How To Easily Deploy Private Cloud in Public Cloud Environments

3 min read

Sarah Morgan | November 07, 2022


Worldwide spending on cloud infrastructure services has been steadily increasing, reaching a 33% year-over-year growth rate of $62.3 billion in Q2 2022. Attracted by public cloud providers’ ability to deliver fast access to computing resources at a predictable monthly fee, companies of all sizes are rapidly growing their public cloud spending and workload volumes.


However, the need for greater control and compliance with international data sovereignty regulations means some organizations may prefer a private cloud deployment option when deploying their communications solutions. The good news is that they don’t have to choose between the benefits of public and private clouds. They can deploy their communications solutions in a private cloud that operates within a public cloud environment, such as AWS and Azure. With Mitel’s latest deployment tools, it’s never been easier!


Another example of Mitel’s ‘Your UC, Your Way’ strategy is supporting private cloud deployments within public cloud environments. Mitel’s core systems — including MiVoice Business, MX-ONE, MiContact Center, MiCollab, and Mitel Interaction Recording (MIR) — can be deployed in private cloud within public cloud environments. 


Why Choose Private Cloud Within Public Cloud?


Mitel customers have long deployed private cloud communications solutions using on-premise equipment to maximize availability and comply with country and industry-specific data sovereignty requirements. But, as their businesses grow and operational complexity, many are attracted to having a trusted public cloud vendor provide them with the robust, redundant architecture they need instead of funding, building, and operating it themselves.


As companies like Amazon with AWS and Microsoft with Azure add private cloud deployment options to their mainstream service offerings, they provide a ‘best of both worlds’ approach: the customer gets the flexibility and month-to-month payments of a cloud solution with the management and data control of an on-premise (traditionally CapEx) solution. 


Existing AWS or Azure customers who have already gained experience deploying many applications in those environments may view adding their Mitel Unified Communications/Telephony solutions as a natural next step. IT staff are now familiar with how the public cloud environments operate and manage those workloads, so they can quickly transfer that expertise to support their Mitel UC deployment. Adding Mitel to these contracts may help them reduce management and other resource costs, and it may help them achieve economies on infrastructure costs. 


How Partners Can Help


Mitel partners want to help their customers exploit the private cloud within public cloud opportunities, so they are adding services to facilitate these deployments to their offerings. Some partners offer their public cloud-managed services, allowing their customers to deploy their UC system within the partner’s public cloud infrastructure. Other Mitel partners are focusing on helping their customers stand up and manage their private clouds within their public cloud infrastructure of choice. Both options give Mitel customers the additional peace of mind that their trusted UC partner has access to and is maintaining those workloads.


Partner Tools


Mitel makes deployment of private clouds within these public cloud environments as straightforward as possible with these helpful tools:

  • Video training: To help businesses better understand the benefits of this approach and clarify the deployment steps they should follow, Mitel created two training videos and posted them on our partner site: one geared for AWS environments and another for Azure environments. 
  • Time-saving scripts: Mitel has improved partner deployment tools since the initial launch. The latest update delivers improved scripting to save partners time and eliminate human error. Partners can find these time-saving scripts on our Partner Software Download Center under the following file names: Azure Auto Config (ARM) and AWS Auto Config Tool (CloudFormation). 

With these tools, Mitel partners can help their customers stand up a Mitel private cloud environment on AWS or Azure that’s ready to be programmed in just 15-20 minutes.


Best Practices for a Successful Deployment


Existing public cloud infrastructure customers may perceive telephony as ‘just another application’ to run using this model. But smooth deployments are founded on a great plan, so here are some areas to consider before you get started:


1. Be comfortable with the differences private cloud within a public cloud architecture bring.


Talk to your partner about the differences between your current and future UC deployment. The on-premise private cloud solutions your business may be familiar with are comprised of dedicated hardware and software to ensure segregated data. Public cloud infrastructures use virtualized resources. Providers like Azure and AWS excel at delivering the resources you need via virtual machines that will segregate the data through a logically isolated network subnet that no other organization can access. The outcome, segregated data, is the same. The architecture is different.


2. Know the connectivity options you’ll need for each application:


Before thinking about standing up your environment, start by creating a comprehensive list of all the Mitel solutions you wish to deploy. Then, specify the connectivity options each one requires. If you aren’t sure, refer to the ‘Feature Comparison (Private and Public Networks)’ section on page 7 of the MiVoice Business Solution and Engineering Guidelines. Typically, when you use AWS or Azure, their standard deployment model is for public internet over-the-top. This environment is compatible with most Mitel offerings. However, some may require 'on net' to deliver all the required capabilities, like Mitel Revolution and the need to send text messages to employee cell phone displays, or when using Workforce scheduling within MiContact Center Business. 


3. Take stock of your devices and your availability requirements.


They may influence the type of gateway you should select for your environment. Ask yourself: do you need a survivable gateway? Do you have analog devices that must be dial-able from the main host? If so, you’ll need to choose on net gateways for your environment. 


If you have questions about creating private cloud deployments of Mitel solutions within public cloud environments, talk to your Mitel partner. They have the expertise to help you understand your options and to help make deployment effortless and efficient.

Categories: Cloud Migration, Application Integrations, Product News

Sarah Morgan,  Group Director, Product Line Management

Sarah has been with Mitel for 30 years and is currently Group Leader, Product Lifecycle Management. She has extensive experience in unified communications solutions and oversees the product lifecycle from ideation and development through manufacturing to merchandising.

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