NEC Cloud Simplifies Business Transformation to the Cloud
NEC Cloud Simplifies Business Transformation to the Cloud by Paul Robinson
NEC recently announced launch of its NEC Cloud solutions for enterprise applications that are hosted, monitored and managed in the cloud, leveraging NEC infrastructure and managed professional services. This portfolio includes four core solutions: Private Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS); UCaaS; Enterprise Applications as a Service; and Testing as a Service. Solutions are delivered through three deployment models: private cloud, hybrid cloud, and public cloud.
Value Proposition
NEC Cloud leverages NEC’s core competencies in communication and IT solutions, services and platforms to enable customers to consume cloud services in a cost-effective and risk-averse manner by providing a similar level of security and transparency for cloud-based apps as customers customarily have with their on-premise applications. This assurance is available via end-to-end SLAs which extend from the infrastructure layer through application layer as well.
Cloud consulting services are available to help the enterprise to create and leverage a customized cloud strategy and road mapping that best aligns with the organization's long and short term business goals.
Private IaaS
NEC in partnership with Cyber Innovation Labs (CIL) delivers Private infrastructure as a service (IaaS) – an integrated and virtualized server, storage, and networking architecture in a private cloud deployment model that combines the NEC Nblock architecture with security, compliance (including PCI, HIPAA, ISO, and HI-TRUST), and monitoring in a hosted environment. The Private IaaS solution is hosted in CIL’s Mount Pleasant, Illinois datacenter which also serves as a disaster recovery facility for NEC.
The Private IaaS offering provides real market differentiators over other cloud computing offerings in terms of accountability, real dollar SLAs protection, and retractability.
- Private IaaS offers hard dollar SLAs that guarantee uptime service levels will either be met, or the NEC will be responsible for losses incurred because of the outage
- Retractability guarantees that the customer can take possession of the entire infrastructure and their data with 72 hours of notice
UNIVERGE Cloud Services (UCaaS)
UNIVERGE is a single software application platform which operates across premise, cloud or hybrid environments. We reviewed it in detail last July. Among its UCC feature set are:
- Web and audio conferencing streamlined with one-click A/W collaboration.
- Schedule-based presence and availabilityenabling users to route calls to the most appropriate device – desktop, mobile or home office – based on their schedule or a specific rule they have set.
- Call twinning allowing users, through the UC client, to configure their phone to ring one or multiple devices at the same time, including mobile and wireless devices.
- Availability of a single UM inbox permitting messages to be retrieved from any location, using a deskphone or mobile device.
- Integration is present with popular contact and CRM applications including: Microsoft Outlook, Goldmine and Sage ACT!, SAP’s Net Viewer and Oracle. In addition, a software development kit (SDK) is available at no charge for third-party product integrations. UNIVERGE also contains an adaptation layer for verticals. In healthcare, for example, the adaption layer can interface with the UCC software to monitor bedside alerts and alarms and use that contextual data to identify and contact the appropriate medical professional. In hospitality, integration with the hotel’s property management system would instantly disable outbound calling, other than 911, from room phones upon checkout.
- The platform meets the security requirements of the U.S. Department of Defense and has received Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) Certification.
Enterprise Applications as a Service (EAaaS)
EAaaS leverages NEC’s infrastructure and managed services to host, monitor and manage enterprise applications in the cloud. This is geared to customers looking for highly managed and stable operating environments for their server infrastructure and datacenter components. The SLAs are at the application level, itself.
EAaaS is essentially NEC’s provision of private cloud solutions targeted at enterprise ERP apps from such vendors as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. Part of EAaaS is giving customers the ability to integrate with public cloud resources as part of the service. Traditional integration requires IT organizations to design, build and operate a data mapping system, then purchase the hardware and software necessary to connect on-premise and cloud-based applications. EAaaS provides integration for the cloud, from the cloud. Delivered as SaaS, the solution connects applications in the cloud, provides the interface to automatically integrate with premise-based systems, and provides the following benefits:
- Eliminates the data mapping process, as well as the time required for design, development and operation
- Eliminates the need to purchase the hardware and software required to integrate premise-based and cloud resources
- Reduces cycle times for data connection process, reducing implementation times and simplifying operation
Testing as a Service (TaaS)
The costs of software and application testing significantly impact, not only development timeframes, but the overall cost of the project itself. With TaaS NEC delivers a spectrum of test automation solutions through the cloud as a service. This enables IT to make the testing process an embedded part of both the development and post-development processes so that the number of failures occurring during testing is minimized and time spent in code rewrite is significantly curtailed. Using an on demand service enables IT to avoid the expense of maintaining a standing testing team.
