Idaho Farm Bureau chooses Scale HC3

"Though they have different pressures and market demands, small and midsized insurers aren’t ignoring the rapid digital transformation sweeping the insurance industry.

Idaho Farm Bureau is in the midst of upgrading the company’s IT infrastructure and core systems, initiatives that are allowing the multiline P&C insurer to glean insight and improve the customer experience using next-generation digital tools like drones, smarthome devices and geographical information systems (GIS).

CIO Adam Waldron says that the company was looking to set up a hot disaster-recovery site when it contracted with Scale Computing’s HC3 for server, storage and virtualization. Now that Scale is up and running, the company is able to leverage the investment to support advanced digital efforts. Scale integrates with Google Cloud Platform to allow customers to tap into additional storage and running environments at the same time it continues to work on-premise.

“We were a VMWare shop, but to get the capabilities [and hardware] we needed, it would double our licensing costs,” he says. “What it came down to was scale, rapid expansion [of our server space] when we needed it.”"...

Introduction

You’ve no doubt read countless blog posts or marketing emails that have tried to market you some IT product or solution. Also, you are not a mindless consumer so you have an idea of how these pieces of marketing content work. This is no exception.

This introduction is the part of the post where I, as a content marketer, try to appeal to your emotions and get you hooked into reading more. I might likely say something like, ‘This week was the official start of the Spring season and we can now look forward to some warm weather, green trees, and outdoor fun!’ You know, something positive that almost anyone can relate to who lives far enough away from the equator.

The Problem

This is also the part of the post where I talk about some problem you likely have as an IT professional or IT organization. I might tell you some aspects of IT infrastructure are too complex, or that they are too expensive, or that you spend too much valuable time performing mundane tasks. Any or all of these is likely true to some degree and you would likely want to know more.

I’d next focus on one of these problem topics in more detail, explaining further how it may be affecting you personally. Let’s say I focus on complexity in infrastructure. I’d probably go with an assumption that you have a VMware virtualized environment with at least some servers and a SAN or NAS appliance. Fairly safe guess, right? Even if you don’t, I’m pretty sure you’ll know what I’m talking about. It is an extremely common IT infrastructure setup so why is it a problem, you may wonder.

The truth is that you are already aware of the problems, although you may have taken them for granted. Therefore, it is my task to point them out to you. I’ll likely mention that your servers, storage, virtualization, and even disaster recovery solutions may all be from different vendors and as such, you have multiple sets of patches and updates to apply independently, multiple support organizations to work with, multiple maintenance contracts and license renewals to deal with, and lots of chances for these technologies to conflict.

I might also talk about how difficult it can be to implement and integrate these different vendor solutions, or how the level of integration makes it hard to scale out or scale up. I might appeal to your emotions about how many nights and weekends you lose to work because of system patches and updates or needing to upgrade, replace, or scale out existing infrastructure. The more I talk about it, the more likely you are to realize how these problems may apply to your organization or you personally.

The Solution

My favorite part of the post. This is the part where I tell you that there is an answer to your problems and it is our HC3 solution from Scale Computing. But I am not going to do that this time. As true as it might be that HC3 will solve many of your IT infrastructure problems, it is just more effective for you to see it for yourself on a live demo or hear for yourself from one of our customers through a case study or through a personal customer referral.

While it may be my job to market to you in this kind of format, sometimes it is just easier to let the product, backed by the hard work of our dedicated product, development, and support teams, speak for itself. After all, you don’t want to waste time being marketed to. You just want IT solutions that will make your organization more successful and make you an IT superstar.

More and more organizations are discovering for themselves how HC3 exceeds their expectations at transforming their IT infrastructure. We set out to change the way organizations thought about IT infrastructure, but so often we find that they don't really believe it until they see it.

The Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township was no different. Although they vetted HC3 thoroughly against other solutions, they still weren't convinced that HC3 wasn't a risk. It wasn't until the HC3 solution was implemented that they realized they had gotten even more than they had hoped for.

See for yourself in this video case study.

Youtube Video

We understand you may still not be convinced that HC3 can be so easy-to-use and so flexible that it can meet and even exceed your IT infrastructure needs. If not, join us on our weekly live demo and see for yourself why HC3 is everything we say it is and more. Click below to choose your demo time and date.

It is 2018 and although we’ve already accepted that cloud computing will not fully replace the IT datacenter, we are still discovering how the rise of IoT will consume cloud computing vs edge computing vs the datacenter. First, though, let me define cloud, IoT, and edge computing in the context of this discussion.

