Automated Recovery of SAP HANA Database using AWS native options
This blog exclusively covers the options available in AWS to recover SAP HANA Database with low cost and without using native HSR tool of SAP. With a focus on low costs, Sify recommends choosing a cloud native solution leveraging EC2 Auto Scaling and AWS EBS snapshots that are not feasible in an on-premises setup.
Solution Overview
The Restore process leveraging Auto Scaling and EBS snapshots works across availability zones in a region. Snapshots provide a fast backup process, independent of the database size. They are stored inΒ Amazon S3Β and replicated across Availability Zones automatically, meaning we can create a new volume out of a snapshot in another Availability Zone. In addition, Amazon EBS snapshots are incremental by default and only the delta changes are stored since the last snapshot. To create a resilient highly available architecture, automation is key. All steps to recover the database must be automated in case something fails or goes wrong.
Autoscaling Architecture
The following diagram shows the Auto Scaling architecture for systems in AWS.
Use Case
EBS Snapshots
Prior to enabling EBS snapshots we must ensure the destination of log backups are written to an EFS folder which is available across Availability Zones.
Create a script prior to the command to be executed for an EBS snapshot. By using the system username and password, we make an entry into the HANA backup catalog to ensure that the database is aware of the snapshot backup. We use the snapshot feature to take a point in time and crash consistent snapshot across multiple EBS volumes without a manual I/O freeze. It is recommended to take the snapshot every 8-12 hours.
Now the log backups are stored in EFS and full backups as EBS snapshots in S3 and both sets are available across AZs. Both storage locations can be accessed across AZs in a region and are independent of an AZ.
EC2 Auto Scaling
Next, we create an Auto Scaling group with a minimum and maximum of one instance. In case of an issue with the instance, the Auto Scaling group will create an alternative instance out of the same AMI as the original instance.
We first create a golden AMI for the Auto Scaling group and the AMI is used in a launch configuration with the desired instance type. With a shell script in the user data, upon launch of the instance, new volumes are created out of the latest EBS snapshot and attached to the instance. We can use the EBS fast snapshot restore feature to reduce the initialization time of the newly created volumes.
If the database is started now (recently), it would have a crash consistent state. In order to restore it to the latest state, we can leverage the log backup stored in EFS which is automatically mounted by the AMI. Additional Care to be taken so that the SAP application server is aware of the new IP of the restored SAP HANA database server.
Benefits
- Better fault tolerance βΒ Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling can detect when an instance is unhealthy, terminate it, and launch an instance to replace it. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling can also be configured to use multiple Availability Zones. If one Availability Zone becomes unavailable, Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling can launch instances in another one to compensate.
- Better availability βΒ Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling helps in ensuring the application always has the right capacity to handle the current traffic demand.
- Better cost management βΒ Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling can dynamically increase and decrease capacity, as needed. Since AWS has pay for the EC2 instances, billing model can be used to save money, by launching instances only when they are needed and terminating them when they arenβt.
Conclusion
This blog discussed how Sify can help SAP customers to save cost by automating recovery process for HANA database, using native AWS tools. Sify would be glad to help your organization as your AWS Managed Services Partner for a tailor-made SAP on AWS Cloud solution involving seamless cloud migration experience and for your Cloud Infrastructure management thereafter.
Fast-track your SAPβs Cloud Adoption on AWS, with Sify
Cloud computing (which later became known as just Cloud), one of the technology trends since last few years, has become a game-changer. Cloud offered a platform for organizations not just to host their applications but also to maintain it / manage it and charge organizations on a pay-per-usage model. This translated into getting rid of the Capex (Capital expenditure on hardware/servers) and instead, opting for the flexible Opex (Operating Expenses) model which also helped organizations in slashing the manpower budget.
The biggest advantage of Cloud is its scalability β freedom to add/reduce storage/compute/network bandwidth as per the need within an agreed SLA-framework.
The rise of Cloud adoption led to two categories:
- Cloud as a hosting platform
- Cloud-based software/applications
Cloud as a hosting platform
This is more popularly known as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) wherein the service provider offers bundled services of Compute, Storage, Network & Security requirements.
Cloud providers deliver a computing platform, typically including operating system, programming language execution environment, database, and web server. Application developers can develop and run their software solutions on a cloud platform without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers.
Based on the deployment options, Cloud is classified under Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud, which vary due to security considerations.
Why AWS
With some PaaS providers like AWS, the underlying compute and storage resources scale automatically to match application demand so that the cloud user does not have to allocate resources manually. They use a load balancer which distributes network or application traffic across a cluster of servers. Load balancing improves responsiveness and increases availability of applications.
As per a 2020 IDC study, over 85% of customers report cost reduction by running SAP on AWS.
Get consulting support, training, and services credits to migrate eligible SAP workloads with the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP).
AWS has been running SAP workloads since 2008, meaningfully longer than any other cloud provider. AWS offers the broadest selection of SAP-certified, cloud-native instance types to give SAP customers the flexibility to support their unique and changing needs.
