Channel Could Save Millions For Banks On Private Cloud OpEx
Cirba says every cloud is shaped differently but you could fit them all into your data centre more efficiently
Company overspend on cloud computing and systems integrators could help them save up to 70 percent of their hardware spend and 55 percent of the money they lavish on software, according to a study by cloud management vendor Cirba.
In a study of its top 14 financial services clients, it found that each enterprise massively overspent on its hardware and software. A typical sample customer from the study group, with an operational budget of $56 million (£37m), was able to save $26 million (£17m) by juggling resources more effectively. In some cases, companies could have saved themselves the cost of entire data centres from their spending plans.
Defrag data centres
Cirba’s tools for these “data centre defrag” operations are used by global services providers such as Dell, BT, CGI and Savvis. But the principles apply at all levels of cloud computing, according to Cirba cofounder Riyaz Somani.
“In theory, cloud computing is a free market with perfect liquidity of resources, so you always get all resources at the best prices. But, in practice, private clouds don’t have the fluidity to allocate resources efficiently. With the right tools, you can provide a valuable service for clients,” he said.
Lower down the food chain, smaller enterprises are equally in need of companies that can “defrag” their hardware and software expenditure, he said, even if smaller VARs have to use other tools.
The study group comprised of global banking corporations which had purchased computing resources to run their private cloud computing projects. Due to their inexperience in predicting demand and inability to re-allocate resources, the hapless corporate IT departments were overspending on resources such as memory, storage and processing power.
Using its analytical tools, Cirba was able to identify patterns of usage and to calculate how best to juggle these usage patterns so that different projects would ‘fit’ together more easily within the limits. “It’s a bit like a game of Tetris, for computing resources, where you pack as much as possible into the smallest possible area. With Cirba, you can juggle, You can see which challenges are coming up and move things around accordingly,” said Somani.
Cirba has launched the 7.2 version of its virtual and cloud infrastructures.