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Unisys Cloud Strategy
Cloud computing has suddenly jumped to the top of mind of most enterprises and this interest is driven by a desire to significantly improve business and IT agility, and lower IT costs.
How can IT support the business in the face of constant change, but with less resources and more economically? This is a real challenge given this tough economic climate, along with the businesses need for anytime, anywhere IT. Business forces have caused IT to try to figure out how to provide flexible services faster, but, without large, up front investments. Cloud computing has immediate service availability and with a pay-as-you-go model addresses this need for quick reaction.
View the interactive flash - "Top 9 Reasons Why the Time is Right for Enterprise Cloud Computing".
Along with cloud computing’s advantages, there are three challenges that need to be addressed for cloud computing to be viable for most business workloads. Unisys has invested heavily in these three areas:
- Security - This is the top concern for anyone considering a cloud deployment. Just how do you manage the privacy of your data once it leaves your data center? Unisys provides Stealth, a patent pending technology that allows us to apply security to any workload in a way that only the authorized user community can see and access that data.
- Compliance – Does a cloud provider have the attributes to help you meet your compliance requirements? Unisys offers a unique approach in which we can openly share our cloud compliance attributes, so our customers can demonstrate to their auditors a complete end to end compliance model.
- Application rewrites and migration – Can you move your applications to the cloud without rewriting them? Unisys has a unique approach that eliminates the requirement for customers or independent software vendors (ISVs) to rewrite Microsoft or Java-based applications for operating in a cloud. It starts with our unique security model, and ends with the ability to leverage both scale-up or scale-out and physical or virtual servers.
Because of these challenges, most enterprises current plans for cloud utilization tend toward non- secure workloads, such as Development and Test. The real payoff, i.e. when cloud computing really is an economic advantage is when it is can be used to run the wide variety of cyclical business applications such as finance, budgeting planning, HR, payroll, benefits, email and collaboration, and various business analytics workloads that includes secure data, such as customer, financial, patient, employee, etc.
Why Cloud Now?
Cloud computing represents the convergence of several major technological and business
enablers, including high speed internet connectivity, virtualization, IT automation, and new
delivery and pricing models. The technology is not really new, but, how it has converged and
become pre-packaged is new. Cloud computing goes beyond providing a stack of technology, which
the customer gets to implement then manage. Cloud vendors have prepackaged the technology into
a solution, which is then delivered as a specific service. Because it is a predefined service,
it is very easy to buy, and use. The trick is finding just the services you want tailored to
meet your needs. Since cloud computing is still relatively new, most cloud services available
today tend to be pretty basic, starting with Infrastructure as a Service (“rent a server”).
But, over the next 5-8 years, you will see almost all ISV applications become available as
Software as a Service. But, for the foreseeable future, the cloud market will be very
fragmented, and cloud providers will each have their unique strengths and weaknesses.
Interestingly, today most cloud providers are primarily focused on helping their customers to develop and run new applications. However, Unisys is uniquely focused, on helping our customers and ISV partners to run their existing business applications, securely. The ability to run existing applications will speed our customers’ ability to reap the benefits of cloud computing, and will dramatically lower the costs by eliminating the need to rewrite applications. Of course, security is top concern, especially when you realize that most business applications contain customer data, employee data, patient data, financial data, etc which must be secured and protected.
Application Rewrites and Migration - Can You Move Your Applications to the Cloud Without
Rewriting Them?
Security is the top concern, and for good reason. By definition a cloud is a shared computing
resource, used by multiple tenants. Multiple tenants can include different users within the
same company. Imagine having a mix of sensitive employee data, customer data, and financial
data all on the same cloud resources. This is possible on a cloud, whether it is internal or
external. So, how do you keep the data protected?
The normal approach to securing such workloads is to isolate the workloads, and this is accomplished by using firewalls and encryption software. There are two huge negative impacts to this approach. First, this forces changes to applications to accommodate the firewalls and encryption, etc. Second, it forces the cloud “provider” to isolate the servers and storage for each workload. Once this happens, you no longer have a shared resource, and the economic benefits of cloud consolidation go away.
