Vendor Landscape: Cloud IaaS

Vendor Landscape:
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
OpSource sets the standard for cloud IaaS

Independent research conducted by:

Vendor Landscape: Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Contents
1 Purpose of this document
2 Executive summary
3 Cloud IaaS overview
4 Vendor Landscape rating and evaluation criteria and methodology
5 Key findings and recommendations
6 More about OpSource Cloud Hosting
7 Background information and definitions


© 2011 OpSource, Inc., Dimension Data plc and/or its affiliates and subdiaries. All rights reserved.


1. Purpose of this document
About OpSource
The purpose of this document is to provide a view of the Founded in 2002, OpSource provides cloud and managed hosting
vendor landscape for cloud Infrastructure as a Service solutions that enable businesses to accelerate growth and scale
(IaaS) to assist IT buyers in their vendor evaluation operations while controlling costs and reducing IT infrastructure
process. This document is intended for CIOs, IT Directors, support risks. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with
operations in California, Virginia, the UK, Ireland, and India, more
Procurement Officers, System Administrators, Product
than 600 enterprises, service providers and Software as a Service
Managers and General Managers that are considering the Independent Software Vendors rely on OpSource’s expertise,
use of public cloud IaaS. experience and cloud automation technology to operate high-
availability, business-critical hosting environments. OpSource’s
This report will help you: expertise is further demonstrated by the achievement of industry
Determine which cloud IaaS meets your business needs certifications including SAS 70 Type II, PCI DSS Level 1 and
European Safe Harbour. OpSource is a Dimension Data company.
Evaluate the cost per unit of capacity for each cloud IaaS
vendor
Determine the service levels that cloud IaaS vendors ensure 3. Cloud IaaS market overview
Understand the security designations used by IaaS providers According to Info-Tech Research Group, cloud
This report is a summary of Info-Tech Research Group’s June 2011 computing has the following attributes:
report entitled, ‘Vendor Landscape: Cloud Infrastructure-as-a- A compute cloud is based on abstracted compute resources
Service (IaaS).’ (processing, memory, storage) that are typically derived from a
For more information about Info-Tech Research Group and large grid of standardised physical servers.
the Vendor Landscape report, please refer to the background This infrastructure is owned by a third party and accessed via
information and definitions section at the end of this document. the Internet. It is typically multi-tenant (multiple clients share
access to resources) and elastic (resources grow or shrink with
2. Executive summary customer need).

Info-Tech Research Group recently released findings from research Clients only pay for the resources they use. Economies of scale
conducted into the cloud IaaS vendor landscape, including mean that the unit cost of service is kept relatively low (one
a quadrant positioning of leading products and vendors. pays for a small piece of a much larger ‘pie’).
OpSource scored highly in this research, ranking among the When an abstracted compute resource is based on wholly
‘Champions’ in the landscape and rating ‘Best Value’ against owned infrastructure (single tenant) this is sometimes referred to
other vendors and products. as a private cloud.

Key findings of the research report include: Cloud computing is typically understood by the
OpSource ranked highly in the report based on price and features services that it enables. These include:
and offers the Best Value. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Three out of the 13 vendors evaluated were named Software as a Service (SaaS)
‘Champions,’ including OpSource, GoGrid and Rackspace.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
The use case is a very important factor in IaaS choice. The
IaaS involves direct rental of computer processing and storage.
choice of vendor should take use case into account.
Typically, IaaS is packaged and accessed as virtual infrastructure
The cloud IaaS market is very large with a diverse set of entities (e.g. virtual machines, virtual storage targets).
vendors. Some vendors offer additional non-IaaS services that
IaaS preceded cloud computing. Just as cloud SaaS is an iteration
may enhance their value to clients.
of external application service providers, cloud IaaS was preceded
by outsourced infrastructure services (co-location, hosting, and
managed services).

Info-Tech Insight:
Cloud computing – whether it be IaaS, SaaS or PaaS – is a
rapidly growing market. Info-Tech has seen a 75% increase
in enterprises implementing some form of cloud solution
(from 16% in 2010 to 28% in 2011).




