Spreading the critical comms breakdown risk to give your business resilience 24/7

Hardware failure, internet outage, power cuts, cyber-crime, workplace floods and fires, vandalism… the list of threats to critical comms has grown and will continue to grow.

These risks are particularly evident for businesses whose IT hardware network is located on a single site, as well as those who rely solely on cloud internet-based solutions.

That is why the Hybrid Cloud Service is arguably the most significant option available to businesses, as it provides as close to 100% availability of comms as is possible anywhere in the world.

What is the Hybrid Cloud Service?

The Hybrid Cloud is an IT infrastructure which connects the cloud provider’s network to the customer’s on-site hosting location(s) to create a single, adaptable and optimal cloud environment for operating a company’s computing requirements, and therefore its critical communications.

This hybrid approach spreads the risk by having the service available in more than one location, without complete reliance on the cloud. Consequently, if there is a service interruption or if contact to the outside world is lost from the cloud, connectivity is maintained.

The design of customers’ networks can vary significantly. Using the hybrid approach across multiple locations and not solely on one premise further spreads the risk. The system uses ‘heart beating’ monitoring technology that connects the cloud to the on-premises equipment and client’s software, to detect issues and maintain continuity. There is also sufficient intelligence in the system to ensure that if calls are being transmitted during a stoppage of either system, the messages continue to be transmitted through the alternative part of the system.

The Hybrid Cloud – helping businesses transition to Net Zero

Every year businesses spend a significant amount buying new IT equipment, servers etc. from manufacturers abroad and within the UK – as well as using electricity and other forms of energy to maintain existing apparatus on site premises. Combined, this energy use and expenditure creates a significant carbon footprint. The UK government’s current strategy seeks to end the UK’s domestic contribution to man-made climate change by 2050; reducing the amount of hardware on site through cloud migration will make a positive impact towards achieving this goal.

Which organisations benefit from adopting a Hybrid Cloud Service?

Many different types of businesses and organisations benefit from using a Hybrid Cloud Service: public sector bodies, such as the NHS which relies heavily on critical messaging and communications; retail, industrial and commercial businesses; as well as social enterprises in the not-for-profit sector who all need robust communication systems.

Maintaining organisational resilience and business continuity is vital for emergency services where the loss of access to its IT networks could imperil lives and patient safety. Using a Hybrid Cloud Service mitigates that risk substantively.

Whilst other businesses do not necessarily need to maintain IT connectivity for life and death decisions, computer downtime and other IT interruptions can cause serious problems and have a debilitating financial impact, for example due to lost bookings, reservations and sales.

How does an organisation use the Hybrid Cloud Service?

Traditionally, organisations in the public sector use a Capex model which requires an up-front investment in hardware or software, or alternatively Opex, where they lease a managed solution.

The Hybrid Cloud Service works differently. The service provider calculates the likely requirement based on the number of users and other criteria. As a result, there is no capital expenditure. Organisations consequently use the service for the time that they require and pay accordingly, so there is no waste.

Does the Hybrid Cloud Service guarantee business continuity 100%?

The key factor for organisations reviewing their business continuity strategies is risk mitigation. Whilst realistically it is not possible to guarantee 100% availability, with Hybrid Cloud the guarantee is 99.999% availability. Compare this with a cloud-only solution which gives around 99.5% and on-premises only, which is similar.

Why is Multitone’s Hybrid Cloud solution so significant?

Although many companies now offer Hybrid Cloud services, few can match Multitone, thanks to the company’s deep technological expertise and experience gained since its formation in 1931.

Multitone has only ever specialised in critical communications and infrastructure deployment, and it is the service built around the systems that benefit the customer most. Today, Multitone’s leadership team includes a number of experts in the field; senior colleagues who have been on the technology journey from when the world used dial-up modems, through to simple integration solutions with one device talking to another, then communicating to multi-points, middleware and messaging ware. This experience enables Multitone to help companies overcome their tech challenges, so that they can make decisions based on the best information available to them.

Multitone’s Hybrid Cloud solution also has several distinct advantages to ensure continuity and assurance of service; these are already evident in the delivery of the company’s i-Message Cloud service. This service is based on Amazon Web Service’s (AWS) Cloud which operates via a network of AWS servers in what Amazon terms as ‘regions’ around the world. Each region has multiple ‘availability zones’, which are physically separate from each other but connected via low latency, high capacity and highly redundant networking. This makes AWS Cloud services resistant to single faults and guarantees high levels of availability.