The Ethiopian Cloud
5 Key Advantages of using a local cloud provider
Getting your Cloud computing choices right is a dilemma that many companies today face. How do you choose the best provider for your business? Should you use an international provider? Will their customer service help you solve local issues? If you’ve never used cloud resources, before making the decision which cloud provider to select, you must understand the benefits of using cloud services over on premise resources. To help you, we need to have a deeper look into the details of each possibility and how they cater for your company’s needs. In the end, it is a question of time and money, but also of quality, flexibility, support, security, scaleability and peace of mind.
The benefits of using cloud computing has been praised in thousands of articles around the world. It represents the best way to access and use top of the line hardware and networking resources without having to invest in your own data room. Cloud services are billed on-demand or by subscription, meaning no upfront payments are necessary, rather you only pay if and when you use the service. Cloud computing is far more scalable than using your server room resources as you can increase or decrease resources in minutes. Even in the best case scenario increasing on premise resources takes days or weeks even months. Cloud computing provides more benefits, such as high security (both physical and network) very high data durability, lower costs for electricity, cooling and often connectivity. Just to name a few.
Where is the Cloud?
Data is not really stored in the sky, rather it is kept in various Data centres around the world. These Data centres are either a) owned and operated by a single tenant, b) provide colocation services where the owner and operator leases space and shares resources with the tenants or c) are used for providing Cloud services.
When the term ‘Cloud’ was coined, it was done to indicate an anonymous and ubiquitous server space without a physical location. It was away from your premises, but it could have been down the street or on the other side of the planet. The point was that the location of the Data centre providing your Cloud services, did not matter. Today we realise this is not really true. Location is important.
Data centre location does matter.
Due to Ethiopia specific reasons, the location of the Data centre for Ethiopian customers, is even more critical than in some other countries. Ethiopia has a lack of foreign currency which makes it hard to pay international cloud providers. In addition, non of the largest cloud providers have a local footprint, meaning customers would have to access their cloud from Data centres in Europe or South Africa, incurring very high international connectivity costs. Not to mention that they don’t provide local customer support and improve local communities by increasing employment, transferring know-how and investing locally.
What to look for in a Data centre?
A good Data centre will have a state-of-the-art facility with redundant power supply, efficient cooling system, early fire detection, a very advanced fire suppression system, very high physical and network security measures operated by skilled staff.
A great Data centre will have all of the above, providing customers peace of mind through very high security, redundancy, data durability and flexibility, but will also have certificates for design and operation from the Uptime Institute of tier III level or above, will conform to international Data centre standards while running on 100% renewable energy all while supporting its local community and helping companies manage their digitalisation processes.
Now that you have a better idea as to what to look for in a Data centre, let’s have a look at the advantages of working with a local Cloud provider.
ADVANTAGE #1: PRICE
International Cloud providers charge in hard currency and often only accept credit card payments. By using their services, you would have to deplete your hard currency reserves for services you can now purchase locally at the same or higher quality standards.
Sun Data World: We make sure that you get the value for the service you pay for. Having your Cloud solution here in Ethiopia means that you can pay for it in Ethiopian Birr and maintain your hard currency for other important uses. Add to that a more flexible system of billing, depending on your choice of either on-demand or subscription models, all completed through local bank transfers. Our Data centre and Cloud solutions, being locally positioned, benefit from lower supply costs which allow us to transfer savings to you, the customer and be very competitive in our pricing.
ADVANTAGE #2: LOW LATENCY
A local Data centre ensures far lower latency and greater speed of access to your data. This is because the data is cached locally and does not travel through an infinite number of kilometres. Companies who use international providers in various places around the world learn to accept the latency as part of the price of doing business, or are lucky to have their location close to a Data centre.
Sun Data World: Lower your latency by working with a Data centre closest to where your audience is.
