Sophisticated technologies such as virtualization enable efficiencies, but at the same time, add management complexity to an environment. Balancing the pros and cons of introducing such technologies can often challenge organizations who may find their group lacks the proper skill sets or staff resources.

For Radix Technologies, overcoming the complexity of virtualization involved adopting the CA AppLogic® cloud computing platform. Previously a software development company, Radix evolved its business model based on customer demand for software-as-a- service (SaaS) offerings. Yet that transition introduced more challenges than it did profits.

"We realized that it was actually quite difficult to be able to manage all the hardware and software services and still be able to make money from the entire service," says Radix CEO David Corriveau. "First we started with virtualization and we realized that, ‘OK we are getting a lot more efficient from the hardware point of view, but we had added a whole management layer.'"

With four data centers (one of which is located at a former military facility embedded in a mountain in Switzerland), Radix now provides customers with infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), virtual private data centers, private cloud environments and more. The company has been using the CA AppLogic platform for more than five years, and Radix executives say the reason they chose the platform is because it demonstrated true agility.

"Basically AppLogic was the first time we actually saw agility from a cloud solution. And that agility really came from the ability to assemble applications from our library," Corriveau says. "We were able to build and provide solutions to our customers in a matter of minutes, and you didn't have to have highly experienced systems engineers and highly experienced technical staff to be able to do this."

By implementing the CA AppLogic platform into production environments, Radix is able to build out entire business services in very little time, not simply deploy a virtual server. The company can move customers from a "classical data center" to an entirely virtual data center. And with the CA AppLogic technology in its data centers, Corriveau says they can quickly move services among data centers based on demand. The platform enabled Radix to, in a sense, mask the complexity of multiple technologies needed to support customer demand and provide valuable services - while still making money.

"The point of AppLogic isn't to start a single virtual machine. The point of AppLogic is to start an entire business service," Corriveau says.

How has cloud computing enabled agility for your organization? Please leave a comment here, let me know via Twitter @DDubie or e-mail me directly at Denise.Dubie@ca.com.

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