The IT Nerd

Aptum, a hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider (MSP), today announced it has been recognized by Microsoft as an Azure Expert MSP. This designation identifies Aptum as a qualified global partner to deliver Azure solutions to customers.

Aptum is among a group of MSPs globally to earn this certification, having completed an extensive auditing process by an independent third party. The certification process consisted of a rigorous audit of 66 controls in areas such as:

• Business Health and Managed Service Focus
• Microsoft Services
• Assessment and Design
• Build and Migration
• Cloud Operations and Service Management 
• Security and Governance
• Cloud SLAs, Customer Satisfaction, and Cost Optimization
• Continual Improvement and Process Optimization

Aptum also provided multiple customer references for projects successfully delivered over the last 12 months. 

As an Azure Expert MSP, Aptum is strongly equipped to help organizations meet their evolving technology needs and achieve their business objectives. The company recently earned other Microsoft partner designations, highlighting its commitment to training and accreditation, as well as its expertise. 

• The Microsoft Solutions Partner for Data & AI (Azure) designation demonstrates Aptum’s ability to assist customers with the management of their data across multiple systems to build analytics and AI solutions
• The Microsoft Solutions Partner for Digital & App Innovation (Azure) certification establishes Aptum’s capability to help customers build, run, and manage applications across multiple clouds, on premises, and at the edge, with frameworks and tools customers choose
• As a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Infrastructure (Azure), Aptum is identified as a partner that can help customers accelerate migration of key infrastructure workloads to Microsoft Azure.

Aptum, a hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider, today announced its acquisition of CloudOps, a Montreal, Canada-based cloud consulting, managed services and software company focused on open source, cloud native platforms, networking and DevOps. This strategic acquisition will further enable Aptum to deliver comprehensive hybrid multi-cloud solutions and services, which include advanced cloud migration services and DevOps, to its customers in 43 countries. 

CloudOps has grown from an operations managed services shop since 2005 to a leader in cloud computing, cloud networking, and DevOps solutions. Aptum intends to retain a separate CloudOps unit within its business, and to combine select teams — including the Advisory and Consulting Services, Support Services and DevOps — to provide strengthened, streamlined solutions and services to customers. 

CloudOps’ leadership teams and employees will join with Aptum; its headquarters will remain in Montreal. 

Aptum will enhance its Hybrid Cloud Management Portal by leveraging CloudMC’s API-driven, modular and extensible, edge orchestration platform. It will accelerate the existing development of a single pane of glass for hybrid multi-cloud workload management.

Additionally, the amalgamation of resources from both companies will extend product opportunities across multiple sectors beyond telecommunications to include technology and business services, media and communications, retail, financial services, manufacturing, energy and utilities, hospitality, education, transportation, among others. This acquisition will fortify Aptum’s vendor-agnostic approach, solutions, and services in Canada, U.S. and the U.K across multiple clouds including Azure (Aptum recently earned the Microsoft Azure Expert MSP Certification), AWS, Google, Hypertec Cloud and Cox Edge. 

The transaction was completed on January 5, 2023.  Terms of the deal will not be disclosed.  

Aptum, a hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider, has announced Part 3 of its annual Cloud Impact Study 2022, titled Taking Control of Cloud Costs. The findings reveal cloud computing has resulted in higher-than-expected costs for 73 per cent of IT decision-makers – a notable increase of 28 per cent from just over half (57 per cent) of companies in 2021. The report explores the common financial drivers behind cloud computing, and the causes of its unplanned expenses. 

Overall, cloud computing has given respondents more control over IT expenditure, with more than half (63 per cent) of respondents saying cloud transformation positively impacts IT spending, and the majority (86 per cent) saying cloud technology is essential to their company’s financial security. 

The operating expenditure (OpEx) payment structures of cloud computing allow organizations to pay for the compute and storage they use, while also monitoring monthly usage and spend. The study’s respondents concur: 71 per cent believe cloud transformation positively impacts operational efficiency. 

