Cloud improves Intel's 'business agility'

Cloud improves Intel's 'business agility'

Technology giant Intel is said to have ‘transformed’ its business by using the cloud, with 80 per cent of its new business services now delivered through the medium.

Intel first began implementing cloud computing processes in 2009, when it rolled out a multi-year enterprise cloud computing strategy. Alongside its public cloud offerings, it also began introducing a private cloud system to support its business as a whole.

Now, the firm deploys the vast majority of its services within the cloud framework, and has seen huge improvements in flexibility and productivity, as well as major cost savings as a result. Intel has now also created a roadmap to public-private (hybrid) cloud, in order to realise even greater levels of efficiency across its business.

Last year, the firm introduced its first fully integrated hybrid cloud for IaaS, enabling it to launch capabilities in areas where it had no data centre presence. Liam Keating, Intel IT Director, APAC, China & Japan, told Information Week: “In 2012, we launched our first fully integrated, secure hybrid cloud to support our software development teams worldwide. Our hybrid cloud enables our developers to launch services in five to 10 days in a new location instead of having to wait 90 to 120 days for a data centre to be retrofitted. Consumer-facing web services can now be quickly scaled for global presence”.

The hybrid cloud hosting strategy used by the firm allows it to adjust capacity across its public and private hosting environments, tailoring it to a wide selection of suppliers. This is an essential facet when creating consumer-facing web services, which require high levels of flexibility and availability and may well have unpredictable demand cycles.

Keating also made mention of this year’s creation of an open source private cloud environment, which allows Intel to offer a complete infrastructure as a service (IaaS). “Our open source and self-service model enables us to deliver new capacity faster and at lower cost, allowing us to extend the value of our private cloud to more usages. This supports our roadmap for increasing scalability, solutions, and cost efficiency”, Keating concluded.

Businesses looking to move services into the cloud, should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.