How is the IaaS marketplace set to evolve going forward? According 4. Vendor Landscape rating and evaluation criteria
to its report, Info-Tech Research Group believes that many users
and methodology
see the cloud becoming a place for the efficient deployment
and hosting of selected key applications and processes. Cloud In evaluating providers, the report decomposed capabilities of
IaaS is quickly gaining traction amongst both small and medium cloud IaaS providers into ‘basic’ and ‘advanced’ features.
enterprises and large businesses.
Figure 1: Basic Cloud IaaS features
Recent acquisitions of cloud computing providers and
Basic features are the minimum features organisations should
announcements by incumbent hardware and service providers will
demand of their cloud IaaS provider.
continue to alter the market. Careful consideration should be taken
to fully evaluate features and pricing of cloud IaaS providers.
Compliance designations and certifications on the part of cloud Data centre The data centre should be
computing providers are important to ensure safety of data. locations geographically close to the main
Achievement of a certification requires regular audits to demonstrate clientele.
physical and structural controls that a service organisation uses to User-defined The user should have the option
protect client data. For additional detail on the compliance standards privacy settings to encrypt the data.
relevant to this report, please refer to the ‘background information
Granularity of The user should be able to define
and definitions’ section at the end of this document.
options both the CPU and RAM of the
servers deployed.
Info-Tech Insight: Data centre safety The vendor’s data centre should
Cloud IaaS providers that have multiple audit certificates and protection have a minimum of SAS 70 Type ll
have high in-house levels of data protection and secure data certification.
centre locations. Long-term viability The vendor’s cloud should be
built for the long-term with an
established architecture.
Operating systems The vendor should have one
Careful consideration should Windows server and one Linux

be taken to fully evaluate server OS.

features and pricing of cloud The 13 vendors assessed in the Vendor Landscape report meet the
IaaS providers. ‘basic’ feature requirements outlined above. Many of the vendors
go above and beyond the outlined features; some even do so in
multiple categories.

Info-Tech Insight:
If ‘basic’ features were all an organisation requires from its
cloud computing solution, the only true differentiator for the
organisation would be price.




Figure 2: Advanced Cloud IaaS features
Advanced features provide organisations with the assurance and control to scale cloud-based applications.

Granular control of privacy Elements of the deployment (public, private) can be individually protected.
Multiple OS options The presence of Multiple Linux offerings (Red Hat, CentOS, etc.).
User-defined privacy The independent encryption of data with user controlled privacy keys.
CPU and RAM variables The client has the ability to modify the CPU and RAM options independently.
Geographical scope of data centres The IaaS Provider has international data centres.
Service tiers to the Service Level The ability to cover sensitive elements with additional or premium SLAs.
Agreement (SLA)
Multiple procedural auditors Multiple certificates provides coverage for your data.
Ability to back-up to cloud storage Direct back-up of persistent storage and server images for quick restore of service.

Role-based access The ability to set access to the background information based on role
(e.g. showing only the account charges for financial officers.)
Safety and protection of data centres Separate and comprehensive security audit of data centre.
Ease of control of user The vendor provides the ability to have multiple users with variable access.

Info-Tech Research Group scored each vendor’s features were scored on a more granular scale with vendors receiving
offering as a summation of their individual scores across the half points. Next, the ‘product’ and ‘vendor’ strengths and
listed advanced features. Vendors were assigned one point for capabilities of each player were evaluated according to the
each feature the product inherently provided. Some categories following criteria:

Figure 3: Vendor evaluation criteria and weighting factors
Vendors were evaluated based on a weighted criteria model that reflects business needs.

20% 30%
30%

30%
Vendor Product
50% 50%

30%

30%
Product Vendor
20% 50% 50% 10%

Product Evaluation Vendor Evaluation
The solution provides basic and advanced Vendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and
Features Viability
feature/functionality. will be around for the long-term.

The five year TCO of the solution is Vendor is committed to the space and has
Affordability Strategy
economical. a future product and portfolio roadmap.

The solution’s dashboard and reporting Vendor offers global coverage and is able
Usability Reach
tools are intuitive and easy to use. to sell and provide post-sales support.

