and how do they benefit us?

Almost taken from a sci-fi movie, corporate technology has begun implementing what is known as a new generation of mobile computing centers, tools that will continue to change societies, and that represent one of the keys for digital cities development.  

Let’s start from the beginning. What are these new Edge Data Centers, and what are they for?

These new tools provide the same computing resources found in traditional data centers supported in large infrastructures.  However, this new type of Data Centers are usually called edge, since they are installed in the field where data processing, analytics, and real-time action/decision making are needed; thus avoiding sending digital data to the large traditional data centers, which are usually quite far from the place where end-user devices generate information.

With these systems, edge data centers can deliver cached content and cloud computing resources to any mobile device in real time. The concept works off traditional computing since we are now looking at a distributed IT architecture where client data is processed as close to the originating source as possible. 

Since Edge data centers are smaller and positioned closer to end users, their advantage lies on providing faster services with minimal latency, because they are processed at the same time of capture, thus sparing “data journey” to large data centers to obtain computing capabilities that translate into immediate action, e.g., on consumers on a given geographical location.

Another feature is that less time sensitive (delay) data can be sent to traditional large data centers -fixed infrastructure and facilities-, for historical analysis, big data, and long-term storage.

The so-called edge data centers must be easy to deploy and remove, designed to respond to temporary needs and actions, and much smaller than a shipping container.

The million-dollar question; will Edge data centers replace large, facility-based, traditional data centers? The answer is no because they perform contrasting functions.

The first one (perimeter or edge) comes to tackle and meet extremely specific computing needs, in a limited time and place. While the latter are a kind of “mother ship” and will continue to be the basic infrastructure with the greatest storage and computing capacity for digital data, and with the highest physical and digital security standards. 

Future is around the corner

Further to the pandemic’s impact in the region, today we can assure as a fact that digital information consumption has increased exponentially in Latin America, and that more data is required, something that impacts the Edge.

According to a report by Americas Market Intelligence [1](AMI) digital information consumption has done nothing but grow.  For example, with a 73% average internet penetration Latin America is heading to a digital zenith, with Argentina leading internet penetration in the region.  But, without a doubt, Brazil is the market of greatest interest, due to its population and geographic size.

Then, if we consider that Edge infrastructure investment go hand in hand with appropriate communications networks and that 5G deployment requires more distributed points of presence to distribute content, Edge Data Centers will soon play a significant role.

Edge Data Centers can help implementing a series of changes that will shape several transformations in our societies. For example:

1- 5G: Where a decentralized cell network made of edge data centers can help provide low latency for 5G in use cases with high device density.

2- Telecommunication companies: With cell-tower edge data centers, telecom companies can get better proximity to end users by connecting mobile phones and wireless sensors.

3- Internet of Things: Edge data centers can be used for data generated by IoT devices.  An edge data center would be used if data generated by devices needs more processing.

4-Healthcare. Some medical equipment, such as those used for robotic surgeries, would require extremely low latency and network consistency, of which, edge data centers can provide.

5-Autonomous vehicles. Edge data centers can be used to help collect, process, and share data between vehicles and other networks, which also relies on low latency.

6-Smart factories. Useful for machine predictive maintenance, as well as predictive quality management. It can also be used for efficiency regarding robotics used within inventory management.

Gartner[2] predicts that 75% of corporate data will be created and processed in Edge by 2025. So, we are facing a scenario where this technological trend will create an exponential growth of Edge Data Centers region and worldwide.  Will we be ready?

[1] https://americasmi.com/insights/consumo-de-medios-en-america-latina-cambios-marketing-publicidad-digital/

[2] https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/what-edge-computing-means-for-infrastructure-and-operations-leaders

Author:
Pablo García
Senior Sales Support Manager – Data Center & Security
Cirion Technologies Chile