Réversibilité

Selon le dictionnaire Le Robert,

Nous nous intéresserons à la deuxième définition, ramener quelque chose à son état/sa situation d’origine. C’est en effet de cela dont nous parlons lorsque nous nous référons à vos données et, plus important encore, à la réversibilité de celles-ci dans le cloud.

Naturellement, avant de vous lancer dans le cloud, vous vous êtes interrogé sur deux points :

• le coût
• le temps et les efforts nécessaires pour migrer vos applications et données vers le cloud.

La réponse à la première question se trouve dans notre livre blanc sur le coût total de possession, disponible ici. Ce document vous aide à déterminer la différence de coût réelle entre une plateforme sur site et une plateforme cloud. Les fournisseurs de cloud sont transparents concernant leurs tarifs. OVHcloud l’est aussi : nos tarifications Public Cloud, Bare Metal ou Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on OVHcloud¹ le montrent.

Dès le départ, nous misons sur la transparence et la clarté des prix. S’ils sont si attractifs, c’est parce que notre objectif est de trouver le bon équilibre entre prix et performance. Or, des performances de pointe ne sont pas nécessairement synonymes de prix élevés.

La réponse à la deuxième question est résolue si vous êtes un utilisateur ou une utilisatrice confirmée dans le domaine de la virtualisation. C’est plus difficile pour les charges de travail non virtuelles, mais ce n’est pas impossible : cela prend simplement du temps et cela coûte cher.

Mais il reste une question en suspens :

Que deviennent réellement vos données si vous décidez de quitter votre fournisseur de cloud et de prendre vos données avec vous ?

Rien de plus simple : il vous suffit de télécharger vos fichiers et d’annuler votre ou vos services, n’est-ce pas ?

Eh bien non. Ce n’est pas aussi simple que vous le pensez.

Tout d’abord, votre fournisseur de cloud doit vous donner accès à vos données. Il ne s’agit pas seulement de votre ou vos machines virtuelles ou de votre interface de base de données, mais bel et bien de vos données brutes, ainsi que le lecteur, le dossier, le référentiel ou le compartiment spécifique où vos informations sont stockées. Réflechissez-y un instant: quand avez-vous parcouru pour la dernière fois vos fichiers, blocs et/ou objets stockés dans le cloud ?

Pouvez-vous vraiment les retirer ? Avez-vous les moyens de le faire, maintenant ?

Si oui, félicitations, vous avez franchi le premier pas.

Mais combien coûtera la migration des données au-delà de l’infrastructure de votre fournisseur de cloud ?

Chez OVHcloud, vous ne payez rien pour le transfert de données en entrée et en sortie²

Cela vous permet de récupérer vos données à tout moment, sans frais. En outre, les données que vous hébergez dans nos datacenters sont exactement les mêmes que celles que vous récupérez, sans modification. Nous n’utilisons, ne modifions, ni ne revendons les données de notre clientèle. Il s’agit d’un engagement que nous prenons très au sérieux. C’est pourquoi la sécurité de vos données est une priorité pour nous. Et la gestion de notre propre réseau mondial nous donne plus de contrôle pour y parvenir.

Chez OVHcloud, vos données sont toujours à vous. Cela signifie aussi que vous êtes responsable de leur protection via des sauvegardes, des copies ou leur réplication.

Vous vous dites peut-être que vous disposez d’une configuration de cloud hybride, que vous pouvez donc accéder à vos données quand vous le souhaitez et que vos applications fonctionnent encore. C’est exact, mais le fait de pouvoir visualiser vos données ne signifie pas que vous pouvez y accéder réellement.

Vous pouvez accéder à une base de données, afficher des images ou des vidéos stockées dans l’Object Storage, ou exécuter des machines virtuelles dans un cloud public. Mais pouvez-vous vraiment récupérer vos données ?

Accéder aux données dans le cloud est une chose, les récupérer en est une autre. Gardez toujours cela à l’esprit.

En parlant de cloud hybride…

Notre solution Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on OVHcloud vous permet de tirer le meilleur parti du cloud, tout en gardant le contrôle de vos données.

Le cloud hybride ouvre un monde de possibilités :
– vous pouvez conserver vos données les plus précieuses sur site tout en utilisant les services cloud pour vos environnements de développement/test ;
– vous pouvez profiter de la bande passante réseau et de la sécurité du fournisseur de cloud pour héberger vos services front-end dans le cloud, tout en gardant le back-end sur site (connecté en toute sécurité grâce à OVHcloud Connect) ;
– vous pouvez utiliser notre localisation internationale et nos Local Zones pour placer certains de vos services exactement où ils doivent être sans avoir à construire et à entretenir votre propre infrastructure.
Les cas d’usage sont infinis…

Ainsi, avec NC2 on OVHcloud, votre Nutanix Cloud Platform fonctionne dans le cloud, surveillée en permanence par nos équipes en datacenters, dans l’emplacement de votre choix et dotée de tous les atouts que vous pouvez attendre de votre installation sur site.

De plus, il est très facile de connecter ce ou ces clusters à l’interface de gestion Prism Central existante sur votre plateforme Nutanix on-premises. La surveillance globale est grandement facilitée, que ce soit dans le cloud ou sur site.

De plus, comme OVHcloud ne facture pas le transfert de données en entrée/sortie³, la mise en place de la réplication ne vous coûtera pas plus cher que les licences dont vous avez besoin pour activer la fonctionnalité.

En ce qui concerne la réversibilité, si vous décidez de ne plus utiliser nos services, déplacez simplement vos machines virtuelles, conteneurs et fichiers vers votre cluster sur site et annulez votre abonnement mensuel. Plus besoin de faire des pieds et des mains pour demander des droits d’administration spéciaux. Vous avez la liberté de maintenir ou d’annuler votre ou vos contrats avec nous à tout moment, dans les limites de notre obligation légale bien sûr, en quelques clics via l’espace client OVHcloud. Et comme votre cluster Nutanix on OVHcloud est déjà lié à votre installation sur site, le déplacement des données est simple : aucun outil spécial n’est nécessaire.

C’est notre promesse, notre engagement et l’une de nos valeurs fondamentales.

Vos données restent vos données.

1. NC2 on OVHcloud est une solution intégrant les offres Nutanix on OVHcloud existantes dans le portail “My Nutanix” ↩︎
2. sauf pour le CDN, certaines options de stockage d’objets et les services hébergés dans nos sites d’Asie-Pacifique où des règles locales peuvent s’appliquer sans allocation gratuite ou limitations. ↩︎
3. sauf pour le CDN, certaines options de stockage d’objets et les services hébergés dans nos sites d’Asie-Pacifique où des règles locales peuvent s’appliquer sans allocation gratuite ou limitations. ↩︎

Reversibility

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:

Sure, turning a garment inside out sounds convenient, but we’re more interested in the second definition, which is “returning something to its original state/situation”. This is what we’re talking about when referring to your data, and more importantly, the reversibility of your data in the Cloud.

Naturally, before going cloud, you asked yourself two important questions:

•                How much is it going to cost?
•                How much time and effort is involved in moving my apps and data to the cloud?

The answer to the first question is in our Total Cost of Ownership White Paper, available here. This document helps in determining the actual cost difference between an on-prem platform and a cloud platform. Usually, cloud providers are upfront about their pricing. Well, I can say for sure that we are, based on our Public Cloud, Bare Metal, or Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on OVHcloud¹ pricing.

We’re all about transparency and clear pricing, right from the start. And yes, our prices may seem too good to be true sometimes, but that’s because our focus is on finding the right balance between price and performance. Top-tier performance doesn’t have to come with a hefty price tag.

As for the second question, it’s a breeze generally, if you’re a confirmed virtualisation user. It’s tougher for non-virtual workloads, but not impossible—just time-consuming and expensive.

