Cloud-Ready Networks for Oil & Gas Companies

Rather than working with applications installed on servers at various office and site locations, the new cloud computing model promises to allow oil and gas companies to centralize increasing numbers of applications within the cloud, drawing on them as required and even paying for them as they are used.

This new model is set to reduce costs drastically and improve the flexibility of moving to new software models. Today, CIOs want to benefit from these cost and efficiency benefits, but they want to do so with confidence. CIOs want to adopt cloud computing, but as with any change, the transition isn’t a simple one. In order to be able to guarantee the performance of applications delivered from increasingly remote locations, the corporate network takes center stage.

CIOs at oil and gas companies have operations in multiple countries and a large number of sites – they must be sure that each time a user attempts to use SAP or Oracle software located within the cloud, the network can support the request in the most intelligent way.

Network challenges posed by the cloud
Cloud computing is an amorphous term with varying definitions, but central to each is on-demand computing, where applications and infrastructure are delivered to users as a service, via the network. Applications like SAP, Oracle, Unified Communications, VoIP and telepresence all have varying performance requirements and must be treated appropriately by the Wide Area Network (WAN). Cloud computing is simplifying information technology through centralization, but this very centralization adds complexity to network management. Regardless of what speed companies are moving at, they all have to cope with a combination of private and public IT environments. What remains constant is the application performance level that users expect. That’s why CIOs require the performance of each application to be guaranteed, not at the network level but at the individual user level.

Oil and gas companies need to understand what applications are running on their network and guarantee delivery of critical, time-sensitive applications like Citrix, VoIP and centralized applications. They can also cut costs by avoiding bandwidth upgrades, which can prove to be very costly especially in places like Africa where the infrastructure is not widely in place.

Moving to cloud-ready networks
Today’s WANs are not cloud-ready, and the times where applications could easily fall into the ‘business critical’ or ‘recreational’ bracket is over. Facebook, YouTube and many other social media applications are now business tools for an increasing portion of the workforce. As the share of the Internet traffic continues to grow within enterprise WANs, hybrid networks are a natural and cost-effective path.

SaaS applications start to offer extremely compelling alternatives to mature enterprise applications such as collaboration or CRM. Efficiency and flexibility improvements can be achieved simply by adopting underlying cloud technologies, such as virtualization, into private data centers. Once this first step is mastered, oil and gas companies can further embrace the cloud by migrating IT resources, including computing power and storage, to public cloud IaaS services.

With cloud computing, situations are too complex and change too fast for legacy and static policy based management. To exploit the value of private and public without risks, while fully leveraging their existing investments at the same time, VPNs must evolve to cloud-ready networks that:

Understand, control and optimize all application flows
Encompass all users, wherever they are located
Handle all complex and dynamic traffic mix
Support all application delivery models; public, private and hybrid
Match oil and gas company requirements for growth, agility and flexibility

A cloud-ready network means oil and gas companies can embrace XaaS (SaaS, IaaS or PaaS) without any risk for the overall business application performance. A cloud-ready network is one that inherits from the cost effectiveness of the cloud. It’s a network that will support any IT initiatives, either public, private or both, today and tomorrow.

If oil and gas companies are set to join the cloud computing revolution, then there must be recognition that old legacy multi-site WANs become an increasingly strategic asset which must be governed and able to support the highly complex demands of cloud IT systems.

WAN Governance
As oil and gas companies realize the need for cloud-ready networks, WAN Governance becomes critical. Cloud computing is possibly the most exciting opportunity in enterprise computing today as it allows for drastic cost reduction and an increase in the flexibility of deploying new IT systems. If you’re an IT department with a cloud-based strategy it’s important to ask the question: how are we going to guarantee application performance? We recommend that all businesses make WAN Governance a standard approach to ensure that everyone experiences the benefits of cloud computing, including end-users without the challenges.

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Brian

Managing Partner at meshIP, LLC

Brian Byrne is the founder and Managing Partner of Dallas based meshIP, a technology services firm offering cloud computing strategies and services. He is an accomplished executive with senior management experience in all facets of the technology, telecom, cloud computing, and SaaS industries. He has proven success in developing, financing and executing strategic plans as well as launching new ventures. His background includes a record of significant achievement in international business development and his credentials include a MBA in Marketing and Management Strategy from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS from the School of Computer Science at DePaul University, and a BBA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

He is also the inventor of the patented meshDETECT, Secure Prison Cell Phone Solutions.

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