1-Net: Acing the Cloud Journey

“Alchemy is built around the philosophy that robust and secure infrastructure is not the product of expensive hardware or complex branded software but rather, an intelligent approach to architectural design and software selection. Lateral thinking is at the core of its design,” says Dave. The platform is largely designed to deliver two options, Alchemy Exclusive which is a private cloud environment and Alchemy public cloud which is a certified public cloud environment. In case a client is on the lookout for immediate deployment of secure private cloud with low capital investment, Alchemy Exclusive is pre-built with all the basic components that facilitate scalability of resources and low operational costs. One of the main reasons most organizations currently prefer private cloud over public cloud is because of data sovereignty, regulatory, and compliance control. To that end, 1-Net private cloud offers a hosted, dedicated cloud infrastructure with isolated environment through 1-Net’s highly secure and world-class data centers. Each private environment is a stand-alone system, all the way from the computing and storage nodes, to the firewalling, networking and internet link. Even rack caging is provided when required.

The platform also offers a simplified billing and metering mechanism, made available through the innovative concept of cloud resource units (CRUs). This enables CIOs and CFOs with unprecedented control over their cloud environment expenditures, providing a standard, single, dimensionless unit for measuring cloud resources. “We are the first ever OpenStack-based cloud platform in Singapore. Our commodity-based hardware provides cost saving for customers and is the only private IaaS environment packaged as metered service,” states a proud Dave.

On the other hand, Alchemy public cloud is the first Ubuntu-Certified Public Cloud in South East Asia, offered as a web service that is easy to set-up and operate. The public cloud comes with no contractual commitments, adopts a pay-by-the-hour model, and gives organizations the freedom to choose their operating system, networking and firewalling, or CPU. Moreover, for the maximum benefit of clients, 1-Net also offers Alchemy Hybrid that combines the best of both, the private and public clouds.

The 1-Net cloud environments are built keeping in mind scalability, quick deployment, and they take away the burden of security and regulatory conflicts. The platform is vendor-neutral, maintains an open architecture, and can easily integrate with all leading cloud infrastructures and third-party applications. Designed to support a heterogeneous ecosystem, users can bring in their own apps or re-use existing solutions. Owing to its compatible nature, the 1-Net IaaS platform assures better business and IT alignment, simplifies complex IT environment, reduces cost, and enables faster delivery of IT solutions. “In addition, our platform comes with free licenses for enterprise operating systems and empowers organizations to do more with less investment,” mentions Dave. As an added cost advantage, 1-Net presents to users a pay-per-use utility model that allows customers to monitor their usages via an online self-service portal. The solution monitors different cloud services through a single dashboard and helps users better manage their usage and operational costs across multiple clouds.

Cloud Simplified at all Levels

Since a large part of the high-quality performance that cloud promises equates to absolute data security, 1-Net leaves no stone unturned to ensure that their cloud offering meets compliance, and security is maintained in every aspect from cyber, physical, system, to network. Organizations can create multiple hierarchical layers of identities, roles, and methods of authorization for multiple users within their organizations, allowing for granularity and precise control of their private environments. All of an organization's specialized appliances such as routers, firewalls, SMS gateways can be installed in 1-Net's datacenters and connected directly to the customer’s private cloud environment within Alchemy, through secure, software-defined private networks. Accessing any part of the management interface requires users to present a form of two-factor authentication via token or OTP. “Furthermore, in case of a failover, we even offer business continuity with a minimal recovery time objective,” adds Dave.

Substantiating their value proposition, Dave explains an instance where a customer with a traditional hosting system was facing challenges in scalability, compliance, and keeping the CAPEX and OPEX in-check. After analyzing the client's existing architecture, 1-Net implemented a customized version of the Alchemy Hybrid. The solution enabled the client to move their workloads to public and private cloud while retaining their traditional IT infrastructure.

Today, 1-Net’s ‘customer-first’ service culture has earned them an exhaustive clientele, encompassing governments, telecommunications, and the financial sector. Their team of expert staff and a combination of CAPEX and OPEX approaches are some of the main reasons why clients always return for 1-Net's state-of-the-art services. A full gamut of managed migration services are also provided apart from backup, antivirus, troubleshooting, and system administration. Various tiers of managed security services are made available, which include 24x7 monitoring and incident response, penetration tests, forensic consulting, etc. Above all, the company offers an operations center that functions round the clock and delivers consultation and end-to-end transition support for the cloud, underpinned by industry-certified best practices and assurance of minimal downtime.

In the coming days, innovation will take precedence for the company and they are all set to provide the Media-on-the-Go services, an easy-to-use media distribution solution for corporation and communities to reach out and showcase their content to their audiences via personal mobile devices, laptops, or large display screens. To foster engaging collaboration between users, a Secure Conferencing service is also set to be released that safeguards data security and quality deliverables. Furthermore, to help institutions securely manage their digital media asset and create channel discussion for live engagement, the Interactive Outreach Media service is also in the pipeline. “Moving forward, we see ourselves as the trusted and go-to cloud services vendor helping CIOs ace their cloud journey,” ends Dave.