24. 10. 2022 4 min

The future of cloud is in containerisation and IT infrastructure as a code

At the beginning, it was a private cloud project for a major customer. Over time, however, it became evident that the experience and expertise gained, the benefits of cloud, and integration in telco and data centre make far deeper sense. Bare Metal, containerisation, network virtualisation, IT infrastructure in the form of a code, a one-on-one approach – see how we are turning the future in the provision of IT services into a reality.

“We started out from infrastructure services, i.e., from classic virtualisation and with virtual devices. Later, we added Bare Metal, the provision of physical servers as a service. They are useful, for example, for non-standard equipment, or if a feature needs to be inflated in a non-standard way. For example, graphic processors for our Media Cloud service. But where virtualisation is possible, we virtualise. Of course, we provide regular cloud services, such as network storage or backups. Today, we are the largest private cloud provider in the Czech Republic. We were the first in the country to undertake Kubernetes containerisation of VMware Tanzu technology. And I must say that we dominate the market successfully with our prices. But our goal is to take the customer even further, to a level when he is actually not interested in the infrastructure, when it becomes an invisible layer for him that functions well and that he does not need to worry about,” says Marek Erneker, product manager of cloud services.

Containerisation – the best thing we have

Containerisation – the best thing we have In classic virtualisation on a physical server, there are several virtual devices running, on which the user runs his applications. With containerisation, individual applications are run on the host server directly. They are run by special software known as a container. It creates a running environment, and, at the same time, it separates the application from others. The unique combination of Kubernetes and VMware Tanzu gives our cloud service clients yet greater flexibility, a greater degree of system scalability, financial savings, greater agility, and faster application development and modernisation.

A cohesive infrastructure environment

With containerisation, customers no longer have to worry about having a virtual device, Bare Metal, a container, or a KUBE cluster. They see their whole infrastructure as a comprehensive environment that has no major internal barriers.

Scaling in private cloud

Expanding or reducing the scope of services in a private cloud has never been too easy. The unique implementation of our private cloud services focused from the very outset on the possibility of their dynamic use, giving customers the opportunity to scale infrastructure performance while maintaining all other benefits of a private cloud environment. The basic increase is usually up to 30% and is available practically instantly. Within an order of hours, the quantity of resources can be doubled. The customer pays only for the services he has actually consumed. Publishers, editors, media houses, e-shops, but also companies with a seasonal workload, get a unique opportunity to handle a sudden increase in IT infrastructure usage without a restriction in the scope of services.

IT infrastructure as a code only

The deployment of user applications in cloud environments is not always simple and trivial. And their transfer between environments or between different versions of the same environment are often attended by great complications. One of the reasons why we deem containers to be interesting is the possibility of implementing IT infrastructure as a code. Infrastructure as a Code reduces the description of the virtual infrastructure entities that we manage to only a few programme code lines, which say how that particular component is to be implemented. The cloud takes care of everything else. For a transfer between environments, all that is required is an adjustment of several lines in the description, in line with the requirements of the given environment.

“For us, a great milestone is a transition to platform services. We want to be the one who keeps and manages the infrastructure and deals with customers. They, after all, are not interested in the infrastructure,” continues Marek Erneker. “For example, the customer does not need to operate a database that has a certain size, speed, and number of operations. He does not need to deal with infrastructure. He does not care what kind of a processor there is, what the RAM is, or how large the disks are. All this is of no consequence to the customer: he needs a database. And infrastructure becomes an invisible layer to him, one that simply works. Naturally, we cannot know everything, we are not database or SAP HANA experts. But we are developing a network of partners who are such experts and who are able to deploy the appropriate services in cooperation with us. And we then offer them to customers.”

We are the most flexible among the largest providers

The vast majority of our private clouds are projects that have come up through close cooperation with the customer, by looking for the best solution and optimal compromises. Our very ambitious slogan, “Being the most flexible of the largest providers” (which incidentally does not pertain exclusively to cloud services) is not only about our one-on-one approach to every customer and project. We are able to deliver solutions tailored to our customers’ needs and customer care is based on personal contact.

“We strive not to fall into process games, such as “of course we will accommodate you, but create a ticket, report it here, write there, and we will take a look at it, we have eight hours to respond so do not harass us”. We never want to do that to a customer. At our helpdesk, you never communicate with a person who knows only one thing about cloud, which is that we offer it. The mechanism is even such that for larger or more significant customers, we have a communication channel open where the client will receive a clear answer right away. And recently, we have rolled out another service – the Technical Account Manager, TAM, which is able to perceive a customer’s operations, understand its infrastructure and services, and provide recommendations for improving it or making it cheaper,” says Marek Erneker in concluding the interview.

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