There has been a huge shift in how we all view computing in recent years, with the future laying firmly in the power of “Cloud Computing.” It is by no means a new concept, but with modern innovations, and by utilising the latest technologies, the benefits are now available for everyone to share. We will help you to unders tand exactly what cloud computing comprises of, how these benefits can not only transform your business function, but also drive down your costs. This new, web-based generation of computing utilises remote servers housed in highly secure data centres for data storage and management, so organisations no longer need to purchase and look after their IT solutions in-house.

1. Introduction to Cloud Computing In This Document:
There has been a huge shift in how we all view computing in recent years, with the
Background
future laying firmly in the power of “Cloud Computing.” It is by no means a new
concept, but with modern innovations, and by utilising the latest technologies, the What is the Cloud
benefits are now available for everyone to share.
“The Cloud can be
described as a metaphor
We will help you to unders tand exactly what cloud computing comprises of, how these for the Internet”
benefits can not only transform your business function, but also drive down your costs.
What is SaaS (Software
This new, web-based generation of computing utilises remote servers housed in as a Service)?
highly secure data centres for data storage and management, so organisations no What types of platforms
longer need to purchase and look after their IT solutions in-house. does the Cloud use?
Public Cloud
Background What is the Cloud
For several years we have all experienced a huge “The cloud embodies various services and Private Cloud
shift in business which, in part due to the global technologies, which combine to enable the
economic downturn, has hit all businesses, from delivery of computing services over the Internet Hybrid Cloud
the one man band, to the largest corporations in real-time, allowing end-users instant access
very hard; resulting in these organisations having to data and applications, from any device with
Internet access.” What services can be
to closely scrutinise their costs in order to stay
competitive. It will therefore come as no surprise used in the cloud?
then that one of their biggest recurring costs is IT. As already discussed the Cloud is not a new
concept, but one that we are all actually very Hosted/Streamed
These organisations have had a very positive familiar with. Since the commercial birth of Desktops
outcome on the industry, helping pave the way the Internet, almost everybody has at one time
for the logical shift to the cloud, by pressuring or another used the combined resources from Hosted Email
the major software suppliers, and allowing them Cloud servers, whether comparing car insurance
to become ‘empowered’ – enabling them to move quotes, or using Web Mail like Gmail or Hotmail;
the data and processing function(s) are carried Voice Over IP
their data and processing power from old server
rooms, into purpose built secure locations which out seamlessly to the user, regardless of
their geographical location, through groups of Cloud Storage
deliver the latest technologies, guaranteeing
their data security, and extracting greater interconnected computers and data resources.
computing power when its really needed; all at a Dynamic Servers
fraction of historic costs. “The Cloud can be described
Why switch from
The commercial cloud architecture was born, as a metaphor for the traditional IT to the
meaning the start of the end to the traditional IT
break fix & upgrade model that we are all used to.
Internet” cloud?
As far as we are concerned there are two
This has given way to providers who have
Remote Access/ Access
distinct categories associated with this Cloud
the ability to run new feature/function rich delivery: SaaS (Software as a Service) and from anywhere
environments super effectively , minimising the Hosted Services (streamed). These need to be
threat of viruses, with no more physical patching understood individually, however, just to confuse Disaster recovery /
of insecure products, enabling very little if matters from the offset, these two functions are backup
any downtime to business critical applications often combined, utilising individual parts of one
and data – how about the ability to run your another’s processing, either to deliver a single Should I be concerned
applications wherever you maybe in the world? application, or an entire suite of products. about security?
Although this in essence sounds very simplistic, To grasp this concept is to really start
it is a far reaching and broad industry, employing understanding the very essence of Cloud, In Conclusion
many different technologies and architectures, which is ‘to share,’ - using the combined
it is vital that you make an informed decision computing resources of the most powerful About Sagari
on any planned IT provider, as the market (like computer platforms on the Internet, delivering
any other) has varying standards and quality of an individual application or an entire suite –
service associated with it. the bottom line is that business applications
and their transactions run across platforms
We hope this document will help you to make vastly more powerful than we would otherwise
informed choices, and give you the knowledge to be able to employ or afford in traditional IT
ask the right questions. environments.