Whether you choose to lift and shift existing investments to reduce costs, modernize business processes with native AWS services, or transform on S/4HANA, reimagining is possible with SAP on AWS.
When you choose AWS, you will be joining 5,000+ customers who trust the experience, technology, and partner community of AWS to migrate, modernize, and transform their SAP landscapes.
AWS & Sify collaboration
While AWS has been a global leader in Public Cloud services, in India Sify Technologies (one of the pioneers in the ICT domain & Indiaβs first SSAE-16 Cloud certified provider) had designed its own Cloud called βCloudInfinitβ way back in 2013 and since then has been helping diverse organizations in moving their ERP applications, especially SAP workloads to its Cloud, seamlessly.
With Sifyβs cloud@core strategy, customers can enjoy all facets of Cloud with complete visibility and control.
SIFYβs SAP deployment flexibility ON CLOUD
SAP on AWS hybrid cloud solutions
Use Cases
- Lifecycle Distribution: Separate Development and Test Environments
- Workload Distribution
- High Availability Deployments
Business Benefits
- Best of breed performance with Hybrid Cloud configuration
- Efficient integrations with extended ecosystems
- Compliance with data sovereignty
- Business continuity with resilience
- Simplicity with self service
- Operational efficiency with reduced IT administration
- Cost reduction with on-demand bursting to public clouds
Migration methodology
For SAP Migrations from on-premises or from any other Cloud to AWS, depending on various parameters like Prod. database size, available downtime window, source/target operating system/database, connectivity/link speed etc., we have been using various ways for seamless migration briefly explained below.
SAP SYSTEMS monitoring
Once SAP workloads are moved to AWS, Sifyβs Managed Services takes care of every aspect, including monitoring the Operating System, Database, Connectivity, Security, Backup etc. as per the agreed SLAs. It also monitors the mission-critical SAP systems closely as depicted in diagram below.
Conclusion
Cloud, the scalable, flexible and yet robust hosting platform allows you to use your ERP workloads as well as SaaS applications effectively. Going by the increasing number of customers moving to Cloud, it is certain that Cloud is not vaporware, it is here to stay and only to grow bigger and safer by the day! It would also necessitate organizations to chart out a Smart Cloud strategy.
Business use cases for high-performance computing
Emerging technologies such as IoT, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning have not only changed the business dynamics but have been generating an exponential volume of data, posing difficulties in its management. Processing this exponential burst of data with varying workloads in a timely and cost-efficient manner requires modern systems likeΒ High Performance ComputingΒ (HPC). Despite being in its early adoption stage, HPC is quite promising, as it has the capability to solve emerging business problems. Many business use cases have been developed, capturing the attention of the enterprises across the globe. Some of these use-cases where HPC has helped enterprises solve their problems are discussed here.
Fraud detection in the financial industry
Financial frauds have rocked the world with their inventiveness and scale. Some high-profile frauds such as Ponzi schemes, misleading investment schemes, identity fraud, phishing, card fraud, counterfeiting, skimming, fake prizes, and inheritance scams have duped many unsuspecting investors or users. The Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey conducted by PwC in 2018 reveals that 49% of the organizations faced an economic fraud in the previous two years. While 52% of these threats were internally born, 40% were from external sources.
With a centralized system of fraud detection, information can be gathered from all the available sources. This system can help detect and prevent cyber-attacks, improveΒ data privacy, enhanceΒ data protection, and support the digital forensic investigation. Given the humongous volumes of data, the system that is installed must have the capability to detect anomalies and intrusion attempts. Legacy data centers, despite their high capacities, are incapable of handling such large volumes of data. In this scenario,Β High Performance ComputingΒ can prove to be a useful aid in modern fraud detection and risk modeling, thereby helping financial organizations detect attacks on their systems as they occur, preventing financial fraud. PayPal implemented an HPC environment, and within a year of its adoption, it was able to save $710 million that would have been stolen by cyber thieves.
Personalized healthcare and clinical research
Modern advancements in healthcare have helped in the development of many pharmaceutical drugs and in identifying treatment options for a variety of ailments. The adoption of information technology by physicians, surgeons, and other medical professionals has helped them deliver accurate and timely medical treatment to their patients. Advanced medical simulations are often employed to ascertain the positive and negative effects of medicines on a patient profile to determine the most effective treatment option. These simulations demand high computing power as a number of factors need to be taken into account. This is another area whereΒ High Performance ComputingΒ can come to the aid of medical professionals with its significant computational power. Medical professionals can drill down into patient information at the genomic level, using millions of data points to help diagnose and identify personalized treatments for the patient.
Large hospitals have been using HPC for research. TGen and NMTRC have together developed an HPC system to obtain insights in much faster time into cancer and pharmaceutical research. By using these systems, new drugs can also be discovered, and life-saving medical treatments can be identified and personalized.
