What is our primary use case?
The purpose of using this platform was to have a hybrid cloud environment where students or users could access the services of a private cloud and also bypass its limitations. The private cloud could only offer services up to a certain extent due to reasons such as the cost of infrastructure, unavailability of services, or the need for physical expansion.
With this platform, users could migrate to the cloud on the go and use public cloud services like Oracle database while integrating with their own local storage. This helped to reduce costs and make it affordable for students in Pakistan to access IT education and improve their skills and technologies.
We had to integrate the technology with the existing education system, and there was a huge gap. To address this issue, we collectively created a cloud for all universities in Pakistan that would provision them with equal opportunity at much lesser cost. The cost was a huge issue, and we needed to get everything that any top-of-the-line, previously existing legacy Cloud could offer. To create services much better than the legacy solution as it is state-of-the-art and provides more than what legacy can offer. VMware provides Cloud Director, but it is too costly, and I don't think any of the 300 universities in Pakistan can afford such a private cloud individually.
What is most valuable?
There were many advantages. Specifically, two CMPs that stand out are orchestration with applications and blueprinting. The availability of blueprints helps even the most nontechnical end-users to get what they need. When it comes to cloud provisioning, the end-users find it even easier to use the service than Azure or Google. Once the engineer has properly configured Morpheus, the end-user will find it so user-friendly that they can think of anything, and it will already be available here. The application blueprinting provides footprints of applications. Let's say a service guy needs a cloud environment or some HPC resources of the university and some other applications integrated into some calculations. They don't need to be very technical in IT; they just need to go to the cloud and give simple requirements like the size of compute or image and the number of images. Once they have gone through this solution, it is very easy for them to self-create and self-service. So the self-service part becomes so easy with this that it is highly recommended for the end-users.
What needs improvement?
There is a problem with integration due to invalid private node security certificates. However, the issue can be resolved by correcting the certificates. Getting OEMs like Huawei or Morpheus to change their products is difficult, but we found a middle ground where both Huawei and Morpheus can integrate seamlessly through Terraform. So far, the integration has been successful, but it may create a problem when the platform is under a huge load of 46 million students.
We have already requested the World Bank and universities to build their case. If that kind of situation arises, they can approach Huawei and Morpheus or go with Plexadera in the end. Although the RSP or SMAX are built around Morpheus specifications specifically, we still have more certified engineers in Pakistan to win that project. The higher education commission of Pakistan has already taken up the matter with both Morpheus and Huawei. VMware refused to do anything, but Huawei has agreed to change the certificate if there is an issue. We have already identified the issue, so they will correct it if the cloud solution is finally deployed for that number of students.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been working with the solution for 11 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Without load, it is very stable. Once we deploy it for the 46 million users, we will know more. But, as infrastructure, it is very stable. We haven't faced any issues or pressure.
Stability is very good; I would rate it a nine out of ten. So far, all the releases and versions have been very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. You can scale up and down easily. It provides almost everything similar to Morpheus. Scaling up is easy; scaling down is easy.
We designed the solution for 300 universities which have a total of 46 million students. Faculty is separate from this, so there could be an additional one million faculty members. These will be the direct end users. The World Bank has a plan to open it for non-university students, so it could increase further. Scalability is excellent. It is very, very scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and support team can be approached much more easily, and their responses are quicker. The language they use is also better understood. So, the support is slightly better than Morpheus's support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy. The ease of the initial setup depends on the type of environment you are deploying. If it's a greenfield, it's easy. You need to deploy two instances of it, following the standard procedure in the solution. If you haven't deployed it before, you can still follow and deploy those steps. However, fine-tuning takes a lot of time in a brownfield because you will find a lot more in the brownfield than you can see. The initial setup is very easy; I would rate it a ten.
The client has it on a hybrid cloud and already has multiple private clouds. That's why we built a hybrid cloud so that all the private clouds can be integrated and used. In addition, they can also use public cloud sources such as Huawei Cloud, Huawei private cloud, VMware Cloud, or KVM private cloud and integrate it with Azure public cloud, Oracle Public Cloud, or AWS Public Cloud to get a final product or solution.
What about the implementation team?
Usually, the setup and running is not more than one hour, but I would say it takes two days because the whole deployment does take some scale. Also, you have to be very careful even on a greenfield because then you will miss many things, and you don't want to overlook them. So the setup time is not more than two hours for even Morpheus or Slack setup, but you need two days to properly set it up so that you have configured it rightly on a greenfield.
Deployment would probably require two engineers working on the visualization and setup. But we were lucky and had four engineers. Later on, we realized that once we were going into fine-tuning a brownfield, it would probably require twenty engineers because that was a lot of work for us. The brownfield existed for ten years.
Moreover, you don't require a lot of maintenance. Once you deploy it, you forget it. I haven't seen Flexera Cloud for four months, and although it still functions, I haven't received any issues. Maybe the engineers are so good that they're doing whatever without letting us know. For any support we have, we don't need to be involved.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
What other advice do I have?
My advice to other users is to compare and have a good, deep understanding of the product before becoming a user. I read a lot of reviews, just like you are doing now, from existing users and engineers. I even contacted Moshiya and Flexi and asked their engineers for help. One important piece of advice is to keep a certain number of minimum technical in-house resources, including engineers and administrators. As an end-user, you will need administrators to administer the cloud and certified engineers. You cannot completely depend on a third party or the OEM because when an issue arises, it comes to you, and you cannot wait too long in a cloud environment. So having the minimum number of technical resources in-house is critical when operating a cloud or CMP.
I would rate it an eight out of ten. It's absolutely good. However, I cannot give them a hundred percent mark because they have the same issue as Huawei, which most have. So an eight out of ten for them, and others, maybe more recent, I can't say they go all the way. They have limitations when it comes to the market part. Once it exists, then we have to live with it.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
