Computing as a Service (CaaS)
Delivering Cloud Computing to the Enterprise
Enterprise-Ready, Flexible, On-Demand Computing
If you’re looking beyond your own four walls for computing resources, when you look to the cloud, what you get has to be real. You need servers and storage ready to meet your needs. Network connections that perform. Security you can trust. Dynamic management tools that let you make changes in real-time and give you visibility into your environment. Verizon Business scatters the clouds to reveal an enterprise-ready on-demand computing platform with Computing as a Service (CaaS).
CaaS Addresses Your Biggest Concerns
- Security – Be confident knowing your data and networks are secure from the outside-in – with physical security of the data centers, security of customer portal, and logical security of the environment.
- Flexibility – Choose infrastructure components (network, physical or virtual servers, storage, and management levels) that are right for your business demands.
- Reliability – Built-in intelligence that enables servers to be re-deployed quickly in the event of a problem – every CaaS server is a highly available server resource.
- Control – Respond quickly to business conditions and maintain control over your infrastructure configuration and capacity with our CaaS Customer Portal.
With CaaS, you have access to bandwidth, servers, storage, and firewalls with dynamic real-time control over what, when, and how those resources are deployed. You decide how your infrastructure comes together to deliver the best possible ratio of IT cost to business performance.
|
As of June 1, 2009, the Verizon CaaS environment has had its security controls, policies, and procedures examined, measured, and validated against a stringent set of information security standards.
|
 |
Designed With Security in Mind
Don’t Sacrifice Security for Performance
Data is your business, keeping that data secure is our business. Computing as a Service (CaaS) allows you to better manage your costs and make your business more competitive without sacrificing security or performance.
Security is built into the entire CaaS infrastructure.
- Physical security of our Data Centers
- Single Sign on customer portal with controlled access list
- Logical security of environment to include:
- Network Intrusion Detection
- Load balancer controls application exposure to the Internet
- Multi-tiered network with virtual firewall
- Patching
- Secure connections to provisioned resources
- Hardened OS built on private network
Although your servers may reside in a virtual environment, the building blocks of each server configuration consist of virtual firewalls with a multi-tiered network and load balancers to control application exposure to the Internet.
Security You Can Trust
Depending on business demands and security exposure, we offer layers of additional security services such as
Identity and Access Management, Log Management, and Security
Professional Services for improved network management and application security.
Back to Computing as a Service (CaaS)
Control Costs and Gain Flexibility
Tap into Computing Capacity When and Where Your Business Needs It
Building out your infrastructure to meet potential increases in demand is no longer cost effective. However, not being able to deliver when it counts can harm your customer relationships and impact your bottom line. You need flexible, on-demand platforms that enable you to do more with existing resources.
Provision Both Virtual and Physical Servers On-Demand
Verizon Computing as a Service (CaaS) is one way to become more flexible, achieve greater efficiencies and control costs. We leverage our SaaS experience and heritage as a complex hosting provider to deliver utility computing services.
- Quickly develop and provision new applications – in minutes or hours, not days.
- Scale capacity up and down in synch with the needs of your business.
- Easily respond to market conditions while maintaining control over your infrastructure configuration and capacity.
Pay for What You Use
Take financial risk in monthly increments by transitioning from a capital expense model to an operational expense model. Usage-based pricing allows you to charge back to internal departments or application owners for resources consumed. Charges are based on daily usage of all CaaS resources including: Servers by device, storage per GB, Bandwidth per Mbps and Software per CPU/Device.
Connection Options to Suit Your Needs
Customers have the flexibility to connect to their CaaS environment through our global IP backbone or by leveraging the Verizon Private IP network (our Layer 3 MPLS VPN) for secure communication with mission critical and back office systems.
