The dance with the clouds

Bruno Schenk, July 2022

Navigating the journey beyond the clouds

There was a time, not that long ago, when the question of whether enterprises should move to the cloud was hotly debated. Many surveys found reliability, security, and data sovereignty fears were limiting its adoption. Some experts suggested that the cloud was not ready for "mission critical" and was only suitable for start-ups. And with this advice, it was the start-ups that embraced the cloud and quickly established themselves as both innovators and leaders. Netflix, Salesforce and tens of thousands of other pioneers proved the cloud to be practical and beneficial – from its usage-based pricing to rapid deployment and the ability to operate at vast scales.

Spin forward a decade and almost every large enterprise will use the cloud somewhere within their organization. According to Gartner "more than 7 percent of organizations use multiple public cloud services today and have plans to expand." We have moved past deciding on whether cloud adoption is a good thing. It is. The question is now much more granular and revolves around what needs to stay within our own data centers. What does a hybrid approach look like? How does the cloud change my business processes?

Cloud computing might sound somewhat simplistic, but it is just using someone else's computer. For the grey-haired amongst us, who just about remember the idea of IBM mainframe bureaus where enterprises rented time on super computers to run batch tasks rather than trying to deploy their own systems, the cloud is eerily familiar. Back then, even the largest enterprises were effectively start-ups at the beginning of the digital age.

Hybrid future

Today, the cloud is ubiquitous. It has changed not only how we interact with IT but also our development and business strategy. Yet, perhaps the most profound change is how we operate as businesses. Gartner is suggesting that ? of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy, but the reasons as to why this has become necessary needs decoding. Geography and politics play a big part, as the jurisdiction of where data is created, resides and is processed is a major consideration for multinationals that operate within the US, EU and APAC.

Resiliency is also a factor. Hyperscalers have incredibly high levels of reliability considering the billions of transactions they handle each second. However, just like your own laptop, from time to time, things will crash. Mitigating risk by using a base of alternative suppliers is good business practice and as cloud adoption has progressed, so has the corresponding risk management position.

Although the same fears over data security and privacy related to the cloud may still bubble under the surface for some senior executives, the truth is that any enterprise with a well-implemented cyber security posture based around its own data center can easily extend it to the cloud. I go back to my earlier point – "it’s just somebody else’s computer," but crucially, you use and protect it in the way that you need to meet your operational and security requirements.

Competition for innovation

This maturing cloud market has seen the emergence of competition, which is great for customer choice and to propel innovation forward. A great example of this trend is Gaia-X. Often mislabeled as an EU cloud, the goal of Gaia-X is to promote innovation through digital sovereignty. In simple terms, it aims to establish an ecosystem in which data is made available, collated and shared in a trustworthy environment. Users always retain sovereignty over their data through a federated system that links many cloud service providers and users together. In 2019, we were a co-founding member, and today over 500 organizations are involved in the project, with the first Federation Services set to be launched in 2022.

Gaia-X is part of a wider conversation that we are increasingly having with our clients about the cloud journey. It started with the why and how and now it is more about the wider strategic decisions. Many of these are focused on hybrid use cases. In some instances, that might mean redevelopment of legacy systems to become cloud ready. Or even leaving them alone within data centers. Or potentially moving things out of one cloud to a different platform, to reinvent as SaaS or even back into the data center. It might sound counter-intuitive to suggest that some processes are better delivered from traditional data centers, but when you look at the bigger picture and analyse the operational data, this might well be the case.

Freedom and flexibility

And this is an area where we deliver immense value to our clients. We are not a hyperscaler. We don’t have a vested interest in selling cloud – our goal is to find out what works best for the client and help them on their own journey.

This is why, in January 2022, we completed the acquisition of Cloudreach, a leading multi-cloud services company specializing in public cloud application development and cloud migration. Through this acquisition, we welcome over 600 highly skilled cloud professionals to further strengthen our global cloud expertise.

Crucially, Cloudreach brings rich global partnerships with AWS, GCP and Azure. That recognizes that just focusing on just one hyperscaler is not beneficial for our clients – it is about their journey, not ours. Cloudreach also further strengthens our cloud innovation and automation with the leading cloud planning and assessment software Cloudamize, which brings new capabilities in cloud migration along with innovative talents in an end-to-end set of services to help clients navigate their cloud journey.

Providing the knowledge, deep skills sets and resources to turn the potential into a reality is why we are having so many conversations and active projects that revolve around the cloud. Another element of that journey is subject matter expertise, which means we understand what the core challenges are within each sector, whether it be finance, manufacturing, retail?or other verticals. Being able to look beyond technology and into process improvement is vital for the cloud to deliver on its potential.

There is no giant European Hyperscaler - now what?

Another area, we often face is the fact, that in Europe mainly the 3 American hyperscaler Google, Microsoft and AWS are leading the market. They all have their clouds in Europe, often with satellites in every country like in Switzerland. The aim with that “local” approach is to create trust, not sharing sensitive and regulated data outside the agreed geography. The question remains, will there be a large European hyperscaler on day taking on the battel against or with the giants? I think yes, but can he/she then compete enough, as the benefit of the cloud provider goes far beyond storing data. Time will tell, interesting times ahead of us.

And this is the final point to make. Cloud computing is no longer a tactical decision – it is a strategic one. However, the decisions are not fixed in stone but instead dynamically evolving processes that will shift in line with the needs of the business and the prevailing market. Cloud is your journey, with different paths and destinations, and it’s a fantastic ride! Finally, the benefits and flexibilities cloud computing is offering, are surpassing legacy infrastructures by far and the created innovation and value creation, can be the one element, keeping you ahead of the competition.

Disclaimer; Content Bruno Schenk and pictures Gettyimages, licensed via Atos