But here’s a question you’ve probably never asked:

What really happens to your data if you decide to leave your cloud provider (and take your data with you)?

Well… it’s easy! All you have to do is download your files and cancel the service(s), right?

No, and brace yourself; this isn’t as straightforward as you’d expect.

First, your cloud provider needs to give you access to your data. Not just your virtual machine or database interface data, but also your raw, underlying data, and the specific drive, folder, repository, or bucket where your data is stored. Just stop and think about it for a sec… when did you last browse your files/blocks/object stored in the cloud?

Can you actually pull it off? Do you have the means to do it, right now?

If yes, congrats, you’ve got the first step down.

But how much will it cost to move data beyond your cloud provider’s infrastructure?

At OVHcloud, you pay 0 for ingress/egress data transfer², without “free allowance” or throttling.

This means you can take back your data at any time, at no cost. And the data you host in our datacentres is exactly what’s returned to you—unaltered. As a matter of fact, we never use, modify, or resell customer data, a commitment we take very seriously. That’s why keeping your data secure is a big deal for us, and managing our own global network gives us more control to make that happen.

At OVHcloud, your data is always yours, which means you’re responsible for protecting it with through backups, copies, or replication.

But now you’re thinking “well, I’ve got a hybrid cloud setup, so I can access my data whenever I want and my apps still run anyway”. That’s right, but just because you can visualise your data doesn’t mean you can actually access it.

You can access a database, as well as display images or videos stored in Object Storage, or run Virtual Machines in a public cloud. But can you really get your data back?

Accessing data in the cloud is one thing, getting it back is a whole different story—always keep this in mind.

Speaking of hybrid cloud…

Let me tell you about our Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on OVHcloud solution, and how it allows you to make the most of the cloud, while staying in control of your data.

Hybrid cloud opens a world of possibilities:
– if you do not trust us (yet) you can keep your most precious data on-premises while using cloud services for your dev/test environments
– you can take advantage of the network bandwidth and security of cloud provider to host your front-end services in the cloud, while keeping the back-end on premises (securely connected using OVHcloud Connect)
– you can use our international location and local zones to place some of your services exactly where they have to be without having to build and maintain your own infrastructure
The use cases are endless….

So with NC2 on OVHcloud, you get your Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) running in the cloud, monitored round the clock by OVHcloud’s datacentre teams, in a convenient location of your choosing, and packed with all the bells and whistles you’d expect from your on-prem setup.

Also, it’s super easy to connect this cluster (or these clusters) to the existing Prism Central management interface on your on-prem Nutanix platform, making it a breeze to keep an eye on everything, whether it’s in the cloud or on premises.

And since OVHcloud doesn’t charge for egress/ingress data transfer³, setting up replication won’t cost you extra beyond the licences you need in order to enable the feature.

So, about reversibility, if you ever decide you no longer want to use our services, just move your VMs, containers, and files to your on-prem cluster and cancel your monthly subscription. No need to ask for special admin permissions or jump through hoops. You have the freedom to maintain or cancel your contract(s) with us at anytime (within the limits of our legal binding of course) in a few clicks through OVHcloud control panel. And since your NC2 on OVHcloud is already linked to your on-prem setup, moving data is straightforward—no special tools required.

That’s our promise, our commitment, and one of our core values.

Your data stays your data!

1. NC2 on OVHcloud is a solution integrating existing Nutanix on OVHcloud portfolio into My Nutanix portal. ↩︎
2. (except for CDN, some Object Storage options, and services hosted in our APAC locations, unfortunately, where local rules may apply) ↩︎
3. (except for CDN, some Object Storage options, and services hosted in our APAC locations, unfortunately, where local rules may apply) ↩︎

Today, we’re going to embark on a journey of discovery, and unveil our latest product: Bare Metal Pod.

You know us for the services we provide: bare metal servers, managed and unmanaged virtualisation platform, our 40+ public cloud services, domain names and telco.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, and to understand why we built and now offer Bare Metal Pod, we have to dig deeper.

So let’s begin this journey exploring the origins of Bare Metal Pod, and in later articles we’ll cover the more technical details—there’s a lot to touch on.

The OVHcloud way: more than just servers

As a cloud services provider, we supply the different platforms mentioned above. But most importantly, we have to take care of the infrastructure dedicated to these services, from the buildings, power and cooling to the software stack and automation required.

And we’ve been doing just this since 2001. It all started with the opening of our first datacentre in Paris, then building our own servers the next year, and our proprietary water-cooling solution the year after that.

At the core, we are all about efficiency, automation, and sustainability:

• Repurposing buildings as datacentres
• Designing our own servers to optimise performance and cost
• Maximising cooling efficiency to cut waste
• Automating everything to reduce errors and delays

And, in all modesty…. we’re pretty good at these.

Optimising datacentres like a pro

Basically, building our own servers in our Croix (FR) and Beauharnois (CA) plants means packing a ton of servers into a square metre. We’re talking about 4 custom racks, each hosting 48 servers, all in just 3 sq.m and using up to 160kW of 12V DC power. This gives us a server density of about 5000W per sq/ft, which beats out 90% of the industry.

And on top of that, we’ve got our proprietary water-cooling system—we save energy by not using AC for our servers. To further optimise air cooling, each of our rack is equipped with a large condenser (we call it a chilled door) at the rear of the rack, dissipating regular server heat in our water system. This keeps the datacentre comfortably warm for our staff and the network equipment, and extends hardware lifespan (less maintenance, fewer replacements, fewer outages….so more savings).

In addition to the physical optimisations we’ve just mentioned is our automation system. When a server or a cluster of servers have been assembled and tested in our plant, it’s sent to the datacentre, racked and connected to power, network, and water-cooling systems by our DC staff.

And from there, everything is automated. From server power management, discovery, testing, and readiness checks, to the moment it’s selected by a customer using their Control Panel, and then configured. No human interaction is required, meaning no delay and no error.

And these operations have been optimised and refined for over 20 years.

Enter Project Gold-o-rack

So in June 2023, a small team was assembled to review, analyse and build a new version of this system. We had 3 goals:

• Provide customers with dedicated on-premises autonomous racks
• Offer custom-built, plug-and-play Bare Metal Pods
• Upgrade the automation and security of our own datacentres

And that’s how Project Gold-o-rack came to be—a tribute to Goldorak (Grendizer), the legendary 70s anime mecha that crushed its enemies with style. Like its namesake, our system is powerful, autonomous, and unstoppable.

Using opensource technology was a must, as we absolutely can’t do without transparency and community support. So we went for OpenStack, Netbox, Grafana, and developed our own network management and automation system, and much more.

By September 2023—just three months later—we had a fully functional 24U rack, deployable and operational in 25 minutes. That’s not just fast—that’s insanely fast.

Security was a top priority since these racks would be installed in third-party datacentres. We quickly applied for SecNumCloud qualification, leveraging our existing compliance expertise.

Then, it hit us: why not offer this as a full-fledged product? And that’s how Bare Metal Pod came to be—dedicated, secure, and fully automated.

We structured the product into three key components:

1. On-Prem Cloud Platform (OPCP): The autonomous rack, with its own KMS and encryption mechanisms
2. Bare Metal Pod: Built on OPCP, hosted in our datacentres, and SecNumCloud-compliant
3. Cloud Store: A software catalogue enabling automated deployment within the rack

In June 2024, OPCP was ready, just 12 months after the 1st meeting… and shortly after we got the “green light” from the ANSSI, allowing us to pursue the SecNumCloud qualification process.

And if you were at, or watched our Summit Keynote in November 2024, you definitely saw it live…

What’s under the hood?