Smart energy grids
Smart energy grids are deployed to reduce energy consumption and offer more flexibility and reliability than traditional grids. These grids help in supplying energy to millions of households by integrating multiple energy sources. In order to supply, optimize, and maintainΒ energy efficiencyΒ for multiple cities and neighborhoods, a huge volume of data is captured from millions of devices, including individual meters and consumption devices. These devices can generate exabytes of data, for which enormous computing power is needed for processing. Traditional servers cannot fulfill this need. However, with HPC, a huge volume of data can be processed and analyzed with efficiency in real-time.
Manufacturing Excellence
Large manufacturing enterprises have already begun to make use of the power of HPC, which is used for IoT andΒ Big DataΒ analysis. Based on the analysis results, real-time adjustments are possible in processes and tools to ensure an improved design of a product, increased competitiveness, and faster lead times.
High Performance ComputingΒ is capable of running large simulations, rapid prototyping, redesigns, and demonstrations. An example could be a manufacturing unit that would improve its manufacturing flow with insights from the processing of 25,000 data points from customer intelligence. The first-ever autonomous shipping project of the world is making use of HPC computing, which involves processing a large amount of data collected from sensors. The data includes details of weather conditions, wave points, tidal data, and conditions of various systems installed.
High Performance ComputingΒ offers significant benefits over traditional computing for manufacturing enterprises. It can help an automobile unit vehicle maintenance. A wholesaler could optimize the supply chain as well as stock levels. HPC is also used in R&D. The innovative design of the 787 Dreamliner Aircraft by Boeing is a result of HPC-based modeling and simulation that helped the company conduct live tests on the aircraft to test the prototype.
HPC has become indispensable for enterprises to derive competitive advantage in the fast-growing business world and scaling technologies.
Sify Data Center and cloud services help you to centralize your IT infrastructure, operations, storage & management and enjoy tremendous scale and a lower cost of ownership. Our consultative solution approach helps you define a business technology strategy where delivery of services supports clear business outcomes.
Cloud Service Models Compared: IaaS, PaaS & SaaS
Cloud computing has been dominating the business discussions across the world as it is consumed by the whole business ecosystem and serves both small and large enterprises. Companies are faced with a choice between three predominant models of cloud deployment when adopting the technology for their business. A company may select from SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS models based on their needs and the capabilities of cloud serviceΒ models. Each model has inherent advantages and characteristics.
SaaS (Software as A Service)
SaaS service models have captured the largest share in the cloud world. In SaaS, third-party service providers deliver applications while the access to them is granted to a client through a Web interface. The cloud service provider manages everything including hardware, data, networking, runtime, data, middleware, operating systems, and applications. Some SaaS services that are popular in the business world are Salesforce, GoToMeeting, Dropbox, Google Apps, and Cisco WebEx.
Service Delivery:Β A SaaS application is made available over the Web and can be installed on-premise or can be executed right from the browser, depending upon the application. As opposed to traditional software, SaaS-based software is delivered predominantly in subscription-based pricing. While popular end-user applications such as Dropbox and MS Office Apps offer a free trial for a limited period, their extended usage, integrations, and customer support could come at a nominal subscription cost.
How to identify if it is SaaS?Β If everything is being managed from a centralized location on a cloud platform by your service provider, and your application is hosted on a remote server to which you are given the access through Web-based connectivity, then it is likely to be SaaS.
Benefits: The cost of licensing is less in this model, and it also provides a mobility advantage to the workforce as the applications can be accessed from anywhere using the Web2. In this model, everything at the back-end is taken care of by the service provider while the client can use the features of specific applications. If there are any technical issues faced in infrastructure, the client can depend on the service provider to remove them.
When to Choose?Β You can choose this model if you do not want to take the burden of managing your IT infrastructure as well as the platform, and only want to focus on the respective application and services. You can pass on the laborious work of installation, upgrading, and management to the third-party companies that have expertise in public cloud management.
PaaS (Platform as A Service)
In the PaaS service model, the third-party service provider delivers software components and the framework to build applications while clients can take care of the development of the application. Such a framework allows companies to develop custom applications over the platform that is served. In this model, the service provider can manage servers, virtualization, storage, software, and networking while developers are allowed to develop customized applications. PaaS model can work with both private cloud and public cloud.
Service Delivery:Β A middleware is built into the model which can be used by developers. The developer does not need to do hard coding from scratch as the platform provides the libraries. This reduces the development time and enhances the productivity of an application developer enabling companies to reduce time-to-market.
How to identify if it is PaaS?Β If you are using integrated databases, have resources made available that can quickly scale, and you have access to many different cloud services to help you in developing, testing, and deploying applications, it is PaaS.
Benefits:Β The processes of development and testing are both cost-effective and fast. PaaS model delivers an operating environment and some on-demand services such as CRM, ERP, and Web conferencing. With PaaS, you can also enjoy additional microservices to enhance your run-time quality. Additional services can also be availed such as directory, workflow, security, and scheduling. Other benefits of using this service model include cross-platform development, built-in components, no licensing cost, and efficient application Lifecycle management.
When to Choose?Β PaaS is most suited if you want to create your application but need others to maintain the platform for you. When your developers need creative freedom to build highly customized applications and require you to provide tools for development, this would be the model to select.