However, 65 per cent of surveyed IT decision-makers reveal they have “wasted significant IT spend due to cloud inefficiencies” and only 20 per cent of respondents have a holistic strategy in place when it comes to their transformation. The report identifies the most common causes of unforeseen costs and details how businesses can overcome these hurdles to succeed and drive business growth. The top causes of unforeseen costs include the following: 

• Lack of familiarity with the cloud – Limited internal knowledge, expertise and resources are obstacles to managing cloud effectively.
• Runaway cloud costs – When businesses do not configure the cloud to scale up and down effectively, they often consume more resources than predicted. 
• The ‘Hotel California of Cloud’ effect – Cloud is temptingly easy to enter, but hard to leave. To avoid egress charges, planning and expertise are crucial to choosing the best cloud infrastructure for workloads.
• Hybrid complexity – Mixing hybrid, multi-cloud and legacy infrastructure platforms has its own additional management costs associated to it. 
• Cloud modernization – Organizations are increasingly looking to modernize their cloud applications. However, lack of expertise and legacy systems often add complexity and costs for those looking to do this.
• Wrong consumption model – Companies unfamiliar with cloud may find themselves adopting the wrong consumption model.

The full report provides detailed insight into the true cost of cloud, and calls for businesses to optimize their cloud environment and make the most of their cloud budgets.
To see the full findings from part three of Aptum’s Cloud Impact Study 2022, Taking Control of Cloud Costs, download the report here: https://aptum.com/cloud-hub/2022-cis-part-3/.

To see the full findings from part two of the report, Solving the Security Equation, download the report here: https://aptum.com/cloud-hub/2022-cis-part-2/.

For part one of the report, Hybrid: Why and How– Applying Lessons from Digital Transformation, visit here: https://aptum.com/cloud-hub/2022-cis-part-1/.

The study canvassed the opinions and approaches to cloud technology of 400 senior IT professionals. Respondents were from organizations with 250+ employees in the U.S., Canada and UK. Industries included financial services, technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, public education, and the commercial sector.

Aptum, a hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider, has announced Part 2 of its annual Cloud Impact Report 2022, titled Solving the Data Security Equation. The report examines the complexities inherent in hybrid cloud environments and their implications on security, data governance, compliance and disaster recovery. In particular, it finds that while companies are convinced of the value of cloud computing, its drivers have evolved.

Drivers to the cloud
When it comes to the value of cloud, the majority of respondents (91%) consider cloud computing to be essential for data management. In fact, more than half (54%) believe cloud transformation has had a positive impact on data governance. 

While financial considerations have traditionally been a common driver, the study shows a shift in focus for many organizations, especially as security concerns evolve and continue to be top-of-mind:

• 50% of respondents cited efficiency as the top motivator for cloud investments
• Increased security is the second most important business driver for organizations investing in cloud computing, with 48% of respondents citing it as a key factor in their investment
• Resilience is also a primary driver of cloud computing investments for 40% of companies

Managing complexity
During the pandemic, organizations had to hastily increase their cloud deployments to support the increase in remote work, enhance business resilience and enable greater flexibility. As a result, many businesses naturally moved toward a hybrid model. In fact, 86% of respondents said their organization has adopted a hybrid or multi cloud approach to cloud deployments. 

For many organizations, the move to hybrid has meant their environments have become increasingly complex as data and workloads are now located across a range of cloud and non-cloud infrastructures. 

As a result, many are grappling with complexities traditionally associated with hybrid cloud environments, such as data and workloads being located across a range of cloud and non-cloud infrastructures. Of those respondents, the top challenges cited in managing their environments include control and governance of access to cloud environments (90%); a clear mechanism to detect and respond to security threats across all environments (90%); and the ability to efficiently meet requirements of compliance audits (90%).

Impacts on security
The study showed that managing security effectively is no longer just an issue of securing data within each environment; data must also be secured as it moves between locations. 

When it comes to disaster recovery, the study’s results tell a similar story of complexity. Disaster recovery is amongst the top reasons organizations are continuing to move data to the cloud, with 37% of respondents citing improved data backup services and disaster recovery as a driver. However, 87% of respondents cite the ability to provide Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to the business as a key consideration.

Strategy is key to cloud transformation

The study’s results reveal that only 20% of organizations surveyed have a holistic cloud strategy in place. The other 80% have a fragmented approach to cloud transformation that lacks the necessary big-picture thinking.  The results also reaffirm a singular holistic cloud strategy must have security principles embedded in its design at the earliest stage possible. By doing so, businesses can take an integrated approach to security, mitigate threats and minimize risks across their entire infrastructure stack. This will eliminate any disconnect between the cloud’s promise of secure, reliable operations and what organizations will actually experience.

