WWT Is All About Speed

For years, most of our customers have proudly stated their commitment to the public cloud is about the speed and efficiency that it offers (and it absolutely does offer customers tremendous value). Yet, despite that desire to go all-in on the public cloud, most customers we speak with have migrated just a small fraction of their workloads over to the public cloud―typically 10-20 percent.

"In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed" ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Having said that, the purpose of this article isn't to convince you that the cloud will stall out. It won't, and most new container-based applications will be developed and deployed (at least initially) in the cloud. We're also not going to tell you to move everything to the cloud, as that doesn't make sense either.

The future is multicloud. The reality is that most environments consist of legacy IT infrastructure, off-premises collocated infrastructure, edge infrastructure, and public cloud environments, and every IT shop should be looking to simplify architectures to become more agile, deploy faster and optimize cost.  Standing still guarantees failure, while moving quickly to adopt superior technologies reduces risk and improves chances of success.

WWT can help. We have the know-how and advanced capabilities to help organizations move their physical assets fast enough to keep up with their digital and cloud aspirations.

Get to an informed decision faster

"It is a mistake to think that moving fast is the same as actually going somewhere." ― Steve Goodier

There are myriad options out there for every technology area. Each technology firm will focus on the areas of its technology that make it superior, while often understating areas that need work. It can be confusing at times and results will frequently change with simple code upgrades.

Evaluations onsite can oftentimes take months to secure talent and cycles in the public cloud; or secure equipment and space in their labs, ship the equipment safely to their facility, deploy and integrate the technologies, develop a test plan that hones in on the needed features and performance, procure testing tools, execute the tests and then report back on the results.

With WWT, our goal is to help customers make an informed decision as quickly as possible, no matter where they choose to evaluate. This happens within the Advanced Technology Center (ATC), which ties together on-premises, collocated gear, and public cloud environments. We can also extend to evaluate edge use cases as desired.  The ATC offers everything to customers, from briefings and workshops where our experts share our experiences with the technology based on recent proof of concepts (POCs) and testing to on-demand "stick time" on the technologies of interest via demos and technology sandboxes.  

When a technology or service is brand new, we regularly test our customers' custom use cases via a POC POC. We have dedicated people and processes that can shorten a many-months POC down to just days. Our experience with similar bake-offs allows us to help customers focus on the most meaningful things to their unique situation to get results that make the biggest impact on their business.

Fastest time to an integrated solution

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." ― Aristotle

For customers choosing on-premises, collocated, or edge environments, we create a reference architecture or blueprint based on the ATC testing for how their preferred solution comes together.

For example, if we're testing out a software-defined storage (SDS) solution, we put together a kit of storage software, servers, network switching, power, security elements and racks, along with a runbook for how these components should come together in the lab. 

From there, we leverage the WWT integration centers to assemble that equipment according to the blueprint from the ATC testing. These kits become systems via image configuration, rack integration and testing/burn-in services; they come complete with customer-specific asset tags, labeling, and cabling. 

Including warehouse space for staging equipment, WWT provides more than 3 million square feet of space spread across 3 continents, with the capacity to configure more than 30,000 systems per week. WWT integration centers are available in the United States, Netherlands, India, and Singapore, which gives our multi-national customers more options for assembling equipment destined for their data centers around the globe. 

For customers choosing a public cloud option, we have a team capable of accelerating a sensible, high-performance, cost-effective, and secure option in the public cloud. 

Fastest time to deploy anywhere in the world

"It costs nothing to think bigger than you are, BUT costs a fortune to think less of yourself."  ― Olawale Daniel

WWT cut its teeth in the supply chain world in the 90s, working to deliver solutions to the federal government operating around the globe. Fast forward to the present and WWT maintains four integration centers on four continents and more than 40 distribution centers (including 28 partner-led distribution centers) on six continents ― nothing yet on Antarctica for organizations deploying IT to the last unchartered frontier.

Once the integrated solution arrives onsite, WWT has hundreds of deployment engineers ready to get the solution connected to the customer's environment and customized for their unique requirements.

For public cloud scenarios, WWT can offer a multitude of options for deploying solutions in public clouds around the world. 

What's next?

"The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step" ― Lao Tzu

Evaluating, integrating, deploying, and managing new technologies and services can be an incredibly complicated and frustrating endeavor, or it can be an exciting time to see technology come to life. To ensure the latter experience, let me personally invite you to experience Silicon Valley in St. Louis. Our experts look forward to hosting you in St. Louis sometime soon!