The Challenge
A Denver organization focuses on assisting smaller, impoverished countries around the world whose resources and political landscape did not allow for internal assistance, and/or were torn by political corruption. (A similar scenario would be a non-profit foundation assisting with a strategy and solution to bring sustainable water to a remote area in an African country.) However, their mission was being held back by their inability to perform heavy workloads and processes using bandwidth from around the globe efficiently.
Their servers and their firewall were contained within the small office building where their headquarters resided. The data – and access to that data – needed full-time connectivity to the database as it was updated from on-site locations, as well as, their home office. In short, the organization’s capabilities to operate on a world-wide scale were restricted by the fact that their hardware and network existed within their own office building.
The solutions to their problem required an infrastructure which would be available and capable 24/7, with full bandwidth, anywhere, and at any time.
The organization enlisted TrinWare as their MSP partner. Multiple options were explored based on the client’s unique needs, including the idea of using a data center local to the geographic areas they operated in. After multiple solutions were discussed and tested, an ideal IT infrastructure solution was determined.
Our Solution
The original idea was to purchase new physical hardware and utilize data center colocation services. However, the hardware, as well as, the bandwidth needed was far too expensive for the use-case. Expanding to support a global organization would have cost over $35,000 in hardware alone. That’s when the idea to leverage the superior global scale and OpEx pricing models of the cloud were explored.
The first and best decision was to utilize Microsoft’s Azure product. Upon research and certification, it was discovered that Azure would not only be able to serve the virtual hardware, but also dedicated SQL database, and dedicated, securely fire-walled networks across different “lanes” of traffic.
We, as their Denver IT MSP, could separate amongst multiple networks to serve multiple functions securely while enabling the two networks to communicate with one another. This resolution – along with the storage options and bandwidth allowed – solved their global scale and capacity issues. They would now be operating seamlessly regardless of which country around the world their mission was taking them.
The Strengths of Azure
Azure’s scalability and the ability to scale on the fly is one of its stronger features. The capability to switch machines and networks speaks to how Microsoft Azure can be leveraged in nearly any environment. It’s a perfect IT solution for any organization needing a flexible infrastructure. Whether the scale is global or local, it fits with today’s heavily technology-driven world.
Our estimation is that Microsoft’s Azure could be used for over 80% of the world’s technical infrastructure necessities. With a focus on security, storage, bandwidth, and a portfolio of customizable services, Azure can serve a host of functions in a modern IT environment. TrinWare believes this falls under one of the old adages, “see it to believe it.” In this scenario with this client, inversely, believing is seeing.
Azure truly has the ability to help not only large organizations but also SMB dreams as well. There is no longer a need to purchase $35,000+ worth of hardware to have access to limited functions to run your business. A few clicks with Azure and you’ve got everything, from anywhere in the world, that your organization needs to get work done.
The big win for the client and TrinWare is the seamless process we bring to your organization. TrinWare is confident that with any scope, and any project, the key takeaway that can be presented is, “Yes, Azure can do that and do it well.” If you aren’t an Azure evangelist yet, let it change your organization overnight, and that might help you believe what you are seeing.
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