Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of discussion around the different cloud strategies available (IaaS or SaaS? Public or private?), but the time for that discussion has passed.
Today, enterprises are talking less about architectural roadmaps and more about driving value in their business with the cloud. And more importantly, they’re backing up that talk with action. The global market for public cloud services alone will top $200 billion this year according to Gartner, and by 2020 they expect cloud-influenced IT purchases to reach $1 trillion.
What’s emerging from all of this activity is the realization that the cloud isn’t just a fork in the road ahead; it is the road ahead. But not every business will get there at the same time or follow it to the same destination. Cloud strategies are as unique as individual business strategies because ultimately the two have to be aligned.
That said, enterprises tend to follow one of four cloud journeys:
- They move everything into the public cloud
- They maximize the public cloud where they can, but tend to keep their own apps in a private cloud
- They want to emulate the cloud experience in their data center
- They re-tool selected legacy apps for the cloud
One of the biggest mistakes that enterprises make is letting cloud technology determine the route they take. Business goals should always be driving the cloud discussion, and not the other way around. In the future, the cloud path itself may become irrelevant as apps move into containers, since the containers behave the same whether they’re in a public, private, or hybrid cloud environment.
So if cloud platforms are no longer driving the cloud discussion, what should enterprises be talking about? Overcoming cloud challenges on the road to becoming more efficient, intelligent, and competitive.
Some of the typical challenges facing an enterprise in the cloud are:
- Lack of cloud expertise, which is where a company like Rolta AdvizeX comes in
- Security, although enterprises wouldn’t be spending billions on the cloud if they didn’t believe they could protect their apps and data
- Cost management, since estimating cost in the cloud can be tricky, especially with multiple clouds
- Compliance in the cloud, another Rolta AdvizeX strength
- Cloud management, which can be complex when you’re dealing with multiple cloud services such as PaaS and IaaS
The new reality is that the cloud alone is not a competitive advantage. Everyone is doing it, but not everyone is doing it efficiently or intelligently. Putting everything into the cloud without really understanding the business benefit is almost as dangerous as ignoring the cloud.
Businesses need to be strategic about how they use the cloud to drive better business outcomes—a topic I’ll be covering in my next blog, “8 Ways to Get More Value from the Cloud.” ▪