To see the full findings from part two of Aptum’s Cloud Impact Study 2022, Solving the Security Equation, please download the report here: https://aptum.com/cloud-hub/2022-cis-part-2/.

For Part 1 of the report, Hybrid: Why and How– Applying Lessons from Digital Transformation, please visit here: https://aptum.com/cloud-hub/2022-cis-part-1/. (News release)

The study canvassed the opinions and approach to cloud technology of 400 senior IT professionals. Respondents were from organizations with 250+ employees in the U.S., Canada and UK. Industries included financial services, technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, public education and the commercial sector. 

Aptum, a hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider, today released part one of its annual Cloud Impact Study 2022. The report, titled Hybrid: Why and How – Applying lessons from digital transformation, explores the deployment of workloads on different cloud infrastructures and examines the decision-making process behind their placement.  

Report Highlights:

The majority of IT decision-makers plan to increase their organization’s use of public cloud (78%) and private cloud (72%) infrastructure over the next 18-24 months. 

Eighty-six per cent (86%) of respondents said their organization has adopted a hybrid or multi-cloud approach to cloud deployment.

A vast majority of the respondents also recognized many of the benefits the cloud delivers to their organizations, with the majority agreeing it has delivered on expected efficiencies (90%). Respondents also cited the rate of cloud transformation in their organization has had a positive impact on the following areas:

• Innovation (71%) 
• Operational efficiency (71%)
• Workforce mobility and enablement (63%)
• IT expenditure (63%)
• Customer experience (63%)

Indeed, when presented with 12 application categories, respondents said the cloud is the preferred hosting option for all of them, compared to just two out of nine categories in Aptum’s first Cloud Impact Study in 2021. However, despite recognizing the benefits of the cloud, not all workloads are destined for cloud platforms, and some organizations are experiencing a ‘cloud boomerang effect’ among specific applications. Almost half (47%) of respondents anticipate an increase in their organization’s use of traditional (non-cloud-based) infrastructure over the next 18-24 months, up from just under a quarter (23%) in 2021. 

The study identifies that one of the causes of the shift back to legacy infrastructure is rooted in lack of strategy. Only 20% of respondents said they have a holistic cloud computing strategy. Additionally, integration of cloud with on-premises systems was cited as the top challenge an organization would face when operating in cloud environments, tied first with data privacy and security challenges.

The primary focus of development teams is on the creation of new versions of applications, meaning limited time can be spent on administrative duties required to refactor workloads for cloud. Due to this, the onus often shifts back to the operations teams to manage administration. Unfortunately, operations teams often lack the necessary skills or resources. If they lack skills, tools, cloud governance policies or operational practices to enforce operational standards, these workloads will often come back to legacy platforms.

The survey results call for organizations to look at ecosystems, with business objectives and optimization in mind, to avoid placing workloads in inappropriate locations. To save time, money and resources and to increase interoperability, businesses should look to hybrid and multi-cloud specialist providers, with the skills and experience to assist in those decisions. 

The study canvassed the opinions and approach to cloud technology of 400 senior IT professionals. Respondents were from organizations with 250+ employees in the U.S., Canada and UK. Industries included financial services, technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, public education and the commercial sector. 

To see the full findings from part one of Aptum’s Cloud Impact Study 2022, Hybrid: Why and How – Applying lessons from digital transformation, please download the report here: https://aptum.com/cloud-hub/2022-cis-part-1/ 

Nearly 60% of respondents agree that cloud adoption has improved their organization’s agility, but that they could be more agile still. This finding comes from the fourth and final part of the Cloud Impact Study from Aptum, the hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider. The report, titled The Modernization Minefield, examines the deployment of workloads on different infrastructures and the adoption of cloud services at enterprise application level.

The independent research reveals that, despite only 39% of IT professionals being completely satisfied with their rate of cloud transformation, the adoption of practices that lend themselves to cloud native technology and enable agility remains low. 

Only 20% of respondents are utilizing DevOps across all applications, and just 17% use container services to develop and deploy all apps. DevOps and container services increase agility by speeding up application deployment times, improving productivity through continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD), enabling easy and frequent patching, and minimizing production costs. 

Respondents recognize many of the benefits of DevOps and container services adoption, with common anticipated benefits from further adoption including increased operational efficiency (77%), improved responsiveness (59%) and improved customer experience (58%). So, what is stopping organizations from realizing their cloud native potential?

