Multi-Cloud Blog – BMC Software | Blogs https://s7280.pcdn.co Tue, 15 Oct 2024 17:25:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://s7280.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/bmc_favicon-300x300-36x36.png Multi-Cloud Blog – BMC Software | Blogs https://s7280.pcdn.co 32 32 Empowering IT Operations in Saudi Arabia: The Game-Changing Partnership of BMC Helix and Google Cloud https://s7280.pcdn.co/empowering-it-operations/ Tue, 15 Oct 2024 17:10:35 +0000 https://www.bmc.com/blogs/?p=53944 You must have heard the news—Google Cloud is now available in Saudi Arabia. Beyond being just another cloud service, this development marks a milestone for businesses in this part of the world. One major gain from this launch is the convergence between BMC Helix and Google Cloud, which will reshape how firms handle their IT […]]]>

You must have heard the news—Google Cloud is now available in Saudi Arabia. Beyond being just another cloud service, this development marks a milestone for businesses in this part of the world. One major gain from this launch is the convergence between BMC Helix and Google Cloud, which will reshape how firms handle their IT operations.

What does this imply for companies in Saudi Arabia, particularly with respect to leading digital service operations management, which is an important factor for every organization wishing to excel in today’s fast-paced technological world?

The power of BMC Helix on Google Cloud

BMC Helix has already established itself as a leader in ITSM. It is more than just a platform for managing IT services efficiently; it also automates mundane tasks and facilitates better decision-making. Connecting BMC Helix with Google Cloud has limitless potential.

What makes it huge? The secret lies in the strengths of combining both platforms. Google Cloud offers second-to-none infrastructure, scalability, and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, while BMC Helix delivers the specialized tools and expertise required to manage IT services in complex environments. Together, these two solutions help organizations use modern-day technologies intelligently and effectively.

Accelerating digital service operations management

Some IT department managers have historically considered keeping the lights on to be enough, but that is no longer true amid the rapidly evolving technology landscape. BMC Helix on Google Cloud helps organizations navigate the constant change with tooling that both provides baselines they can measure against and delivers digital service operations management quicker with AI that helps predict problems while also automating processes.

For example, consider what it means for an IT department in Saudi Arabia when they no longer need IT personnel to do day-to-day jobs. Instead, they can redirect their staff towards more strategic initiatives that drive business growth higher up the value chain. Could you imagine identifying and correcting potential problems before they impact your customers? Or scaling your operations seamlessly as your business expands? These are some of the benefits that BMC Helix on Google Cloud will provide.

The future of AIOps: Doing more with less

Perhaps you have heard about AIOps; a concept that uses AI to improve IT operations, which has been around for some time but is now undergoing rapid changes. At BMC, the future of AIOps is all about helping organizations do more with less. For instance, through the integration of BMC Helix and Google Cloud, businesses can use AI to automate complex processes, reduce operational costs, and improve overall efficiency.

Therefore, we should not forget that in countries like Saudi Arabia there is an accelerated adoption of modern technologies. In response to this trend towards cloud computing, big data, and machine learning (ML), etc., there is a greater need for smart, automated solutions than ever before. That’s why BMC invested in building BMC Helix on Google Cloud—to manage digital services not just efficiently, but also better, by automating AI-driven insights and making them available at all times, yielding tremendous results.

Why Saudi Arabia should care about this

The availability of Google Cloud in Saudi Arabia is a significant milestone in the Kingdom’s journey toward becoming a global tech hub. It represents an expanded vision to drive economic diversification and innovation throughout the region while also giving businesses access to world-class cloud services for their digital transformation.

However, it is not just about having access to cutting-edge technology; it’s also about leveraging that technology for quantifiable business value. That is where the BMC Helix and Google Cloud partnership comes in. By combining the strengths of both platforms, businesses within Saudi Arabia can achieve new levels of efficiency, agility, and resilience in their IT operations.

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Public vs Private vs Hybrid: Cloud Differences Explained https://www.bmc.com/blogs/public-private-hybrid-cloud/ Fri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:59 +0000 https://www.bmc.com/blogs/?p=12729 The term cloud computing spans a range of classifications, types, and architecture models. This networked computing model has transformed how we work—you’re likely already using the cloud. Several types of cloud computing models are in general use. Here, we will look at the public cloud vs private cloud vs hybrid cloud, and define what each […]]]>

The term cloud computing spans a range of classifications, types, and architecture models. This networked computing model has transformed how we work—you’re likely already using the cloud. Several types of cloud computing models are in general use. Here, we will look at the public cloud vs private cloud vs hybrid cloud, and define what each one is along with the pros and cons it brings.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is computing remotely over the Internet or in the “cloud.” Your apps, data, and interactions are done remotely on third-party computers, called servers, that you access over the Internet rather than on your computer hard drives or on-site server.

The rapid switch from local to cloud computing is driven by benefits such as the ability to scale without having to buy and configure hardware, accessibility from anywhere with an internet connection, professionally managed servers that are kept up-to-date with the latest tech and versions of apps, cost efficiency, and quick recovery from cyber attacks.

Cloud computing has given rise to “as-a-service” offerings such as Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), ITaaS: IT as a Service (ItaaS), AI as a Service (AIaaS), even DaaS: Desktop as a service. Cyber criminals use the cloud for their exploits with RaaS: Ransomware as a service, a type of “crime as a service.”

You can use three types of cloud computing models:

  • Public cloud: Delivered via the internet and shared across organizations.
  • Private cloud: Dedicated solely to your organization.
  • Hybrid cloud: An environment that uses both public and private clouds.

Before considering the private cloud vs public clouds, let’s look at the infrastructure. Any cloud service consists of client-side systems or devices (PC, tablets, etc.) that are connected to the backend data center components. The components that constitute cloud infrastructure include:

The underlying infrastructure architecture can take various forms and features, including:

Individuals and companies alike both value the benefits of cloud computing, including:

Public vs private vs hybrid cloud: At a glance

Public vs private vs hybrid clouds at a glance

What is the public cloud?

The public cloud is the shared cloud. In this model, third-party providers deliver storage, computing power, and applications to multiple users. Anyone can purchase access and services, typically on a pay-for-use basis.

The defining features of a public cloud solution include:

  • High elasticity and scalability
  • A low-cost subscription-based pricing tier
  • Fast operationalization
  • Most current technologies
  • Reliability

Services on the public cloud may be free, freemium, or subscription-based, wherein you’re charged based on the computing resources you consume.

The computing functionality may range from common services—email, apps, and storage—to the enterprise-grade OS platform or infrastructure environments used for software development and testing.

The cloud vendor is responsible for developing, managing, and maintaining the pool of computing resources shared between multiple tenants from across the network.

