In the modern world, there are various factors that need to be taken into consideration if you want to achieve sustainable, long-lasting success. The quality of your goods or services, for instance, are incredibly important – if they are lacking in this department, the reality of the situation is that your business will fall by the wayside. Similarly, you will need to constantly update and improve your customer service capabilities, as these will be routinely called-upon by your audience. However, by far-and-away the most crucial in this day-and-age is your website, hence why this is an area that is worth investing in.
Here at catalyst2, we take great pride in having an excellent working knowledge of the technical landscape. Having been operating for over twenty years, we have seen hosting trends come-and-go in relation to websites. Currently, it is the cloud-based systems that are seeing their demand continue to rise, and there are no-signs to suggest that this trend is going to slow down. Below, we have taken the liberty of showcasing the advantages that can be enjoyed when utilising cloud storage and resources, as well as what you need to take into account when choosing a service provider.
Cloud Servers, An Introduction
As we have already mentioned, the importance of your website cannot be stressed enough; whilst there are certain industries that still rely on word of mouth, this is a platform that you can use to reach new audiences on a daily basis. However, if prospective customers were to see that your website is sub-par, it will not take long for them to take their business elsewhere. Case-and-point, if your loading times are excessively long, they will become increasingly frustrated, to the point that they will find a different company to help them. It is for this reason that you should constantly be on the lookout for ways in which to improve your site; this is where investing in a cloud server can pay dividends.
In case you weren’t already aware, a server is what allows your website to be found on the Internet. Without this, you would be left with a site that is, to all intents and purposes, useless. With so many different options from which to choose from, you might be left wondering why it is that you should opt for a cloud-based system as opposed to a dedicated server that is physical. First-and-foremost, you should be aware that the latter, whilst notorious for its speed, is not quite as good from a security standpoint. As the years have gone-by, the capabilities of cyber criminals have improved, which has put businesses across the globe at risk. Naturally, you will want to do everything in your power to protect yourself – although public cloud systems are not perfect, private servers will offer you the finest cyber protection measures on the market. – Read more
Offering huge savings on hardware and access to technologies like AI, ML, automation and big data, companies have flocked to the cloud over the last decade. There is, however, yet another reason to adopt cloud technology: it can make your company more sustainable. Here we look at the benefits of being more sustainable and how the cloud helps your business achieve this.
The benefits of sustainability
The most obvious and important benefit of making your business more sustainable is that you are playing your part in helping to make the world a better place. By cutting greenhouse gas emissions, recycling, reducing plastic and other pollution, and procuring sustainably resourced products, materials and services, the positive impact you have on the environment can be significant.
Another factor, growing in importance, is that consumers are wanting to reduce their own impact by buying sustainable products and services from eco-friendly brands. According to separate Gartner and KMPG reports, 87% of consumers have a more positive view of companies that support environmental issues, 56% take sustainability into account when looking for products and services and, since the pandemic, 37% are now prioritising sustainability when they shop. This is a trend that goes beyond consumer purchasing decisions; businesses increasingly want greener supply chains and partners, while employees want to work for sustainable companies. Becoming greener, therefore, can increase sales, loyalty and make it easier to employ the best talent.
If corporate responsibility and market forces don’t drive sustainability improvements, then regulations will. Governments across the globe are setting ambitious targets for the achievement of net-zero emissions and businesses will be compelled to comply. Though this will require a significant amount of effort over the next few decades, governments will expect to see progress towards their targets and legal measures are already being put into place to achieve these. In the UK, for example, firms will have to complete sustainability disclosures and the sale of gas-powered boilers and combustible engine vehicles will cease. Companies that fail to comply face a double whammy of fines and reputational damage.
How cloud improves sustainability
As businesses grow more reliant on IT, their IT-related carbon footprint increases. Today, this accounts for 4% of the world’s electricity use and 1.4% of global carbon emissions. This trend is moving upwards and as IT use becomes more prolific, predictions estimate that emissions will rise ten-fold to 14% in the next twenty years.
Adopting cloud services can help businesses reduce their environmental impact. One of the chief reasons is that, compared to in-house data centres, cloud vendors invest heavily in tools that help them manage and continuously optimise energy usage. Operating on such a large scale and with significant energy bills resulting, even before sustainability became such a priority, economic forces have driven improvements in energy efficiency in power conditioning, cooling and lighting.
What’s more, the economies of scale of the cloud enable vendors to operate more efficiently. Indeed, some cloud datacentres can be over three times more efficient and generate almost 90% fewer carbon emissions than in-house datacentres. This can be achieved through the adoption of more efficient technologies, like SSD drives, and via dynamic provisioning, where server capacity is matched with real-time demand to minimise overprovisioning and energy waste. At the same time, a cloud vendor is better able to utilise servers, so that fewer are needed. – Read more
While VDI was introduced decades back, its pricing is still a persistent concern.
Do you want to understand the VDI pricing of different related solutions?