IaaS (Infrastructure as A Service)
In this cloud service model, Data Center infrastructure components are provided including servers, virtualization, storage, software, and networking. This is a pay-as-you-go model which provides access to all services that can be utilized as per your needs. IaaS is like renting space and infrastructure components from a cloud service provider using a subscription model.
Service Delivery:Β The infrastructure can be managed remotely by a client. On this infrastructure, companies can install their own platforms and do the development. Some popular examples of IaaS service models are Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Compute Engine (GCE).
How to identify if it is IaaS?Β If you have all the resources available as a service, your cost of operation is relative to your consumption, and you have complete control over your infrastructure, it is IaaS.
Benefits:Β A company need not invest heavily in infrastructure deployment but can use virtual Data Centers. A major advantage of this service model is that with it, a single API (Application Programming Interface) can be used to access services from multiple cloud providers. A virtualized interface can be used over pre-configured hardware, and platforms can be installed by a client. IaaS service providers also give you security features for the management of your infrastructure through licensing agreements.
When to Choose?Β IaaS service model is most useful when you are starting a company and need hardware and software setups for your company. You may not commit to specific hardware or software but can enjoy the freedom of scaling up anytime you need with this deployment.
You can choose between the three models depending on your business needs and availability of resources to manage things. Irrespective of the model you choose, cloud Data Center does provide you a great cost advantage and flexibility with experts to back you in difficult times. Your choice of the cloud service model would affect the level of control you have over your infrastructure and applications. Depending on the needs of your business, you can select a model after a careful evaluation of the benefits of each of the cloud service models.
Sifyβs many enterprise-class cloud services deliver massive scale and geographic reach with minimum investment. We help design the right solution to fit your needs and budget, with ready-to-use compute, storage and network resources to host your applications on a public, private or hybrid multi-tenant cloud infrastructure.
Five ways cloud is transforming the business world
Organizations around the globe are inclining towards the cloud technology and cloud platforms for enhanced data management and security, cost-efficient services, and of course, the ability to access distributed computing and storage facilities from anywhere, anytime.
In a recent study it was found that nearly 41% of the surveyed respondents showed interest in investing in and increasing the spending on cloud technologies, with over 51% large and medium companies planning to expand their budgets for cloud tech. As a result of this rapidly increasing interest and demand for cloud-based services, cloud computing service providers and cloud computing companies are on the rise.
But, why is the business world rapidly shifting to the cloud computing?
Cloud computing can bring about major positive transitions for businesses as it offers grounds for innovation coupled with organizational efficiency. Letβs look at the five ways in which cloud computing is transforming the business world.
1. Enhanced Operations
One of the best features of cloud computing solutions is that they can scale as a company grows. Cloud computing service providers allow companies (big or small) to move a part or all of their operations from a local network to the cloud platform, thereby making it easier for them to access a host of facilities such as data storage, data processing, and much more. Usually, cloud computing service providers have a strong and dedicated support team that can assist users through real-time communication.
Another major benefit of using a third-party service is that the responsibility of data and system management and the associated risks falls under the purview of the service provider. So, one can take advantage of the cloud services without having to worry about the risks.
2. Cost Reduction
Cloud computing services are highly cost-effective. Companies and businesses using the services of third-party cloud computing providers need not bear extra expenses in setting up the required infrastructure or hire additional in-house IT professionals for installing, managing, and upgrading the systems. As mentioned above, all these needs are taken care of by the cloud computing providers. Also, small companies can take advantage of the same tools and resources that are used by large corporations, without having to incur additional IT overhead. This means cloud computing services can reduce IT costs and increase the operating capital which can be steered towards improving other core areas of the business. With increased productivity, efficiency, flexibility and reduced costs, businesses can become more innovative and agile in their operations.
3.Β Fortified Security And Storage
Unlike the past, cloud computing service providers are now extremely cautious about the security and safety of their users. All the sensitive user data, files, and other important documents are stored across a distributed network. Since the data is never stored in one single physical device and the enforcement of encrypted passwords and restricted user access, the safety and security of the user data are enhanced. Steps are taken to further protect the data by incorporating firewall and anti-malware software within the cloud infrastructure.
Furthermore, cloud computing service providers allow businesses to leverage the best quality hardware for faster data access and exchange. This further boosts the operational efficiency, speed, and productivity.
4.Β Improved Flexibility
With cloud services, employees can access the same resources while working remotely that they could access while working from the office. Thanks to cloud technology, employees can now work within the comfort zone of their homes and get work done seamlessly. Mobile devices make this even more convenient by allowing employees to enjoy the flexibility of working at their own pace while also facilitating real-time communication between them and the users. Cloud companies can, thus, deliver better and more efficient services by investing in a band of dedicated remote employees instead of maintaining a full-house of on-site employees. This fast increasing mobile workforce delivering quality cloud solutions is a big reason why businesses today are making the transition to cloud computing providers.
