New cloud platform from Atman

12.02.2018
Product news

Easier management and increased security

Comfortable use, security and high accessibility of data – above all these features of cloud services convince companies to cloud computing. This is appreciated by suppliers. Atman, the leader of the Polish data center market, focused on a technological upgrade and completely restructured its cloud.

According to the latest Eurostat data, 17% of medium-sized companies use cloud computing. Although it is still almost twice below the EU average, statistics indicate a significant change in the approach of companies’ executives. Polish business is less and less afraid of solutions based on cloud computing technology. The growing awareness of clients is, however, paralleled with a change in their needs and demands from suppliers. Today, they pay more attention not only to the parameters of cloud services, but also to the ease of cloud management and a holistic approach to IT. However, what still remains the main barrier that prevents companies from migrating to the cloud is the concern about data security. Atman, the largest data center operator in Poland, in response to the expectations presented a technologically refreshed cloud computing platform, i.e. server and server-related infrastructure in the cloud.

Trustworthy cloud

Atman Cloud is a public, shared IaaS-type service (Infrastructure as a Service) based on OpenStack technology which provides resources for data storage (disk space) and computing (processors, memory) along with convenient administrative access.

All service elements are connected by a high-performance network enabling efficient combination of a client’s infrastructure components (for example: a private device in a rack with a cloud, a cloud with a dedicated server, private servers with a cloud, etc.) The new platform guarantees an unlimited Internet bandwidth of 1 Gbps, as well as the cloud network bandwidth of 100 Gbps. Moreover, Atman significantly expanded the data storage space and increased the number of computing nodes.

“The allocated resources enable to create and maintain your own virtual server infrastructure yourself. It is worth adding that the entire cloud is located in one of our data centers located in Warsaw. If someone is an administrator of personal data, they can sign a contract with us to entrust the processing of personal data and thus ensure compliance with Polish legal regulations,” emphasizes Jakub Bryła, leader of the Atman cloud development project.

Security is one of the most important distinguishing features of Atman service. Redundant nature of the cloud, triple data replication and efficient anti-DDoS system, as well as the possibility of assigning virtual machines to different groups of computing cluster nodes – these elements are to ensure uninterrupted access to servers monitored 24/7. Atman guarantees the accessibility of the infrastructure at the level of 99.97%.

“All computing and storage nodes have a high availability configuration. As a result, Atman Cloud is resistant to a single point of failure and very high availability additionally guaranteed under an SLA,” enumerates Jakub Bryła from Atman.

API as standard

A lot of attention was paid to the comfort of virtual infrastructure management, from the level of a comfortable graphic console. This means that all necessary administrative tasks can be carried out from any place with access to the Internet. The user may, among other things, create and remove server instances, reset them, manage ports, public addressing, and disk space.

In addition to a convenient online user panel, Atman Cloud clients get access to the API, thanks to which they can automate their administrative activities. “For the user, it means faster and more efficient execution of the operation through scripts or direct calling commands, as well as access to many additional functions not available in the WWW panel (e.g. export and import of machines from and to the cloud). All changes can be entered online in real time,” declares Jakub Bryła from Atman.

Changes in the cloud market

According to the analysis of the IDC consulting firm, by 2021 corporate spending on cloud computing services globally will amount to over USD 530 billion, and over 90% of enterprises will use many services and platforms in the cloud. Adaptation of cloud solutions is no longer just a matter of saving – they become an important source of innovation. In Poland, the level of use of cloud computing in business is not as high as in other countries, but changes are already visible. Last year was the first year since 2015 when the number of medium-sized enterprises that had implemented cloud solutions increased. This increasingly visible trend may also be observed among large enterprises. Last year 37% of them used the cloud – 6% more than the year before.

“Companies were by far more willing to use the cloud, which is related to, among other things, a shortage of IT specialists and the desire to reduce costs and obtain instant access to infrastructure. That is why the cloud is increasingly becoming a natural choice not only for the best technologically-educated industries, namely the IT, e-commerce or media industries, but also start-ups which pay particular attention to costs, fintechs and game producers in need of more computing power,” says Jakub Bryła from Atman. “This is a trend resulting from the fact that companies are experiencing increasing pressure to test and implement new solutions and IT projects faster and faster. Cloud platforms make it easier for them,” he adds.

The growing demand for outsourcing services – such as the cloud – pointed out by Eurostat, is reflected in the providers’ financial results. In the last financial period reported by Atman (three first quarters of 2017), revenues from servers available “as a service” increased 23% year-on-year.

In particular, all-in-one providers, who are holistic about the needs of clients, gain on the growth trend. Offering a complete range of IT solutions (colocation, server lease, cloud, telecommunications, security, etc.), they can combine different layers and offer individually designed multi-service architecture that meets the expectations of a given client.