OKI Provides Private Cloud Installation and Support Service to Help Organizations Establish Their Own Cloud Computing Environments
OKI draws on experience to support organizations seeking to establish their own cloud computing platforms
TOKYO, March 4, 2010 -- OKI Electric Industry (TSE: 6703) announced it will launch a private cloud(*1) installation support service in April to provide a complete, one-stop solution for organizations planning to transition to cloud platform technologies. Leveraging its own experience in establishing its internal private cloud environment (what OKI refers to as a shared operating platform), now in operation since 2006, the company will provide a support solution that addresses every stage, from when organizations begin considering how to transition to a cloud computing(*2) system platform, up to and including actual installation and use.
This overall service addresses the following four areas:
- Consulting on establishing a private cloud
- Establishing the private cloud
- Providing a line of system platform products
- Operational support services
As IT systems have expanded and proliferated, the array of IT assets needed to support such systems has kept pace, increasing IT system maintenance costs and creating a major challenge for organizations. Moreover, recent changes in the business climate have increased pressures on organizations to reassess and reduce the cost of maintaining IT systems. In this climate, cloud platform technologies offer the potential to cut costs without affecting functionality, enabling IT infrastructure standardization and cost reductions based on overall optimization, while establishing the agility needed to respond to business changes in real-time.
However, the benefits of private cloud platform technology require large-scale changes in the IT infrastructure. Generally speaking, only organizations with experience in establishing and operating large-scale private cloud computing systems are able to draw an accurate roadmap for installing cloud platform technologies within a larger organizational framework.
Since 2004, the OKI Group has streamlined its own IT infrastructure by integrating and optimizing IT platforms. In 2006, the company cut the number of system servers it operates to one-half of that in 2004, streamlining IT maintenance procedures and significantly reducing maintenance costs. For OKI, private cloud platform technologies were essential to this process. In 2006, the company established and installed a private cloud environment as a common platform for its various IT systems, implementing server, storage, and network virtualization technologies. These technologies continue to evolve.
Since 2008, the OKI Group has provided its integrated PaaS Fusion(*3) platform service to allow customers to respond to changes in the business climate in real-time. The company now has two years of cumulative experience with PaaS operations on behalf of other organizations.
OKI's private cloud installation and support service is also based on efforts to establish and operate private cloud computing within the OKI Group itself. The company begins by presenting the customer with a proposal, based on which it provides an overall IT infrastructure optimization service that allows customers to respond in real-time to changing business conditions. Through cloud platform technologies, OKI also standardizes and optimizes the customer's infrastructure to reduce costs.
"OKI boasts a strong sales track record since July 2009 in providing a complete one-stop service that installs virtual platforms as part of a total solution, based on server virtualization. In the past, the company provided services that allowed organizations to optimize various systems", said Yuichiro Hiranuma, General Manager of System Platform Center at OKI. By adding this new private cloud installation and support service that allows customers to achieve overall optimization of the IT infrastructure, the company will make it easier than ever to streamline and optimize such infrastructures."
Overview of private cloud installation support service
- Consulting on establishing a private cloud
This service includes planning of installation roadmaps, consulting on topics such as system platform operation standardization, and system P/F standardization framework model engineering.
- Establishing the private cloud
This service includes installation planning, detailed system platform design, and work to establish system platforms.
- Providing a line of system platform products
Products include blade servers (if_Server, OKITAC9000), virtualization software (VMware, Hyper-V, KVM), virtual environment management software, and integrated storage.
- Operational support services
These services include technical support and maintenance for products already installed. They also include consulting on changes in configurations.
Sales plan
- Pricing
- Case-specific estimates
- Shipment
- Sales to begin in March 2010; service to be provided from April.
About the OKI Group's PaaS integrated Fusion platform
Within the OKI Group, Fusion provides system resources in discrete virtual server units as items available from a menu, allowing Group companies and departments to choose server units based on specific needs. This approach results in agile, low-cost access to the system resources needed. The integrated Fusion platform cuts costs and enhances readiness, availability, and security. It also eliminates the need to deal with individual platform components and streamlines system operations.
Glossary
- *1 :Private cloud
A way to access IT services used by each department within a company that establishes virtual private networks on a shared service, based on an existing cloud data center.
- *2 :Cloud computing
An approach to computing that shifts hardware, software, and data operations traditionally operated and controlled on local computers to a service accessed via the Internet. (The term "cloud" refers to the other side of the network in computer network diagrams.)
- *3 :PaaS (Platform as a Service)
A service whereby the overall platform and application stack is provided as a service via the network (e.g., the Internet). Most providers of such service generate income from monthly user fees.
About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Founded in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, OKI provides top-quality products, technologies, and solutions to customers through its info-telecom system and printer operations. Its various businesses function synergistically to provide exciting new products and technologies that meet a wide range of customer needs in various markets. Visit OKI's global web site at http://www.oki.com/.
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