Effectively refactoring applications requires an up-front commitment of resources and investment, including hardware, software, people, and skillsets like DevOps. The alternative of lifting and shifting an application into a cloud environment can often be a more expensive and less successful endeavour and can deter organizations that already have sunk costs. In fact, findings from part two of the Cloud Impact Study, The Security and Compliance Barricade, found that refactoring legacy applications for cloud infrastructure is a top barrier to cloud transformation (35%), second only to security and compliance (38%). 

As a result, for seven out of nine application categories – Human Resources (HR), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), backup, disaster recovery, bespoke applications, development, and operations – on-premises remains the preferred hosting option.

As noted in each of the Cloud Impact Study reports, organizations recognize that they need expert help to plan and execute their transformation strategies. Choosing a Managed Services Provider that understands which areas of a business can be enhanced through cloud services, and which areas should remain on-premises is a crucial step in that process. 

The full findings of the final part of Aptum’s Cloud Impact Study 2020/21, The Modernization Minefield can be found here. 

Aptum’s Cloud Impact Study was created from the opinions of 400 senior IT professionals in the US, Canada, and UK across industries in financial services, IT, technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, public and commercial sectors. 

The blog post, Navigating the modernization minefield, can be found here: https://aptum.com/blog/navigating-the-modernization-minefield/

For part one of the report, Bridging the Cloud Gap, please visit here. 

For part two of the report, The Security and Compliance Barricade, please visit here. 

For part three of the report, A Cloudy Forecast, please visit here.

Aptum, a global hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider,today introduced new tiers for its Managed Azure Cloud services, allowing customers to easily select an Azure managed service level that meets their business needs and cloud adoption goals, wherever they are on their cloud journey. Aptum’s Managed Azure Cloud now includes three enhanced tiers: 

• Foundation – an offering designed for companies with significant internal IT resources and minimal skills gaps, with low-cost managed services and tools included
• Advanced – geared towards customers who have gaps in cloud competencies or available resources; includes proactive support from Aptum
• Premium – designed for customers looking to focus on their core business, while outsourcing many of their IT functions – such as operating system support — so they can focus on non-IT related tasks. Ideal for customers who need support with cloud adoption planning, or hybrid or complex environments.

All three tiers give customers access to Aptum tools, programs and resources for their cloud transformation, including Aptum’s Cost Insights Dashboard, 24×7 support and advisory services. They also allow customers to tailor their Managed Azure Cloud services to suit their specific needs.

Aptum’s Managed Azure Cloud provides customers with day-to-day operational management within the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform, including best practice advice, configuration assistance and troubleshooting services, as well as OS patching, anti-malware, monitoring and backup. Additionally, it provides an opportunity for businesses to supplement in-house knowledge and expertise and free up IT resources for other priorities; reduce overall costs; improve performance and speed; and enable reliable cloud consumption forecasting, while maximizing security. 

Aptum’s Managed Azure Cloud enhanced tiers are available immediately. For more information, please visit https://aptum.com/services/cloud/managed-azure/.

Aptum, a global hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider, today announced it has partnered with NEON CORP., a turnkey eCommerce platform and retail solutions provider, to transition its IT infrastructure to Microsoft Azure Cloud, boosting NEON’s scalability and augmenting its IT security. 

NEON provides eCommerce platform build services including order fulfillment and management, customer service, marketing services, hosting and cybersecurity. The company wanted to shift to a managed cloud solution that would allow it to maintain its business growth and efficiently add new clients to its eCommerce platforms. 

The company turned to Aptum for support. Aptum assisted NEON in making the transition to Azurewith its Azure Design & Build, Azure Managed Services and Aptum Managed Web Application Firewall (WAF). Aptum used its Professional Services expertise to optimize NEON’s eCommerce platforms for the Azure environment and provided enhanced security through Managed Detection and Response solution. NEON also benefits by leveraging Aptum’s many security certifications, including enabling PCI DSS, helping the company meet its compliance and governance requirements.

With Aptum’s managed services, NEON CORP. was able to make a seamless switch to Azure, optimize performance and protect their eCommerce platforms. The company is now able to grow its business quickly in a highly secure environment, while improving the experience for its partners.