As an autonomous rack, it contains:

• Power Distribution Units
• Network equipment for internal and external connectivity
• Servers, including a Pod Controller

There are 9 Bare Metal server models available, from 16 to 256 cores, from 128 GB to 2.5 TB of memory, up to 792 TB NVMe SSD (RAW), Nvidia L4 and L40s GPU depending on your needs.

And the best part is that you can mix and match them, to build and manage the perfect autonomous rack, while keeping full control on security and resources.

We’ve got a total of 607 models in Bare Metal Pod, enough for nearly any configuration and need. And with up to 1500 servers in a single Pod, the possibilities are endless.

And on top of these servers, we are building an automated software library: the Cloud Store. Enclosed in the Bare Metal Pod, the Cloud Store will offer the Pod admin a selection of OS, virtualisation platforms and various software that can be pushed, installed, configured automatically on the servers in the Pod. This includes built-in security, monitoring, and logging integrated in the Pod monitoring tools.

And herein¹ lies the main challenge: making sure an entire collection of software from various editors can cohabit and interact with a single, opensource monitoring platform, a KMS, and an IAM without breaking anything…

Coming up next…

That’s a wrap for now! In the next article, we’ll deep-dive into hardware, networking, and security. Stay tuned!

Some of the Bare Metal servers options:

• Scale A1 – A8: Equipped with 4th Gen Intel Xeon Gold or AMD EPYC 9004 series processors, these servers provide between 16 to 256 cores and 128 GB to 1 TB of DDR5 ECC RAM. They are suitable for:
  • Hosting SaaS and PaaS solutions
  • Virtualisation
  • Database hosting
  • Containerisation and orchestration
  • Confidential computing
  • High-performance computing
• Scale-GPU 1 – 3: Featuring NVIDIA L4 GPU cards (x2 or x4) and up to 1.2 TB of DDR5 ECC RAM, these servers are ideal for:
  • 3D modelling
  • Media streaming
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
  • Data inference

• HGR-HCI I1 – I4: With dual 5th Gen Intel Xeon Gold or 4th Gen AMD EPYC 9004 series processors, these servers provide between 16 to 72 cores and up to 2.5 TB of DDR5 ECC RAM. They are suitable for:
  • Hyperconverged infrastructure
  • Virtualisation
  • Database hosting
  • Containerisation and orchestration
  • Confidential computing
  • High-performance computing
• HGR-SDS 1 – 2: Equipped with dual 5th Gen Intel Xeon Gold processors, these servers offer between 16 to 48 cores and up to 1.5 TB of DDR5 ECC RAM. They are ideal for:
  • Software-defined storage solutions
  • Object storage solutions
  • Big data
  • Database hosting
• HGR-STOR 1 – 2: Featuring a 5th Gen Intel Xeon Gold processor with 36 cores and up to 512 GB of DDR5 ECC RAM, these servers are designed for:
  • Archiving
  • Database hosting
  • Backup and disaster recovery plans
• HGR-AI-2: Equipped with NVIDIA L40s GPU cards (x2 or x4) and up to 2.3 TB of DDR5 ECC RAM, these servers are optimized for:
  • Machine learning
  • Deep learning

(And many other options… you get the idea.)

1. My editor liked the word and I found it cool too. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/herein ↩︎

Today, we’re not going to talk about why you should protect your data. Because you know you should. In this article, we’ll discuss the different data backup options available, and the ideal software, skills and storage package for you.

In this article, we’ll discuss the different data backup options available, and the ideal software, skills and storage package for you.

Introduction

In the backup world, we can identify two major non-exclusive options for running backups:
Enterprise Backup Solutions and Specialised Backup.

Enterprise Backup Solutions are software capable of executing multiple backups from different sources to a wide choice of destinations. They usually have a very user-friendly User Interface/Command-Line Interface, powerful scheduling capabilities, a range of flexible features, and come with compliance and certifications. They provide extensive support, with large communities you can rely on in the long term.

On the other hand, some applications and/or databases have their own Specialised Backup mechanism. They’re optimised, efficient and extremely popular due to their high performance and, quite often, they don’t need additional licences. However, very often you need to rely on the application/database administrator to take care of the backups.

To summarise:

• Enterprise Backup Solutions are fairly universal, can easily support a company-wide backup strategy, are user-friendly and can meet detailed pre-requisites.
• Specialised Backups are high performance and low cost which is appealing, but they can be difficult to use within a global backup strategy and administrators require specific knowledge.

As well as the tool used to move data, we must consider that data has a source and a destination. Keeping in mind the 3-2-1 rule (3 copies of your data (your production data and 2 backup copies) on 2 different media (disk and tape for example) with 1 copy off-site for disaster recovery), and the amount of sources in a modern IT system, both the choice of software solution and hardware platform used to store the backups must meet both the Global Backup Strategy and… your budget. There is also 3-2-1-1-0 backup strategy, which is another option. After all, even if the technical possibilities are infinite, the budget isn’t.

Enterprise Backup Solutions

So, let’s look at the most practical choices you can make to protect your precious data, whilst not having to rob a bank or ten. And to be honest, we’re mainly going to be looking at cloud services. Not just because we’re a cloud services company, but because cloud storage makes a lot of sense. We’ll demonstrate why.

There are numerous Enterprise Backup Solutions on the market and some have been around for a while. You’ve probably used one, and you’re probably still using that same one today. Why? Because you developed expertise in it, and you built your backup strategy based on its features and recommendations. And that makes sense. Your staff’s experience and skills should never be discounted when investigating opportunities for expanding your backup strategy for new workloads or changing to a cloud service. But very often, this expertise translates very easily to new systems, thanks to the use of standard vocabulary and similar mechanisms. So changing to a new Enterprise Backup Solution shouldn’t be too frightening, as expertise is rarely lost; but usually expanded.

Today, all Enterprise Backup Software supports cloud backup. Whether it’s from the cloud or to the cloud. And it doesn’t come as a surprise, as a lot of workloads are in the cloud – and backups too.
Remember the 3-2-1 rule? The cloud is particularly good for storing your off-site copy given that there are hosting locations all over the world.

OVHcloud Enterprise Backup Solutions

At OVHcloud, our IaaS products are compatible with all major Enterprise Backup Software, and some, like Veeam and HYCU, are even certified to run on our Enterprise platforms. And we also provide the adequate licences so you don’t have to use yet another provider.

You can pair Veeam/HYCU solutions with nearly any Operating System/application and benefit from advanced integration with VMware and Nutanix hypervisors. They have certified compatibility with Network File System / Common Internet File System /Object Storage and you can even add features to improve security.

It’s slightly outside the scope of this article, but our Managed VMware platform even has a Zerto option, allowing you to add replication to the highly recommended backups.

Our Public Cloud instances can be protected using snapshots and backups. All our Bare Metal servers include an external storage of 500GB which can used for your backup. This storage can be extended by up to 10TB.

Other Enterprise Backup Solutions

If you want more control over your backup strategy, leveraging your expertise and fitting it to your specific requirements, it is possible to build your own backup infrastructure with OVHcloud.

 All the major players in the Enterprise Backup market are compatible and already used by OVHcloud’s customers. To mention but a few: Veeam, HYCU, Datamotive, Nakivo, Veritas Technologies, Scality, CommVault, Rubrik, Acronis and Cohesity.

Open-Source Backup Solutions

And of course, if you’d rather use open-source software, Bacula is a perfectly viable option, or the simple but robust rsync. After all, if you just need to keep a reasonably updated copy of your data somewhere else, the simplest tool can often do the job. There’s many open-source options…

Specialised Backup Solutions

Kubernetes workloads

In the Cloud Native / Public Cloud / PaaS environment, you have access to and compatibility with the main players too:

• Velero
• CloudCasa
• TrilioVault
• Veeam Kasten
• and many others.