5. Better Customer Support
Today, cloud computing providers have upgraded their game by offering an array of support options for businesses to choose from. Apart from the conventional telephone service, businesses can now opt for AI-powered chatbots that can interact with customers like a real human being. As most cloud computing providers offer impressive bandwidth, it facilitates improved communications which allow a firmβs customer support team to handle customers requests swiftly. The speedy and prompt delivery of support services will ensure that the customers donβt have to wait for hours for their queries/requests to be addressed. All this together leads to a richer customer support experience.
The end result? Happy customers who endorse the brand to a larger network.
Cloud computing is a versatile platform that offers an extensive variety of solutions to the common challenges and hurdles that businesses face in their day-to-day functioning. And that is precisely why cloud computing solutions and services are increasingly penetrating the business world by the minute and transforming it for the better.
Opt for dedicated private cloud infrastructure services for your mission-critical workloads.
To learn more about SIFYβS GOINFINIT PRIVATE β an enterprise-grade, fully integrated private cloud IT platform with specific controls, compliance and IT architecture available in a flexible consumption model.
Cloud Driving Transformation in the Healthcare Sector
The βSify: Power Discussionβ hosted at the βHealthcare Senate & Healthcare Information Technology Summit 2017β organised by the Indian Express Group and Sify Technologies discussed the various benefits that cloud can bring to the Indian healthcare sector.
The CXOs who participated in the power discussion hosted by Sify shared their challenges in the ICT space and subsequently, various views were shared by the panellists and Sify on how the cloud technology can solve their pain points and finally help in building better patient experience.
Summary of Challenges
- Increasing Data volumes is becoming unmanageable in preserving, optimising and retrieval of data. The Cost associated with that is also an issue.
- Can IT play a role in reducing the time of the patient in βCheck-in / Checkout/ Post Checkout Careβ?
- Challenges in the Inter-departments users of IT systems at the hospitals. For example, the HIS at times hasnβt been successful in reducing the pain points of the doctors with Care Teams.
- Disparate IT systems do not talk to each other and are not compatible, so there should be a common platform that allows different technologies to work seamlessly.
- Hospitals should prioritise in terms of what they want to achieve and accordingly how IT can play a role. At times, the perception is that IT has a magic wand, and any problem in hospital, IT is made a scapegoat.
The Case for Cloud Computing
Anindya Sen, Transformation β Evangelist, Sify Technologies, spoke extensively on how cloud can solve various challenges faced not only by the IT function but also the functions in the hospitals. He started with a specific example of the cloud implementation for the radiology department at Cancer Treatment Services International (CTSI). In each of the twelve CTSI hospitals, which were hitherto running on separate IT systems, were now completely moved on cloud. The data was now directly fed to the radiology departments of these twelve hospitals. It helped radiologists to serve the patients by doing targeted radiation.
One of the panellists asked about how cloud can reduce cost for the organisations. Cloud can significantly slash costs for companies who want to serve multiple locations using the cloud technology, however, the cost advantage might not fructify if it were a single location. Nevertheless, the benefits of cloud beyond cost parameters only were discussed for such scenarios.
A specific discussion happened in terms of healthcare industry where in spite of adopting Cloud, the IT team still has a task at hand in managing end points, their networking, etc. Network-as-a-service, a relevant example in this case was discussed to take the pain away from internal network management. Sify has provided βNetwork as a serviceβ to many companies having a wide geographical presence using the cloud model.
The panellists were of the consensus that different components of IT like networks, applications, different patient systems etc. on cloud hosted by a single CSP, who partners with different domain experts and partners can unleash the potential that cloud can offer.
Sify explained a case study of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL). Sify has hosted the IT infrastructure, end-to-end on cloud, partnering with the right domain experts and service providers for the various components of the IT infrastructure be it network, security, antivirus etc. The customer pays Sify on βPer Bill generated i.e. Outcome Based Modelβ.
With this model, the role of the CIO will focus not on βSwitch on β Switch off issuesβ but concentrate on the Innovation, Patient Experience, Improve Inter-Departmental Coordination, Post Checkout Patient Care, etc. Various other models like per bed, per patient were also deliberated.
There is also a lot of potential waiting to be tapped in the on-premise cloud space. On premise cloud fits well with organizations having large IT resources in-house. IT and FMCG companies are a nice fit. Sify provides their infrastructure and services to these companies. This model was suggested by panel members specifically for concentrated IT landscapes.
With global issues like Global warming, floods are becoming more frequent and thus the availability of systems can get affected. One of the panellists spoke about how during the Chennai floods, because the systems were hosted in one place in Chennai, the hospitals in other cities were affected however in one of the similar instances of floods, this was avoided because now the systems were working on cloud. This brings in the case for DR as a service. Cloud can also be helpful in bringing innovation in IT processes.
The Potential of Telemedicine
Telemedicine has not been able to take off in India and the reasons to which were discussed. Various suggestions on how telemedicine can be made more reasonable for the medical community and patients alike.
One of the reasons, as a panellist claimed, that was not allowing telemedicine to take off is there is no certainty on who will bear the cost. It works for the government, who pays for it entirely however for private hospitals, there is no business model.