Advantages of public cloud

The public cloud offers many advantages to your organization:

  • No upfront capital investment. No investments are required to deploy and maintain the IT infrastructure.
  • Accessibility. You can access apps and data from anywhere with an internet connection.
  • Technical agility. High scalability and flexibility to meet unpredictable workload demands.
  • Professionally managed and current. You will work on the latest, properly configured hardware and always up-to-date apps.
  • Business focus. The reduced complexity and requirements of in-house IT expertise are minimized, as the cloud vendor is responsible for infrastructure management.
  • Remote collaboration. Remote workers can easily collaborate without having to be in the same physical location.
  • Affordability. Flexible pricing options based on different SLA offerings.
  • Cost efficiency. The cost agility allows organizations to follow lean growth strategies and focus their investments on innovation projects.
  • Fast recovery. Your data and apps are backed up regularly and stored in multiple locations, minimizing the risk of data loss and ensuring business continuity.

Drawbacks of public cloud

Despite its many advantages, the public cloud does come with limitations:

  • Lack of cost control. The total cost of ownership (TCO) can rise exponentially for large-scale usage, specifically for midsize to large enterprises.
  • Lack of security. The public cloud is the least secure, so it isn’t best for sensitive mission-critical IT workloads.
  • Minimal technical control. Low visibility and control of the infrastructure may not meet your compliance needs.
  • Escalating costs. At a certain point, adding services, using more storage, and adding seats is no longer cost-effective.
  • Vendor dependency. Should you want to change providers, migrating services and data is complex and costly.

When to use the public cloud

The public cloud is most suitable for these types of environments:

  • Predictable computing needs, such as communication services for a specific number of users.
  • Apps and services necessary to perform IT and business operations.
  • Additional resource requirements to address varying peak demands.
  • Software development and test environments.

Learn more about securing your public cloud.

What is the private cloud?

The private cloud is dedicated to your organization, which you access over a secure private network. You get benefits similar to those of the public cloud but don’t share them with other organizations or users. It may be managed on your premises or off-site by a third-party vendor. The model offers you greater performance, control, and security.

The defining features of a private cloud solution include many of the features of the public cloud, but also:

  • Higher security
  • Scalability
  • Customization and control
  • Greater visibility into every aspect of your cloud
  • Compliance with cybersecurity frameworks you choose

Advantages of private cloud

Organizations move to their own private clouds to capture these benefits:

  • Exclusive environments. Dedicated and secure environments that cannot be accessed by other organizations.
  • Custom security. Compliance to stringent regulations as organizations can run protocols, configurations, and measures to customize security based on unique workload requirements.
  • Scalability without tradeoffs. High scalability and efficiency to meet unpredictable demands without compromising on security and performance.
  • Efficient performance. The private cloud is reliable for high SLA performance and efficiency.
  • Flexibility. The private cloud is flexible as you transform the infrastructure based on the ever-changing business and IT needs of the organization.
  • Dedicated resources. Because you aren’t sharing, latency and competition for resources are not issues.

Drawbacks of private cloud

The private cloud has drawbacks. It may not be an ideal fit for your organization because of these issues:

  • Higher costs. The private cloud is an expensive solution with a relatively high TCO compared to public cloud alternatives, especially for short-term use cases.
  • Difficult remote use. Considering the high-security measures in place, offsite users may have limited access to the private cloud.
  • Scalability depends. The infrastructure may not offer high scalability to meet unpredictable demands if the cloud data center is limited to on-premise computing resources.
  • Complex management. You’ll need considerable in-house tech expertise to run your private cloud.
  • Potential inefficiencies. You may not fully use your resources, wasting costly infrastructure.

When to use the private cloud

The private cloud is best suited for:

  • Highly regulated industries and government agencies.
  • Sensitive data.
  • Companies that require strong control and security over their IT workloads and the underlying infrastructure.
  • Large enterprises that require advanced data center technologies to operate efficiently and cost-effectively.
  • Organizations that can afford to invest in high-performance and availability technologies.

What is hybrid cloud?

The hybrid cloud is a computing environment that uses both the public and private cloud models, sharing data and apps between the two to take advantage of the benefits that each provides. The uses of each are driven by business and technical needs around:

  • Security
  • Performance
  • Scalability
  • Cost
  • Efficiency

This is a common example of hybrid cloud: Organizations can use private cloud environments for their IT workloads and complement the infrastructure with public cloud resources to accommodate occasional spikes in network traffic.

Or, perhaps you use the public cloud for workloads and data that aren’t sensitive, saving cost, but opt for the private cloud for sensitive data.

As a result, access to additional computing capacity does not require the high CapEx of a private cloud environment but is delivered as a short-term IT service via a public cloud solution. The environment itself is seamlessly integrated to ensure optimum performance and scalability to changing business needs.

When you do pursue a hybrid cloud, you may have another decision to make: whether to be homogeneous or heterogeneous with your cloud. That is—are you using cloud services from a single vendor or from several vendors?

Advantages of hybrid cloud

When choosing between the public cloud vs private cloud, a hybrid approach brings significant advantages.

  • Policy-driven option. Flexible policy-driven deployment to distribute workloads across public and private infrastructure environments based on security, performance, and cost requirements.
  • Scale with security. Scalability of public cloud environments is achieved without exposing sensitive IT workloads to the inherent security risks.
  • Reliability. Distributing services across multiple data centers, some public, some private, results in maximum reliability.
  • Cost control and efficiency. Improved security posture as sensitive IT workloads run on dedicated resources in private clouds while regular workloads are spread across inexpensive public cloud infrastructure to tradeoff for cost investments.
  • Interoperability and mobility. Work moves smoothly between the two; you can access and use data and apps on-premises and in public and private clouds.
  • Optimized workloads. You can do sensitive work on the private cloud and everything else on the public cloud.
  • Business continuity. Should your system experience a disaster, the distributed nature of private and public clouds makes it easier and faster to restore operability.

Learn more about hybrid cloud security and best practices.

Drawbacks of hybrid cloud

While the promise of the best of both worlds in going hybrid vs public cloud vs private cloud sounds good, you may encounter some drawbacks:

  • Complicated cost management. Toggling between public and private can be hard to track, resulting in wasteful spending.
  • Integration issues. Strong compatibility and integration is required between cloud infrastructure spanning different locations and categories. This is a limitation with public cloud deployments, for which organizations lack direct control over the infrastructure.
  • Added complexity. Additional infrastructure complexity is introduced as organizations operate and manage an evolving mix of private and public cloud architecture.
  • Security risks. Transferring data between clouds introduces vulnerabilities.

When to use the hybrid cloud

Here’s who the hybrid cloud might suit best:

  • Organizations serving multiple verticals facing different IT security, regulatory, and performance requirements.
  • Optimizing cloud investments without compromising on the value that public or private cloud technologies can deliver.
  • Improving security on existing cloud solutions, such as SaaS offerings that must be delivered via secure private networks.
  • Strategically approaching cloud investments to continuously switch and trade-off between the best cloud service delivery model available in the market.

Deciding between public, private and hybrid cloud computing

The choice between public vs private vs hybrid cloud solutions depends on your use cases, budget, IT capabilities, and expectations for growth. It is rarely an either/or situation, as you may find ways to capture the benefits of each while avoiding the drawbacks.

Balance is the driver in architecting your approach to cloud computing. And balancing is an ongoing need. What works for your organization today may not work in the future.

The key element in balancing your choices is to develop an intentional cloud strategy that optimizes your use of each cloud environment. Start with defining the needs of your various workloads, then prioritize them based on the pros and cons of each model.

