Announcing cloud.ca – enterprise cloud in Canada
We’ve spent much of the past few years helping to design and deploy both private and public clouds internationally, largely atop the Citrix CloudPlatform architecture and the most operationally mature open source technologies available from the CloudStack and OpenStack projects. With this experience under our belts, we’re taking the cover off something significant: our own secure multi-tenant cloud.
The cloud landscape has changed significantly, and now clouds are an essential tool in the IT toolbox—and Canadians deserve these tools close at hand to maintain data sovereignty and comply with privacy regulations. And we’ve given it a truly Canadian moniker: Cloud.ca
We’re doing this for a number of reasons. First, we have clients asking for access to self-service cloud compute and cloud storage within Canadian borders that is Canadian owned and operated, so they can comply comply with privacy guidelines and address concerns over data sovereignty. And second, due to increasingly workforce mobility and demands for flexibility our customers have a need to link end-user and application workloads on the cloud.
Much of the interest around cloud computing has been about running applications and storing data in the cloud. But centralizing user workspaces and desktops is just as big a trend, and many IT executives who are launching bring-your-own-device computing initiatives rely on virtual workspaces that can run on any device, anywhere. Putting this end-user workload in the cloud makes perfect sense, as end-user resources tend to have variable usage patterns and benefit from proximity to application data.
Until recently, the challenges of getting an end-user computing strategy based on these kind of virtual workspaces have mainly centered around budget, since up-front investment can be substantial and skill, since knowing how to deploy, manage, and troubleshoot these systems requires deep knowledge of the entire networking and application stack.
By offering EUC (end-user compute) alongside application-centric IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) Cloud.ca gives companies access to a reserved resource model coupled with on demand capabilities that’s low-risk and cost effective. Because it’s delivered as a service, talent isn’t a problem—CloudOps’ technical staff has been running public and private clouds since the early days of on-demand computing. In addition to being ready for enterprise and webscale applications, Cloud.ca will be certified “Citrix Ready” allowing customers certainty in the compatibility and reliability of their EUC workloads.
We’re thrilled to announce Cloud.ca, launching soon, and we’re already adding clients— those migrating their desktops to the cloud, those with mission critical applications, and those building next generation software.