Notwithstanding, telemedicine can be useful for patient scheduling, touchpoints, delivering care and administration process. There was also a broad consensus that telemedicine can be tremendously beneficial for secondary care i.e. once the patient has visited the doctor personally and his case is well understood by the doctor, the patient need not visit him the next time.
The treatment can happen using telemedicine unless it is necessary for an in-person visit. So the school of thought in the healthcare industry about the necessity to give the touch and feel for the patient is reducing and is a myth. With IoT technologies, the medical devices are also getting connected and this can be a contributing factor for the emergence of telemedicine in India.
Conclusion
On the whole, it was a good participative discussion where the various points of view from the Business side, IT side and the service provider angle were discussed. Obstacles as well as advantages for adopting an agile cloud based model were deliberated upon and a need for business outcome based model to help IT and business alike was unanimously agreed upon.
New technologies and solutions β such as mobile apps, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and analytics β are available to make healthcare organizations more accessible, simpler, faster, and more cost effective.
Whether you represent a hospital, clinic, or specialist, Sify has a variety of scalable, agile, and secure solutions to help your organization achieve these goals.
Delegate Participants:
- Manoj Kumar (Apollo Health & Lifestyle )
- Santosh Patil (Asian Cancer Institute)
- Dilip Ramdasan (Dr. Agarwals Eye Hospital)
- Nallamuthu Sivaraj (Gem Hospital)
- Rajesh Kumar Gupta (Medanta β The Medicity)
- Jai Prakash Dwivedi (Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute & Research Centre)
- Ramesh Desai (Sagar Hospitals β Banashankari)
- Sachin P Marathe (Sapphire Hospitals)
- Niranjan Kumar Ramakrishnan (Sir Ganga Ram Hospital )
- Maneesh Agarwal (Apollo Hospitals)
- T S Mohan Kumar (Brindhavvan Areion Hospitals)
- Kvs Sesha Reddy (Brindhavvan Areion Hospitals )
- Ashim Kumar (CARE Hospital)
- Selwyn Colaco (Cytecare Cancer Hospitals )
- Naveen Nagar (HCG )
- Manisha Pal (Hiranandani Hospital)
- Paritosh Joshi (Kasturba Vaidyakiya Rahat Mandal)
- M. S Guru Prasad (Narayana Health )
- Manoj Chavan (Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital & Research Center )
Sify Participants:
- Subramaniam Ramakrishnan
- Anindya Sen
- Sonia Kaul
- Sanjay Gour
- Sagar Pattnaik
- Abhinav Gupta
3 Key Benefits of taking your contact center to the cloud (CCaaS)
The key to thrive in a βCustomer is the Kingβ economy is being extremely responsive to their ever-evolving demands while serving as a pacesetter for the competition. Customers are demanding a wider choice of contact channels, stronger relationships, flexible customer service options and quick-to-respond customer service. All these factors have increased the pressure on Contact Centers; they must deliver the best possible customer experience β consistently!
Organizations are progressively moving towards βas a serviceβ technologies as they look for models that are flexible and enable better responsiveness and service quality in todayβs customer centric environment. Contact center service providersβ cloud-based offerings focus on cloud as a deployment option as against the conventional on-premise alternative. By taking the contact center to the cloud, businesses get a robust, flexible, cost-effective and multi-channel solution with unified delivery and professional management.
3 main Benefits of Cloud-based Contact Centers
Β Flexibility and Scalability
A traditional contact center is based on the intended contact service agent capacity, the approximated volume of customer interactions and an estimate of the type of channel/feature access required. On the other hand, cloud solutions enable businesses to operate fluid contact center operations, where they could modify the scale of operations, swiftly add functionalities, switch the mix of communication channels, handle unanticipated spikes in the interaction volume or draw on enterprise resources. Flexibility and scalability afford unlimited possibilities almost instantly to the businesses without the prohibitive expense of additional infrastructure/related software and the associated time to implement and operate the revised operations.
Substantial Cost Savings
Cost arguments in favor of cloud solutions versus traditional Data Centers are apparent right from the start β the former helps transfer the financial load from CAPEX (Capital Expense) to OPEX (Operating Expense). Switching to an OPEX model brings with it more simplicity and predictability with a βpay-as-you-goβ model. It eliminates the challenge and risk of making large capital expenses towards infrastructure at one given point; making it easier to budget for growth. In comparison, non-cloud contact centers cannot achieve this desired flexibility without investing a sizeable amount in infrastructure and are unable to facilitate businesses to right-size their operations. Cloud solutions are cash flow friendly as recurring costs are coupled only with an associated growth spike, thus eliminating the risk of unutilised investment. It also allows better budgeting, planning and related staffing decisions resulting in increased efficiency and productivity
Streamlined IT
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has been an industry norm for core applications like email/ CRM and many other business applications and is increasingly becoming universal. Cloud solutions guarantee that bandwidth, network and other communication services are addressed in order to meet evolving business needs and adapt to rapid changes in the business. The cloud-based contact center solution is hosted in a secure and reliable environment, as a result saving time and allowing businesses to focus their energies on their operations. There is an additional benefit of 100% reliable backup and disaster recovery of data and applications, which is difficult and expensive to implement and execute at a smaller scale. Taking their contact center to the cloud provides the businesses with an assured level of business continuity and the option of long-term retention of the data in their contact center operations. Leaders are becoming progressively more interested in the cloud adoption in this model and the operational agility benefits that it provides.