Cloud responsibility: A shared model

As a final note, It is important to know that no matter which cloud environment you work in, your problems don’t go away. Though you’re purchasing services from third-party vendors, you still have to do your due diligence to reduce risk.

This is known as shared model of cloud responsibility. Though vendors operate the IT infrastructure and control things like flexibility and agility, your organization maintains responsibility for:

Vendor and client responsibilities in public and hybrid clouds

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AWS vs Azure vs GCP: Comparing The Big 3 Cloud Platforms https://www.bmc.com/blogs/aws-vs-azure-vs-google-cloud-platforms/ Tue, 20 Aug 2024 00:00:39 +0000 http://www.bmc.com/blogs/?p=12305 The big three of cloud computing platforms Cloud computing has revolutionized the way organizations handle digital operations. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) are the three cloud service providers dominating the cloud market worldwide. Most enterprises have moved computing from on-site servers into the cloud and even multi-cloud environments, so […]]]>

The big three of cloud computing platforms

Cloud computing has revolutionized the way organizations handle digital operations. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) are the three cloud service providers dominating the cloud market worldwide.

Most enterprises have moved computing from on-site servers into the cloud and even multi-cloud environments, so that they can benefit from features such as:

  • Decreased CapEx
  • Reduced infrastructure maintenance
  • Increased availability and reliability
  • Scalability of an on-demand resource
  • Lower operational costs
  • Remote access and facilitated collaboration
  • Support for multiple devices
  • Optimized infrastructure for speed and performance
  • Enhanced security
  • Access to the most up-to-date technology

The big three cloud computing providers all bring experience and expertise to their reliable and feature-rich platforms. Which is better? AWS vs Microsoft Azure vs Google Cloud?

Here are details of each one, along with an Azure, AWS, and GCP comparison that will help you do your due diligence before making a choice for your company.

Comparison of AWS vs Microsoft Azure vs Google Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

The current market leader is Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. It is the most mature cloud platform and offers a wide range of services to individual developers, small and large enterprises, and governments.

AWS started its life as an internal cloud platform. It evolved into a publicly available, on-demand internet computing resource in 2006, offering services like Amazon S3 cloud storage and elastic compute cloud (EC2). AWS now offers more than 200 fully featured services to millions of users. It rakes in one of every three dollars spent on cloud services, with an annual growth rate of 37%, according to figures published in The Register. It delivered 54% of Amazon’s total operating income in 2023.

Prominent AWS customers include:

  • Expedia
  • Netflix
  • Coinbase
  • Formula 1
  • Coca Cola
  • Intuit
  • Airbnb
  • Lyft
  • Coursera
  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

(Explore our AWS Guide, a series of articles & tutorials.)

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is the second-largest cloud platform, but is growing faster than AWS with an annual growth rate of 46%, again as measured in The Register. Microsoft has reported cloud revenue growth of 30% for the quarter ending December 31, 2023. Azure has expanded since its 2010 launch to offer over 200 products and services. 

Azure, an offering of Microsoft, is particularly tailored to support Microsoft-centric enterprises. Moving to the cloud or a hybrid-cloud environment is easier for these organizations. More than 95% of Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft Azure today.

Azure is not limited to Windows-based services. It also supports open-source languages, technologies, and platforms, giving anyone the freedom to build and support any application.

Well known Azure customers include:

  • DAIMLER AG
  • McKesson Group
  • Asos
  • Center of Disease Control (CDC) – US
  • National Health Service (NHS) – UK
  • HSBC
  • Starbucks
  • Walgreens
  • 3M
  • HP
  • Mitsubishi Electric
  • Renault

(Explore popular Azure certifications.)

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Compared to AWS vs Azure, GCP is the smallest of the big three cloud providers.

That said, it is the fastest growing, with a 54% market share growth rate, The Register reports. The company expects the business to grow 20% in 2024.

The GCP currently offers over 200 services spanning computing, networking, big data, and more. Today, GCP consists of services including Google Workspace, enterprise Android, and Chrome OS.

Notable GCP customers include:

  • Toyota
  • Unilever
  • Nintendo
  • Spotify
  • The Home Depot
  • Target
  • Twitter
  • Paypal
  • UPS

How to choose between AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud

When choosing between AWS vs. Microsoft Azure vs. Google Cloud, the first thing to consider is the availability of services in the regions where you operate. Regional availability has a direct impact on performance, like network latency and speed in transmitting data. Compliance issues also vary by region, particularly related to cybersecurity.

As of July 25, 2024, here’s where the big three stand:

Comparing AWS, GCP, and Azure regions and availability

When choosing a cloud provider, the first thing to consider is its supported regions and availability. These directly impact the performance of your cloud, due to factors like latency and compliance requirements, especially when dealing with data.

As of September 2021, here’s where the Big 3 stand:

  • AWS has 33 geographic regions with105 availability zones. They plan to add seven more regions and 21 more availability zones in the immediate future. They serve 600+ edge locations and 12 regional edge caches.
  • Microsoft Azure runs 64 regions with 15 under construction. They maintain 126 availability zones with 37 more being built. Microsoft maintains 192 edge locations in global cities with four edge locations in the US government cloud.
  • GCP has 40 cloud regions with eight new ones coming soon. They’ve built 121 zones and 187 edge locations.

Each of these platforms provide specialized cloud solutions for the government (government cloud). Both AWS and Azure offer specialized services that cater to the Chinese market as well, with data centers located in China.

In making an Azure, AWS, and GCP comparison, it’s important to note that each covers most of the globe. All three are also continuing to expand their coverage by adding more regions and zones to meet the ever-increasing computing demand.

(Get an in-depth look at the Big 3 regions & availability.)

Common services of the big three cloud providers

An AWS vs. Azure comparison shows that both have similarly large catalogs of more than 200 services each. GCP is quickly catching up to these leaders. A general breakdown of services is:

  • AWS has the largest catalog of services, topping 250.
  • Azure is a close second, with an impressive set of over 200 artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and analytics services.
  • GCP matches Azure in the number of services they offer.

Here are the common service offerings of each cloud platform.

Comparing AWS, Azure, and GCP compute services

This Azure, AWS, GCP comparison of services chart shows how they compete with various technologies across key offerings.

Compare AWS, Azure, and GCP compute services

Comparing AWS, Azure, and GCP database and storage services

When it comes to storage services, AWS, Azure, and GCP also compete with different database technologies and branded storage solutions.

Compare AWS, Azure, and GCP storage services

Comparing AWS, Azure, and GCP networking services

Comparing AWS, Azure, and GCP, each has their own way of handling various aspects of managing networking services.

Compare AWS, Azure, and GCP networking services

An Azure, AWS, and GCP comparison shows that they all cover common computing needs. Their differences fall into two categories:

  • How each service is implemented in its cloud platform
  • The individual features available for each service

Specialized services

An area of significant service differences between AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud is in specialized services. AWS and Azure are comparable, with GCP rapidly catching up.

