As enterprises demand stronger application mobility and interoperability, they are increasingly choosing hybrid cloud infrastructure (the combined use of private and public clouds with some degree of integration between the two cloud environments).
Aaron White, Regional Director, Middle East at Nutanix
The
Future is Hybrid Cloud
As
enterprises demand stronger application mobility and interoperability, they are
increasingly choosing hybrid cloud infrastructure (the combined use of private
and public clouds with some degree of integration between the two cloud
environments). While the advent of public cloud has increased IT efficiency in
certain areas, hybrid cloud capabilities are the next step in providing the
freedom to dynamically provision and manage applications based on business
needs.
As per findings of Nutanix’s first annual global Enterprise Cloud Index
[1], measuring enterprise plans for adopting private, hybrid and public clouds, enterprises plan to increase hybrid cloud usage, with 91% stating hybrid cloud as the ideal IT model, but only 18% stating they have that model today. The findings also revealed that application mobility across any cloud is a top priority for 97% of respondents – with 88% of respondents saying it would “solve a lot of my problems.” Additionally, the report found public cloud is not a panacea; IT decision makers ranked matching applications to the right cloud environment as a critical capability, and 35% of organizations using public clouds overspent their annual budget. When asked to rank the primary benefits of hybrid cloud, interoperability between cloud types (23%) and the ability to move applications back and forth between clouds (16%) outranked cost (6%) and security (5%) as the primary benefits.
White enterprises
are turning to hybrid cloud to modernize IT for the digital era, given the
significant complexity that still exists today in cross-cloud management and
integration, many enterprises are struggling to create an effective hybrid
cloud strategy.
Below
are 5 tips that will provide guidelines to regional enterprises considering the
move to a hybrid cloud model:
1.
A SINGLE INFRASTRUCTURE OR BIMODAL IT?
Supporting
mode 1 (traditional) and 2 (next-gen) applications with separate infrastructure
is called bimodal IT—and it’s a limiting, impractical process. Your hybrid
cloud needs to support both seamlessly for a more agile infrastructure
2.
DON’T OVERLOOK DEVELOPMENT AND TEST RESOURCES
Be
sure to include all IT resources dedicated to development work, including
tools, repositories, build servers, and so on
3.
DON’T CHOOSE CLOUD PROVIDERS TOO SOON
Before
you start thinking about a cloud provider, make a complete list of the
environments you’ll need to give you an idea of what you’re doing on-prem. Remember,
this is a 3-5 year commitment at least, so no rush!
4.
RECONCILING IT IDEALS AND REALITY
Enterprise
IT is rarely perfect, but you can still optimize it with a tactical, practical
cloud management approach. As you work toward implementing hybrid cloud, keep
the lights on in your current environment.
5.
NEW TO DEVOPS? TIME TO GET FAMILIAR
As an
enterprise, gaining a competitive advantage is a business necessity. To stay
ahead of the curve, many enterprises from varying industries are getting serious
about DevOps.
In conclusion, reliance on legacy datacentre architectures—whether you own the equipment and software or not—or getting locked into a specific infrastructure stack can add to technical debt, increase operating costs, and limit future flexibility. This is becoming a thing of the past. Hybrid cloud is the future. Hybrid cloud capabilities constitute a growing necessity in the dynamic, digital business climate, in which enterprises demand the freedom to dynamically provision and manage applications based on business needs. Reaching this ideal IT operating model will require more comprehensive hybrid vendor solutions, as well as greater expertise in designing, building, and operating hybrid clouds.
[1] Nutanix commissioned Vanson Bourne to survey IT decision makers about where they are running their business applications today, where they plan to run them in the future, challenges in setting up their cloud environments and how their cloud initiatives stack up against other IT projects and priorities. The survey resulted in approximately 2,300 respondents from multiple industries, business sizes and geographies in the Americas; Europe, the Middle East, Africa (EMEA); and Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) regions. To learn more about the report and findings, please download the full “Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index 2018”, here