Application/Database workloads

But what if you use specific application/database mechanisms?
Given that our promise is to be open, agnostic and reversible, we do not block third party software from interacting with your data. So as long as you have the expertise to install and manage them, you can use them and make the most of our large storage portfolio.

Many solutions integrate a mechanism from, for example, pre-backup and post-backup to launch backup of your databases. Of course, if you use your databases with our VMware by Broadcom and/or Nutanix offer, you can rely on Veeam Enterprise and HYCU.

As specified earlier, all major players in the Enterprise backup Software have modules for database protection: Nakivo, Veritas Technologies, Scality, CommVault, Rubrik, Acronis and Cohesity

OVHcloud PaaS Backup

Our Public Cloud instances can be protected using snapshots and backups and our Managed Kubernetes are compatible with several industry leading backup software such as Velero, Triliovault and CloudCasa.

Here is the recap’ of how our Public Cloud Managed products are protected and your options:

SaaS Backup and Solutions

When we’re talking about cloud and Specialised Backup, we can’t forget to mention the SaaS offers. As much as they’re convenient, affordable and widely available, making sure that your data is safe is not always included in the contract. It’s always worth researching this before committing, or you might discover unsuspected charges for your backup.

At OVHcloud, we have a large portfolio of partners who can help. You can find our complete partners directory here.

For Microsoft Office 365 backup, RG system provides a solution hosted on OVHcloud datacentre.

For Cybercriminality incidences, SI Vital solution maintains access to your vital, uninterrupted data and applications, as well as a secure, professional communications platform. A business continuity solution co-constructed with OVHcloud.

Different Types of Storage For Your Backup

Whether you are using an Enterprise Backup Solution or a Specialised Backup mechanism, you can store the backups on dedicated servers (Bare Metal storage), dedicated storage (NAS/HA, Enterprise File Storage), or the current global preferred choice for backup: Object Storage.

All OVHcloud storage solutions : https://www.ovhcloud.com/en/storage-solutions/

And because a picture is worth a thousand words (and that’s about how many words you’ve read so far in this article):

Object Storage & Cold Archive

Object Storage is particularly well-adapted to backup because:

• data growth is not limited by the underlying hardware
• it’s cost-effective
• it’s pseudo disconnected or fully disconnected in some cases
• it’s application/Operating System agnostic
• it’s friendly to static data
• it works with tapes.

Our Object Storage options are:

• Standard Object Storage: ideal for general backups.
• Performance Object Storage: ideal for critical and large backups as its high performance reduces backup and restore time.
• Cold Archive: ideal for meeting the legal requirement for data conservation and disconnected backup for safety.

Block Storage

Block Storage is still a very attractive option for storing backups because of its predictable performance and safety inherent to direct access to storage and RAID. It is the favoured media for on-premises infrastructure as storage arrays are widely available and distributed across datacentres. This distribution and the potential replication options provided by the storage arrays allow you to keep your data safe without causing you headaches. One caveat to mention is that Block Storage it is mostly reserved for server backup since end users don’t have easy access to centralised Block Storage.

File Storage

If you want to protect your users’ shares/export, File Storage is very convenient and access to the data is not bound to physical connections as is often the case for Block Storage. As long as you have access rights and network connection, using File Storage for backup is easy. Most File Storage also provides snapshots, and even though it can’t be considered a backup solution, it does provide a fast recovery mechanism. Advanced File Storage solutions provide replication and High Availability mechanisms.

Expert & Partner Ecosystem

And if you feel intimidated, our Professional Services, Solution Architect and partners can help you make an educated choice and a solid migration. But what if your data is already in the cloud? How is it protected and how can it be?

Well, the devil is in the detail, and very often, protecting your data is your responsibility, not your provider’s. So never ever assume that because your data is in the cloud, it’s automagically protected in the case of an incident.
What we do at OVHcloud is provide access to snapshots for some of our services. But there’s no Service-Level Agreement associated with these snapshots and they may not respect the 3-2-1 rule, hence are not backups.

• OVHcloud Professional Services
• OVHcloud Partner directory
• OVHcloud ISV directory
• OVHcloud Marketplace

Conclusion

Let’s finish by talking about the ideal global backup service approach for you, encompassing software and storage. The main differentiator is going to be: how much control do you want over your backup? Once you have an inventory of the data you need to backup, the first step is to check compatibility with existing or future Enterprise Backup Solutions. Most of the time, you’ll find several solutions that are able to support your needs and protect a vast majority of your data, even if they’re both on-premise and in the cloud. Having all your data in the same place is of course easier, but it rarely happens.

Then you need to verify which of the Software Solutions you’re considering are suitable for your backup strategy. And this is the perfect time to step back and evaluate. Have you missed anything? Does everything follow industry standards? And finally, who can help you find the best compromise between safety and cost. Ideally, we’ve answered all these questions above, so let’s have a look at what we can offer here:

Ainsi, soit en offre packagée avec des licences de la Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP), soit avec la portabilité des propres licences du client (offre BYOL), nous avons lancé la solution Nutanix on OVHcloud, une nouvelle plateforme de cloud privé évolutive et prête à l’emploi à la fois pour les nouveaux utilisateurs ou les utilisateurs existants de Nutanix.

Grâce à de multiples localisations dans le monde, une livraison rapide, une infrastructure robuste, durable et qualifiée Nutanix, entièrement produite par OVHcloud, ces services ont apporté une bouffée d’air frais sur le marché du multicloud hybride.

Pour maintenir notre rythme d’innovation après la version initiale, nous vous avons mis à disposition plus de 30 guides pour découvrir, mettre en œuvre, sécuriser et sauvegarder votre plateforme, en partenariat avec des intégrateurs systèmes reconnus et certifiés Nutanix. Nous avons également introduit l’évolutivité avec l’ajout de serveurs via API et davantage de localisations pour déployer la plateforme hyperconvergée Nutanix on OVHcloud.

Nous avons le plaisir d’annoncer que Nutanix on OVHcloud va prochainement élargir sa gamme de serveurs dédiés et qualifiés Nutanix avec le lancement de la nouvelle gamme de serveurs Scale. De plus, un nouveau service de sauvegarde en partenariat avec HYCU et la certification Nutanix Ready de notre OVHcloud Key Management Service (KMS) seront également disponibles.

Découvrons la nouvelle gamme de serveurs Scale, dédiés et qualifiés Nutanix, disponible sur la solution Nutanix on OVHcloud.

Ces serveurs monosocket utilisent des processeurs Intel Xeon Scalable de 5^ème génération, dont le nombre de cœurs est plus restreint (16 cœurs pour Scale-i1, 24 cœurs pour Scale-i2 ou 36 cœurs pour Scale-i3) ou 32/48/72 threads si vous préférez). Ils intègrent également de 128 Go à 1 To de mémoire et 4 ou 6 disques SSD NVMe PCIe 4.0 chacun (capacité de 1,92/3,84/7,68 To par disque).

Plus important encore, cette gamme de serveurs monosocket est proposée à un prix inférieur aux serveurs HGR-HCI.

Cela porte à un total de 72 configurations possibles au meilleur rapport prix-performance pour répondre aux besoins des  petites entreprises aux budgets limités !

Vous bénéficiez ainsi d’une infrastructure hautement résiliente basée sur une architecture avec une redondance complète du système de refroidissement, du réseau et de l’alimentation électrique qui offre un engagement de niveau de service (SLA) de 99,95 %. Cela en fait la solution idéale pour les opérations de reprise d’activité, de continuité d’activité ou de migration vers le cloud, facilitées, rapides et rentables en réduisant la facture OPEX (et toujours sans frais d’utilisation de bande passante entrante et sortante).