ADVANTAGE #3: HYBRID CHOICE
Choosing a Cloud provider is no longer a linear proposition. A good provider can propose hybrid solutions combining Public Cloud with Colocation services or customer on premise hardware creating a Hybrid cloud – tailored to your needs.
Being locally present allows more flexibility in working with customers to provide solid, taylor made Hybrid Cloud solutions. A financial services provider in Addis Ababa, for example, may wish to keep certain critical data in a dedicated server on their premises, but they use Cloud for the other 90% of their data needs to which their wider network of partners can also access if needed. Being able to integrate on premise and Cloud solutions is a significant benefit allowing better scaleability and resource optimisation.
Sun Data World: We believe technology should never become an operational bottleneck or cost you in lost profits and or time. It is for this reason that we have decided to combine a Colocation service with Cloud solutions to provide a Hybrid cloud with benefits to our customers such as faster time to market, better scaleability, hardware optimisation and more.
ADVANTAGE #4: SCALABILITY
Scalability, or your ability to grow or decrease your hardware resources at a moments notice, is a major benefit for companies that have large peak hour usage or need to change their capacity often. A startup that is growing rapidly may need to upgrade its capacity on a monthly basis. A large enterprise might find that their in-house resources cover their average usage requirements, but that during peak hours, it can’t provide the same level of service.
Sun Data World: We shorten your capacity expansion from months to seconds. Forget about long procurement processes and complicated installations. With us you can stop worrying whether you purchased the correct configuration or the correct amount of servers, racks, network hardware. With Sun Data World, you can configure you’re virtual server in minutes or even seconds. And if you find that you chose the wrong one, or that you selected a larger capacity than you need, simply close that server.
ADVANTAGE #5: NO VENDOR LOCK-IN
Most major Cloud providers have a system of vendor lock-in, where once you become their customer, it becomes very hard to leave. As a customer, you do not want to be put in a situation where you are dependent on a provider, unable to use another without substantial switching costs.
Sun Data World: We make it easy for you to use our services, but also to use other providers as well. The driving force of Sun Data World is to act as your partner in Cloud computing and data management. In this way, it is in our interest to make the process as easy for you as possible.
ADVANTAGE #6: API
Having the ability to integrate with existing Cloud solutions or platforms you use, provides flexibility and ease of work.
Sun Data World: We provide our application programming interface (API), which allows your developers to manipulate remote resources through protocols, specific standards for communication that allow different technologies to work together, regardless of language or platform.
ADVANTAGE #7: LOCAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Sometimes you simply need someone to call, to help, that understands your language or specific localised issue.
Sun Data World: We hire local technicians who can support you in whatever issue you may have, whether acting as your remote arm to handle hardware issues for Colocation customers or simply to help you with setting up and launching in the Cloud.
ADVANTAGE #8: SUSTAINABILITY
Data centres running on traditional power sources greatly contribute to the ever present issue of Global warming and Climate change. At more than three percent of the global electricity supply and about two percent of total greenhouse gas emission, traditionally powered Data centres have the same carbon footprint as the aviation industry. Although most international Cloud providers are working hard to reach sustainable operations, running on renewable energy, they are still far from the target.
Sun Data World: We run on 100% renewable power. Sustainable development is in the core of our business and our values. We believe it is our responsibility to operate in a sustainable manner, keeping our carbon footprint low and maximising energy efficiency. It is our duty to be responsible to all our stakeholders, including the environment, supporting our community.
Introducing the Ethiopian Cloud
Sun Data World, the first Ethiopian professionally managed Data centre and Cloud provider, has been conceived to meet all your Cloud computing and Hybrid Cloud needs as well as provide you a high quality Colocation service. Sun Data World exists in fact, to help you digitalise, lower CAPEX expenses, increase output, lower your IT risk and more. Our colocation service allows you to install your hardware at their state-of-the-art data facility and begin saving money immediately while boosting your output and efficiency! Our Cloud services will provide you additional resources at a fraction of the price of buying new hardware.
For more information, please contact us today at Sun Data World.