The Top 5 IT Infrastructure Solutions

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a widely adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 comprehensive services from data centers worldwide. AWS Global Cloud Infrastructure serves millions of customers, including startups, established enterprises, and governmental agencies. AWS’s expansive cloud infrastructure can be used for deploying application workloads worldwide or for creating and launching specific applications for end-users.

AWS is noted for its robust security protocols and its trusted global infrastructure. AWS’s data security measures are designed to meet the world’s most stringent security requirements. Information flowing across its global network is encrypted before leaving secured facilities, ensuring confidentiality of the data. AWS offers unmatched network availability. Each of their regions is fully isolated, comprised of multiple Availability Zones (AZs) which further protects against any potential issues ensuring high availability.

Performance across AWS’s global infrastructure is excellent, with low latency and high network quality. It can also quickly scale resources, providing capacity for hundreds or thousands of servers in minutes. The infrastructure also harbors considerable flexibility, allowing clients to decide how and where they want to run their workloads. AWS infrastructure spans 33 regions, 36 local zones, and reaches 245 countries and territories globally.

Cisco Meraki provides network management through its out-of-band cloud architecture. This innovative approach allows the creation of secure, scalable, and easy-to-deploy networks, which can be managed from virtually any location and device. Through the Meraki Dashboard and Mobile App, network management simplicity can be achieved easily.

This solution is a scalable enterprise solution. Some key offerings include an enterprise-grade cloud management solution (Meraki Dashboard), indoor and outdoor access points (MR product line), and adjunct security appliances (MX product line) that offer routing, switching, security, remote access, and wireless capabilities. An additional feature, the Systems Manager, is a cloud-based Enterprise Mobility Management tool that seamlessly integrates with the other products, allowing the management and control of numerous mobile and desktop devices.

Cisco prioritizes security in its design and construction. The Cisco Meraki network is trusted widely due to its integrity and reliability. It also offers a simplistic licensing model, providing a single Meraki Dashboard license for every managed network device with technical support included in the license price. Deployment is designed for easy setup – requiring only power and an internet connection. Plus, remote management allows for a more streamlined user experience. Additional features include automatic firmware upgrades, Layer 7 traffic visibility, and a dynamic automatic network topology map.

Cisco Meraki also offers the Meraki Marketplace – an extensive library of apps that enhances user experiences and introduces new integration opportunities.

IBM is a leading provider of IT Infrastructure Solutions, specializing in servers, storage, and software designed to support enterprise hybrid cloud and AI strategies. From the latest server models to innovative storage systems and software, IBM’s infrastructure solutions are trusted by numerous organizations globally to modernize and scale their operations both on-premises and in the cloud. Coupled with secure hybrid cloud and advanced AI-driven automation and insights, these solutions provide businesses with the ability to modernize in place and at their own pace.

IBM prioritizes security and data protection across its infrastructure solutions. Implementing a zero-trust approach, these technologies enhance protection against breaches, maintain data privacy across hybrid ecosystems, and consolidate data protection with high levels of cyber resilience. In addition, IBM Mainframes ensure critical data and applications are secured across hybrid IT environments, offering advanced security capabilities to safeguard systems from constantly emerging security threats.

IBM also provides technology lifecycle services, offering deep-expertise support for your hybrid cloud infrastructure. This enables teams to incorporate advanced data-driven automation into their operational strategies. With these comprehensive IT infrastructure solutions, IBM offers businesses the opportunity to modernize applications, servers, and storage on their terms, seamlessly integrating these elements with hybrid cloud and AI technologies.

Microsoft Azure’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offer a range of cloud computing capabilities, including virtual machines, storage, networks, and operating systems on a pay-as-you-go basis. This is backed by a secure, scalable, and robust enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure.

Azure provides a comprehensive suite of services that cater to different application development needs. Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure Red Hat OpenShift give teams the freedom to consistently run applications across distributed locations. This is complemented by infrastructure components including Compute, Storage, and Networking, enabling optimization of IT costs and efficiencies.

Azure IaaS ensures consistency across hybrid and multicloud environments. Azure Arc and Azure Stack HCI are among the tools the platform houses for enhanced flexibility. Azure prioritizes security and compliance, offering built-in security services to protect workloads and networks. This includes Azure Firewall, Azure Front Door, and Azure DDoS Protection.

Azure Virtual Machines, a significant aspect of Azure IaaS, provide the ability to deploy persistent VMs with customizable server workloads. Optimized for a range of operations including general-purpose, storage, memory, and graphics-intensive tasks, VMs offer scalable computing resources with usage-based pricing.

VMware is a global provider of End-User Computing (EUC) and cloud management services, focusing on delivering secure workspaces and managing cloud environments worldwide. The company specializes in offloading manual tasks via advanced workflows and agile templates, quickening the time to market through guided set-up, resource discovery, and onboarding provision. In 2022, Broadcom announced a $61 billion acquisition deal with VMware.

VMware offers secure, self-service multi-cloud management, bringing governance and lifecycle management to various cloud domains, whether private, hybrid, or public. The multi-cloud management allows for consistent infrastructure requests and provisioning of resources across multiple cloud platforms, further enhanced by a robust self-service catalog and REST API.

The company incorporates centralized policies and governance with templatized cloud and policy definition, ensuring cloud environment visibility and automated remediation. VMware also leverages cloud agnostic templates that enable deploying resources on VMware Clouds or diverse public clouds (such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).

Further, VMware allows customization with VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator and third-party tools, providing infrastructure pipelining to facilitate user-friendly release automation processes.