What This Means to You
To Customers: NEC’s initial focus is on the horizontal markets. NEC Cloud scales from 250 users all the way up to tens of thousands of users. Today, the sweet spot is at the higher end of the midmarket which is anywhere between 500 and 5,000 users. However, they are also seeing interest at the low end of large enterprise which is anywhere from 5,000 users to around 20,000 users.
Fundamentally, BDMs and TDMs want to understand how cloud-based solutions changes the relationship between business models, operational models, the services that those models deliver and the costs and benefits involved. Some of the key questions that customers need to have answered are:
- Security: Can the same security available to applications on-prem be applied in the cloud?
- Compliance: Can applications in the cloud meet the same regulatory compliance requirements I am faced with on-prem?
- Control: Can application owners still have the same amount of control over their applications and the infrastructure supporting them in the cloud?
- Fear of vendor lock-in: Will use of a particular vendor for cloud services or infrastructure prevent use of a different one in the future, or will the enterprise’s data and applications be tightly locked into a particular model?
- Full suite of communications features and business-enabling applications: Cost savings are not solely a result of toll charge avoidance from SIP trunking. Most cost savings come from the additional features that you get with a UCC system. Hence, do the available UCC features align with my current business requirements while allowing compatibility with future business expectations?
- Ease of implementation/management/maintenance: Is the management of the UCC solution straightforward and intuitive making life easier for the IT team, not more difficult?
- Overall end-user experience: What assurance is given that both network QoS and UCaaS application quality of experience are adequately established, monitored and managed to deliver maximum end user satisfaction across both fixed and mobile domains?
- Favorable overall cost and discounted payback period: Does the business case show an internal rate of return (IRR) that’s above the acceptable hurdle rate for the risks involved? The total cost of ownership (TCO) by vendor solution should be calculated including costs for: licenses, additional hardware, network QoS, implementation, maintenance and training costs.
NEC does a good job getting at these issues. Customers can purchase compliance services through a third-party provider partnered with NEC who conducts compliance audits on NEC Cloud infrastructure to allow customers to have that level of comfort from a compliance/security perspective. PCI compliance is treated as NEC’s core foundational compliance across the entire cloud infrastructure. And that can be extended depending upon the criticality application that could be offered as a service to the customer as well. In addition, NEC offers complete, end-to-end professional services to help IT organizations manage all facets of public and private cloud solutions. This includes applications, networks and systems management as well as corporate IT governance, security and overall service levels.
We have pointed out that the UCaaS platform meets the security requirements of the US Department of Defense and has received Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) Certification. And Private IaaS supports PCI, HIPAA, ISO, and HI-TRUST compliance regulations. In addition, Private IaaS offers:
- Hard dollar SLAs that guarantee uptime service levels will either be met, or the NEC will be responsible for losses incurred because of the outage
- Retractability guarantees that the customer can take possession of the entire infrastructure and their data with 72 hours of notice
None the less, all likely candidates should be similarly evaluated using an RFP inclusive of a proof of concept.
To Partners: NEC’s go-to-market strategy is to drive these horizontal services through its direct and indirect sales channels as well as through their white label partners. Generally speaking, white label partners have focused on the large enterprise customers. The direct sales force tends to focus on the enterprise, and the high-end of the midmarket. Some channel partners also focus on these markets. But the channel generally focuses on SMB’s.
Initially, NEC will be looking at top partners who are going to be able to embrace this strategy and work with Corporate in a controlled release fashion across the customer base. Once that controlled release is undertaken and some key lessons learned from these partners, NEC will roll out release of NEC Cloud to the rest of the partner community in a much more aggressive fashion.
As NEC continues to evolve and grow these services, there will be much more investment done on automation and simplification of how customers buy services from partners and how services are delivered through partners to customers. The intent here is to minimize the gap in partner adoption and education in the sale of cloud-based services.