| By :
Dirik Hameed
Imagine if every home and company had their own on-site electricity generating plant or gas well. Not that this is possible, but if it were, neighborhoods would be cluttered, polluted and very dangerous. Instead, customers purchase utility services from an off-site provider. The same can now be said of computing services. Customers purchase applications from an off-site provider. With an offshore cloud, the infrastructure is located in a foreign country. Families and commercial concerns alike buy the electricity and the gas they use from a utility company. This is also how a VDC works. Sourcing computing services this way has many advantages. With offshore co-location, all of the hardware, and the staff trained to operate and maintain it, is located in a foreign country. This arrangement has advantages above and beyond home grown cloud computing. One of the main advantages of using a VDC is cost savings. Companies no longer have to invest huge sums of capital to purchase equipment, nor do they have to employ armies of experts to operate and maintain their systems. The customer pays just for the services and applications that they require and no more. Purchasers can expand and contract the computing services they use in response to seasonal fluctuations in business activity. By sharing computer time and physical plant with other users, the burden of electricity costs is also shared, offering the purchaser further savings. Upgrading systems and services and taking advances of technological advancements is so much easier with a cloud. Every aspect of computing is evolving at a dizzying rate, and it is comforting to know that companies do not have to keep updating their infrastructure and retraining their staff. In addition to lower costs and ease of updating, offshore VDCs offer additional advantages. Purchasers can take advantage of the ability to deal with host countries that have lower rates of income tax. This translates to more cost savings. There's more to doing business with a foreign VDC than cost savings. This set-up offers the purchaser the chance to shop around for friendly regulatory environments. A company whose business is providing web-based gambling, for example, will be better off working with a host country with more flexible laws. Some countries have stronger privacy laws than others. This can be reassuring where data confidentiality is a serious concern. Companies with interests in more than one country can benefit from a VDC. Everything from email to document storage to banking can all be held under one roof. This makes communicating between offices in the various countries much less complicated. Amalgamating all their computing requirements under a single VDC can provide a smooth transition for companies that have recently been merged together. Rather than trying to rationalize one system of data processing to fit into one of the original companies, a global package can be designed and operated under one roof. Twenty-four access and expert support staff, real-time data mirroring and failover capabilities can all be built in. The world has become increasingly globalized and there is no evidence that this is going to change any time soon. The way forward to be able to compete means streamlining operations wherever possible.
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