A hallmark of successful organizations is the ability to adapt and change quickly. To do so, organizations need to architect IT infrastructure so it’s ready for on-demand scalability and speed. Agility, a vital business need and differentiator, is a leading reason that many organizations are turning to cloud solutions.
While the public cloud provides that agility, other characteristics present new challenges. Namely, organizations grapple with uncontrollable costs from ingress and egress fees and increasing security requirements. As a result, organizations are moving from public cloud-first deployments to hybrid cloud.
With hybrid cloud solutions, organizations can now get the best of both public cloud and on-premises solutions. Hybrid cloud approaches provide flexibility, enhanced security, lower costs and on-demand scalability. Dell Technologies has a solution delivering these benefits together with rapid deployment and lower upfront investment.
Dell APEX Flex on Demand is an on-premises private cloud solution. It is fast and simple to deploy, offers flexible capacity on-demand and allows cost control via a consumption-based model. While avoiding a large upfront investment, customers pay only for the capacity used. Buffer capacity is available in real-time with extra capacity investments capped at 85% usage* of total installed capacity. In one customer example of many, Dell APEX Flex on Demand has generated significant outcomes.
Flexing with Dynamic Business Needs
Constor Solutions is a Dell Technologies partner and UK-based IT consultancy and infrastructure solutions provider. With Dell APEX Flex on Demand, Constor Solutions helps organizations better align IT infrastructure to business needs. For its customer NG Bailey, a leading UK-based construction, engineering and services firm, Constor Solutions developed a customized on-prem approach with Dell APEX Flex on Demand.
NG Bailey needed a scalable, budget-friendly IT approach to match the highly variable resource and demand cycles intrinsic to the construction and engineering industry. Working with Constor Solutions, NG Bailey deployed Dell APEX Flex on Demand on Dell VxRail hyperconverged infrastructure.
Dell APEX Flex on Demand has provided NG Bailey with the built-in, elastic capacity to spin up virtual machines rapidly, aligning with NG Bailey’s variable business needs. “APEX Flex on Demand has revolutionized the way my team works. It stopped us from being reactionary. We can now supply the business with what it needs from an IT infrastructure and support perspective and do so very quickly,” says Stephen Firth, Infrastructure Manager, NG Bailey.
Lowering IT Costs While Improving Performance
NG Bailey also achieved measurable cost savings with Dell APEX Flex on Demand. NG Bailey used the solution on day one and was able to:
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- Decrease its infrastructure-related support calls by 75%
- Reduce its data center footprint by 50%
- Minimize IT restore time from eight hours to 30 minutes
The consumption-based solution has provided NG Bailey with predictable costs and mitigated overprovisioning costs. In addition, it achieved on-prem IT speed while its simplicity frees up NG Bailey’s IT resources to focus on other business priorities. “We control our costs much more now, we pay for what we use, know how much we’re paying and there are no hidden charges,” says Stephen Firth, Infrastructure Manager, NG Bailey.
“When customers move to the hybrid model, they understand the significance of eliminating egress and ingress costs. This makes APEX Flex on Demand a lower-cost solution. In our experience, hybrid cloud solutions are, on average, about 200% less costly to run on-prem than in the cloud,” shares Suman Ramesh Babu, Founder and Technical Director of Constor Solutions.
Securing the Future
Hybrid cloud also brings the advantage of on-prem security. Many highly regulated industries such as healthcare and financial services – industries NG Bailey serves – have stringent regulatory requirements. These restrictions prevent the storage of sensitive data in public clouds, rendering a public cloud-first an infeasible IT solution.
By contrast, Dell APEX Flex on Demand offers on-prem security and reliability. On-prem can provide a more secure environment and simplify compliance with stringent regulations.
Organizations today are adopting hybrid cloud solutions like Dell APEX Flex on Demand, which combines the best qualities of public cloud and on-prem with reduced complexity, on-demand scalability and lower cost. Dell APEX Flex on Demand is helping to align agile IT resources to business needs so organizations like NG Bailey can build an even stronger future.
Read more about the Constor and NG Bailey case study here. Learn more about Dell Technologies Flexible Consumption Solutions, or contact us today.
* Available with Flex on Demand for Storage, Data Protection and VxRail. Dark sites, non-metered deployments and customers non-compliant with their contract terms are not eligible.
