C4L Talk Cloud Computing

Introduction to this month's guest Blogger: Laura Bentham from C4L (Bournemouth Offices).
C4L offer secure, 24/7, high speed connectivity to 26 data centres across the UK and Europe.

Rocktime and C4L have a very close working relationship; developed through years of partnering on colocation projects together, helping clients to choose the best Internet Infrastructure and connectivity solutions.


C4L Talk Cloud Computing

Like renting a room when you need it, rather than buying the hotel.

When Rocktime kindly asked if we’d like to do a guest blog for their August takeover, we jumped at the chance. What’s always been strikingly apparent about Rocktime is their passion when talking about their current interests, and indeed industry themes.

Because of this, we chose to talk today about one of our passions: virtualisation, and why technology consumers should learn to love the cloud.

Not only has ‘cloud computing’ become a fashionable phrase among IT professionals, but the cloud computing market is also estimated to contribute £25 billion to the British economy by 2015.

Despite this, so many people remain unaware of what ‘the cloud’ is, and even more so, what it actually does.

In short, anytime you are using IT, which is not on your own physical computing device, you are using the cloud. If you upload data as a backup to a storage location, via the Internet, you've just used the cloud. Equally, if your work station is simply a screen, a mouse and a keyboard, you may well be connecting to the cloud for your personal computing. There are hundreds of different ways of using cloud technology, and in fact, most people will have already used the cloud without even realising.

So why do we need the cloud, and how can it benefit businesses?

As technology advances and physical servers become more and more powerful, in terms of their capacity and reliability, there is less often the need for a dedicated physical server. Using a virtualised, or cloud based alternative, clients are able to run their IT infrastructure at a much cheaper cost, yet still take advantage of all the same benefits provided by a classic server model.

You see, to us, the beauty of the cloud is in its convenient application. One of the key benefits to organisations is that virtualisation technology allows servers to be dynamically scaled up -or down, to suit requirements, providing a much more flexible environment than ever experienced before.

What’s more is that the security within a virtualised environment is second to none. Using hypervisor technology, virtualised servers are created as entirely self-contained environments, inaccessible to outside parties. Virtualisation also removes the need for organisations to operate physical servers from their office, meaning they eliminate the risk of damage or destruction, that can so easily be caused by those inevitable office accidents.

If you’d like any more information on C4L’s cloud computing solutions please contact our sales team on 08000 470 481 or visit our website www.C4L.co.uk.


Author: Laura Bentham, C4L