Compare AWS, Azure, and GCP specialized services

These are only some of the specialized services available on these platforms. AWS customers can even dabble with quantum computing using Amazon Braket.

Understanding pricing differences between AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure

AWS vs Microsoft Azure vs Google Cloud compete on both price and value. Their pricing plans are based on these factors:

  • Customer requirements
  • Usage
  • Services used

All three platforms offer competitive pricing plans with additional cost management options—reserved instances, budgets, and resource optimization—available to all users.

The consensus in the IT community is that Microsoft Azure currently has the lowest on-demand pricing, while Amazon tends to come in somewhere around the middle. Enterprise customers already using Microsoft services (Windows, active directory, MS SQL, etc.) have an advantage when they move to Azure, as it is significantly cheaper than other cloud providers.

Evaluating the big three

In evaluating AWS vs. Azure vs. GCP, you will find that each has pros and cons. We’ve simplified the comparison for you here:AWS: Pros and Cons

AWS: Pros and Cons
Pros Cons
  • Most services available, from networking to robotics
  • Most mature
  • Considered the gold standard in cloud reliability and security
  • More compute capacity vs Azure & GCP
  • All major software vendors make their programs available on AWS
  • Dev/Enterprise support must be purchased
  • Can overwhelm newcomers with the sheer number of services and options
  • Comparatively limited options for hybrid cloud
MICROSOFT AZURE: Pros and Cons
Pros Cons
  • Easy integration and migrations for existing Microsoft services
  • Many services available, including best-in-class AI, ML, and analytics services
  • Relatively cheaper for most services vs AWS & GCP
  • Great support for hybrid cloud strategies
  • Fewer service offerings vs AWS
  • Particularly geared towards enterprise customers
GCP: Pros and Cons
Pros Cons
  • Plays nicely with other Google service and products
  • Excellent support for containerized workloads
  • Global fiber network
  • Limited services vs AWS & Azure
  • Limited support for enterprise use cases

Summing up the differences between AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud

Though AWS is the current market leader in terms of capacity and service, Microsoft and Google are growing quickly to challenge that dominance. To compete with AWS, they are building out facilities, innovating new services, and offering new options in their packages and pricing plans.

Microsoft is challenging AWS by going after the large enterprise market segment. Google is differentiating with multiple integrated open-source projects and third-party services.

Which is right for your company? In making an Azure, AWS, GCP comparison, the right answer depends on your specific use case. In a rapidly evolving cloud technology environment, more customers are implementing multi-cloud strategies to make the best use of each provider’s strengths, without locking themselves to a single one.

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SaaS vs. PaaS vs. IaaS: What’s the Difference and How to Choose https://www.bmc.com/blogs/saas-vs-paas-vs-iaas-whats-the-difference-and-how-to-choose/ Mon, 11 Mar 2024 09:45:11 +0000 http://www.bmc.com/blogs/?p=11148 While a new era of artificial intelligence (AI) may currently dominate tech headlines, cloud computing remains a hot and pervasive topic to this day. As you consider evolving your business more to the cloud, whether for application or infrastructure deployment, it is more important than ever to understand the differences and advantages of the various […]]]>

While a new era of artificial intelligence (AI) may currently dominate tech headlines, cloud computing remains a hot and pervasive topic to this day. As you consider evolving your business more to the cloud, whether for application or infrastructure deployment, it is more important than ever to understand the differences and advantages of the various cloud services.

Although as-a-service types continue to grow, there are usually three core models of cloud service to consider and compare:

For each of these, we’ll look at the concept, benefits, and variances. We’ll also help you understand the key differences among SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS, so you can choose an approach that’s right for your organization.

(More interested in cloud setup? Learn more about public, private, and hybrid cloud differences.)

Key differences

Common examples of SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS

Platform Type Common Examples
SaaS Google Workspace, Dropbox, Salesforce, Cisco WebEx, Concur, GoToMeeting
PaaS Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure, Heroku, Force.com, Google App Engine, Apache Stratos, Red Hat OpenShift
IaaS DigitalOcean, Linode, Rackspace, AWS, Cisco Metapod, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine (GCE)

SaaS: Software as a service

Software as a service (SaaS), also known as cloud application services, represents the most commonly utilized option for businesses in the cloud market. SaaS leverages the internet to deliver applications, which are managed by a third-party vendor, to its users. A majority of SaaS applications run directly through your web browser, which means they do not require any downloads or installations on the client side.

SaaS delivery

Due to its web-delivery model, SaaS eliminates the need to have IT staff download and install applications on each individual computer. With SaaS, vendors manage all potential technical issues, such as data, middleware, servers, and storage, resulting in streamlined maintenance and support for the business customer.

SaaS advantages

SaaS provides numerous advantages to employees and companies by greatly reducing the time and money spent on tedious tasks, such as installing, managing, and upgrading software. This frees up time for technical staff to spend on bustiness-critical issues within the organization.

SaaS characteristics

There are a few ways to help you determine when SaaS is being utilized:

  • Managed from a central location
  • Hosted on a remote server
  • Accessible over the internet
  • Users not responsible for hardware or software updates

When to use SaaS

SaaS may be the most beneficial option in several situations, including:

  • Startups or small companies that need to launch e-commerce quickly and don’t have time for server issues or complex on-premises software
  • Short-term projects that require quick, easy, and affordable collaboration
  • Applications that aren’t needed too often, such as tax software
  • Applications that need both web and mobile access

SaaS limitations and concerns

  • Interoperability. Integration with existing apps and services can be a major concern if the SaaS application is not designed to follow open standards for integration. In this case, organizations may need to design their own integration systems or reduce dependencies with SaaS services, which may not always be possible.
  • Vendor lock-in. Vendors may make it easy to join a service and difficult to get out of it. For instance, the data may not be portable—technically or cost-effectively—across SaaS applications from other vendors without incurring significant cost or in-house engineering rework. Not every vendor follows standard APIs, protocols, and tools, yet the features could be necessary for certain business tasks.
  • Lack of integration support. Many organizations require deep integrations with on-premises applications, data, and services. The SaaS vendor may offer limited support in this regard, forcing organizations to invest internal resources in designing and managing integrations. The complexity of integrations can further limit how the SaaS app or other dependent services can be used.
  • Data security. Large volumes of data may have to be exchanged with the backend data centers of SaaS applications in order to perform the necessary software functionality. Transferring sensitive business information to public, cloud-based SaaS services may result in compromised security and compliance, in addition to incurring significant cost for migrating large data workloads.
  • Customization. SaaS applications offer minimal customization capabilities. Since a one-size-fits-all solution does not exist, users may be limited to specific functionality, performance, and integrations as offered by the vendor. In contrast, on-premises solutions that come with several software development kits (SDKs) offer a high degree of customization options.
  • Lack of control. SaaS solutions involve handing control over to the third-party service provider. These controls are not only limited to the software—in terms of the version, updates, or appearance—but, also to the data and governance. Customers may, therefore, need to redefine their data security and governance models to fit the features and functionality of the SaaS offering.
  • Feature limitations. Since SaaS applications often come in a standardized form, the choice of features may be a compromising tradeoff against security, cost, performance, or other organizational policies. Furthermore, vendor lock-in, cost, or security concerns may mean it’s not viable to switch vendors or services to serve new feature requirements in the future.
  • Performance and downtime. Because the vendor controls and manages the SaaS service, your customers now depend on vendors to maintain the service’s security and performance. Planned and unplanned maintenance, cyberattacks, or network issues may impact the performance of the SaaS application despite adequate service level agreement (SLA) protections in place.

