Editor’s note: The following is a guest post from Mindy Cancila, VP of corporate strategy at Dell Technologies.
Widespread adoption of cloud-based collaboration platforms often leads to a “multicloud by default” approach without a clear strategy to support workload needs. Sound familiar?
Today many organizations are reexamining their cloud usage and, importantly, the costs associated with it. Nearly two-thirds of organizations are spending more on cloud than initially budgeted, according to IDC estimates.
Organizations are looking at whether they’ve made the right investments and struggle with how to optimize their existing resources, enable greater visibility into those resources and control spend.
Successful multicloud strategies are akin to a gourmet meal – it’s all about the ingredients, preparation and execution. Just as a chef carefully lays out ingredients for a dish, a well-thought-out strategy will help maximize resources, optimize operations and drive innovation.
This involves assessing the current IT infrastructure, identifying which applications and workloads to move to the cloud and determining the best migration strategy with security and compliance requirements in mind.
In other words, don’t open the organization to the buffet of services without a comprehensive plan, which is where many organizations find themselves today. It’s not that anyone is wrong – but many are organically adopting cloud as they go and learning through the process.
When talking to customers, the biggest challenges in adopting a multicloud environment include siloed cloud experiences and managing disparate vendors.
Data and workloads in multiple locations increase the number of processes, tools and skill sets required, while aggravating issues of visibility and control.
The lack of a clear view across data and workloads leads to multicloud by default, not by design. This often leads to surprise bills across several cloud platforms.
Intentional strategy
A successful cloud strategy requires the right ingredients, careful preparation and skillful execution. For many organizations a mix of multiple clouds – public, private and hybrid – delivers the best outcomes. But it’s essential to understand the long-term costs and build a strategy around the needs of future workloads and growth.
If you can’t predict those workloads just yet, you need the ability to scale up or down. Communicating that to stakeholders is important — including budget and ROI projections, as well as potential risks and challenges such as cloud sprawl and egress fees.
This approach would be akin to getting take-out, but still incurring the cost to cook and clean. At some point, you have to revisit the economics.
Many organizations went all in on public cloud for speed of deployment, cost savings and scalability. Cloud sprawl and lack of predictability and understanding of cloud fees have made it challenging to capture those efficiencies.
Choosing the right infrastructure to store and run workloads depends on availability, performance, security and cost, which can be difficult to compare while also being strategic about design and deployment.
To be clear – this is a public and private cloud mix conversation – not a versus. Customers need a strategy that thinks a few steps ahead in the multicloud recipe to get to the desired outcomes. That way, they can ensure the right workloads are always optimized to the right locations, maximizing the benefits for their organization.
Deploying and managing a cloud environment, monitoring performance and costs and continuously optimizing operations are critical to successful execution. A successful cloud strategy will also help reduce data complexity, leading to greater savings and better business decisions.
The multicloud recipe
It’s essential for CIOs to understand the long-term costs associated with cloud and to build a strategy centered around future workloads and growth – this is multicloud by design. Despite the added complexity of multiple clouds, an intentional and purpose-built strategy can unlock the true potential of a multicloud ecosystem for the organization.
The most satisfying meals – whether cooked at home or at a five-star restaurant – start with a great recipe. Just as hunger drives us to seek out delicious meals, the need for cost-efficient and reliable cloud computing solutions drives businesses to adopt a recipe for multicloud by design.
