IT
in the clouds Hosted desktops help ease pressure on the bottom line while introducing improvements including physical and online security. By Joseph Blass
W Below Joseph Blass, CEO of WorkPlaceLive
ith the oil and gas sector under continued price pressure, steps are still being taken to reduce costs. Is anything left to cut without compromising performance? And can a company operate with a smaller headcount while having the best IT at its disposal at no capital cost? One area where overheads can be reduced significantly, service levels and online security are improved, and productivity increased, is in outsourcing IT to the cloud. A cost comparison between in-house and cloud computing demonstrates the value of the move. Companies whose operations are widely dispersed, regionally or globally, are particularly suited to migrating their IT to the cloud. SMEs especially benefit through sharing the costs of the same enterprise-grade software, high end hardware and security that their larger counterparts have been enjoying for years.
How the cloud works for SMEs With the hosted desktop approach to cloud computing, staff, wherever they are located, see the same desktop screen they are familiar with, regardless of the access device they are using. All computing is carried out on servers in a secure remote data centre. At the high end of hosted desktop offerings the data centre is supported by a second, which
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ENERGY,oil&gas
energy-oil-gas.com
takes over in the event of business continuity being required. Access devices include an organisation’s existing laptops, desktop computers, tablets and smartphones or, optionally, thin clients. Data backups, built-in resilience and data restoration strategies help keep downtime to a minimum, as good if not better than can be achieved in-house because of the array of technology, processes and procedures utilised by the hosted desktop provider. If the provider is ISO 27001 accredited, its customers can rest assured that every element of the operation of each data centre conforms to the global gold standard in information security management. ISO 27001 also applies to every aspect of business continuity planning and execution.
What does all this mean for the energy sector? What does it impact? IT hardware inventory and costs. Servers, desktops and laptops typically need replacing every few years. Your company might be thinking about making them last for as long as possible. It’s one option to consider but there is a capital, support and potential performance cost to that. In their place you could have thin clients accessing all library files and applications. Thin clients are essentially ‘plug and play’ keyboards with a screen costing as little as £200 each.