One constant for the contact centers is their relentless pursuit of change for the better. They are continually looking for superior technology, more efficient processes, and better-trained resources in order to improve the quality of the customer experience. These are aimed at serving customers more effectively and at the same time more economically. As providing exceptional one-on-one service, regardless of the medium, becomes the norm for businesses; cloud solutions for the contact centers serve the need of the hour by making it affordable to provide customer experiences designed to make buyers loyal to the brand.
As Indiaβs leading fully converged ICT Company, Sify is using its decades of experience in network and Data Center services to present the most comprehensive Contact Center as a Service platform in India.
Our extensive expertise has allowed us to craft a service offering, which is highly flexible, scalable and future proof. Sifyβs CCaaS provides all Contact Center applications under one umbrella β from branch connectivity and video conferencing to 100 % reliable voice calls. Delivered via the cloud, Sifyβs CCaaS is a multi channel platform, which can easily meet the most exacting contact center requirements.
Advantages of Integrating Cloud with traditional Data Centers
A growing number of organizations are adopting cloud computing to meet the challenges of deploying their IT services as fast as they can and addressing their dynamic work load environment there by maximising their ROIs (Return on Investments).
Across the globe companies have started to view hybrid cloud as a transformative operating model β a real game changer that presents the wealth of opportunities to businesses. The two mantras which helps you to follow while adopting this technique is Enhanced agility and Overall cost savings.
Cloud computing helpβs the users to access the IT resources faster than the traditional Data Centers. It also provides improved manageability requires less maintenance. This technological service also helps the users to access the resources they need for a specific task. This not only prevents you from incurring cost for computing resources which are not in use, but, improves the operational efficiencies by reducing cost and time.
By adopting Cloud computing, businesses can rapidly integrate and deliver services across the other adopted cloud environments and thereby improving business agility so also lowering the costs. Once businesses recognize this they need to choose the cloud computing option that best fit their business requirements.
Like public cloud model, private cloud models also offer seamless access to applications and data with minimal IT support. But in private cloud the service will be offered only to a particular organization. Two common types of clouds are Integrated stack and Custom cloud. The key benefit of integrated stack is pre testing and interoperability to reduce operational risks and faster deployment time as the stack is most often delivered as a single bill of material. And the importance of custom cloud is, a modular plug & play approach that allows organizations to build cloud infrastructures in smaller increments, adding capacity when needed.
Hybrid model is a combination of public and private cloud models. Now a dayβs every organization started looking and adopting it due to its cost benefit. Getting into a hybrid model and the key to success is, understanding how to get started on your hybrid cloud. First of all you need to know the integration method. The dominant strategy in creating a hybrid cloud that ties traditional Data Centers with public cloud services involves the use of a front end application. Most companies have created web based front end applications that give customers access to order entry and account management functions, for example, many companies also used front end application technologies from different vendors to assemble the elements of applications into a single custom display for end users. You can use either of these front end methods to create a hybrid cloud.
The front end application based hybrid models, the applications located in the cloud and the Data Center run normally; integration occurs at the front end. There are no new or complicated processes for integrating data or sharing resources between public and private clouds.
A business can choose from a vast array of potential organizational structures. Lateral organizations, top down organizations and other type of organizational structures can all be combined into a hybrid structure. This allows a company more flexibility in distributing work and assigning job rolls. It can also be beneficial in small businesses where there are fewer employees to manage daily operations.
Hybrid structure also helps the organization to choose Shared Mission where it creates a shared mission and allows itβs employees to work on a different projects and in different sectors. This structure creates a unified team of individuals with a common goal and different experience and interest levels. Each employee is able to perform work in the areas he/she best suited to, moving from project to project and reporting to different individuals as and when it is required.
Another example of hybrid structure is Market Disruption, through which when an organization adopts itself into a market and overcomes traditional barriers of the market such as advertising budgets that could cripple financially smaller organizations. Here considering the B2B perspective, this structure can ride the wave of market disruption to a peak of creating a massive media blitz that fuels product development and demand.
The next benefit to the hybrid organizational structure is the Massive Scale that can be reached by its use. Instead of having a top heavy, traditional structure of management and employees, a hybrid organization uses a spider web based structure involving groups of individuals, sometimes in different geographic areas, working together to accomplish shared goals. This also removes the problem of distribution pipelines slowing down access to the finished product.
Ease of maintenance is another attractive characteristic. It is because cloud computing architecture requires less hardware than distributed deployments. Fewer dedicated IT staff members are necessary to maintain the integrity of the cloudβs infrastructure particularly during peak hours.
