Modern IaaS Deployment Models
Choosing the right deployment model for your IT infrastructure involves balancing costs, startup time, risk, and management responsibilities.
The chart on the right shows a comparison of startup cost, risk, and unit cost for the following common cloud IaaS deployment models:
- On-Premise
- Colocation
- Bare Metal
- Hosted Private Cloud
- Smaller Public Clouds, and
- Mega Public Clouds
In summary, on-premises solutions offer maximum control but at higher costs and risks. Colocation reduces some burdens but still requires significant management and investment. Public clouds offer the fastest deployment and relatively low risk. But the ideal option for those looking to rapidly scale with low starting investment and minimal operational overhead is the hosted private cloud deployment model.
Looking to move from public cloud to direct colocation?
Cloud native enterprises that have a significant investment in public cloud are facing tremendous challenges in today’s environment with pressure to show ROI on cloud infrastructure costs, including eliminating unpredictability, increasing operational efficiencies, reducing costs and gaining more control over the cloud infrastructure.
One of the more popular movements right now is to consider moving to direct colocation. This makes sense at a certain scale and enterprise maturity. However, this may not be the right option for everyone.
An alternative to direct colocation is OpenMetal’s Hosted Private IaaS that can combine the features of a public cloud with all the benefits of a private cloud, including:
- Predictable and transparent fixed costs
- Save up to 50% on a per unit basis compared to the public cloud
- Full control over infrastructure, with root access
- Cloud native environment that supports BMaaS and PCaaS
- Day 2 operation ready
- Ramps to increase infrastructure footprint with business needs
Connect with us to learn more about how OpenMetal IaaS can be a viable colocation alternative.
Benefits and Challenges of Direct Colocation
Colocation services, also known as “colo,” involve renting physical space for your servers and other computing hardware in a third-party data center. The equipment belongs to you while the data center provides the physical infrastructure and related services to house, power, and connect your hardware.
Colocating directly within a data center has traditionally offered several benefits, including greater control over hardware and, if run in an operationally efficient manner, there are potentially significant savings in the long term. However, it also comes with challenges: high initial capex, complex management and maintenance of physical infrastructure and software, operational overhead for the staff to maintain the infrastructure, and managing hardware lifecycles to minimize the effect of technology obsolescence and depreciation, to name a few.
The following are some of the pros and cons of traditional colocation:
Pros
| Capex is much lower as opposed to building and maintaining your own data center. | |
| High availability guaranteed through SLAs | |
| Redundant power, cooling, and network connections | |
| Flexible space to easily scale up or down, but dependent on contractual obligations | |
| Strategic data center locations for latency and disaster recovery | |
| Efficient power and cooling solutions provided by the data center | |
| Compliance with industry standards (e.g., ISO, PCI-DSS) | |
Cons
| Compared to getting a hosted solution, there is significant upfront investment in hardware and setup. | |
| Requires skilled IT staff for management and maintenance | |
| Operational overheads related to continuous need for monitoring and maintenance | |
| Bandwidth management and network redundancy complexities | |
| Physical and data security responsibilities | |
| Dealing with multiple vendors for hardware, software, and services | |
| Managing SLAs and potential disputes | |
| Managing hardware lifecycle to avoid obsolescence | |
| Continuous investment to keep up with technological advancements |
Advantages of Hosted BMaaS and Hosted PCaaS vs. Colocation
Every infrastructure project is unique and within the project itself there will be workloads/business needs that may benefit from one deployment model over another. This following table specifically highlights the advantages of choosing a hosted cloud native BMaaS/PCaaS provider as an alternative to direct colocation, emphasizing factors such as cost efficiency, scalability, management simplicity, and focus on core business activities.
| Factor | Hosted Private BMaaS & PCaaS | Direct Colocation at Third-Party Data Center |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Capital Expenditure | Since there is no need to purchase hardware, the upfront costs are lower. | High initial costs for purchasing and setting up hardware. |
| Operational Overheads | Most providers handle maintenance and management, so there is reduced operational overhead. | Higher operational overheads due to in-house management of hardware and infrastructure. |
| Scalability | Highly scalable, with on-demand resource allocation and quick deployment of additional resources. | Scaling up requires purchasing and installing new hardware, leading to delays and additional costs. |
| Management Complexity | Simplified management with managed services, freeing up IT staff for other tasks. | Complex management, requiring skilled IT staff to handle hardware, software, and network management. |
| Support and Maintenance | Providers offer 24/7 support and proactive maintenance, ensuring high availability and performance. | In-house staff must provide support and maintenance, which can be resource-intensive and require around-the-clock availability. |
| Cost Predictability | Predictable monthly costs with no hidden expenses. | Variable costs due to hardware upgrades, repairs, and other unforeseen expenses. |
| Advanced Networking and Connectivity | Access to optimized network infrastructure with high-speed connections and redundancy. | Managing network bandwidth and ensuring redundancy can be complex and costly. |
| Security and Compliance | Built-in security features and compliance with industry standards, simplifying regulatory adherence. | Ensuring physical and data security, as well as regulatory compliance, requires significant effort and resources. |
| Focus on Core Business Activities | Reduced overhead allows focus on core business activities and strategic initiatives. | Significant time and resources diverted to infrastructure management. |
| Technological Obsolescence | Providers handle hardware upgrades and replacements, ensuring access to the latest technology without additional costs. | Managing hardware lifecycle and technology upgrades is resource-intensive and costly. |
Ready to Explore OpenMetal’s Colocation Alternative?
Our cloud consultants are standing by to help you learn more about how you can benefit from moving your public cloud deployments to a hosted private IaaS platform. Feel free to schedule a time here with our team. Or use the form below to tell us about your requirements, and a cloud consultant will be in touch with you shortly.