Taking a taxi to work
Strange, isn't it? No one does that. But why not? It's super convenient. You don't have to do anything yourself. Just arrange to be picked up every day at 8 o'clock or click in an app. And if you need to work extra, then it's there too. Employers are now providing a taxi pass instead of a lease/purchase car.
It makes sense that we leave the taxi behind and that it's the exception. We don't choose convenience but think it through. Especially about costs.
With ICT services, it's no longer possible to think that way.
What doesn't help is that there is still often the belief that the public cloud (the taxi) is advantageous and private cloud (lease/rent/purchase) is expensive and complex, and that it's especially very handy that we can call 2 taxis in case of emergency.
And if we take it further, we get into the taxi without even being sure that the vehicle is well maintained, has a valid MOT, and that the driver is sober, can drive excellently, and is insured. Because the driver doesn't maintain it themselves either, and you have no idea who the driver is.
We don't know, we assume. Is it even a real taxi?
So, do you use a "taxi" for your ICT services? There's a good chance it might be interesting to look at your own infrastructure. Lease, purchase, rent-to-own with or without a maintenance contract where you have the reins in your hands. You can choose the garage and the driver yourself. It could very well be more cost-effective and not take much time considering all the measures you would actually need to take to ride safely in the taxi. In IT, this translates to chain responsibility (hint at NIS2). Who does what, how, why, when, with what, check.
There are numerous parties that do not need to do anything about their infrastructure despite the latest sovereignty developments because they haven't taken the taxi. Any idea how much they save by doing nothing? Their Checklist:
- Privacy? Check. 0 sub-processors. Data is not shared anywhere.
- Killswitch save? Check. No subscription or license that access can be denied to.
- No access for foreign governments? Check. Just in the Netherlands by Dutch people.
- Fixed costs per month? Check. Just a nice feature. Clear and budgetable.
- Scalable? Check. Just grows in breadth.
- Peak capacity? Check. 30% free included.
- Cloud? Check. Of course, data centre independent.
- Open Source then? Also a check.
- Open standards? Also a check. Handy for integrations.
- Telephone support? Check.
- Back-ups? Check. 3-2-1 even.
I think I could make the list a bit longer, but it would get boring.
Are there really no downsides?
Certainly. You need to do resource management. A private cloud has a certain capacity that fills up slowly. You need to keep an eye on that in a dashboard. And that is also the advantage of the other solutions. There, you click once, and you have more capacity. That is then at the taxi rate. Expensive clicks. Easy, that is true.
That resource management is not about thinking years ahead but rather about 1 month. Are you going to do something in the upcoming month that will suddenly fill your private cloud? That is the question. And even then, you can rent some VPSs.
I hope I have given you something to think about, and if you need help, don't hesitate tocontactto be taken.