The VDI costs are dependent on various factors, including hardware management, hardware purchase costs, licensing charges, and other additional costs. From the space you need to execute processes to the energy usage throughout the year, everything requires some amount of capital expenses and ongoing expenses.
This article discusses complete VDI pricing. Plan and create an affordable, flexible structure for a high return on investment for your business.
VDI Pricing Guide
Your VDI pricing depends on various factors, including licenses, hardware lifetime, energy spending, etc. Let’s see how you can calculate the VDI costs for your organization:
Hardware Life
A major cost is the lifetime of your hardware. Usually, the lifetime of your VDI servers is 5 years or less than that. Therefore, we will calculate the VDI costs, keeping 5 years as a reference. If you are using thin clients, they may last for up to 7 years.
Licenses
If you purchase the license of VMWare Horizon for your VDI architecture, you need to pay approximately USD 2200-2400 for 10 sessions. This is when you include hardware and support for one year. Now, according to the employees of your organization, considering their time zones and working patterns, you can take around 100-160 sessions for 200 employees or users.
If you take 120 sessions on average, your pricing will be 12 x USD 2200 or USD 2400. This means around USD 28,800 costing for licenses.
On top of this, you need to add Microsoft licenses for your computers and other features. Fortunately, you can get this license for USD 5 every month for one user. Thus, for 200 users, you will require USD 60,000 for MS licenses in 5 years. If you consider other licenses, your VDI costs for the same can go up to USD 1,00,000.
Hardware Costing
Ultimately, VDI is acquiring some space somewhere, so your major costs are only in these hardware resources. Let’s calculate them one by one:
If all your desktops are equipped with 6 GB RAM and 2 CPU cores, you need at least two processors and 320 MB RAM for your server. If the 10-core processor and RAM cost you USD 5,000 for five years, you need to pay for multiple such servers. With our calculation, you need at least 4 servers for this setup, which becomes USD 20,000 for services.
The storage resources for your desktops go up to at least 4 TB for all 200 users. Below this, you will compromise on performance. If you take 10 TB storage for extra space and scalability, you must spend at least USD 20,000 for SSD storage.
Add to this the core switches for networking, amounting to USD 5,000.
Here, the total hardware VDI pricing will be USD 45,000.
There’s an additional cost of thin clients that can go up to USD 40,000 for five years.
Energy Costing
Every thin client takes around 400W/day, which will go up to 92000 kW/h when calculated for 5 years. Now, multiply this to 4 servers or the number of servers you have, which will be around 129000 kW/h.
At minimal pricing of USD 0.15 for a kW/h, you need to spend around USD 50,000.
Operational Costing
Operational costs are the people you need to support to manage your VDI. Therefore, your comprehensive VDI costing also includes the costing of your IT staff. Now, this depends on your organization completely. But, if you are supporting 4 servers, then you may have to spend up to USD 30,000 for your staff in one year. Now, add it up for five years. The total will be around USD 150000.
Total Cost
Adding every cost discussed above, we get roughly USD 373800. This costing can go up to USD 580000, considering other factors.
How VDI On The Cloud Is Cost-Efficient?
VDI on the cloud is more cost-efficient when compared to on-premise Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. In this service structure, the VDI provider manages and maintains your architecture and virtual desktops. From security to multi-factor authentication, various components of desktop virtualization are handled by the cloud provider. You only need to acquire these services at a monthly charge, which justifies the efforts of the provider and other tangible costs.
What cloud VDI includes:
Storage requirements of your business
Management of desktop virtualization
Maintenance of virtual desktops
On-demand resource scaling
Security of virtual desktops
Remote accessibility of data via a remote network
99.99% or more uptime
Backup and disaster recovery support
IT support
For all these services and seamless management, the cloud service provider offers you cloud VDI at a designated charge.
For example, Ace Cloud Hosting offers hosted VDI starting at USD 25/user. This is a dedicated plan curated by their experts. If you need a customized plan, tell your requirements, and they will get back to you with a feasible and efficient VDI pricing plan.
Comparison
If we compare the cost of maintaining and managing on-premise VDI and VDI on the cloud, here’s what we get:
VDI Pricing
Cloud VDI Pricing
USD 3,73,800 for 5 years
USD 3,00,000 for 5 years
In the case of VDI, we have calculated the lowest pricing for resources, hardware, and software. There are unplanned maintenance charges, unexpected downtimes, and unexpected system crashes. These add up to the cost, and you end up spending more than USD 5,80,000 in 5 years on VDI. However, cloud VDI pricing is much more efficient. There’s a nominal recurring charge which includes everything. The only VDI cost at your end is managing your hardware units or end devices.
Conclusion
The bottom line is profitability and feasibility, both of which you get with VDI on the cloud. The hosted VDI infrastructure is cost-effective, simple, secure, and flexible for any type of business. Whether you need to manage ten employees or hundreds of members, cloud VDI can support your business-critical applications. You can easily access data remotely, secure your organizational information exchange, and scale on-demand. Find the right cloud service provider and implement cloud VDI for your organization now.
