The higher support level - public cloud computing
Public cloud computing means flexible service procurement based on actual demand and billing based on actual consumption. The advantages are obvious. Capex becomes opex. The need for investment in IT infrastructure and the associated risks are shifted to the service providers.
Freedom for agility
Operating costs are reduced because IT resources no longer have to be kept in stock to cover peak loads. Personnel costs for system support are reduced, as there is significantly less demand for IT expertise that has been proven for the company's own organization.
There is an increasing demand for experts who are able to sensibly record the corresponding requirements in the portals of the public cloud providers. In short: Public cloud computing reduces costs and creates scope for more agility and innovation.
However, not every company - or more precisely, every application solution - can benefit a priori from this value proposition. The reason: public cloud computing only works for standardized services.
A public cloud service provider like AWS needs to appeal to a large user base in order to offer highly scalable services in pay-as-you-go models.
This premise is comparatively easy to uphold for the IT substructure. This cannot be said for the level of business solutions, which map business-critical processes on the basis of SAP, in-house developments and other standard software.
As a rule, much more individuality and depth of support are required here. The interfaces to other applications in particular require higher levels of support and service above the operating system level.
Despite all this, the door to public cloud services is still open to companies. The key again lies in cloud computing, or more precisely in combining the public cloud with private cloud features to create a hybrid model.
Individual support and service
The above-mentioned restrictions regarding the public cloud relate to the process level. The reservations do not apply to the IT infrastructure resources required by the applications.
What is missing is a suitable offer of an individual support and service level that dynamically adapts to the company's needs and is ideally based on the pay-as-you-go model in terms of billing.
In simplified terms, the private cloud means the operation of a cloud environment under one's own responsibility, whether in the corporate data center or as part of outsourcing.
The structure and support are geared to the individual needs of a company's application landscape and business processes. The advantage is that its structure is tailored to the individual application landscape and business processes of a company.
What companies lack for a successful cloud strategy is a control component that, like the BTC Cloud Integrator (BCI), combines the advantages of both worlds. Based on highly standardized cloud services à la AWS, the Cloud Integrator provides integrative service & support services with the necessary degree of customization.
Deep into the application level
The Managed Services offer supports the entire lifecycle of the business applications. The regular support services extend deep into the cloud and into the application level.
This applies, for example, to the monitoring environment or the IT service desk, which are supplied with messages from the complete system landscape, from AWS resources to Solution Manager for SAP applications.
With this tool set, the BCI ensures the application lifecycle meets high stability criteria when a company makes a change or update from a process or application perspective.
Put simply, a component like BCI closes the service and support gap for an application landscape that is partially or fully mapped to a public cloud like AWS.
At the same time, individual service and support requirements can be met flexibly and billed according to consumption. In other words, the gateway to (public) cloud resources is also wide open for your specialist applications.