Examples of SaaS

Popular examples of SaaS include:


Planning to migrate enterprise IT functions to the cloud? Check out the BMC Helix Platform. › 

PaaS: Platform as a service

Cloud platform services, also known as platform as a service (PaaS), provide cloud components to certain software while being used mainly for applications. PaaS delivers a framework that developers can build upon and use to create customized applications. All servers, storage, and networking can be managed by the enterprise or a third-party provider while the developers can maintain management of the applications.

PaaS delivery

The delivery model of PaaS is similar to SaaS, except instead of delivering the software over the internet, PaaS provides a platform for software creation. This platform is delivered via the web, giving developers the freedom to concentrate on building the software without having to worry about operating systems, software updates, storage, or infrastructure.

PaaS allows businesses to design and create applications and integrate special software components into the PaaS. These applications, sometimes called middleware, are scalable and highly available as they take on certain cloud characteristics.

PaaS advantages

No matter the size of your company, using PaaS offers numerous advantages, including:

  • Simple, cost-effective development and deployment of applications
  • Scalability
  • Highly available
  • Application customization without software maintenance
  • Significant reduction in the amount of coding needed
  • Automation of business policy
  • Easy migration to the hybrid model

PaaS characteristics

PaaS has many characteristics that define it as a cloud service, including:

  • Builds on virtualization technology, so resources can easily be scaled up or down as your business changes
  • Provides a variety of services to assist with the development, testing, and deployment of apps
  • Accessibility to many users via the same development application
  • Integration with web services and databases

When to use PaaS

Using PaaS is beneficial, sometimes even necessary, in several situations. For example, PaaS can streamline workflows when multiple developers are working on the same development project. If other vendors must be included, PaaS can provide great speed and flexibility to the entire process. PaaS is particularly beneficial if you need to create customized applications. This cloud service also can greatly reduce costs and simplify some of the challenges that arise if you are rapidly developing or deploying an application.

PaaS limitations and concerns

  • Data security. Organizations can run their own apps and services using PaaS solutions, but the data residing in third-party, vendor-controlled cloud servers poses security risks and concerns. Your security options could be limited as customers may be unable to deploy services with specific hosting policies.
  • Integrations. The complexity of connecting the data stored within an onsite data center or off-premises cloud is increased, which may affect which applications and services can be adopted with the PaaS offering. Integration with existing services and infrastructure may be a challenge for legacy IT systems with components that were not built for the cloud.
  • Vendor lock-in. Business and technical requirements that drive decisions for a specific PaaS solution may not apply in the future. If the vendor has not provisioned convenient migration policies, switching to alternative PaaS options may not be possible without affecting the business.
  • Customization of legacy systems. PaaS may not be a plug-and-play solution for existing legacy applications and services. Instead, several customizations and configuration changes may be necessary for legacy systems to work with the PaaS service. The resulting customization can result in a complex IT system that may limit the value of the PaaS investment altogether.
  • Runtime issues. In addition to limitations associated with specific applications and services, PaaS solutions may not be optimized for the language and frameworks of your choice. Specific framework versions may not be available or perform optimally with the PaaS service, and customers may not be able to develop custom dependencies with the platform.
  • Operational limitation. Customized cloud operations with automated management workflows may not apply to PaaS solutions, as the platform tends to limit operational capabilities for end users. Although this is intended to reduce the operational burden on end users, the loss of operational control may affect how PaaS solutions are managed, provisioned, and operated.

Examples of PaaS

Popular examples of PaaS include:


Take the leap to the next level of IT Service Management with BMC Helix ITSM. › 

IaaS: Infrastructure as a service

Cloud infrastructure services, known as infrastructure as a service (IaaS), are made of highly scalable and automated compute resources. IaaS is fully self-service for accessing and monitoring computers, networking, storage, and other services. IaaS allows businesses to purchase resources on demand and as needed instead of having to buy hardware outright.

IaaS delivery

IaaS delivers cloud computing infrastructure, including servers, networks, operating systems, and storage, through virtualization technology. These cloud servers are typically provided to the organization through a dashboard or API, giving IaaS clients complete control over the entire infrastructure. IaaS provides the same technologies and capabilities as a traditional data center without having to physically maintain or manage all of it. IaaS clients can still access their servers and storage directly, but it is all outsourced through a “virtual data center” in the cloud.

As opposed to SaaS or PaaS, IaaS clients are responsible for managing aspects such as applications, runtime, operating systems, middleware, and data. However, IaaS providers manage the servers, hard drives, networking, virtualization, and storage. Some providers also offer more services beyond the virtualization layer, such as databases or message queuing.

IaaS advantages

IaaS offers many advantages, including:

  • The most flexible cloud computing model
  • Easy automated deployment of storage, networking, servers, and processing power
  • Consumption-based hardware purchasing
  • Complete client control of their infrastructure
  • Resource purchasing as needed
  • High scalability

IaaS characteristics

Characteristics that define IaaS include:

  • Resources available as a service
  • Variable, consumption-based costs
  • Highly scalable services
  • Multi-user hardware access
  • Organizational control of the infrastructure
  • Dynamic flexibility

When to use IaaS

Just as with SaaS and PaaS, there are specific situations when IaaS is most advantageous.

  • Startups and small companies may prefer IaaS to avoid spending time and money on purchasing and creating hardware and software.
  • Larger companies may prefer to retain complete control over their applications and infrastructure, but they want to purchase only what they actually consume or need.
  • Companies experiencing rapid growth like the scalability of IaaS, and they can change out specific hardware and software easily as their needs evolve.

Anytime you are unsure of a new application’s demands, IaaS offers plenty of flexibility and scalability.

IaaS limitations and concerns

Limitations associated with SaaS and PaaS models—such as data security, cost overruns, vendor lock-in and customization issues—also apply to the IaaS model. Particular limitations of IaaS include:

  • Security. While the customer is in control of the applications, data, middleware, and the operating system platform, security threats can still be sourced from the host or other virtual machines (VMs). Insider threat or system vulnerabilities may expose data communication between the host infrastructure and VMs to unauthorized entities.
  • Legacy systems operating in the cloud. While customers can run legacy applications in the cloud, the infrastructure may not be designed to deliver specific controls to secure them. Minor enhancements to legacy applications may be required before migrating them to the cloud, possibly leading to new security issues unless adequately tested for security and performance in the IaaS systems.
  • Internal resources and training. Additional resources and training may be required for the workforce to learn how to effectively manage the infrastructure. Customers will be responsible for data security, backup, and business continuity. Due to inadequate control of the infrastructure, however, monitoring and management of the resources may be difficult without availability of adequate in-house training and resources.
  • Multi-tenant security. Since the hardware resources are dynamically allocated across users as needed, the vendor is required to ensure that other customers cannot access data left on storage assets by previous customers. Similarly, customers must rely on the vendor to ensure that VMs are adequately isolated within the multi-tenant cloud architecture.

