Connectivity is the cloud differentiator

When your customer’s business depends on a connection to remote servers, data storage, and other important applications, having the right connection is essential. Cloud computing and connectivity are naturally deeply interrelated. It is easy to understand, but also simple to forget that without connectivity, the cloud is nothing.

In fact, having a dependable link to cloud-based services is so crucial to their availability, performance, and security, that when it comes to choosing the right cloud, Deutsche Telekom has an enormous advantage over other players because it is an established telco with its own private network. The global cloud players clearly acknowledge this by entering into partnerships with telecommunications companies. They also use trucks to transport data between their data centers and customers on hard-drives, which is an awkward concept clearly unfit for the 21st century.

Bandwidth, latency, or both?
So how exactly do connectivity and distance to the cloud impact various customer usage scenarios? When using the cloud to store backups, or for disaster recovery, it is all about the bandwidth. The public Internet in central and eastern Europe provides around 10 to 20 MB per second, with fluctuations and no guarantees. That means it would take a half to a full day to transfer 1 TB of data, which is certainly not fast enough for most organizations, especially in a recovery scenario. For high-bandwidth requirements, a dedicated local private line ranging in gigabits per second is often a must.

Other applications, such as ERP or VDI, strongly depend on low latency. The public Internet provides latencies of 10 to 30 milliseconds when connecting to a cloud provider located let’s say a quarter of Europe away, and that is often too much. This is especially true for applications that are “responsive”, which means ther require a lot of back-and-forth communication to draw the correct display.

Connecting securely
It is not easy to achieve enterprise-level security over public lines, and VPN connectivity satisfies only some customers. Only private lines can provide a truly secure environment. Protection from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks is typically expected for any online service, yet not all cloud providers offer it.

When you have customers in the process of selecting the right cloud, make sure to talk to them about connectivity. It is undoubtedly one of our strongest points. Explain to your customers that the benefits of moving into a public cloud, such as the flexibility and agility they can gain as a result, are clearly becoming irresistible. Remember, however, that when making the move into the cloud, choosing the right connectivity and security environment is as crucial as the switch itself.