Vous obtiendrez également plus de nœuds dans votre cluster avec le même budget qu’en utilisant les serveurs HGR-HCI, ce qui conduit à :

• Une répartition de charge et une redondance améliorées,
• moins d’impact lors du redémarrage d’un nœud lors d’une mise à niveau,
• une meilleure isolation de chaque occupant/une isolation facilitée si vous souhaitez mutualiser la plateforme.

Le choix de la configuration de 6 disques SSD NVMe PCIe 4.0 offre un ratio cœur/stockage optimal, car les nouveaux disques peuvent être deux fois plus capacitifs que les disques des serveurs HGR-HCI et bénéficient d’une meilleure connectivité grâce au NVMe !

N’oubliez pas que nous disposons également de nombreuses options de stockage si vous en voulez davantage :  NAS/HA, Enterprise File Storage, Object Storage et serveurs Bare Metal.

De plus, si tout cela ne suffit pas à vous convaincre, ces serveurs consomment beaucoup moins d’énergie !

Par exemple, le nouveau serveur Scale-i3 dispose du même nombre de cœurs/threads que le serveur HGR-HCI-1, mais ne consomme que les 2/3 de l’électricité.

Ainsi, vous améliorez vos engagements et vos rapports en matière de durabilité, ainsi que vos résultats financiers.

La nouvelle gamme de serveurs Scale sera disponible dans le monde entier (prochainement aux États-Unis). D’autres localisations seront envisagées en fonction de l’intérêt.

Ils sont également certifiés ISO 27701, SOC I et II type 1 et HDS (protection des données de santé en France).

Points clés à retenir :

• Prix avantageux = migration facilitée vers le cloud pour les besoins plus modestes, jusqu’à 50 % moins cher par rapport à la gamme actuelle de serveurs HGR-HCI (selon la configuration sélectionnée),
• Davantage de bande passante (intra-cluster),
• Meilleure segmentation des charges de travail,
• Plus de granularité pour l’évolutivité (pas d’écarts importants en termes de performances et de prix) et le coût des licences,
• Plus facile de mettre en place des règles anti-affinité et de répartir/isoler les charges de travail,
• Plus résilient, basé sur une architecture avec des circuits électriques, un système de refroidissement et un réseau redondants,
• Conçu pour la reprise après sinistre à moindre coût (via nos partenaires) pour les charges de travail critiques.

Découvrez les configurations et les tarifs de nos serveurs Nutanix on OVHcloud.

Découvrons notre tout nouveau service de sauvegarde HYCU for OVHcloud :

OVHcloud et HYCU (nommé Visionary dans le rapport 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Backup and Recovery Software Solutions), se sont associés pour vous fournir les licences HYCU R-Cloud Hybrid Cloud Edition directement depuis OVHcloud.

HYCU a une histoire d’intégration complète et de haute fiabilité avec Nutanix, il était donc logique de développer ce partenariat au-delà de la simple « compatibilité ».

Nutanix on OVHcloud a toujours été compatible avec HYCU (vous pouvez voir les étapes de configuration dans ce guide 2022) et l’installation est facile.

Désormais, HYCU for OVHcloud vous permet d’obtenir vos licences HYCU R-Cloud Hybrid Cloud Edition directement auprès d’OVHcloud pour protéger vos charges de travail Nutanix et réduire le temps d’approvisionnement de votre infrastructure en matière de sauvegarde, de reprise après sinistre et de temps d’activité de migration. Et comme on ne sait jamais quand une catastrophe peut survenir, tout gain de temps s’avère précieux.

Notre service est basé sur le nombre de machines virtuelles (VM) que vous souhaitez sauvegarder (packs de 25 à 500 VMs), à partir de moins de 160 € (HT) par mois pour un pack de 25 VMs.
Ajoutez à cela la solution OVHcloud Object Storage (Standard, High Performance ou Cold Archive), prochainement certifiée HYCU, pour accélérer et simplifier vos processus de sauvegarde et de récupération de données, et vous serez prêt à démarrer.

En plus de son coût compétitif, notre service Object Storage offre des options d’immuabilité et de réplication pour mieux protéger vos données et respecter vos règles de sauvegarde 3-2-1.

Notre écosystème de partenaires est également prêt à vous accompagner avec une solution Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), combinant Nutanix on OVHcloud et HYCU.

Cliquez ici pour plus d’information sur HYCU for OVHcloud.

Enfin, la solution OVHcloud Key Management Service (KMS)  a obtenu la certification Nutanix Ready, ce qui vous permet de l’intégrer de manière transparente à vos environnements Nutanix (en particulier sur Nutanix on OVHcloud) et de renforcer la sécurité de votre plateforme en veillant à ce que les pratiques de chiffrement ne perturbent pas les opérations existantes et soient entièrement conformes aux normes du secteur.

Cela permet une protection de premier ordre de vos données tout en rationalisant les opérations de sécurité lors de votre transition vers le cloud hybride ou le multicloud et répond à des cas d’utilisation tels que le chiffrement des données au repos (Data-At-Rest-Encryption) pour le chiffrement logiciel et la protection SED.

Notre KMS, disponible à partir de notre portefeuille de produits Public Cloud, vous permet de gérer des clés de chiffrement robustes dans toutes vos applications, qu’elles soient hébergées dans le cloud ou sur site, à partir d’une localisation centrale, sans vous soucier de la redondance et de l’accessibilité.

Situé dans le datacenter de votre choix, conforme aux normes ISO27001 et FIPS 140-3 (certification en cours) et offrant de larges capacités d’intégration et une interopérabilité accrue avec les normes KMIP (Key Management Interoperability Protocol), le OVHcloud KMS vous apporte une solution hautement accessible, sans les contraintes des infrastructures sur site.

Sans frais de requête, avec un faible coût par clé et une gestion complète des accès, vous bénéficiez de la commodité et de la fiabilité d’un KMS hébergé dans le cloud, accessible de partout et utilisable par toutes les applications.

Vous pourrez aussi prochainement importer vos propres clés pour éviter le casse-tête de la reconfiguration de vos plateformes existantes.

Notre solution Nutanix on OVHcloud ainsi que nos services HYCU for OVHcloud et OVHcloud KMS vous offrent tout ce dont vous avez besoin pour démarrer ou vous développer dans le cloud sans compromettre le prix, la performance ou la sécurité.

Pourquoi pas vous ?

 Découvrez notre solution Nutanix on OVHcloud.

As a result, either packaged with Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) licences or with the customer’s own licences (BYOL), we have released the Nutanix on OVHcloud solution, a new scalable and ready-to-use private cloud platform for new or existing Nutanix users.
With multiple global locations, fast delivery, robust, sustainable and Nutanix-qualified hardware built in-house by OVHcloud, these services bring a breath of fresh air to the hybrid multi-cloud market.
To maintain the initial release innovation pace, we’re offering over 30 guides to discover, implement, secure and backup your platform, in partnership with well-known and Nutanix-certified System Integrators. We’ve also introduced scalability and more locations to deploy the Nutanix on OVHcloud hyperconverged platform.
As the next step, we’re pleased to announce that Nutanix on OVHcloud will enlarge its servers range with a new, dedicated and Nutanix-qualified SCALE servers range launch. a new backup service in partnership with HYCU and the OVHcloud’s Key Management Service (KMS) Nutanix Ready certification.

Let’s look at the new dedicated and Nutanix-qualified SCALE servers’ range available on Nutanix on OVHcloud solution.

These mono-socket servers use Intel Xeon Scalable 5th gen processors including limited core numbers (16 cores for Scale-i1, 24 cores for Scale-i2 or 36 cores for Scale-i3 or 32/48/72 threads if you prefer). They also include from 128 GB to 1 TB of memory and either 4 or 6 SSD NVMe PCIe 4.0 drives each (1.92/3.84/7.68 TB capacity).
Most importantly, this range of single socket servers comes at a lower price point.
That’s 72 possible configurations at best price/performance ratio to match limited budgets and smaller company’s needs!