For a free consultation call
0844 357 7282

2. What is SaaS (Software were still located down the corridor – you
can also be safe in the knowledge that
‘Cash Cow’ logic that IT has historically
had, the days are numbered where we
as a Service)? the support staff utilised by Sagari and had to except these large costs, removing
other premium vendors are some of the the underlying feeling of being held to
One of the biggest buzz words in IT over most knowledgeable and skilled available ransom by our suppliers speaking “techno
recent years has been Cloud. This does anywhere in the world. gabble” at you. The Cloud really has
not mean this is a short lived, or in anyway brought a new level of honesty, highlighting
a fad - in-fact the polar opposite is true There are many SaaS application available, ethical providers who are able to put the
– but as businesses strive to save money with the number growing on a near daily customer’s wants and needs first. Where
and cut costs, one of the biggest return basis - to name just a few of the common customers don’t have to think or worry
on investments comes from removing applications: about the support, which is all taken care of
their emphasis on local support for their in the background.
business critical applications. • Email (web-based/hosted) (Zimbra/
Hosted Exchange)
Another positive for customers deploying
Organisations like Sagari specialise in all • CRM (Sugar etc.) SaaS services can be that they are only
the management and support for them. paying for what they actually use, like
Not only does this remove the carbon/ • HyperOffice suite
a ‘pay-as-you-go’ service – very often
cost expensive power-cooling from server • Zoho resources are only required in normal
rooms, it minimises the support costs working hours for example, this could
• Google Docs.
for management of a given service. Often mean services can be switched off when
physical servers are purchased at great • VoIP (telephony) not being used - different suppliers work on
different charging metrics, some working
on average usage, others may bill for data
rates (amounts of transacted data), others
for access times or helpdesk availability.
NB It is vital that you fully understand and
read the small print for any Cloud provider
SLA’s and charging metrics, some have
large costs for excess data rates, with small
unrealistic amounts to start with.
What types of platforms
does the Cloud use?
As already discussed, there are many
different suppliers running their Cloud
services on various platforms and
infrastructures. Like so many descriptions
& analogies we have to make when
discussing this topic, many of these
infrastructures are also shared are used in
part (just to cause the further confusion).
Please don’t be put off by this, in reality this
is actually to your benefit - which we will
explain.
The main types of Cloud platforms are:
expense and spend the majority of their lives Such is the market push for hosted
under, or over utilised, with reactive rather applications that nearly all of the existing Public Cloud
than proactive management and support, software providers are offering their
latest release(s) as hosted (SaaS) versions The Public Cloud (or external Cloud) is
most often only when things go wrong. the most common variant described by
now – these can either be hosted by
your Cloud IT provider, or are hosted by the press. The resources are dynamically
Once migrated to a SaaS platform,
the manufacturers themselves such as provisioned, and the architecture is leased
customers are able to securely access
SugarCRM. from the owners and managed via 3rd party
individual applications over the internet
Cloud suppliers. The owners provide full
using a variety of connection types.
Gone are the days of the antiquated and server environments or bespoke software.
Email is a prime and business critical expensive updates, where fortunes are
charged for license/version upgrades, Using the Public Cloud(s), cloud providers
example; deploying SaaS to manage one
nearly always resulting in a server upgrade are able to setup and manage scalable
of the most crucial business functions,
being necessary, where potentially weeks of environments for their clients. The
allows staff to be migrated seamlessly,
requiring an expert consultant(s) on-site to suppliers are completely responsible for
with no business downtime, enabling
correctly setup the software up… “Sounds the management, including security and
subsequent access to staff over the internet.
familiar” ? routing. Bills are produced like a utility bill,
Providing the very latest Outlook 2010 for
which varies dependent on several factors
example - these browser based, or hosted
The Cloud has introduced some real e.g. how much data is moved, number of
systems are accessed securely, offering
positives, with the demise of this over priced transactions and CPU/RAM utilised, and
the same look feel & speed as if the same
For a free consultation call
0844 357 7282

3. normally billed to customers monthly.
Similar to an electricity bill
In conclusion Public Cloud providers are
only responsible for the hardware that you
Hybrid Cloud
or your Cloud supplier are using, they will Hybrid cloud environment combine the
The CPU, RAM & Disk space are all the not always support the software that resides resources from both the Public & Private
responsibility of the supplier, along with on it and to successfully deliver a fully Cloud, this is the most popular choice for
patching security and anti-virus. Public streamed environment takes a great deal large enterprises.