The delivery method of the solution aligns Vendor channel strategy is appropriate
Architecture Channel
with what is expected within the space. and the channels themselves are strong.




5. Key ﬁndings and recommendations
The table below provides an illustrative comparison of each player’s competencies for each of the ‘product’ and ‘vendor’ criteria:

Figure 4: Product and Vendor strengths and weaknesses
Every vendor has its strengths and weaknesses; pick the one that works best for you.

Product Vendor

Overall Features Usability Price Platform Overall Viability Strategy Reach Channel

OpSource

Flexiant

GoGrid

Joyent

Rackspace

Terremark

Amazon EC2

AT & T Synaptic

Savvis

Verizon CaaS

CSC

Centrilogic

IBM smartcloud




The results were plotted on a four quadrant diagram: OpSource was rated against its peers as ‘Best Value’ and a
‘Champion’ in terms of Product and Vendor.
Figure 5: The Info-Tech Cloud Iaas Vendor Landscape
Other key findings of the report include the fact that one’s use case is
Champions receive high scores for most evaluation criteria and offer a very important factor when selecting IaaS providers. This is because
excellent value the cloud IaaS vendor market is still in its nascent form. Each of the
vendors featured in the report are marketed primarily towards certain
verticals. The choice of vendor should take this into account.
Leading Product
The report also emphasises the fact that the cloud IaaS field is
Rackspace large and features a diverse range of vendors. Some vendors offer
additional non-IaaS services that may enhance their value to the
OpSource client.
Joyent
Terremark For a complete description of Info-Tech’s Value Index Ranking
INNOVATOR CHAMPION Methodology, please refer to the ‘background information and
definitions’ section at the end of this document.
GoGrid
IBM Leading Vendor
Trailing Vendor

OpSource vendor evaluation in detail
Flexiant
On a relative basis, OpSource maintained a high Info-Tech
Value Score, scoring 85 versus an average vendor score of
Amazon 60.3. The other vendors were compared to OpSource’s performance
CentriLogic to provide a complete, relative view of their product offerings.
AT&T
The Value Score indexes each vendor’s product offering and
business strength relative to their price point. It does not indicate
EMERGING PLAYER MARKET PILLAR vendor ranking.
Vendors that score high offer more ‘bang for the buck’ (e.g.
CSC
features, usability, stability, etc.) than the average vendor, while the
Savvis Verizon inverse is true for those that score lower.

Trailing Product
Figure 6: Info-Tech Value Score
The Value Score indexes each vendor’s product offering and
business strength relative to their price point.

Definitions: 100
100
Champions receive high scores for most evaluation criteria
85
and offer excellent value. They have a strong market presence
79 78
and are usually the trend setters for the industry. 80 76
74 72 71
Emerging Players are newer vendors who are starting to 65
Average Score:
60 59
gain a foothold in the marketplace. They balance product 60.3

and vendor attributes, though score lower relative to market
Champions. 40
Innovators have demonstrated innovative product strengths
that act as their competitive advantage in appealing to niche
20
segments of the market. 13
7 5
Market Pillars are established players with very strong
0
vendor credentials, but with more average product scores.
GoGrid
OpSource
Rackspace
Amazon
Terremark
AT & T
Flexiant

Joyent
IBM
CentriLogic
Verizon
CSC
Savvis

For a complete description of Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape
methodology, please refer to the ‘background information
and definitions’ section at the end of this document.