This means you benefit from a highly resilient infrastructure based on an architecture with complete redundancy of electrical circuits, cooling system, network and power supply which offers 99.95% SLA. Discover the perfect solution for easy, fast and cost-effective Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity or Move to Cloud operations by reducing the OPEX bill (and still no egress/ingress fee).
You’ll also get more nodes in your cluster with the same budget as before, which leads to:
• improved load-balancing and redundancy,
• less impact when you need to restart a node during an upgrade,
• better/easier tenant isolation if you wish to share them.

Choosing the 6 SSD NVMe PCIe 4.0 drive configuration gives an optimal core/storage ratio as the new drives can be twice the size of the HGR drives and benefit from better connectivity!
Don’t forget that we also have plenty of storage options if you want more: NAS/HA, Enterprise File Storage, Object Storage and Bare Metal storage servers.
Plus, if all that’s not enough to convince you, these servers use a lot less power!
For example, the new Scale-i3 server has the same number of cores/threads than the HGR-HCI-1 but uses only 2/3 of the power.
So, your sustainability commitments and reports will look even better than before and you’ll improve your bottom line.

This new SCALE servers’ range will be available worldwide (coming soon to the US). Additional locations are being considered based on interest.
They’re also ISO 27701, SOC I and II type 1 and HDS (French healthcare data protection) certified.

Key points to remember:
• Lower price point = easier to migrate to the cloud for smaller needs, up to 50% cheaper vs current HGR-HCI server range (depending on the selected configuration).
• More bandwidth (intra-cluster)
• Better segmentation of workloads
• More granularity for scalability (no big steps in terms of performance and price)
• Easier to set up anti-affinity rules and to spread/isolate workloads
• More resilient, based on an architecture with redundant electrical circuits, cooling system, network and power supply
• Designed for cost-competitive DRaaS (via our Partners) for critical workloads

Discover our Nutanix on OVHcloud servers configuration and prices.

Let’s look at our brand new HYCU for OVHcloud backup service:

OVHcloud and HYCU (named as Visionary in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Backup and Recovery Software Solutions), have partnered to bring you the HYCU R-Cloud Hybrid Cloud Edition licences directly from OVHcloud.
HYCU has a history of smooth integration and high reliability with Nutanix, so it was logical to develop this partnership beyond “compatibility”.
Nutanix on OVHcloud has always been compatible with HYCU (you can see the configuration steps in this 2022 guide) and installation is easy.
Now HYCU for OVHcloud enables you to get your HYCU R-Cloud Hybrid Cloud Edition licences directly from OVHcloud to protect your Nutanix workloads and reduce your infrastructure’s procurement to backup, disaster recovery, and migration activity time. And since you never know when a disaster may happen, any time saved is precious.

Our service is based on the number of Virtual Machines (VMs) you want to backup (from 25 to 500 VMs packs), starting from under €160 (ex VAT) per month for a 25 VMs pack.
Add some budget-friendly, soon-to-be HYCU-certified OVHcloud Object Storage (Standard/High performance /Cold Archive) to accelerate and simplify your data backup and recovery, and you’re ready to go.
In addition to its competitive cost, our Object Storage service offers immutability and replication options to further protect your data and enforce your 3-2-1 backup rules.

Our partners’ ecosystem is also ready to assist you with Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) which combines Nutanix on OVHcloud and HYCU.
Click here for more information about HYCU for OVHcloud.

Finally, OVHcloud’s Key Management Service (KMS) has obtained the Nutanix Ready certification, allowing you to integrate it seamlessly with your Nutanix environments (especially on Nutanix on OVHcloud) and reinforce your platform security by ensuring that encryption practices do not disrupt existing operations and are fully compliant with industry standards.

This allows top-tier protection for your data while streamlining security operations on your journey to hybrid cloud or multi-cloud and addresses use cases such as Data-At-Rest-Encryption for software encryption and SED protection.

Our KMS, available from our Public Cloud product portfolio, empowers you to manage robust encryption keys across all your applications whether hosted in the cloud or on-premises, from one central place, without worrying about redundancy and accessibility.
Located in the datacentre of your choice, compliant with ISO27001 and FIPS 140-3 standards (certification in progress) and offering broad integration capabilities and increased interoperability with Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP) standards, OVHcloud KMS brings you a highly accessible KMS without the on-premises hurdles.
With no query fee, a low per-key charge and complete key access management, you get the convenience and reliability of a cloud-hosted KMS that’s accessible from anywhere, and can be used by any application.
Soon you’ll be able to use your own keys to save the headache of reconfiguration of your existing platforms.

Our Nutanix on OVHcloud solution, HYCU for OVHcloud service and OVHcloud KMS offer you everything you need to start or expand in the cloud without sacrificing price, performance or security.

What are you waiting for?

Discover our Nutanix on OVHcloud solution.

At OVHcloud, we pride ourselves in our range of game servers.

As a tech company at heart, we know what gamers need, and the least we can do is offer powerful hardware to host servers for smooth gaming.
Since gaming is not just about hardware performance, and most of our game clients do the heavy lifting, we’re more focused on the network side of things.
We all know when it comes to gaming, the ultimate enemy is a bad network, an enemy you can’t shoot at or outrun. It’s been the bane of online gaming since…well, since the birth of gaming.

Your players have top-of-the-line gaming equipment, including the latest mouse, keyboard, monitor—with GSync/FreeSync support and more.  These come with storage that’s optimised to reduce lag for players, but there’s still a sneaky enemy that could ruin their win, or connection. It’s a bummer, really.

But don’t chuck out your controller just yet, or smash your (very expensive) keyboard, we’ve got you covered—all our GAME servers are fully protected with in-built Game DDoS protection, included for free!

You get the bandwidth you need (All our servers come with a 1 Gbps burst public bandwidth included), hosted close to your player base (Vint Hill US, Beauharnois CA, Gravelines FR, Warsaw PL), or in any other OVHcloud datacentre (older GAME server generations). This doesn’t mean you can predict who’s going to come after your services. And if you host high-stakes tournaments, who knows what kind of trouble players or rivals might stir up?

Our anti-DDoS  infrastructure shields our entire public network (we had a recent example of how efficient it is, check it out here: https://blog.ovhcloud.com/the-rise-of-packet-rate-attacks-when-core-routers-turn-evil/). It is effective against most network threats. What sets GAME servers apart is their GAME DDoS protection, which mitigates advanced attacks targeting specific gaming protocols, with no traffic jitter for sensitive applications, and features a very simple configuration!

This specially crafted firewalling solution has been shielding our game servers since 2014.

But why are we talking about this now?

Well, it’s been10 years since the first release of our Game DDOS Protection, and guess what? We’ve just launched a brand-new version.

After a bunch of upgrades over the years, it now runs on more powerful hardware, has even higher availability, supports more games, and on top of that, it’s easier to update and maintain. This means we can improve it as we go, making it even better with ease. So, what’s in it for you and your players/customers? Better gameplay, zero lag, security (remember that game protection we talked about earlier), giving you stable mark and server statistics. 

We built this Game DDOS protection because gaming is a big deal for us (we sponsored the Trackmania Cup 2022, the Z LAN and a French e-sport team, to name a few), and we know these competitions have their unique needs and network patterns. The protection helps us detect and handle threats to keep everything running smoothly.

Game DDoS protection is a layer 7 firewall focused on specific game protocols and mechanisms.

