The multi-cloud era is here. It brings new levels of flexibility and choice. Various cloud providers may offer different regional or availability zone benefits, or provide choices of compute, storage, database, and virtualization options that best fit the needs of your business.
While the choice of the multi-cloud era is no doubt a great benefit for IT decision makers, with it comes a dramatic increase in potential complexity.
How do you connect, secure, and scale networking to, through, and across multiple clouds using technology that was designed in the age of dial-up internet, when every worker sat in an office and every application lived in a data center?
There are a plethora of new solutions flooding the markets. Many tout increased automation, others showcase virtualized infrastructure. These types of incremental solutions may offer a small degree of improvement over legacy networking. But in essence, it still means more infrastructure to provision, deploy, and manage.
Alkira offers a different approach. One that’s built in the Cloud, and ready to be consumed as a service. This means that organizations can accelerate their digital transformation initiatives with turnkey cloud networking and next-generation connectivity. On demand, when you need it, without any upfront investments, provisioning cycles, or lengthy deployments.
As network and security requirements grow and available IT budgets shrink, here’s how Alkira Cloud Networking as a Service can help you “buy” cloud networking outcomes for your business instead of “building” endless stacks of physical and virtual infrastructure.
Deliver Outcomes with Alkira
The key benefit of Alkira is the ability to jump ahead in all aspects of cloud networking. The moment a customer begins with Alkira, they gain immediate access to the industry’s most advanced cloud networking capabilities, all made simple, secure, and scalable.
This is done via the revolutionary Alkira portal, design canvas, and Cloud Exchange Points (CXPs). Alkira CXPs virtualize and automate thousands of manual networking infrastructure tasks and processes, enabling businesses to bring the cloud closer to their customers, partners, and internal users.
Here are the core tenets to look for in a transformational multi-cloud networking solution:
Simplicity
It’s got to be simple. The myriad of cloud native connectivity components and infrastructure dependencies make Do-It-Yourself a complex and potentially costly endeavor (ingress-egress fees, anyone?). A true cloud networking solution needs to provide simple and powerful controls so that you can effectively connect all aspects of your business environment, from sites to users and SD-WAN fabrics, through to cloud applications and multiple cloud regions, to multiple cloud providers and beyond.
Speed
Business is moving faster than ever. DevOps can spin up new application resources in minutes. Can your network do the same? It needs to. Networking can no longer be an obstacle to business growth. In fact, it needs to be a force for acceleration and contributor to innovation. For your modern cloud networking solution, speed and agility are musts.
Security
We’ve all heard the phrase “security is everyone’s job”, and the same can be said for every piece of technology on your network. If just one node is improperly configured, the risks of attacks, breaches, and costly downtime greatly increase. Security is one of the biggest challenges facing IT leaders today. When selecting a next-generation cloud networking platform, security must be top of mind and built-in from the start, not bolted on as an afterthought.
As-a-Service
This is the key differentiator. Think for a moment about the Cloud era. When DevOps needs a new server, they log into AWS, Azure, or another cloud provider portal. They select the server specs needed. They click, and it is available. The compute, memory, and storage are all being delivered essentially as a service.
Now take those principles into the networking world. The world of routers and switches, cables and boxes. There is an enormous gap between the modern way cloud resources are being spun up and consumed, and the networking infrastructure that supports them.
Buying turnkey cloud networking is a seachange for Alkira customers and partners. With our global network of Cloud Exchange Points (CXPs), the tedious connecting, routing, and switching protocols are all combined and handled automatically. And best of all, it’s all entirely delivered as a service. No boxes to buy. No supply chain issue. No virtual agents to provision or controllers to deploy.
State the desired outcome, and click. Alkira does the rest.
Here’s a look at the before and after of status quo DIY cloud networking using cloud native tools (“build”) vs. Alkira Cloud Networking as a Service (“buy”).
| Cloud Native – “Build” | Alkira as a Service “Buy” | Business Advantage |
|---|---|---|
| Complex patchwork of disparate proprietary technologies | Simple and unified platform for connecting all users, sites, and clouds | Faster and more agile cloud networking that powers innovation instead of being an obstacle |
| CAPEX heavy investments, contracts, and licensing | No hardware to buy, no software to license, no virtual agents to install, deploy or manage. Just consume and pay for what is used. OPEX friendly model. | OPEX and BYOL consumption models that enable you to pay for consumption vs. making risky upfront investments in more IT infrastructure |
| Rigid frameworks and inefficient network designs | Flexible platform built in the Cloud, for the Cloud | Dynamic cloud networking that can respond to rapidly changing business and cloud application needs |
What’s in the box?
That’s the transformative power of Cloud Networking as a Service.
Listen to what some of our customers are saying about how Alkira has changed their IT operations:
Schedule a demo with Alkira today to learn more about powering digital transformation with cloud networking as a service.