Clouds allow organisations to manage of planning and skill to support. They do
anything from a single web server; to the offer a fantastic forum to build environments For example, a company could choose to use
delivery of a full Enterprise domain setup quickly or deliver single applications, a public cloud service for general computing,
(this describes a full corporate setup), built with state of the art internet speeds and but store its business-critical data within
using separated application servers, security general user response times. They also its own data centre. This may be because
servers and domain controllers necessary to provide very attractive environment for larger organisations are likely to have
deliver a fully streamed desktop (just like we backup data which is utilised by allot of already invested heavily in the infrastructure
are familiar with in corporate environments). suppliers to ensure no loss of data and often required to provide resources in-house.
used to backup data from Private Cloud
A Public Cloud has a great deal of advantages: environments. Private cloud (also referred to as ‘corporate’
servers are assigned for specific tasks and or ‘internal’ cloud) is a term used to denote
can be built very quickly; you are only billed Public Cloud Providers: a proprietary computing architecture,
for what you use. They enable an extremely providing hosted services on private
• Amazon (AWS) EC2 networks. This type of cloud computing is
fast architecture, with quick turn-around and
setup times - often using pre-defined images • Google generally used by large companies, and
for server(s), in most circumstances they allows their corporate network and data
• Microsoft
are already available and don’t need building centre administrators to effectively become
from scratch e.g. SBS2008 or SQL Enterprise, • RackSpace in-house ‘service providers’ catering to
IIS etc. When servers are setup, part of their • Flexiscale ‘customers’ within the corporation. However,
charging metric includes licensing. it negates many of the benefits of cloud
computing, as organisations still need to
NB Licensing is itself is a huge and complex Private Cloud purchase and set up and manage their own
subject, and makes charging transparent The Private Cloud is a term which requires clouds.
and is including in the monthly bill - some clarification. In essence this came to
minimising the confusion in pricing from being from large companies who owned and Sagari work using a multi-tenanted
Microsoft etc. setup there own proprietary environments, architecture utilising Sagari’s own Microsoft
hosting only their own internal services and VM environments housed in the very
The downside is they are not the easiest which are administered by their own staff, best data centres in the world
to manage or administer, especially when effectively becoming in-house service
running more than a single (SaaS) server/
instance, or application.
providers, only delivering services to their What services can be
own corporate customers.
used in the cloud?
They always require monitoring, a very clear This obviously required vast investment to
understanding of the proprietary routing and Nearly all IT services can be delivered
setup the hardware with large investments through the Cloud, obviously taking
security provided by the Cloud owner. required on their internet links/connections advantage of the distributed cloud model.
to service the global connection speeds Some of the solutions include but are not
Your Cloud supplier is responsible for
required for different geographical locations. limited to:
all security/backups, which is especially
complex when running and managing a fully When trying to understand what the Cloud
streamed/hosted desktop environment with truly delivers; these organisations quickly Hosted/Streamed
multiple servers. realised that their Return on Investment
would take many years to claim back from
Desktops
This takes huge amounts of planning, and a
the traditional support architecture which Hosted desktops remove the need for
methodical delivery to get everything right
they moved from, this has changed as the traditional desktop PCs and associated
from the start; from the development stage
market recently embraced the true benefits support in the office environment; this
thorough testing, including back-ups etc. must
of the Cloud, meaning there is now a cross massively reduces the cost of providing
be fully verified by your supplier to guarantee
section of these vast data centres that with the services that any business requires.
no downtime or loss of data in the future.
internal investment started to gain too much A hosted/streamed desktop looks and
It is very important that you fully understand capacity for their own needs, meaning these behaves just like a regular desktop PC, but
your chosen Cloud providers backup corporate owners were able to sub-lease the software, including bespoke customers
and redundant policies if building your their infrastructure for other organisations applications are delivered via managed
environment on a Public Cloud. Other to use. The corporate investment model was environments, these are highly secure data
potential negatives are the increase in always financially driven by the operational centres, which rather than setup on their
charges where you have redundant servers, IT costs. As soon as the market realised own machines and servers in a Comms
these will always charging in the background that they would not require support staff to room, are run through data centres.
and require a clear and knowledgeable visit staff’s machines in a break fix scenario,
and that much cheaper thin-clients could be N.B Please ensure your potential IT provider
approach,
purchased the saving were instant and very is capable of virtulising all your applications
Public Cloud providers also charge for any significant.
The results of delivering a fully hosted
data being moved across their environment,
desktop via the internet means you can
which can also add up.