Since it’s an application layer, it’s linked to your server IP. Basically, if your server has multiple IPs, you’ll need to enable protection on each IP.
Although it’s included for free with your servers, you’ll have to enable it using the steps in this guide. This way, you can tailor your protection to fit your needs without going overboard if you don’t need to.

So, here are the main advantages:

• Very low latency: We get that you need fast response and network stability for smooth gaming. These solutions are placed right next to the servers and can work with top-rate hardware.
• 2-way traffic check: The platform checks incoming and outgoing traffic to best understand each player’s situation.
• Instant protection: From the very first network packets, it can detect if someone’s legit or just trying to mess with the server.
• Always-on: Detecting and stopping attacks keeps sensitive gaming apps running smoothly without any interruptions or lag.

32+ protected game protocols and counting!

The following games have an extra protection layer (on top of the other protection layers we’ve discussed):

If you want more, feel free to contribute to developing Game protection. Let us know your game specific needs in the “GAME firewall” section of our infrastructure solutions roadmap on GitHub.

False positives aren’t fun (we’ve all had antivirus silently blocking games for no good reason).  So levelling up network protection is also our way of helping you give your players the best service possible, so they can get the reward they’re after—a win!

A winning customer/player is a happy one! We upgrade our game servers and amp up protection to give you a better platform to host your server(s) and keep your players happy—and winning. Don’t forget, this could mean more business for you.

Use our game DDoS protection as your secret weapon to keep your servers running smoothly.

So here’s the deal—our servers are tip-top, you don’t have to pay any bandwidth fee, you can reach them from anywhere in the world, and get first-class network protection.

Keep playing, we’ve got your covered!

More information on our game servers here

More information on our game Anti-DDoS here

The not-so-unexpected changes to subscription and licensing that followed VMware’s acquisition of Broadcom in November 2023 left users feeling uncertain and weighing their options. Broadcom’s modernisation and optimisation strategy (for cloud and edge) especially, also made end-users and channel partners look for alternatives to VMware.

VMware is known for its high scalability, live migration, security, and high performance, making it a top choice for virtualisation and full SDDC projects. Regardless, the decision to switch from perpetual to annual software licensing could potentially diminish the benefits of its cost-effective model. The uncertainty surrounding the Total Cost of Ownership of VMware is bad news for CFOs and CTOs.

What alternatives should users look for?

Virtualisation platforms like Citrix, Microsoft Hyper-V, Oracle Virtual Box, Red Hat Virtualisation, Nutanix, etc., are now back on the scene.  Nonetheless, the quest for an ideal VMware alternative hasn’t been an easy one.

Choosing a virtualisation platform is a bold decision. They all come with their strengths and weaknesses, and one must learn to live with it for a while, as it’s not always easy to change. Drawbacks include limited compatibility, third-party add-ons integration, steep learning curve, specific infrastructure needs, and difficult integration. But it’s all up to you and what you’re looking for. Considering the limitations and capabilities of the virtualisation platforms available, a change may be on the cards given the current the industry shift.

How about using VMware without spending too much?

If you’d rather keep using VMware for your virtualisation projects and not explore other options, you can choose VMware managed by OVHcloud. With managed VMware, you don’t have to give up complete control with dedicated hosts and infrastructure. You still have control over your virtual machines, and benefit from network security with NSX, container management with Tanzu, a modular solution in a dedicated and managed environment – with Starter packs offering different options – which you can explore on our  VMware on OVHcloud page. They provide hosts dedicated to your workloads, with several options such as vSAN and NSX, PCI-DSS, HDS and SecNumCloud to meet your compliance requirements.

You do get all these features at a competitive and predictable price, without licensing uncertainties. You get to enjoy OVHcloud core features and benefits, as well as latest generation technology and VMware Cloud Foundation suite.

What’s involved in moving from VMware beyond the tech?

Switching from VMware to another technology is more than just a technical change; it covers processes, people, and how the organisation works. Technically speaking, migrating from VMware means dealing with new platforms, reconfiguring systems, and making sure everything is compatible. But it goes beyond the tech nitty-gritty. To keep up, organisations need to revamp their workflows, update documentation, and train teams to use new tech. The human side is just as important – change can be tough for people, so managing team dynamics and communication carefully can really help. Also, this switch might throw a wrench into project timelines, budgeting, and strategic priorities.

Dealing with all these different aspects is key to a smooth and successful migration, making sure both the technology and the people using it are ready for the change.

Let’s see in more details what Nutanix offers

Since the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom, Nutanix has made it clear that  they’re ready to welcome VMware customers who are worried  about licensing stability. They promise  unmatched efficiency, performance, and scalability and easy migration. The best thing about Nutanix is its user-friendly platform that has the  tools and resources you need, so you don’t have to juggle multiple interfaces.

Nutanix started many years ago with a Hyperconverged (HCI) solution: compute, storage and network, all integrated and managed seamlessly through a single pane of glass – Prism Central, their flagship software. It offers flexible scaling that lets you assign, increase or reduce resources as needed, at any time. You can expect improved efficiency and optimised infrastructure through features like data deduplication, compression, and resource usage optimisation, which saves time and costs. It has its own AHV hypervisor but can also support the most popular hypervisors, such as Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware ESXi, should you wish to keep them, although not all features are available outside AHV. Let’s not forget its built-in network and security features for data protection.

Let’s take a look at “Nutanix on OVHcloud”

If you’re looking to create and manage VMs and containers on a large scale, with a highly available, scalable, secure and flexible infrastructure, while keeping your budget on a tight leash, Nutanix on OVHcloud is an option worth considering.

With Nutanix on OVHcloud, a ready-to-use cluster can be up and running in just a few hours, in one of four datacentres in Europe, Canada, or even the US.

Made up of at least three dedicated servers (up to 15 servers maximum), it gives you top-notch scalability, meaning you can adjust compute, memory and storage resources by adding or removing servers to meet your business needs. In addition to guaranteed high performance and efficiency, free ingress/egress, full compatibility with Veeam and HYCU backup you have access to different support levels – up to first response to critical incidents within 30 minutes. For more details, visit our Nutanix on OVHcloud page.

And because hybrid- and multi-cloud are very important in IT today, you manage your software upgrades at your own pace for maximum compatibility and minimum downtime, and you get to integrate your Nutanix on OVHcloud cluster in your on-premises Prism console.

But what about Bare Metal and the others?

Microsoft Hyper-V is another popular type-1 hypervisor (like VMware ESXi and Nutanix AHV), which has been growing non-stop since its release in 2008. Although it currently has a much smaller footprint than the major virtualisation players, it’s not to be ignored.

Amongst the outsiders and Linux community, several options are also available, namely Citrix Hypervisor, Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, Proxmox VE and KVM.

Of all the above solutions, some are easier to manage than others, may or may not have Enterprise Support, with features varying vastly from one another. But they have something in common: they can easily run on cloud infrastructure. And today, this is a major bonus.
Given the incoming potential for change for the VMware users, for those still using on-prem infrastructure, this may be a chance to free themselves from hardware procurement and maintenance, and move to the cloud.

We’ll see what our options are for each next.

Even if OVHcloud doesn’t presently have off-the-shelf offers for some Hypervisors, that doesn’t mean you can’t run them.

A very wide range of bare metal servers, with private network, guaranteed private and public bandwidth – free egress/ingress lets you to build the perfect platform. You even have access to hosts with GPUs, host with up to 2.25 TB of memory, and servers with large storage capability.

With availability in our 30+ datacentres around the world, fast delivery and total data control, our Bare Metal servers will match your requirements and your budget, thanks to our predictable pricing.

And if moving from virtual machines to containers was a way to reduce cost?