Examples of IaaS

Popular examples of IaaS include:

SaaS vs. PaaS vs. IaaS

Each cloud model offers specific features and functionalities, and it is crucial for your organization to understand the differences. Whether you need cloud-based software for storage options, a smooth platform that allows you to create customized applications, or complete control over your entire infrastructure without having to physically maintain it, there is a cloud service for you.

No matter which option you choose, migrating to the cloud is the future of business and technology.

XaaS: Everything as a service

One term you’re likely seeing more frequently in the world is XaaS, short for everything as a service. XaaS refers to the highly-individualized, responsive, data-driven products and offerings that are fully controlled by customers—and the data they provide via everyday Internet of Things (IoT)-powered sources like cell phones and thermostats.

By using that data generated over the cloud, businesses can innovate faster, deepen their customer relationships, and sustain the sale beyond the initial product purchase. XaaS is a critical enabler of the Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

Related reading

Other “as a service” offerings:

Defending the Whole, IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS from Mark Nunnikhoven

Original reference images:
 Differences between SaaS, PaaS, & IaaS

 

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Addressing Complexity, Risk, and Costs with BMC Helix Continuous Optimization https://www.bmc.com/blogs/continuous-optimization-cloud/ Thu, 14 Sep 2023 12:33:02 +0000 https://www.bmc.com/blogs/?p=53139 In the ever-evolving landscape of IT technology, amid the swift migration to cloud and containerized environments, organizations are striving to harness the benefits of scalability and flexibility while confronting the complexities of resource management and optimization, risks to service assurance, and cost containment. The solution lies in finding the delicate balance between ensuring impeccable service […]]]>

In the ever-evolving landscape of IT technology, amid the swift migration to cloud and containerized environments, organizations are striving to harness the benefits of scalability and flexibility while confronting the complexities of resource management and optimization, risks to service assurance, and cost containment. The solution lies in finding the delicate balance between ensuring impeccable service delivery and maximizing resource efficiency.

Cloud migration has ushered in a new era of possibilities, enabling organizations to transcend the limitations of traditional infrastructure. Despite these boundless opportunities, IT teams find themselves caught between the business imperatives of maintaining optimal service levels and making smart financial choices. This dynamic requires the orchestration of resources spanning diverse landscapes from hybrid configurations to fully cloud-based ecosystems and a holistic strategy that marries operational excellence with financial sensibility. BMC Helix Continuous Optimization does just that, orchestrating resources, services, and costs to ensure flawless, efficient, and cost-effective performance.

Navigating complexity

The shift to the cloud promises numerous benefits, from improved service levels to scalability, right-sizing, and cost savings. However, the journey isn’t without its share of challenges. Cloud adoption often introduces complexities tied to resource allocation, management across hybrid environments, and the ability to align resource provisioning with actual service demands, which leaves IT professionals ask questions such as:

  • How can we ensure optimal service performance and availability in the cloud without incurring excessive costs through overprovisioning?
  • How can we efficiently allocate resources across diverse deployment models, now and in the future?
  • What strategies can we employ to predict future resource needs and ensure our cloud services are equipped to handle evolving business demands?

To address these challenges, BMC Helix Continuous Optimization goes beyond standard resource management, providing an integrated dashboard and a real-time, single pane of glass for all your business services. The solution’s whole-world view not only helps you optimize current resource allocation but also uses “what-if” simulation capabilities to proactively anticipate future resource needs. Leveraging data-driven insights derived from historical trends, consumption patterns, and projected growth, it ensures that your cloud resources are precisely aligned with upcoming requirements.

Addressing risk with service assurance and optimization

Instead of relying on traditional resource allocation methods, BMC Helix Continuous Optimization ensures that the allocation of resources is tailored to match the real-time demands of various services, delivering optimal performance levels and eliminating unnecessary wastage, which is crucial for efficient resource management in cloud environments.

Controlling costs with cloud-powered insights

Amid the dynamic and often unpredictable nature of cloud resource consumption, it’s essential to bridge the gap between resource allocation and service excellence to better control costs. BMC Helix Continuous Optimization comprehensively monitors and intricately analyzes trends in cloud resource consumption, drawing correlations with essential business KPIs to generate insights that are actionable.

The solution leverages that wealth of data alongside historical analysis and predictive modeling to understand how resource consumption patterns align with critical business key performance indicators (KPIs). From there, it’s able to make informed recommendations for allocation and rightsizing that mitigate the risk of overprovisioning while addressing wastage and surplus expenditures—and controlling costs.

Forecasting with confidence

BMC Helix Continuous Optimization’s forecasting capabilities empower organizations to proactively anticipate future resource requirements and allocate cloud resources well ahead of actual demand. The result is a seamless cloud operational landscape that remains resilient even in the face of change, ensuring uninterrupted services and consistent performance.

Orchestrating cloud excellence

BMC Helix Continuous Optimization offers a comprehensive approach that continuously monitors your business services’ resource utilization by analyzing trends, modeling demand, and correlating business KPIs to help manage complexity by right-sizing resources, managing risk, and meeting service levels without overspending.

Learn how BMC Helix Continuous Optimization can help you manage your cloud resources efficiently and deliver essential visibility and forecasting capabilities to stay ahead in the dynamic cloud landscape at bmc.com/optimize.

Try our self-guided demo, where you’ll discover the tools that enable better resource planning for today and tomorrow. Compare costs and resource requirements with our free Cloud Simulator tool.

Experience some of the forecasting capabilities of BMC Helix Continuous Optimization with the free Forecasting as a Service Tool (FaaST!).

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Elevate. Innovate. Transform with BMC Helix SaaS Solutions on AWS Marketplace https://www.bmc.com/blogs/bmc-helix-saas-solutions-on-aws-marketplace/ Fri, 08 Sep 2023 13:34:02 +0000 https://www.bmc.com/blogs/?p=53119 Keeping up with the increasingly digital-first world means that modernizing your infrastructure has now accelerated from being a nice-to-have business requirement to a must-have. Moving to a private, public, hybrid, or multi-cloud environment is part of that journey, and for many enterprise organizations, that means turning to a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services (AWS) […]]]>

Keeping up with the increasingly digital-first world means that modernizing your infrastructure has now accelerated from being a nice-to-have business requirement to a must-have. Moving to a private, public, hybrid, or multi-cloud environment is part of that journey, and for many enterprise organizations, that means turning to a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host your always-on, on-demand, software-as-as-solution (SaaS) applications.

The robust, integrated BMC Helix SaaS family of services and solutions for migration planning, cost efficiency, monitoring and observability, and application workflow orchestration is now available on the AWS Cloud to help you optimize and manage your AWS cloud investment and enable a data-driven business. Even better, BMC Helix is Impact Level 4, Impact Level 5 (IL-4/IL-5) and FedRAMP Moderate certified to support the enhanced requirements of public sector and commercial enterprises.

Why BMC Helix on AWS Marketplace?

