Managing ServicesSoftware-Defined Wide Area Network
Cloud Conversation Starters
SD-WANIs an evolutionary approach to the WAN that offers simplified management, quickturn-up, better application performance, improved resiliency, and cost savings when comparedto traditional approaches. It can replace or work with MPLS, and is delivered directly, viacarriers, or via MSPs.
Are you looking to…
• Improve application performance, particularly for cloud apps?
• Increase bandwidth at remote or international sites?
• Replace an expensive private network?
• Simplify or outsource the management of your network?
• Build resiliency into your network to guarantee uptime?
• Decrease turn-up time for new sites?
SecurityCovers a broad range of services, from managed firewalls and IDPS to DDoSMitigation and SIEM. Leading solutions analyze behavior to detect ever-changing threats,communicate with multiple systems to provide a comprehensive view into the environment, andinclude 24/7/365 Security Operations Center (SOC) support for event notification andremediation.
What security or compliance regulations do you need to adhere to?• How often do you undergo a third-party security assessment? Do you know what your weakspots are, and how to address them?• In the event of a breach or attack, what policies and procedures do you have in place?• What are the hours of operation for your internal or external security resources?• Do you have a SIEM or log management system in place? If so, who reviews and correlates thealerts?• How do you secure access to IT infrastructure and applications for remote users, BYODemployees, contractors, and third parties?• How do you identify suspicious or abnormal behavior on your corporate network?• Do you have any public-facing web applications or sites? What is the financial implication if thosego down for an hour or a day?
Managed Public CloudInvolves layering managed services on top of a public cloud providersuch as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform. This includesmigration services and consulting, bill consolidation and cost optimization, backup and disasterrecovery, security and governance, private connectivity, and patching and managed services.
• Which public cloud providers are you using today? Which are you planning to use?
• How will you secure access into the public cloud, beyond simple firewall rules?
For prospective public cloud customers:
• How have you determined which platform is best for your needs?
• Describe your migration plan to get to the public cloud. Lift and shift, re-architect, or build
new? In-house or third party?
For current public cloud customers:
• Do you have certified solutions architects on staff?
• How do you provide redundancy and high availability for your public cloud environment?
• How do you manage billing and contain your monthly costs?
• What do you do with test/dev resources when they aren’t in use?
• How do you connect to the public cloud today?
Managed Public CloudInvolves layering managed services on top of a public cloud provider such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform. This includes migration services and consulting, bill consolidation and cost optimization, backup and disaster recovery, security and governance, private connectivity, and patching and managed services.
• Which public cloud providers are you using today? Which are you planning to use?• How will you secure access into the public cloud, beyond simple firewall rules?For prospective public cloud customers:• How have you determined which platform is best for your needs?• Describe your migration plan to get to the public cloud. Lift and shift, re-architect, or buildnew? In-house or third party?For current public cloud customers:• Do you have certified solutions architects on staff?• How do you provide redundancy and high availability for your public cloud environment?• How do you manage billing and contain your monthly costs?• What do you do with test/dev resources when they aren’t in use?• How do you connect to the public cloud today
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)Provides virtual or physical servers on demand. The
servers, storage, and network hardware are located in the provider's data center and abstracted
for the customer.
What is your company’s cloud strategy?• What cloud services do you use today? (Dropbox, Mozy, Salesforce, Office 365)?• Where is your infrastructure located?• What are your plans for your next hardware refresh?• Does your business typically prefer capital or operational expenses?Describe any IT challenges you face today.• Which IT functions take up the most of your time?• Is there anywhere you need to improve performance? Have you had any downtime?• What sort of compliance or security regulations do you need to adhere to?• Which services would you prefer to manage yourself? Which could you benefit from
outsourcing?
Backup and Disaster RecoveryBackup as a Service (BaaS) protects the data, and typically allows for recovery of a file orserver back to the customer's on-prem environment.Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) protects the business, and allows for recovery ofthe entire IT environment (servers, storage, networking, apps, data) in the cloud.
What do you do for DR today?• Single server failure? Whole data center failure?• How frequently do you test your DR solution?• Where do you struggle with DR today?• What is the cost of downtime (per day, per hour) for your company? (Rough estimate:annual revenue divided by business days, divided by hours per day)How do you back up your data today?• Is there an offsite data protection strategy?• If you could improve your backup strategy, what would you do?Do you have any compliance requirements that affect your backup/DR strategies?
Unified Communications as a ServiceUCaaS is a managed PBX environment in the cloud that provides phone services to end
users. It replaces on-prem PBXs as well as SIP, PRIs, and POTS lines.
Tell me about your phone system.
• How old is it? Is it still under maintenance?
• Do you have a team to manage it?
• How many different vendors do you manage?
• What sort of redundancy do you have in place?
How do you use your phone system today?
• Do you services customers with it?
• Could you benefit from advanced reporting and analytics?What integration do you have (or need) between your PBX and your LOB (IM, CRM) apps?
• What is your strategy around mobility? How do remote users interact with users on-prem?
• Do your end users have a uniform experience across sites?
What do you like or dislike overall?
Contact Center as a ServiceIs a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that replaces traditional brick-and-mortar callcenters, allowing agents to work from any location. Additional benefits include built-inredundancy, flexibility, and scalability.
What business interactions do you support with your contact center?• How do you handle seasonal business spikes or call volumes?• How do you provide redundancy for your contact center today?• Which features would your contact center offer in a perfect world?• Which channels of communication (voice, email, chat, SMS, social) do you support today? Whichdo you want to support in the future?• What is your company’s social media strategy for inbound customer support?• How do you support agents working from home or bringing their own device?
Desktop as a ServiceProvides virtual desktops to end users, allowing them to use
any device (laptop, tablet, phone, thin client). It differs from VDI in that the provider hosts and
manages the desktop virtualization platform.
What’s your company policy around BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)?
• What devices do employees work from (laptops, tablets, smartphones)?
• What’s your level of interest in virtualizing desktops?
• If you tried VDI, how did it go?
How do you currently back up or protect data on endpoints?
What’s your current endpoint provisioning process look like?
• Adding new standard workers?
• Adding contractors?
• De-provisioning and repurposing hardware?
Managed Office 365Involves layering managed services on top of Microsoft Office 365, whichprovides hosted email, file sharing, IM and screen sharing, and Office applications. Managedservices include migrations, dedicated support teams, monitoring, security, archiving, andbusiness continuity. Many Managed O365 providers also offer standalone Hosted or DedicatedExchange for email only.
Tell me about your current email platform – what it is, where it’s hosted, etc.• Which security and compliance regulations do you need to adhere to? How do you address them?• What solutions do you have in place for email security, archiving, or business continuity?• Do you want to bundle in Office apps, SharePoint, OneDrive, or Skype for Business?• If you’re looking at hosted email or O365, how will you handle non-disruptive migration/cutover?For on-prem email customers:• How do you provide redundancy for your on-prem email system?• How much time do you spend managing, administering, and upgrading your email?For existing Office 365 customers:• How would you describe the level of support you’ve received from Microsoft?