Switching from a solution you’re used to is never easy, but if VMware vSphere is no longer affordable, maybe it’s time to explore other options. Save money by shifting from VM to containers for your apps. OVHcloud offers a range of containerisation services in Public Cloud, Managed Rancher Service to centralize your Kubernetes clusters management or leverage Tanzu or other solutions on top of VMware Private Cloud clusters.

Leverage the OVHcloud Partner ecosystem to identify the right solutions to support this switch. With a team of professional experts (solution architects, IT engineers) by your side, providing you with support throughout the entire process, you’re not alone. Lastly, our professional services, which include training, delivery, and technical advice, are meant to equip you with the toolkit required to successfully manage your infrastructure.

What’s the best way to combine on-prem and private cloud models for great results?

Private cloud offers flexible deployment options, so you can mix and match on-premises infrastructure with private cloud solutions to get the most out of your IT strategies. On-prem environments give you control and stability for critical workloads and legacy systems, while private cloud (on-prem or hosted by a third-party) gives you more resources and flexibility. With on-prem private cloud, you have more control and customisation options, and with hosted private clouds – scalability with less management burden. When organisations blend these deployment models, they get the best of both worlds – reliable on-prem systems and efficient private cloud setups. They can ultimately enjoy high operational efficiency, adaptability, security and compliance. For the best of both, check our On-Premises DC as a Service.

Here’s your key takeaway from all this…

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the uncertainty surrounding software licensing, or subsequent price rises. You don’t know which of your service providers is going to make changes, or adopt a new approach or strategy that will impact its services. In the face of price rises and rapid changes, it’s always better to have a plan B up your sleeve. You can start by assessing and determining your business needs – consider primary advantages like cost-efficiency, learning curve, compatibility, support level, ease of use, security and scalability, and secondary advantages like advanced features, seamless integration and management.

VMware solutions have been leading the market for years, offering robust, scalable cloud infrastructure for businesses. This technology enables seamless integration, enhanced security, and high performance, making it a reliable choice for long-term cloud strategies. Trusted by enterprises worldwide, it continues to set the standard for private, hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The key is finding an ally to work with you, meeting your needs and supporting your growth every step of the way. Whether you go for VMware or Nutanix on OVHcloud, or decide to build your own on Bare Metal servers , rest assured you’ll benefit from advanced features and support without surprise costs or licensing issues.

With OVHcloud’s focus on innovation, we’ll likely launch other reliable reversible solutions in the near future, so stay tuned!

OVHcloud has a large portfolio of certified partners listed on our Partner Program directory, its own teams of Solution Architect and Professional Services. With their support, you can get the best solution from OVHcloud’s services while meeting to your security, performance and budget needs.

Get more details about migration to the cloud on our dedicated webpage.

OVHcloud has been proud to protect organizations and individuals alike from denial-of-service attacks for decades, but like so many security services, the end result of their success is often invisible. To provide greater support and visibility to the security teams we work with, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new Network Security Dashboard, providing a simple but powerful visualization into historical DoS attacks.

This system not only complements our broader security services that protect organizations around the world but also offers an insight into the goings-on ‘behind the scenes’ on OVHcloud networks. With 450,000 servers around the world, 44 points of presence (POPs) and 100Tb/s of available network bandwidth, OVHcloud’s proposition continues to go from strength to strength, offering organizations a compelling, transparent and secure infrastructure from which to operate their businesses.  

Freely available to all customers, the new dashboard shows a graphical visualization of attacks attempted within the last two weeks, with historical data stored for a year. This service is available globally and the customer community was invaluable in providing support and suggestions to improve the UI.

The system can be tuned to different applications. It is available for all publicly facing IP addresses, including on public cloud, dedicated servers, VPS or vRack private networks. Protection is unmetered, and there is no time limit. Thanks to OVHcloud’s network capacity and capabilities, attacks can be inspected and handled at the edge of the core, rather than allowing attacks to reach the actual rack. Because of our inspection capabilities, we are also able to avoid cutting off data sources, which can run the risk of dropping valid packets during an attack.

The Network Security Dashboard complements OVHcloud’s existing security systems, including:

– Hardware Client Amplitude Policer (HCAP): This system sits at the POP-level, which can rate limit traffic if needed.

– Scrubbing Centre: This is a combination of OVHcloud technologies primarily aimed at traffic filtering and DoS attack prevention. It consists of the following components:

– Edge Network Firewall: This system sits within the data centre and forms the first part of OVHcloud’s scrubbing centre service. It uses rule-based detection to find and isolate anomalous traffic.

– Shield and Armour: These systems act to stop server resources from being overwhelmed, and features advanced techniques to protect from a variety of attacks

The Network Security Dashboard service is currently available for IPv4 addresses, with IPv6 to be supported in future. This and all forthcoming developments in this area can be seen on the dedicated OVHcloud github page.

The dashboard has been one of the most-requested services from users. We’re delighted to make it freely available to all – and if you didn’t know what a DoS attack looks like, now you do!

Well, this view will be soon replaced by a new dashboard based on VMware Aria Operations (vROps)

This new dashboard includes more information that vScope. It still provides real time information and up to 30days of history. Very useful when you’re back from a well-deserved time off, when you want to identify patterns or just when someone tells you about a problem a week later 😊

A bit of history:

vScope started a long, long time ago (in a galaxy not so far away) and was providing nearly real-time status of your VMware hosts, datastores and VMs. Well, real time give or take 5mn….

At the time, it was convenient and simple enough to give an overview of your PCC and automatic colour coding was a great help to immediately identify potential problems.

Historical data was already available for Hosts and Virtual machines (up to 30days), so the basics were covered: mostly real time and historical data.

But because we always strive to improve the solution we are providing (even those for free like this one), we weren’t satisfied.

So we released vScope V2.

With HTML5, it was also a great step for a mobile version, providing even more information and in a clearer view for both desktop and mobile users.

And the support for API access was implemented, enabling you to import vScope data in your own monitoring software.

We also renewed vScope for a V3, but the changes were mainly on the infrastructure side to help us grow and maintain it while keeping performance at its best for you.

Hello 2023, hello vROps:

As a VMware user, you are familiar with vRealize Operations Manager (now called VMWare Aria Operations).

This tool from VMware allows you to monitor, detect and anticipate. Which is great, but it can be a bit overwhelming as a lot of its configuration relies on the user.

vRealize Operations Manager has been available since vSphere 6 at OVHcloud and is still available for our customer should they wish to enable, configure and use it.

But sometimes, as humans, we want more without doing a lot more. And that’s exactly where our new version of vScope arrives.

Our new configuration-less monitoring tool for our VMware customers is using VMWare Aria Operations, so in fact, we’re dropping “vScope” altogether and moving to “vROps”.

You get the immediate benefit of a software developed by the editor, made for his own products and deployed and maintained by OVHcloud, and enabled automatically on your VMware infrastructure hosted by OVHcloud.

This OVHcloud dashboard will appear in Dashboards > OVHcloud – Historical Dashboard.

As usual, you can easily monitor and identify patterns in CPU/memory usage, monitor storage usage and more.

You can also easily check which Virtual Machines are overprovisioned in terms of compute resources. And since you’ll be reducing the assigned (or even reserved) resources, you can use the freed cores/memory for even more VM and containers.

Without having to add physical servers to your cluster, so you optimize your usage and your budget.

You get the usual (real) real-time information, the historical data, the mobile friendly version, the API compatibility.

And on top of it: the ability to send emails in case of alerts, the option to personalize the dashboards with our Professional Services experts.

You can also create additional dashboards as you would have done in the past if you were using vROps already. This one will stay available for a quick general overview of your resources.

So we do hope that integrating vScope in vROps will satisfy you and provide you with even more insight and tools to get the best of your VMware on OVHcloud services.

Let us know directly in our Discord channel or through the usual Mailing List.