Cloud computing, in this context, refers to internet-based computing services such as (but not limited to) AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and others. These are cloud computing resources than can be used to extend the computing resources of a datacenter and, in some cases, replace the computing resource needs of remote sites. Cloud computing may also include the use of cloud-based applications.

IoT is the proliferation of micro-computing devices that are sending data to centralized computing resources for processing and analytics. IoT can encompass nearly any kind of computing device from a common personal device like a phone or tablet to a camera or GPS on a drone or to a sensor on a piece of manufacturing equipment.

Edge computing is anywhere outside the datacenter where cloud computing cannot replace on-prem computing needs. Think of a mobile platform like a large ship or mobile oil/gas platform, a remote medical facility, a manufacturing facility, or a retail location. These sites may not have reliable enough internet connectivity to cloud computing to ensure the quality of service they require for on-site computing needs.

Ok, now that we have the definitions in order, what does it all mean for IT? Well, I’ll give you the age old IT answer: It depends. There are too many scenarios to cover but we’ll start by saying that for any given scenario, there will likely at least two of of these three types of computing involved. Let’s talk about a three examples where these different types of computing might be combined.

Retail (Cloud + Edge)

Probably the easiest example where cloud computing and edge computing are combined would be retail. Many retail operations include a combination of online sales and brick-and-mortar stores. The online sales component is often cloud-based where the brick-and-mortar operations require on-prem system that also connect with the online systems. A single store operation does not really meet the definition of edge computing since the one store, no matter how modest the computing systems, would be considered the datacenter, however larger operations with multiple store locations and a centralized office/datacenter would definitely meet the definition.

Retail locations might use a combination of cloud and edge computing for a number of different functions but often it is desirable to have highly available, on-prem edge computing to make sure key point-of-sale systems are functional and PCI compliant even if internet is not. Connection to cloud-based applications or VMs may also be needed for store operations that are less sensitive to outages. IoT may also play a role in retail with digital devices in the hands of store associates, point-of-sale devices, security systems, or maybe even smart sensors on things like refrigerated cabinets.

Agriculture (Cloud + IoT)

When it comes to managing large areas of land, the limits of traditional networking come up short. Farmers are increasingly using IT to manage farm operations and a device or sensor on a piece of farm equipment in a field a mile away is probably going to be out of range of a wifi router but not a cellular tower. This is where IoT can intersect with cloud computing beyond the reach of on-prem infrastructure.

Transmitting and analyzing data from the literal field can increase operational efficiency in agriculture and this can only be achieved in real-time by internet connected devices. Unlike with some other industry operations, a break in internet connection to the cloud will not cause crops to stop growing and probably not stop farmers from plowing, planting, or harvesting, but when connected, the data can help perform these tasks more efficiently.

There are also scenarios where edge computing also fits into agriculture. For example, a dairy farm may have hundreds of sensors connected locally for monitoring milk production where data is collected on edge computing systems and then also sent on to the cloud for data analysis. There are no hard and fast rules on which technologies to use where, but rather simply choosing those that can do the job most effectively.

Manufacturing (Edge + IoT)

Manufacturing processes can range from extremely hazardous to fairly benign. A system failure or a loss of production can be extremely costly whether it leads to a life threatening accident in a steel mill or 10,000 diecast fasteners that don’t fit. Manufacturing sites need reliable computing power to manage complex modern computing processes and these processes can include hundred or thousands of sensors or other IoT devices for both safety and efficiency. Whether wired or wireless, these networks of sensors and devices require real-time monitoring and data processing where the cloud can’t quite fill the need.

To maintain reliable production schedules, production facilities need reliable on-prem, edge computing resources that can gather IoT data and maintain the pace of production. These edge computing systems may also go on to send their data up to the cloud for further processing but they are still vital to maintaining production on the ground when network latency to cloud systems can be an issue.

These three examples are just a few of the many IT environments that will combine cloud, IoT, and edge computing. Nearly every organization will have IT requirements now or in the future that encompass some or all of these infrastructure technologies.

Summary

Cloud, IoT, and edge computing all have very real and critical roles to play in both modern and future IT infrastructure. While their roles will continue to evolve, it is clear that each is a growing part of the IT industry and hybrid IT infrastructures that adopt and combine these different technologies will have a competitive advantage over those who do not. Just as these technologies continue to evolve, so will the ways they’ll continue to intersect.