For a free consultation call
0844 357 7282

4. work from anywhere in the world, your It also makes the recovery of data much quickly and managed, maintained, patched
business will never feel the effects of the easier with clearly driven software etc. and upgraded remotely by your service
snow/bad weather again, as access will be provider. Technical support is provided
available from anywhere, using any existing N.B You must ensure your provider enables round the clock by reputable providers like
PC or laptop (or ultimately by Thin-Client). encryption on all data storage Sagari for no extra cost, reducing the burden
All subsequent management is centrally on IT staff, this frees up staff to focus on
looked after by your IT provider, including Dynamic Servers business-critical aspects of the business
patch management, Anti-Virus, backups that aren’t IT related
and Disaster Recovery. The PC’s become Dynamic servers have just started to realise
far more efficient when used in this manner, their true place in the market place. The Cloud IT not only vastly improves flexibility,
with the option of using much cheaper thin- conventional model of a dedicated server is it increase efficiencies at all levels but
clients to reduce future expenditure. fast becoming redundant. Service providers saves vast amounts of money, and helps you
like Sagari gives its customers access to organisation go green by markedly cutting
their resources that look and feel exactly
Hosted Email like the dedicated server in their old Comms
down carbon emissions. It prevents the
need for large future investment and means
As more business look for a secure and room, but that are fully scalable. Customers that the small business is on a level playing
reliable email solution (that doesn’t cost directly control the amount of processing with large business – the disparity between
the earth!), they are increasingly looking at power and space that they use, this means resources is brought in line, this means all
hosted email platforms. Utilising the world’s they only pay for what they use. They don’t costs can be clearly planned for and paid
leading email platform, Sagari offers all our pay for hardware they don’t need. Typically, for regularly without investment that your
clients the very latest Microsoft Exchange customers can make changes to their business may or may not realise in the long-
environment - this enables our clients dynamic server at any time, without the term.
from the large to the small to experience historic costs associated with moving from
the same benefits, offering the very latest one server to another. Some of the hardware and software run
hosted Exchange. by Sagari would costs 100’s of thousands
N.B You must also ensure your IT provider to afford individually, and really gives all
No more expensive investment and costly has the ability to Virtulise your services business the chance to compete on level
infrastructure upgrades. Your business in the first instance – Sagari can virtulise ground.
critical Email is stored centrally on managed almost any application no matter how old or
servers, enabling your organisation the dependent, this provides customers seeking Reputable suppliers will offer levels of
security and redundancy you thought this service the ability to guarantee and support normal companies could not
previously impossible. Choosing the right ensure business critical legacy programmes compete with, enabling 24/7 phone support,
supplier will guarantee you the fastest are run on the latest dynamic servers giving free training, with nearly 100t% uptime of
connectivity from any location. This allows amazing reassurance. data centres.
staff to access their email, calendar, contacts
and shared files by a variety of means; all Why switch from N.B Always ask a prospective provider about
reliability and guaranteed service levels –
by the latest Outlook client. Your IT provider
should also manage and support Mobile traditional IT to the cloud? ensure your applications and/or services are
Device access, including Blackberry etc. always online and accessible.
The list of positives to all business
switching over to a hosted architecture
Voice Over IP is nearly unquantifiable. The ‘proof really Remote Access/ Access
VoIP (Voice Over IP) is a means of carrying is in the pudding ’ as some of the worlds
leading organisations realise the large
from anywhere
phone calls across your digital network and
cost savings and benefits that choosing the Cloud-based IT services let you access your
the internet, consider VoIP to be no different
correct hosted IT supplier brings to their applications and data securely from any
to a traditional phone system with the same
organisation. location via an internet connection. It’s easier
if not more functionality, handsets work
to collaborate too; with both the application
exactly the same as a normal digital phone Not only providing large savings, but and the data stored in the cloud, multiple
attached to a PBX - but it has distinct cost increasing their ROI on the associated users can work together on the same project,
advantages! A hosted VoIP system replaces to do with IT that they may not have truly share calendars and contacts etc.
the expensive on-site phone systems, there considered – Training for example is now
is no charge for installation and handsets A normal misconception is that if your
delivered across the network via online
and phone numbers are much cheaper, it’s internet connection is to fail, you will not
Webinars, new staff don’t wait for weeks
simple, cost-efficient and paid monthly. be able to access your critical data or
on end for a training course that’s now
delivered online, viruses and server application. The truth is access is far easier
In most cases handset and totally plug and
downtime is a thing of the past. New than if it were in your office for example,
play with minimal configuration.
software doesn’t need to be installed or you can easily access from another means
upgraded on each machine etc……. such as your mobile device or wireless
Cloud Storage network, giving you more redundancy than
Cloud storage is growing in popularity, Cloud computing offers a simple operational you imagined. Flexibility including remote
offering many benefits and cost advantages. expense that is easier to plan for. This stops working is easily enabled, in truth this
Whilst saving expenditure it removes the money being wasted on depreciating assets happens by default, this means you will
necessary support and maintenance, that are always under or over utilised in your stay operational though bad weather and
working out much more cost effective Comms room and costs a fortune to keep generally keep staff happy and working.
than the required in-house maintenance, cool irrelevant of how it’s being used.
management and support required.