Unisys addresses this challenge with unique patent pending technology we call Stealth. Stealth allows multiple workloads to run together on a shared secure cloud. Of key importance, we do this without requiring any changes to the applications. Stealth’s value-add technology is able to isolate each workloads data, and ensures that only authorized users and applications can access the data. Even the cloud provider cannot see the data. Bottom line: Unisys customers get the full economic benefits of cloud computing, with a simple, easy to deploy security solution. Unisys customers can run a wide variety of business applications and data including financial, employee, customer, patient, etc. with security and compliance requirements.
Learn more about Unisys Cloud offerings
Unisys Cloud Computing has made quite an impact in the marketplace.
We’ve been highlighted in many industry publications. Visit Unisys in the News to see some of the articles where we’ve been mentioned.
Become a Unisys Fan on Facebook, and check out the new “Cloud” tab!
Visit us on YouTube for the latest episode of Unisys Cloud TV
Follow us on Twitter!
For a deep-dive, visit the Cloud and IT Automation Solutions, for the complete list of our Cloud Computing offerings.
How It Works/Business Benefits
Unisys Secure Cloud
Video
Unisys Secure Cloud provides tailored secure solutions so businesses can confidently move more
data and applications to the cloud.
Stealth Solution
Video
Stealth allows multiple user communities to share the same IT infrastructure, securely. Stealth
isolates applications so that only the authorized users can see and access the data unique to
that application. And, it works without application changes.
Stealth Solution for Network
Video
Stealth encrypts data with AES-256 encryption, parses the encrypted data at the bit-level into
a site-specified number of slices then sends them securely through any network.
Unisys Secure
Private Cloud 1.0 Datasheet
The Unisys Secure Private Cloud is a pre-integrated, internal private cloud solution that
enables organizations to transform their data center operations into an agile, efficient and
highly automated infrastructure.
Secure Cloud Solution
Service Brief
Unisys Secure Cloud Solution is a flexible, purpose-built cloud designed to run even the most
secure workloads. It is built from the ground up with the most advanced security available
within a cloud environment. It leverages our unique, patent-pending Stealth technology.
A New Era in IT:
Cloud Computing Takes Center Stage
Our experienced technologists and outsourcing specialists clarify both the strategic
implications of cloud computing, the right cloud environment and the tactical steps required
for successful migration.
Business Service
Governance Managing from Above the Clouds
This paper explains the concept of “business service governance” and describes the Unisys
point-of-view regarding a real-time “sense-and-respond” loop.
Enterprise
Cloud Delivery with
Unisys
This paper explores a new approach to delivering IT in the enterprise through an enterprise
cloud delivery (ECD) model.
The Perfect
Storm for Enterprise-class Clouds
This white paper describes three key characteristics of cloud computing: elasticity, utility,
and ubiquity.
Webinar - Managing the Cloud:
Are You Comfortable with Where Your Data Sleeps at Night (Registration required)
Unisys Sam Gross talks about how the economy is accelerating a tectonic shift in IT and how it
supports the business. He also discusses how to transform a traditional data center that is
inflexible, less flexible, and costly to a cloud computing environment that is secure,
virtualized, and automated - requiring less investment.
Webinar - Moving
Applications to the Cloud - Determining What Applications Make Sense for Your
Business
Not sure which applications make sense for moving to a Cloud platform? This webinar will share
a logical approach to understanding IT demands, and how to create an application roadmap to the
cloud that decreases risk and provides the most value.
Webinar - Cloud Computing Security –
Ensuring Data protection in the Cloud
Learn why the majority of current security measures related to Cloud are fallible and what you
can do to truly protect your data in the Cloud. This webinar discusses best practices and
questions you should ask your Cloud provider.
See what our Cloud Computing experts have to say!
Sam
Gross
Vice President of Global IT Outsourcing Solutions
“Until they are convinced that there is ‘industrial-strength’ security in the cloud, CIOs will remain reluctant to move more than development and test systems into that environment. This is why we have made comprehensive security and data protection integral parts of the Unisys cloud computing strategy and solutions.” - Voice and Data Online
Rich
Marcello
President of Technology, Consulting and Integration Solutions (TCIS)
“We believe our strong heritage in Data Center Transformation and Outsourcing is foundational to cloud computing - you can't begin to offer a cloud computing solution unless you understand the data center and are true experts.” - Virtualization
Jason
Noel
Leader of the Unisys IT Management Advisory Services Global Service Line practice
“By understanding business behavior in digital terms, we can develop a cloud that will support any workload that is thrown at it.”
