Cloud services are taking the business world by storm, technology providers use indicators of growth in cloud adoption as a measure for market opportunity.
Hybrid IT services is a mix of IT infrastructure platforms that an organisation uses to satisfy its application workload and data needs. It comprises of legacy on-premise systems as well as private and public cloud solutions. The mix of Hybrid IT solutions is specific to every enterprise as there is no one size fits all operating model. With a multitude of options available it is often challenging to arrive at the right mix of solutions when hybrid IT is first adopted. Legacy on-premise systems are of importance because of security concerns, compliance and the need to keep critical data in the safety of one’s own centres. The recognisable benefits of hybrid IT include increased business agility, improved customer service, and faster product development.
Using hybrid IT operations offers numerous benefits and advantages to enterprise organizations. To begin with it offers a key advantage to companies with a distributed and increasingly global remote workforce with its access to data anytime and from anywhere that isn’t tied to one central location. Organizations can move core and sensitive data to their private on-premise servers while making key applications and services available on the public cloud. Flexible and accessible computing environments will attract top talent and optimize efficiency and productivity across the organization. Companies also find it a cost-effective way to scale up their operations while maintaining security and control. A hybrid system allows for increased automation which can respond automatically to changes in demand, optimizing performance and efficiency which gives an organization a competitive edge by increasing its agility and innovation.
Cloud computing statistics show the public cloud spend is growing three times faster than the private cloud usage.
The efficacy of Hybrid IT models is measured against ROI, cost saving, agility and improvements in efficiency of operations and systems. The right mix of on-premises and public cloud solutions allow companies to deliver IT value in tandem with their accelerated business cycle but must be based on usage, application portfolio and use of underlying infrastructure.. OpEx and CapEx for IT investments in on-premises systems will change when the public cloud becomes an option. Plan and pay only for what you need without worrying about how to maximize an asset over its usable life. The use of public cloud changes the role and responsibilities of I&O within an organization. I&O leaders will have to transition from operational responsibilities to vendor management. Start-ups can avoid CapEx investments and focus on growing market share with OpEx fueled cloud agility instead. It is important to define operational goals and an appropriate balance to retain strategic independence.
Key steps for IT leaders to successfully manage cloud environments include transparency, planning, engagement and optimization.
Transparency: Managers need to improve transparency around unique aspects of each workload which include average utilization and ability to batch process as well as the fully loaded cost of a hybrid environment. The insights collected can inform migration strategies.
Planning: IT managers should measure cloud spending against their IT plans while running scenarios to understand and forecast the impact of cloud decisions, in order to prioritize resources, projects and services.
Engagement: A demonstrated value of cloud services over other options opens up new opportunities to increase performance and agility in project and service delivery. This also helps with decisions on the cost effectiveness of cloud-based infrastructure and applications.
Optimization:It’s about the ongoing refinement of your IT environment by deep diving into billing, utilization and consumption data to uncover optimization opportunities.
It’s about the ongoing refinement of your IT environment by deep diving into billing, utilization and consumption data to uncover optimization opportunities.
This was the original IT operating model where an on-premise data centre comprising a group of servers that were privately owned, was kept on site, and managed by the organization. On-premises infrastructure can also be used to host an on-premise private cloud server on site in which compute resources are virtualized the same way as is done in public clouds. The disadvantage of having an exclusive on-premise setup is the cost and requirement of server hardware, software licenses, integration capabilities, IT employees and maintenance. However if the organization does not have cloud optimization strategies in place then on-prem solutions are a better option.
IaaS is a cloud computing service where organizations can rent or lease servers for computation and storage in the cloud. The infrastructure required is hosted on a public or private cloud instead of in a traditional on-premise data centre and is delivered to the customer on demand while being fully managed by the service provider. The advantages of using IaaS is that users can run and test any OS or application on rented servers without having to bear the maintenance and operating costs of those servers. Another advantage is that customers can access servers in geographic locations close to their end users. IaaS automatically scales up or down depending on the demand, such pay by consumption solutions are a good fit for those with seasonal swings in demand.
In the PaaS service, developers rent everything they need to build an application. The service provides them with development tools, infrastructure, middleware, database management and operating systems which simplifies web application development by taking all backend management behind the scenes. Since PaaS can be accessed over the internet it is possible to build an entire application in a web browser from anywhere in the world. This helps with collaboration and decreased overheads. Developers use PaaS to build applications quicker without the worry of platforms and backend infrastructure. They can build, test, debug, deploy, host and update in the same environment which ensures that the application will function properly when it is released.
SaaS is a cloud based service of providing software to users. SaaS users subscribe to an application rather than purchasing it once and installing it. Users can log into and use an application over the internet while the application runs in cloud servers that may be located anywhere in the world. The advantages of SaaS is that it can be accessed from any location and on any device which offers a great deal of flexibility. There is no need for updates or installations as the SaaS provider does it on an ongoing basis. The provider also handles scaling up the application as usage increases such as adding more database space or more computing power. IT costs and overheads are cut down as there are no server and infrastructure costs.
The public cloud refers to computing services offered by third party providers. These services are made available over the internet to anyone who wants to use or purchase them. They are most often sold on-demand allowing customers to pay per usage of CPU cycles, storage or bandwidth they consume. Public clouds save companies from the expensive costs of purchasing, managing and maintaining on-premise hardware and application infrastructure. The service provider is responsible for all management and maintenance costs of the system. The advantage of public clouds is that they can be deployed faster and with an infinitely scalable platform. When implemented correctly they can be as secure as the most effectively managed private cloud service.
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