Cloud computing also supports the real time allocation of computer power for application based on actual usage. This allows cloud operators to meet the demand of peak load hours accurately without over provisioning, increasing the clouds efficiency while freeing up additional capacity for on demand deployment. From an IT perspective, support for rapid provisioning and deployment is another attractive characteristics that appeal to growing enterprises.
Cost reductions, easier implementation & maintenance, and a better flexibility are the significant benefits of cloud deployment.
Operating costs are controlled by a good design and implementation of the same. Over the long term it is very critical to optimize both capital and operating expenses. Every industry has its own leaders, with a unique jargon and cultural conventions that B2B marketers must take into accounts.
Ways to Ensure your Data on Cloud is Safe & Secure
https://www.sifytechnologies.com/dc-services/Managing your data on the cloud offers myriad benefits to your business. But like any other technology, cloud computing also has its share of risks involved. When considering a move to the cloud, consumers should get familiar with the potential security risks.
There are a few security and privacy challenges relevant to cloud computing and if you have a clear understanding of them, you can safeguard your data against them. Both you and yourΒ cloud service providerΒ have responsibilities that address the potential risks. Here are the things to consider to ensure data security:
- You should implement a tiered protection layer for your data to create a security model that includes a multiple perimeter rings of defense. Different layers of defense will safeguard your data from both, internal and external threats.
- Make sure you manage authorisation process. Create a coherent hierarchy of people or departments that have access to your data on the cloud. Moreover, deploy a program to review access trails. Ask your cloud provider if there are process and functionality that control who has access to the data. Work with a provider that offers a cloud environment that is controlled and managed.
- Secure networks and connections are another imperative when choosing a cloud provider. You must evaluate the type of external network controls offered by the provider to distinguish authorised traffic from the unauthorised one. And you should do the same internally as well.
- Evaluating physical infrastructure and facilities of the cloud provider for security controls is extremely important. The physical infrastructure is managed by the provider and you must get assurance from them regarding security in the facilities. Your service provider must have mandatory security controls on their human resources.
- Authorised personnel and physical security are not the only concerns, you should also ensure that the facility is protected against external and environmental threats. Check with the provider whether or not appropriate facilities are in place to make sure that services will continue in case of equipment failure or environmental threats.
- Scrutinising application security is another important aspect, specifically in SaaS deployments. While the cloud provider has the liability of application security, it is imperative that you know all about the security measures taken.
- Go through the security requirements of the exit process. In the event of the termination of service, the consumer must be provided with a smooth transition of data, without any loss or security breach. Make sure the exit process is properly documented in the contract to provide security during the transaction.
The greatest security concern for any business is to pick the right provider. Keeping your data safe is as much the concern of the provider as it is yours. Therefore, you must ensure that you choose a provider that takes data security as a priority so that your doubts are put to rest.
Benefits of Managed Cloud Services
Cloud computing is taking shape as a fundamental to business growth. Between the fray of private and public cloud, managed cloud services can help businesses maximize theΒ benefits of cloud adoption.Β Managed cloud hosting provides the balance between scalability and facility of public cloud and better reliability of on-premises solutions. Managed cloud solutions are considered by many businesses because of the cost-effective and well-managed computing resources, IT efficiency and flexibility. Any business focused on devoting more time to business process than IT should consider theΒ benefits of managed cloud services.
Customization of the solution
Depending on the requirements of each business, the managed cloud solutions are completely customizable. They are designed and implemented by the providers to meet the requirements within the industry a business operates. This is so because the provider who can diligently monitor the way client manages the cloud solutions uses the solution. It is an important factor in getting technical details to further ease the process that is brought about by the technical nature of the cloud solutions.
Improved deployment of the solutions
Managed cloud solutions have become crucial to business processes and are evolving at a faster rate. The managed service providers can track the technical information about the usage and the programming interface of their cloud services. SinceΒ managed cloud service providersΒ have the ability to monitor the usage of their solutions and their response time, they constantly improve the design and deployment of the services.
Better system availability
Another advantage of managed cloud services is better availability at increased speed. Your cloud-hosting provider offers high-speed cloud resources that give you the leverage of mining through massive amounts of data at a faster pace. With optimum bandwidth, data storage and uptime, you can rest assure that your online processes will go on uninterrupted even with heavy loads. The speed and agility of managed cloud solutions will assist you in focusing on your core business strategies, making your customers happy and expanding your business.
Increased reliability
WithΒ managed cloud solutions, you will be provided extremely reliable services because the provider maintains control and is capable of clearing up the issues in the system right away. The provider ensures that the infrastructure is functioning at optimal levels and identifies potential threats. Since a managed cloud solutions provider carefully administers the cloud, consumers get reliable services they can trust their data with.
To garner the many benefits of managed cloud solutions, teaming up with an experienced provider is of utmost importance. You must work with a provider that is architecturally sound and has reliable infrastructure with expertise in different cloud administration functions from configuration to ongoing maintenance.
