There's a business sweet spot for cloud transition: Neptune Managed Services

With Neptune Managed Services' Geoff Bentley.

Where do you host customer data?

Neptune Managed Services typically takes on client-executed agreements for data centre services. Typically, we find that infastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and co-location are the two most common constructs. We fully manage many ‘private’ cloud scenarios. Private cloud remains dominant as many of our customers hold a conservative position regarding public cloud.

When did you first get involved in data centre services?

Neptune has been managing private data centres for more than five years. We have also been active in public data centre co-locations for five years. Our focus is on infrastructure lifecycle management and business technology optimisation. We have found a need to assist partners in exiting from the cloud in the past 24 months, usually as a result of poor performance and end-user dissatisfaction.

What credentials do you have that apply to the data centre?

Multiple engineers hold Azure cloud certifications. At Neptune, we have a well-defined product and services development process which ensures that when we go to market with a product or service, they will be first-rate. Cloud services are no different. As a full MSP, there are many elements that need to be considered for each customer’s suitability for cloud services.

Have you heard about any cool developments in the data centre space recently?

At Neptune, we are watching the trend on application builds and hyperscalers that provide the bare metal servers. The combination of the two will drive the industry to a better ROI and TCO for new applications. 

Can you tell us about a recent deployment you have done?

Several recent (in the last six months) deployments for Neptune in Melbourne and Sydney in the co-location category include physical hosts, storage, security, WAN links, NLB and internet links. Typically, the physical hosts run 50 to 200-plus virtual servers that support national operations for our clients. 

What is driving customers’ data centre investments?

The perception that moving to the cloud is a good way to reduce capex and opex drives investment. Unfortunately, this is often misguided, and all too often the cloud becomes a transition-in nightmare. There is a sweet spot for compute/network/storage and organisational size where the cloud ticks all of those boxes. 

Data centres are...?

Just another cycle in the maturation of ICT. The cloud may once have been called a computer bureau, and IaaS may have once been called mini and mainframe timeshare processing. If you have been in the industry for 20 to 30 years, the quest to obtain more computing power and storage without the capex, real estate footprint or support staff is not new.