Bringing together the unparalleled capabilities of the BMC Helix SaaS solutions with the scalability and reliability of AWS Marketplace, this dynamic duo can help you maximize your investments and modernize your business processes. Say goodbye to operational complexity and hello to streamlined workflows that empower you to focus on what truly matters: innovation and growth.

Key features and benefits:

  1. Seamless integration: BMC Helix SaaS solutions seamlessly integrate with your existing AWS infrastructure, ensuring hassle-free deployment and onboarding.
  2. Unmatched scalability: With AWS Marketplace’s elastic scalability and BMC Helix’s SaaS agile solutions, your business can effortlessly adapt to changing demands.
  3. Enhanced performance: Harnessing the power of AWS’s global network of data centers, BMC Helix SaaS solutions deliver optimized performance and reliability.
  4. Advanced security: Get world-class protection for your business-critical data from BMC and AWS.

BMC Helix SaaS enables business modernization with solutions for:

Migration planning and cost efficiency: Plan, configure, administer, and manage the capacity of your AWS infrastructure to ensure optimal performance and cost efficiency with BMC Helix Enterprise Service Management, a cloud-native SaaS solution designed to elevate user experiences across lines of business through intelligent automation, unified workflows, and rapid customization, and BMC Helix Continuous Optimization, which uses intelligence and predictive analytics to manage and optimize IT resources and applications including those based on Pods, Kubernetes, microservices, containers, and multi-cloud services.

Monitoring and observability: Proactively improve the performance and availability of AWS services across public, private, or hybrid AWS environments with BMC Helix Operations Management for AIOps, which tackles challenging hybrid-cloud environments and uses data from third-party solutions to rationalize topologies and help you find root cause and fix the problem fast.

Dynamic service modeling: Discover and model your cloud services running in AWS, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments with BMC Helix Discovery, the market-leading IT asset discovery and dependency mapping that provides the deepest, most complete, real-time view of your IT estate using visual representation of business services for greater context.

Application workflow orchestration: Orchestrate complex application workflows and data pipelines across your AWS environments and beyond with BMC Helix Control-M, which simplifies application and data workflow orchestration, making it easy to build, define, schedule, manage, and monitor production workflows while ensuring visibility and reliability and improving SLAs.

Get started today

Don’t miss out on this remarkable opportunity to optimize, innovate, and elevate your business processes. Explore the synergy of BMC Helix SaaS solutions and AWS Marketplace now. Visit our dedicated BMC and AWS web page here and our AWS Marketplace hub here.

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Why Choose BMC Helix SaaS https://www.bmc.com/blogs/why-choose-bmc-helix-saas/ Fri, 21 Jul 2023 16:28:11 +0000 https://www.bmc.com/blogs/?p=53069 Are you an existing BMC customer considering a move to BMC Helix SaaS? Or a prospective customer deciding between an on-premises or SaaS deployment and need some guidance? Then this blog may help you decide which delivery model best suits you and your organization. Let me begin by outlining very simply what the SaaS value […]]]>

Are you an existing BMC customer considering a move to BMC Helix SaaS? Or a prospective customer deciding between an on-premises or SaaS deployment and need some guidance? Then this blog may help you decide which delivery model best suits you and your organization.

Let me begin by outlining very simply what the SaaS value proposition is by categorizing the two main benefits: the operational efficiency of not needing to run the BMC Helix application day-to-day and gaining faster access to BMC’s rapid rate of innovation. From my experience, customers will often place too much emphasis on the first point and neglect to consider the much greater benefit of the second point. Both are important, and together they form a compelling business case.

Operational efficiency

Customers running an on-premises model cannot take advantage of the same economy-of-scale benefits as an organization running BMC SaaS. Here is a set of common cost challenges that they face:

  • Cost of infrastructure: While infrastructure is becoming more of a commodity and is much more affordable than it once was, ServiceOps use cases are becoming more advanced and require more powerful compute to function. This is particularly true of use cases that crunch a lot of data, such as proactive problem management and associated AIOps tools.
  • New infrastructure skills: Running modern applications like BMC Helix, which take advantage of new innovative infrastructure like containers and serverless technologies, requires investment in a completely new set of skills. Think about how far infrastructure innovation has come over the past several years. How does an organization future-proof itself against requiring new skillsets in the future?
  • Effort to support and maintain the platform: This refers to the other overheads associated with running the application, i.e., application patching, vulnerability management and zero-day vulnerabilities, upgrades, backups, disaster recovery, etc.

All these challenges can be eliminated with a move to the world-class BMC Helix SaaS solution.

The operational efficiency gains focus on the cost benefits of SaaS versus on-premises and are an important cornerstone to the business case, however, it is the next area, faster access to innovation, that provides significant benefits that will contribute to an organization’s digital transformation agenda.

BMC continues to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to deliver new innovation across BMC Helix. These use cases help our customers gain a competitive edge by making them more agile and by improving the customer and end-user experience. Next, let’s explore why an on-premises customer might struggle to take advantage of this rapid rate of innovation:

  • Infrequent upgrades: The average upgrade time for an on-premises customer is 18 months, compared with closer to six months for a SaaS customer, and that will continue to fall with our move to push upgrades.
  • Less flexibility: If an organization wants to take advantage of some of the aforementioned data-crunching use cases, then they might require more compute power. With SaaS, it is as easy as raising a request in our SaaS operations portal.
  • Adoption and value realization: Running a complex on-premises application like BMC Helix requires highly skilled application specialists. It would be more beneficial if those expensive resources were focused on more value-add activities. Is there a new BMC Helix Innovation Suite app they could be developing to meet business requirements? Is there some new workflow they could be developing to automate request fulfilment or remediation? The SaaS option also includes a BMC Customers Success Manager who advocates for our customers and drives value adoption to assist with business outcomes.

Our customers tend to extract significantly more value when they leave the “run” to BMC and focus on yielding as much return as possible out of their investment.

To be clear, for our customers who require data to be housed onsite, we are pleased to continue providing our BMC Helix on-premises option.

In the last year alone, BMC has released over 130 new capabilities across the BMC Helix platform and we are not slowing down. Put yourself in the best position to rapidly take advantage of this continuous innovation. Choose SaaS!

To learn more, visit bmc.com/helix.

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Discover Why BMC Helix ITSM Is a Global Leader https://www.bmc.com/blogs/why-bmc-helix-itsm-global-leader/ Mon, 17 Jul 2023 15:37:28 +0000 https://www.bmc.com/blogs/?p=53062 In the ever-evolving landscape of IT service management, organizations are constantly seeking innovative solutions that can streamline operations, enhance productivity, and improve the overall employee experience. BMC Helix ITSM has been acknowledged as an ITSM category Leader in the recently published 2023 GigaOm Radar Report for IT Service Management (ITSM) for its advanced features, artificial intelligence […]]]>

In the ever-evolving landscape of IT service management, organizations are constantly seeking innovative solutions that can streamline operations, enhance productivity, and improve the overall employee experience. BMC Helix ITSM has been acknowledged as an ITSM category Leader in the recently published 2023 GigaOm Radar Report for IT Service Management (ITSM) for its advanced features, artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, and ability to mitigate service delivery risks. If you are a current customer of Remedy, BMC’s legacy ITSM solution, now is the time to consider migrating to BMC Helix ITSM.