Back to Computing as a Service (CaaS)
Every CaaS Server is a Highly Available Server Resource
Let Our Engine Automate Your Resource Provisioning
At the heart of the Computing as a Service (CaaS) platform is the Advanced Workflow and Automated Resource Engine (the “Core”). Leveraging over 15 years of IT Management Experience, Verizon Business designed the Core to provide full automation and workflow for computing resource provisioning, automatic resource fail-over, and management of all network, server and storage elements.
The Core is the Verizon Business-designed proprietary management application that orchestrates requests to:
- Add computing resources dynamically (network, virtual or physical servers, storage)
- Reconfigure or turn down resources (open or change ports)
- Move server images located within the CaaS infrastructure (Virtual to Virtual, Physical to Physical)
- Implement server failover (move MAC addresses, network ports, HBA addresses, allowing reboot in minutes)
CaaS users interact with the Core through the CaaS Customer Portal.
Built-in Intelligence Backed by Competitive SLAs
The CaaS Core has built-in intelligence that enables a server to be re-deployed quickly in the event of a problem. When server redeployment is initiated from the Core, the server image – including all appropriate server configuration details – is moved to a new CaaS server resource.
The only downtime a customer experiences is the time required to reboot the server, which can be as quick as a matter of minutes. As a result, every CaaS server is by definition a highly available server resource but without the cost of redundant, passive servers that are typical of traditional dedicated hosting solutions. This helps control costs by eliminating the need for redundant infrastructure, yet still maintain service levels.
And, because we designed CaaS to be highly available, we are able to offer stringent availability service level agreements (SLAs). Our comprehensive SLAs include 100% availability of the Customer Portal and virtual farm, regardless of management option. Those choosing to rely on Verizon Business to manage their servers rather than doing it themselves receive additional SLAs such as 100% server availability and specific response and resolution timeframes.*
* Terms and conditions apply. Contact your Verizon Account Representative for details.
Back to Computing as a Service (CaaS)
Dynamic Control Over When and How Your Computing Resources Are Deployed
Complete Visibility Into the Cloud
A key concern that many organizations have with cloud computing is the lack of direct control over their cloud-based infrastructure and systems. We remedy this problem with the Computing as a Service Customer Portal—a central hub for all customer provisioning and management activities that offers an easy-to-use, web-based interface with self-service and reporting functionality.
Computing as a Service Customer Portal
The Computing as a Service Customer Portal allows customers to:
- Assign and configure virtual farms with the resources needed
- Servers – choice of operating system as well as physical or virtual servers
- Storage – Option to provision additional storage and backup
- Provision physical servers, virtual servers, storage, backup and application support services within each farm
- Decommission, modify and manage on-demand resources as needed
- View detailed reporting on the resources deployed
- Open and view service requests
Back to Computing as a Service (CaaS)
Virtual Farms: Harvesting the Potential of Cloud Computing
Built From the Ground Up
Virtual farms are the basic building blocks of every Computing as a Service (CaaS) solution. Virtual farms provide you with a secure and resilient network configuration to maintain availability, performance and security. Dynamically provision one or more virtual farms, each with its own unique network configuration, to meet the varying needs of your business.
Virtual Farm with Intelligent Networking
Every virtual farm comes securely bundled with a virtual load balancer, a virtual firewall, and defined network space. Once the farm is designed, built, and named – all in a matter of minutes through the CaaS Customer Management Portal - you can then choose whether you want to manage the servers in-house or have us manage them for you. Choose which resources are best for your environment or application needs.
- Network – Choose to configure for publicly facing applications or trusted network space
- Servers – Choice of operating systems (Windows or Linux) and virtual or physical servers
- Storage – Option to provision additional storage and backup
Any number of virtual farms can be created, and each can have a different service level—either Customer-managed or Verizon-managed. This provides you the flexibility to setup virtual farms for a variety of computing purposes. For example, you can provision a fully-managed production virtual farm in which all objects running within the farm are cared for by Verizon, while a second virtual farm may be provisioned as a staging environment with no managed services. This offers you with the advantage of being able to provision both virtual and physical servers on-demand.
Back to Computing as a Service (CaaS)
