Making IT transformation oversight a reality

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Transformation is the trending buzzword in the IT space, but question marks remain around the visibility that professionals have over devices, systems and applications currently undergoing this process. This oversight is particularly crucial in the era of rapid change. The Covid-19 pandemic era for example presided over a drastic shift in working practices, bringing remote strategies to the fore, while consumption of products is moving into the digital space. Keeping tabs on all devices is pivotal to maintaining compliance, resilience and the ability to provide optimum customer service.

Considering cloud complexity

Cloud migration remains one of the biggest transformations currently in the IT industry. The global market value of the cloud computing industry is set to reach just shy of $600bn by 2023, as small and medium enterprises look to take advantage of big data, AI and machine learning. Now, using multiple cloud providers has increasingly become the standard, with many using a mix of both public and private clouds in a hybrid model. However, spreading out the IT estate can be problematic, with oversight of every element a complex and time-consuming undertaking.

With human resources busy enabling positive change in the business, technology needs to bring monitoring capabilities to these developments. Monitoring is essential to minimise disruption and ensure a seamless customer experience, while also enabling maintenance of regulatory standards and compliance. The risks posed by breach of regulatory compliance are significant and well documented, including hefty fines and reputational damage.

2021 data shows that data breach costs rose to an average total of $4.24 million, which was the highest ever on record. The report also discovered that costs were much higher for businesses that fell behind in areas such as security, AI, automation and cloud security. Alongside the financial damage, reputation can also take a hit, particularly for those in heavily regulated industries such as finance and healthcare where fines can be significant.

The complete toolkit for oversight

Maintaining jurisdiction and oversight over IT transformation is now critical for CTOs and CIOs. However, management across numerous devices can be a daunting and laborious task, especially with a matrix structure. How can they achieve the oversight needed with a modern IT suite?

Enter Cloudhouse Guardian. This solution provides a centralised view and unambiguous assessment of every element across a comprehensive IT suite. Any compliance and change management issues can be detected quickly, enabling quick fixes to be made. Omnipresence facilitates an effective level of oversight on the most complex transformation projects, while having data in one easy-to-access place also helps to bring disparate teams together.

Comparisons made between different environments across the estate help professionals gain clarification on where they are on their migration journey. Full visibility of tracking, testing and deployment of updates can enable potential issues to be identified before they arise. Compatibility across server, desktop and networks plus multiple vendors means the solution provides full peace of mind for those working with hybrid cloud systems.

Policy and permissions setting also provides another layer of protection for CTOs and CIOs. To help pre-empt compliance problems before they occur, policies can be selected from the Center for Internet Security’s 20 critical security controls, which cover the requirements of regulations such as PCI DSS and SOX. Automatic compliance is made possible with policies aligning to best practice configuration. Businesses can essentially set up an early warning system thanks to automated health checks, enabling misconfigurations to be caught before they are exploited.

Never missing a trick

IT transformation can include a minefield of different processes across a range of devices. Without technology-driven oversight, CTOs, CIOs and other professionals are left vulnerable to the potential of a regulatory or change management issue slipping by unnoticed. With Cloudhouse Guardian, professionals have a powerful solution that provides complete visibility of the most complex IT suites, enabling them to move forward with confidence when it comes to transformation projects.

Want to discuss more? Chat to a member of our team about Cloudhouse Guardian and your transformation project requirements

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Commercials
How much does Cloudhouse cost? Down Arrow

Cloudhouse costs are split into two elements – the licensing required to deploy application compatibility packages, and the professional services needed to create the application compatibility packages.

Licensing is offered on a per user basis for desktop applications and a per server basis for server applications. There are discounts available based on volumes.

Professional Services costs are dependent on the nature and complexity of the application. We quote a cost for packaging once we have been able to see the application, or portfolio of applications.

Contact us here with your requirements and we will provide you with a quote.

Packaging and Maintaining Applications
Who is responsible for packaging desktop and server applications? Down Arrow

Cloudhouse provide the Professional Services to package applications.

Requirements for Test and Development Down Arrow

Cloudhouse recommend packaged applications are tested in the standard UAT environments used for natively installed applications, or applications packaged in App-V. The more representative the test environment is of the live environment, the greater the chance of finding any issues prior to go-live.

Updating Applications Down Arrow

Service packs and updates can be applied to the applications in a package using the Editor, refer to Updating, Editing and Maintaining Containers which describes how a new snapshot is created for the update, and how it is then applied to the package.

Operations
Who manages Cloudhouse operationally within an account? Down Arrow

Cloudhouse recommends the same team who manage the operations of native apps.

Automation and Deployment Down Arrow

Applications running in Application Compatibility Packages can be deployed, and managed with same tools, or scripts used to deploy natively installed applications e.g. SCCM, InTune, LAN Desk. Please refer to Supported 3rd Party Products and Versions for details.

Support
How do we know which of our departments/ teams should support the Package? Down Arrow

The Cloudhouse Package does not include OS components, it only contains the packaged application plus Cloudhouse components. Cloudhouse recommend the same team that is responsible for supporting applications packaged with App-V, or delivered as natively installed applications, support Cloudhouse Application Compatibility Containers.

Documentation for Service Desk & Service Management Down Arrow

Full documentation is made available to Cloudhouse partners and customers as required.

Training
Do Cloudhouse provide training? Down Arrow

Cloudhouse offers a full packaging service that can scale to meet any requirement. In the event, however, that a partner wishes to offer application compatibility packaging as part of a wider solution, Cloudhouse will work with that partner. Please contact us here for details.