The report evaluated the latest ITSM solutions available based on their comprehensive capabilities, recognizing 13 demonstrating sophisticated and comprehensive capabilities resulting from market maturity in the service management space. With its depth and breadth of functionality, BMC Helix ITSM met key criteria and received high scores in self-service, knowledge management, and asset discovery.

Driving business value through automation and AI

According to the report, “BMC Helix ITSM is a well-built ITSM platform with excellent use of AI, NLP, and intelligent heuristics. AI has been put to good use at all levels, and dashboards can be dynamic. Additionally, buyers that require customization are able to rely on a data model that enables user customization and an upgrade pathway for its on-premises ITSM solution.”

Margaret Lee, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Service and Operations Management at BMC, emphasizes the business value that modern ITSM can deliver, pointing out, “BMC believes that modern ITSM can deliver immense business value by helping organizations through automation and AI.”

BMC Helix ITSM stands at the forefront of IT service and operations management, delivering unparalleled innovation and transformative capabilities. We continue to redefine the possibilities of ITSM with AI-powered features, extensive digital employee experience personalization options, an integrated BMC Helix for ServiceOps platform, and a commitment to customer success.

The recognition of BMC Helix ITSM as a Leader by GigaOm reaffirms BMC’s commitment to empowering customers to harness the full potential of ITSM technology. Our solution enables them to deliver outstanding experiences, foster innovation, ensure operational excellence, and promote sustainability throughout the enterprise, with BMC as a trusted partner on their digital transformation journey.

To learn more, read the complete press release and download a complimentary copy of the 2023 GigaOm Radar Report for IT Service Management (ITSM) to see why BMC Helix ITSM is an industry-recognized SaaS solution for service management transformation.

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BMC Delivers Cloud-Based Service Management for the Regulated Market in Germany https://www.bmc.com/blogs/cloud-service-management-regulated-germany/ Wed, 08 Feb 2023 16:36:13 +0000 https://www.bmc.com/blogs/?p=52621 As German businesses continue accelerating their migration to and use of public clouds, BMC is investing locally to give them even more choice and flexibility in the service management solutions space with a C5-attested software-as-a-service (SaaS) version of BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix Discovery. C5 is short for the Cloud Computing Compliance Controls Catalog, […]]]>

As German businesses continue accelerating their migration to and use of public clouds, BMC is investing locally to give them even more choice and flexibility in the service management solutions space with a C5-attested software-as-a-service (SaaS) version of BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix Discovery.

C5 is short for the Cloud Computing Compliance Controls Catalog, a mandatory minimum baseline created by the German Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, or BSI) for cloud security and public cloud solutions used by German government agencies and organizations that work with government.

Initially made available in Germany in December 2022, BMC Helix ITSM is expected to attain C5 attestation in March 2023, giving German customers a secure, reliable, and regulation-compliant service management solution that processes and stores all data in local data centers. Our partner for hosting the solution is Materna Information & Communications SE, a well-known and top-rated service provider in Germany. With 25+ years of expertise in BMC products, Materna has a solid reputation for providing excellent services.

System maintenance and support will also be conducted exclusively within the European Union (EU) to comply with data privacy and data transfer export rules and meet regulations and industry standards including ISO27001 and ISO14001 from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO®); Greenhouse Gas Protocol:2004; the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); the aforementioned C5, and the Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange (TISAX)*.

With BMC Helix ITSM SaaS, customers will be able to accelerate innovation, reduce business risk, and lower costs with a predictive solution that:

  • Reduces response time with real-time auto-correlation of incidents and proactive problem identification
  • Enables better partnership across business functions through contextual data sharing in collaboration tools
  • Proactively manages change risk for IT and DevOps by determining impact and criticality
  • Integrates service and operations management for major incident management and other ServiceOps use cases
  • Eliminates manual effort with auto task-bundling and case assignment
  • Extends service delivery to external providers via a no-code integration platform (iPaaS)
  • Visualizes key metrics and service activity in personalized, customizable, dynamic dashboards

Here’s what Margaret Lee, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Service and Operations Management at BMC, had to say about the announcement.

 
To learn more about BMC Helix ITSM, visit the web page here.
*Materna Information & Communications SE is participating in TISAX.

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Making DataOps and Data Workflow Orchestration Part of Your Cloud Migration https://www.bmc.com/blogs/dataops-cloud-migration/ Fri, 24 Jun 2022 08:42:32 +0000 https://www.bmc.com/blogs/?p=52086 As more and more of our lives and businesses become digital, we’re continuously generating exponentially more data. How much? Well, Statista expects that we’ll generate 97 zettabytes of data in 2022 and almost double that to 181 zettabytes by 2025. Organizations that know how to mine that data for valuable insights are the leaders not […]]]>

As more and more of our lives and businesses become digital, we’re continuously generating exponentially more data. How much? Well, Statista expects that we’ll generate 97 zettabytes of data in 2022 and almost double that to 181 zettabytes by 2025.

Organizations that know how to mine that data for valuable insights are the leaders not just in digital transformation, but also ensuring future success. But only 15 percent of big data projects make it to production. Businesses are also facing hurdles in successfully implementing DataOps, which is the application of agile engineering and DevOps best practices to the field of data management. DataOps enables businesses to rapidly turn new insights into fully operationalized production deliverables that unlock business value.

By managing and integrating data successfully, organizations can adjust, respond, and even predict and act autonomously to what is happening in the business, the industry, the market, or the world. DataOps brings together DevOps teams with data engineers, data scientists, and analytics teams to accelerate how data is collected, used, and analyzed, and determine where it gets applied.

In a new Intellyx white paper sponsored by BMC, Why DataOps is the Missing Piece of Your Cloud Migration Puzzle, analyst Charles Araujo explores the complexities of including DataOps in cloud migration planning. In the paper, he addresses the speed with which companies are adopting cloud infrastructures and the complication of including modern, data-driven applications in those plans when so much data still resides in traditional environments at the core of the enterprise technology stack.

The always-on world and its modern applications require on-demand and real-time data. Organizations migrating to cloud must find a balance between cloud-based, data-driven applications and traditional data sources by managing the flow of this new data pipeline and workload.

Araujo adds that modern applications will need to understand that data may not be available on demand, while traditional sources of data must have a way to make data readily available to, and align with, the needs of those new applications.

The dance necessary to pull this off—and the foundation for DataOps—is application and data workflow orchestration. Taking the traditional and long-proven approaches to data workflow orchestration and wrapping them in a set of new perspectives and technologies such as automation, intelligence, and analytics is integral to a DataOps strategy. By doing so, organizations gain visibility across the entire spectrum of the enterprise data pipeline, and improve its manageability in ever-changing, modern environments.

Download the full white paper, Why DataOps is the Missing Piece of Your Cloud Migration Puzzle, to learn more about successfully including DataOps and data workflow orchestration in your cloud strategy.

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