2017: A Tipping point for cloudBy 2020, nine out of 10 organisations will utilise hybrid cloud infrastructure, according to Gartner[1]. With cloud spending in this area rising faster than ever before, and data centre outsourcing on the decline, 2017 is set to be a tipping point for IaaS adoption. James Stanbridge Herewith some key focus areas enterprises should consider to help them on their journey as they move to cloud. Catalyst for cloudWhat is the catalyst for this increasing focus? While the International Monetary Fund predicts strong near-term growth prospects for the region, the medium- to long-term outlook is less sunny. Global growth remains sluggish, and macroeconomic events such as China’s slowdown are contributing to economic uncertainty. Set against this, businesses know they need to modernise and innovate to stay competitive and are often trying to do so with reduced or static IT budgets. Cloud, with all its benefits, offers a solution. Early stagesSome enterprises have already recognised the advantages cloud economics offer and started to move their workloads, but we are only in the early stages. Why? Some businesses have been concerned that moving to a cloud infrastructure model would result in performance inconsistency and that the public cloud wouldn’t be as reliable as working with an on-premises system. Data sovereignty laws have also been a major concern, particularly for mission critical systems and those organisations operating in the more heavily regulated sectors such as government, education, healthcare, and financial services, in which customer privacy and industry compliance are paramount. New arrivalsNow, numerous suppliers have released the next-generation of enterprise infrastructure cloud solutions designed to answer the demanding performance, reliability, and security needs of businesses. These range from primitive, basic but high performance compute, storage and networking capabilities; to bare metal cloud services that combine the elasticity and utility of public cloud with the granular control, security, and predictability of on-premises infrastructure to deliver high-performance, high availability, and cost-effective infrastructure services. In addition, tools to help with broad base virtual machine migration and management across hybrid environments are arriving on the scene, ensuring a more seamless experience. In simple terms, a cloud that performs as well as - if not significantly better than - dedicated hardware, on premise. First stepsAs enterprises begin to consider taking advantage of the cloud, a good starting point is using cloud infrastructure to help reduce costs and modernise (de-risk) the business, transform development and unlock innovation, transformation and new growth. Here are some great examples, of how companies are using infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) to meet these business requirements:
These are just a few examples of how businesses have made the move to cloud in order to lower costs, effect innovative transformation and stay at the leading edge of their industry. With cloud infrastructure hitting a key tipping point this year and economic uncertainty lingering on the horizon, now is the time for enterprises to take a deep look at the enterprise-class cloud. [1] www.gartner.com. About the authorJames Stanbridge is vice president infrastructure cloud at Oracle APAC & EMEA. |