Control over the build, data, cost, and performance

Introduction

Today we sit in a world where the de-facto move for developers and infrastructure engineers is to build in one of the 3 main hyperscalers, AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. This is where the inherent problems begin. Once started you are “locked” into their web with no way to control cost and generate performant infrastructure that can easily be ported as and when you need to change direction.

How have we got to this position?

In a simple answer, “they” made it easy to consume infrastructure and quick to build. This is not the place to talk about the technical whys and why nots, but the painless processes to build compute instances and K8s clusters, helped to smooth the path of the technical practitioner. The Hyperscalers were also very smart. Once the engineers we bought into building in their clouds, the next step was to provide them with job security. They provided certifications and career progression around cloud computing. The technical teams now had more reasons to build in hyperscaler clouds. Step forward all of the associated services built on top of the main cloud compute and “hey presto” no need to go anywhere else. From the business perspective the answer has become – build it in the cloud!

So what are the problems?

A hyperscaler cloud is not a utopian silver bullet. We now see high costs to run applications, especially ones that have high compute requirements. These costs are exacerbated when you add in all the ancillary services that get added to the mix. The way that hyperscalers build their cloud is also, in today’s world, quite old fashioned. We see this in the upturn of the Neo clouds that push GPU and build on a bare metal foundation to increase performance. AWS, Azure and Google want you in their data centres, in their world. It is there they can then drive control of the customer infrastructure needs. What now if you, as a customer, need to get your compute closer to your data for both performance and data sovereignty? A must in the new world order we see right now across the globe.

What do customers need from a cloud?

The first thing we hear about is cost. Not just reducing spend but the ability to manage costs in a way that can suit the business requirements. Secondly, is performance. AI and HPC means a need for a more performant cloud. Removing the unnecessary bloat caused by a virtualisation layer and gaining access to the silicon the application needs to run at speed. Lastly, is resource management. Taking away the need for your high cost engineers to be “managing” the cloud on a day to day basis. What else could they be doing that adds more value?

A QBO Cloud customer story

We have seen first hand how QBO customers are “winning” and taking back control of how they build, run and manage their cloud infrastructure. Cost, it is more cost effective to run compute instances and K8s cluster on a bare metal foundation. However, a cost reduction is not the biggest value. Now you have real control and a consistent cost base. The metal is a single cost, your infrastructure is a single cost and grows in a linear fashion. No surprises and this means you can manage your spend. Do more with less! The density of infrastructure you can run goes up. Again, both a cost benefit and space and power benefits as well. Asking a QBO customer how much time they are now spending managing that infrastructure, I was told, “zero. We have reallocated the person to more interesting work for them that is more valuable to our application build.”

Conclusion: 

As an industry, we need to stop and take a look around for the “best” solution, not just the “easiest.” We are losing the skills to create our own infrastructure worlds and with ever growing demands for AI and HPC, we need to look back to a not too distant history, when infrastructure was drawn up out of different vendor solutions and a canvas created that had true value to the business. Today we need to get cloud closer to the edge. We need to own the build, so we have security and sovereignty over our data. All this will give us the dream of consistent cost, enhanced performance and control back in our own hands.

Get in touch with us at sales@qbo.io today for a demo or trial environment.