Although most organizations (80 per cent) recognize cloud computing as being vital to their financial security, more than half (57 per cent) have encountered unexpected costs. These findings come from part three of the four-part Cloud Impact Study from Aptum, the global hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider. The report, titled A Bright Forecast on Cloud, explores the financial benefits of cloud computing and how organizations can optimize cloud spend.

According to the report findings, most IT professionals (80 per cent) see success in utilizing cloud services to unlock greater business profitability. The agility of cloud deployments allows organizations to quickly scale their services to support demand, release new products or services to market, and subsequently improve profit margins and increase efficiencies. In fact, increased efficiency is a common driver behind cloud computing for 72 per cent of respondents. The overall efficiency and flexibility of cloud allows organizations to only pay for what they use, increasing overall profitability, which is cited by 39 per cent of respondents as a motivator behind cloud adoption.

However, as organizations migrate workloads to different cloud platforms, visibility and control into cloud environments becomes difficult to achieve, often leading to unforeseen costs – a key challenge for 81 per cent of respondents. Without necessary insights to evaluate performance and enforce remedial measures for issues, the efficiency of cloud becomes hard to manage. This is the case for over half of respondents (57 per cent) who say cloud has resulted in unanticipated costs, and over a third of respondents (35 per cent) who admit they are wasting IT spend due to the inefficient use of cloud platforms. 

The data suggests that cloud deployments without expert guidance from a Managed Service Partner (MSP) can increase associated costs if cloud optimization is not a fundamental principle from the start. Taking a holistic approach to cloud infrastructures, where visibility and control are embedded from design, can ensure costs are optimized and the service runs at maximum efficiency.

The full findings from part 3 of the Cloud Impact Study, A Bright Forecast on Cloud, can be found here: https://aptum.com/cloud-hub/cis-part-3/.

Aptum’s Cloud Impact Study was created from the opinions of 400 senior IT professionals in the US, Canada, and UK across industries in financial services, IT, technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, public and commercial sectors. The final report will focus on Modernization Opportunities.

For part one of the report, Bridging the Cloud Gap, please visit: https://aptum.com/cloud-hub/cis-part-1/.

For part two of the report, The Security and Compliance Barricade, please visit: https://aptum.com/cloud-hub/cis-part-2/.

Recently, Susan Bowen, CEO and President of Aptum, hosted a panel discussion on “How business leaders can stay on the offensive in challenging times” with Philbert Shih, Managing Director of analyst firm Structure Research; Jack Danahy, Former SVP of Business Development and Chief Evangelist with managed security leader Alert Logic; and Mark Vivian, CEO of Oracle Managed Services provider Claremont.

During the discussion, they touched on these topics:

• Business Strategy – How the pandemic has impacted business, and strategies to grow in the face of challenge
• IT Security – Security in the new business landscape, and its impact on the IT environment
• IT Infrastructure – The immediate impacts IT infrastructure can have on business success
• Remote Work – Strategies to keep remote workers engaged and maintain (or even build) productivity

A defensive business strategy is often the fallback approach for organizations in turbulent times. Over the past year the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many organizations to adopt this mindset. Putting new remote work strategies in place, shifting budgets to compensate for unpredictable revenue and trying to maintain a ‘business as usual’ stance has consumed senior executives across all industries. To grow their customer base and revenues, businesses must now be on the offensive.

The panelists all agreed organizations looking to be more aggressive need to have a solid cloud strategy. Toronto-based Philbert Shih at Structure Research has followed the cloud and data centre market for 20 years and noted that like the 2008/2009 financial crisis, the pandemic has spurred interest in cloud and outsourced infrastructure. 

As businesses shift more of their infrastructure to the cloud, security will play a key role. For example, the increase in employees working from home creates different security dynamics, Alert Logic’s Jack Danahy noted. IT infrastructures that were once managed on-site now need to be managed remotely. And with more devices being used for both personal and professional applications, new security processes need to be explored. 

Technology isn’t the only factor organizations need to address to take a more offensive business stance post-pandemic. Remote work is here to stay and ensuring employees feel connected to one another and the company will be more important when they’re not in regular face-to-face contact.

All panelists believe over the next 12 months, more organizations will turn to the cloud to boost scalability, efficiency and security.  

Please see Bowen’s full blog here: https://aptum.com/blog/how-business-leaders-can-stay-on-the-offensive-in-challenging-times/

The roundtable recording is also available here.