Why the future of cloud is Hybrid!

We live in a multi-cloud reality, but which combination is right for you? Which applications do you keep on premise, in a private cloud and a public cloud? You need to choose wisely, as each option comes with a series of challenges. With business-as-usual gradually returning, now’s a good time to (re-)assess your hybrid cloud options.

Today, it may seem like cloud has been around forever, while in fact, it is still fairly recent. Amazon Web Services (AWS) was launched in the early 2000s while Microsoft Azure was released in 2010, just over a decade ago. Since then, innovation has sped up: the development of cloud and IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) was quintessential for the growth of an almost endless array of SaaS providers (Software as a Service) which has given all types of business operations wings.

It’s becoming increasingly hard to find business applications that don’t make use of the cloud in some way.

The growth of cloud has been and continues to be impressive by any standard!

• By 2024, companies globally expect cloud spend to represent 80% of their total IT-hosting budget.
• In Belgium, the share of public cloud is expected to multiply by 2.7, from 13% to 31%, between 2020 and 2026.
• Between 2021 and 2028, the global cloud computing market is projected to grow from $250 billion to $791 billion, at a compound annual growth rate of 17.9% (CAGR)

But this comes with a big management and migration challenge:

• 3 in 4 companies (75%) state that their cost per year for cloud migration has been over budget.
• 4 in 10 companies (38%) say their migrations have been delayed by more than one quarter.

Staffing up is not going to be the solution though: today, 35% of cloud activities of companies globally are managed by their own staff but many of them would like to raise this to 50%. Doing so, however, would require an additional 1 million cloud developers over the next 3 years. ?It’s clear that this will not pan out.

Which cloud is right?

So which cloud do you use best? Well, that depends, as each option comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.

With public cloud, you have the upside of less or no upfront investments, you gain access to a more pre-integrated ecosystem of applications, worldwide availability and flexibility of usage. On the downside: support levels are lower, you have less control over data and infrastructure and the performance depends on internet connectivity. But when you’re faced with fluctuating workloads or new services with unpredictable market uptake, public cloud is the way forward.

The advantages of private cloud are more control, more dedicated resources and security and compliance. The disadvantages being higher upfront investments, as well as the potential risks of under-utilization, capacity ceiling, and vendor lock-in. Still, when faced with high availability requirements, specific regulatory or governance requirements, network latency requirements or strict upfront cost control, then private cloud be right.

For some critical applications and data, on premise can still be the right path forward as well, as you as a company keep absolute control over your own server. But it also implies you need to manage it yourself. On the security level alone, that can be quite the challenge. On prem therefore tends to be more costly then private and public cloud. It’s also a decision of CapEx versus OpEx.

Most companies will combine the best of both worlds in hybrid cloud, using public cloud and private cloud for different applications. This is more complex to manage, as you need to integrate both, but it also gives you an additional level of flexibility.

84% of companies and CIOs therefore deliberately adopt a hybrid multi-cloud approach:

• You take advantage of different best-of-breed solutions by using 2 or more cloud providers. In other words, you gain innovative strength.
• You avoid vendor lock-in, a concern for 68% of CIOs (Flexera 2020 Report).
• You can better distribute workloads across multiple clouds and thus maximize resilience while meeting regulatory and compliance requirements.

Going hybrid with cloud orchestration tooling

The boundaries between different forms of cloud (and even on premise) are becoming blurrier as well. Everything and everyone is increasingly connected and data is used across multiple applications and systems. The result? Businesses and IT people and departments have to oversee and manage a hodgepodge of clouds, applications and systems that all intermingle and impact one another.

Cloud orchestration can help you manage your different cloud environments by automating the tasks to manage connections and operations. It is a real enabler for going hybrid. With it, organizations can reduce their cloud cost by 30%, as automation-driven self-service can lead to 80% fewer release-related tasks, opening up time for other, more value-adding activities. Good to know at Proximus, we have partnered with Morpheus, which received the highest score from Gartner (4.08 on a scale of 5) for its cloud orchestration services.

Case examples of hybrid cloud strategies

A hybrid cloud strategy isn’t just for larger companies, SMBs need it as well.

Consider Autofix, a supplier of car parts for garages and the industry. The company has around 100 employees and 11 retail outlets and is still growing. They opted for a cloud-first approach for their ERP solution in combination with the Microsoft Teams collaboration software and security provided by Cisco Umbrella. They can now scale their ERP solution quickly when new shops open, add new users easily and be certain all is secure. This flexibility enables them to work on a next-gen e-shop, where customers will have personalized access, be able to place and track orders, view their order history, and more.

Also, did you know Proximus recently concluded an IT infrastructure partnership with HCL Technologies, a global leader in cloud. With this new partnership, we will build a next-generation cloud platform for the Benelux market. HCL will run and service Proximus’ private cloud infrastructure and support the transition towards a hybrid cloud solution provider. Operating our data center infrastructure will also be done in a more sustainable and efficient way. ?

What you can do to succeed in the hybrid cloud reality

The future of cloud is undeniably hybrid and companies that make haste of this will take a head start! How about you?

As an organization, you have to determine what you place where: some things you may want to keep on premise; some of it you will store in a private cloud (which can still be managed internally or by a third party, and hosted either internally or externally) ; some of it will be available through a public cloud.

A word of advice: take your time to find a strong partner who can demystify your cloud reality and who is able to design the right cloud architecture that meets your organization’s needs. The right partner can help you figure out the right hybrid cloud combination for you and make sure everything works well together. Here’s what you should include in this type of exercise:

• A cloud discovery study considers your company’s context and current IT landscape and strategy. Some of the questions to be answered are: is a cloud migration feasible? Are my data and workloads eligible for private/public cloud or not due to data privacy or sovereignty concerns? What cloud solution fits your specific needs best? Which delivers the most value?
• A cloud migration assessment considers the platform design and provides you with a budget estimation: what would be an ideal future cloud architecture? What would be the total cost of ownership (TCO)?
• Deployment services are about installing and configuring your cloud infrastructure through a combination of PaaS and IaaS, with overall connectivity and security as key focus domains.
• The transition phase is next and is all about integration and migration.
• Once everything is up and running, you can make use of managed services to operate and manage the cloud infrastructure.

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Where is cloud taking your organization? What’s the next step in your hybrid strategy? ?Leave a comment below!

Proximus has cloud solutions for any type of company. Want to discuss your cloud needs? Let’s talk.

Sources:

On advantages vs. concerns: Cloud Computing Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report, 2021-2028, by Grand View Research, July 2021 | Morpheus.com - Outpace the Competition, August 2020

On the numbers: The cloud-migration opportunity, October 2021, by McKinsey | GSA market outlook study, 2021