Specifically, the report highlighted the following as OpSource’s key
strengths: 6. More about OpSource Cloud Hosting
Security of users cloud OpSource Cloud Hosting is the first cloud solution to meet
Service level agreement includes a latency guarantee enterprise production application requirements for security,
control, performance and ease of integration. Each OpSource
Ease of set-up and user maintenance
cloud user automatically receives a virtual private cloud that
24x7 support available by phone and e-mail allows them to set their preferred amount of public Internet
Support for SaaS developers connectivity. OpSource Cloud Hosting is built on enterprise-
class technology using a compliant multi-tier architecture,
Additionally, the following commentary provided in the report lends
making our solution a true extension of enterprise IT.
further weight to the argument that OpSource is an excellent place
for organisations to host their Web applications: The extensive controls provide the administrator with the
ability to establish role-based user permissions. Finally, the
OpSource Cloud is available for online purchase by the hour,
with an active online community augmenting its 24x7 phone
Figure 7: Why OpSource for hosting Web applications?
support.
OpSource is a great choice for businesses that already use the cloud
to help their clients. OpSource delivers OpSource Cloud Hosting from global,
top-tier data centre facilities. Network connectivity is
provided through the NTT Communications Global Tier-1
IP Network, with its extensive direct paths, routing
Supports building secure, complex multi-tier options, and private peering points which utilises a single
architectures in the cloud autonomous system number (AS 2914) allowing for a
ubiquitous route view worldwide.
OpSource allows you to control both the dedicated and
virtual appliances to optimise for your needs.

Started as a SaaS host and has built its IaaS from this
expertise About Dimension Data and OpSource
Founded in 1983, Dimension Data is an ICT services and
Has gone the extra mile to comply with multiple security
solutions provider that uses its technology expertise, global
audits including HIPAA, SAS 70 Type II, Safe Harbor and
service delivery capability, and entrepreneurial spirit to
PCI DSS Level I
accelerate the business ambitions of its clients. Dimension
Multiple user accounts with discrete permissions Data is a member of the NTT Group.

Building towards cloud interoperability (i.e. migrating In July 2011, Dimension Data announced the acquisition of
between IaaS vendors) OpSource. OpSource will dramatically accelerate Dimension
Data’s ability to build and manage cloud infrastructure for
Easing integration of data across cloud platforms its clients.
Can partition within cloud for public/private distinction Dimension Data believes its ability to deliver service-centric
including firewall and VPN controls solutions to clients is critical to its business growth, and
OpSource’s public cloud offering is a good fit for: believes that the market’s desire for more flexible and cost
effective IT sourcing and consumption models will trigger the
Small-medium businesses inevitable move toward cloud architecture. Over the past few
Web Hosting/SaaS years, Dimension Data has been developing cloud enablement
competencies and services in the areas of virtualisation,
Sensitive data (consumer data, credit card transactions)
managed services and hosting, and IT outsourcing.
Concurrently, the organisation has been investing in acquiring
and growing other cloud assets and recently established a
The report further stated that “OpSource is a great choice for dedicated Cloud Solutions business unit, with OpSource as its
businesses that already use the cloud to help their clients.” first asset.