IT solutions can be deployed extremely
For a free consultation call
0844 357 7282

5. Disaster recovery / and tested by experienced professionals”
About Sagari
5. Recovery—find out what will happen to
backup data in the case of a disaster; do they offer We have been in operation for over 4 years
Recent research has indicated that a vast complete restoration and, if so, how long
majority of businesses does not have an that would take and were one of the first IT companies in the
adequate disaster recovery or business 6. Investigative Support—inquire whether
continuity plan should a disaster occur; UK to offer fully hosted/streamed desktops
a vendor has the ability to investigate any
research show that in most cases this would inappropriate or illegal activity anywhere.
bring the business to a halt.
7. Long-term viability—ask what will happen
Sagari prides itself on covering all the facets to data if the company goes out of business;
Sagari prides itself on exemplary customer
of DR and Backup as its core delivery, all how will data be returned and in what format
data is continually backed-up, allowing all In general security is usually improved by services, and offers our customers
our customers to retrieve important files keeping data in one centralised location. In
from their desktop or office environment high security data centres like those that everything from streamed desktops, to
at the press of a button. On request we can Sagari use, security is typically better than
even supply our customers with a ready-to- hosted Email, VoIP, mobile device integration
traditional setups.
go desktop to plug in should their business
including Blackberry, whist utilising the very
be hit by an unforeseen problem. In Conclusion
Cloud infrastructure should allow any best Virtualisation tools to migrate existing
Sagari’s Hosted/Streamed Desktops primarily
use VDI for its backend services, this means enterprise, of any size to achieve the most
software platforms. Our main data centre
you don’t have to worry about data backup efficient use of their existing IT hardware
or disaster recovery ever again, and is taken and software investments. has been voted the fastest in the UK and
care of as part of the service. Files are stored
twice at different remote locations to ensure Sagari works closely with many channel 2nd fastest in the world adhering to all the
that there’s always a copy available 24 hours partners to provide an end-to-end solution
to any size business from the small to the latest ISO standards with staff managing the
a day, 7 days per week.
largest corporate businesses, if a company
wishes to evaluate, plan migrations and Infrastructure with Microsoft Gold Partner
Should I be concerned move towards cloud computing, this
status and a plethora of other related
about security? can be done quickly and simply – Sagari
project manage everything from the single qualifications (available on request).
Security is a big concern for everybody virtualised application, to the delivery of
considering the move of their data and entire streamed desktop suite, always
services to the Cloud. The correct answer communicating clear customer defined We host and manage IT services for
from any reputable provider should always timelines and goals and objectives.
be the same “your applications and data any business, from small charities and
a safer with us, than it would be at your As and when your business grows, your IT
own customer premise.” Sagari utilise and needs grow with them, Sagari act and as a education, to manufacturing and government
adhere to the very strictest policies, and host cost effective extension to this growth and
bodies; including the Department of Work
in some of the most secure buildings in the your aspirations. The scalability and speed
country, fear of theft is nearly impossible, of the deployment offered by Sagar i and our and Pensions and NHS (N3 T1 connectivity).
Fire - non existent, by using the correct Cloud infrastructure means you can expand
collocation encryption and backups means a your IT provision instantly easily meeting the Every business is viewed by Sagari as
copy of your data can always be retrieved. increased requirements and demands – this
works the other way, also meaning should you individual, and unique, with differing needs
N.B Not all vendors offer the same level of wish to scale down this can easily take place.
security, which means you must research and requirements - we always deliver with
their policies. Security is typically greatly enhanced, along
with resilience, and the flexibility, and the same exacting standards of care.
Gartner lists the following seven security overall responsiveness. Waste of money
questions: through time management is minimised, No customer is considered too large or too
allowing you to effectively do more with a
1. Privileged user access—enquire about great deal less. small, and any help we can provide at any
who has access to data and about the hiring
and management of such administrators Moving to a cloud environment gives your level is welcome
2. Regulatory compliance—makes sure a organisation the ability to use the most
vendor is willing to undergo external audits advanced technologies at a fraction of the
cost, purchasing and running cutting edge For more information don’t hesitate to
and/or security certifications
systems perceivably in-house, that you may
3. Data location—ask if a provider allows for contact our customer services dept on
never dream of affording before.
any control over the location of data
sales@sagari.co.uk, or 0844 537 7282 and
4. Data segregation—make sure that N.B Ensure that your provider can deliver
encryption is available at all stages and that your requirements and attains a quality of please look at the website http://www.
these “encryption schemes were designed service you deserve.
sagari.co.uk
For a free consultation call
0844 357 7282