7. Background information and definitions
1. About Info-Tech Research Group Info-Tech Research Group’s analysts then score each vendor and
Info-Tech Research Group is a global leader in providing IT research product across a variety of categories, on a scale of 0-10 points.
and advice. The organisation’s products and services combine The raw scores for each vendor are then normalised to the other
actionable insight and relevant advice with ready-to-use tools that vendors’ scores to provide a sufficient degree of separation for a
cover the full spectrum of IT concerns. meaningful comparison. These scores are then weighted according
to weighting factors that our analysts believe represent the weight
2. About the Vendor Landscape report that an average client should apply to each criterion. The weighted
Info Tech Research Group recently undertook a study into the scores are then averaged for each of two high level categories:
vendor landscape of cloud IaaS providers, looking at the offerings, vendor score and product score. A plot of these two resulting scores
services and operations of each in granular detail. The research is is generated to place vendors in one of four categories: Champion,
designed to be used as an independent tool for businesses seeking Innovator, Market Pillar, and Emerging Player.
to expand their infrastructure (web-based applications and services) For a more granular category by category comparison, analysts
in a cost-effective manner. It will also appeal to organisations convert the individual scores (absolute, non-normalised) for each
looking to test alternative service models, integrate internal vendor/product in each evaluated category to a scale of zero to four
and external capacity to manage excess need and move their whereby exceptional performance receives a score of four and poor
infrastructure to an external host. performance receives a score of zero. These scores are represented
Using the insights and recommendations of the report, businesses with ‘Harvey Balls’, ranging from an open circle for a score of
will be better able to determine which cloud IaaS provider best meets zero to a filled in circle for a score of four. Harvey Ball scores are
their business needs, evaluate the cost per unit of capacity for each indicative of absolute performance by category but are not an exact
cloud IaaS vendor and determine the service levels that each vendor correlation to overall performance.
ensures. Importantly, it also provides guidance and clarity with respect Individual scorecards are then sent to the vendors for factual review,
to the security designations used by IaaS providers. and to ensure no information is under embargo. Info-Tech Research
3. Compliance designations and certifications Group will make corrections where factual errors exist (e.g. pricing,
features, technical specifications). It will consider suggestions
Statement on Auditing Standard 70 Type II (SAS 70 Type II)
concerning benefits, functional quality, value, etc.; however, these
is a minimum standard that is being replaced internationally with
suggestions must be validated by feedback from customers. It does not
SSAE 16. Both of these standards require a minimal set of physical
accept changes that are not corroborated by actual client experience or
controls to data centre entry, control of access to client data, and
wording changes that are purely part of a vendor’s market messaging
disaster recovery planning. SAS 70 Type II determines the standard
or positioning. Any resulting changes to final scores are then made as
of protection that IaaS vendors provide client data with respect to
needed, before publishing the results to Info-Tech clients.
Sarbanes-Oxley compliance based on US standards.
Vendor Landscapes are refreshed every 12 to 24 months, depending
SSAE 16-Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements
upon the dynamics of each individual market.
16 is similar to SAS 70 Type II but based on a global standard.
5. Value Index Ranking Methodology
European Safe Harbor requires a service organisation to comply with
European Union laws on privacy and third-party access to client Info-Tech Research Group’s Value Index is part of a larger
data. European Safe Harbor certification ensures that a cloud IaaS programme of vendor evaluations that includes solution sets that
vendor complies with EU privacy standards. provide both Vendor Landscapes and broader selection advice.
Payment Card Industry (PCI) and Health Insurance Portability The Value Index is an indexed ranking of value per dollar as determined
and Accountability Act-HIPAA (HIPAA) have many overlapping by the raw scores given to each vendor by analysts. To perform the
requirements with SAS 70 and Safe Harbor, but also require secure calculation, Affordability is removed from the Product score and
data transfer and encryption. HIPPA compliance governs the storage the entire Product category is reweighted to represent the same
and access to health information. proportions. The Product and Vendor scores are then summed, and
multiplied by the Affordability raw score to come up with Value Score.
4. Vendor Evaluation Methodology
Vendors are then indexed to the highest performing vendor by dividing
Info-Tech Research Group’s Vendor Landscape market evaluations their score into that of the highest scorer, resulting in an indexed
are a part of a larger programme of vendor evaluations that ranking with a top score of 100 assigned to the leading vendor.
includes solution sets that provide both Vendor Landscapes and
The Value Index calculation is then repeated on the raw score of
broader selection advice.
each category against Affordability, creating a series of indexes for
From the domain experience of Info-Tech Research Group’s own Features, Usability, Viability, Strategy and Support, with each being
analysts as well as through consultation with its clients, a vendor/ indexed against the highest score in that category. The results for
product shortlist is established. Product briefings are requested from each vendor are displayed in tandem with the average score in each
each of these vendors, asking for information on the company, category to provide an idea of over and under performance.
products, technology, customers, partners, sales models and pricing.
The Value Index, where applicable, is refreshed every 12 to 24
months, depending upon the dynamics of each individual market.



www.infotech.com www.opsource.net www.dimensiondata.com

© 2011 OpSource, Inc., Dimension Data plc and/or its afﬁliates and subsidiaries. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without
OpSource’s prior written approval. The information contained in this publication has been obtained from Info-Tech Research Group’s 2011 report entitled, “Vendor Landscape:
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). OpSource disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy and completeness or information and shall have no liability for errors, omissions or
accuracy. This publication consists of the opinions of Info-Tech Research Group, OpSource and Dimension Data and should not be construed as statements of fact. The opinions
expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

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