Naveen Lawrence
The various factors and benefits of hybrid and multi-cloud deployments are driving Indian enterprises to take a look
Hybrid cloud and multi-clouds are quickly becoming a new model of IT delivery for Indian enterprises. According to a study by Nutanix (a cloud computing software company), 43% of Indian enterprises are predicted to adopt a hybrid cloud by 2020. Before discussing the reasons that are driving Indian enterprises to look at hybrid cloud and multi-cloud, let’s first discuss the difference between a multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environment.
Multi-cloud refers to leveraging two or more cloud computing platforms from different providers, often to meet specific workload needs but without any connection or orchestration between them. The multi-cloud architecture helps organizations to distribute their workloads across multiple cloud environments, while mitigating risks associated with individual cloud environments.
On the other hand, hybrid cloud refers to the pairing of public and private clouds, with orchestration between these two by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability. A hybrid cloud is not a multi-cloud, though multi-cloud may include hybridization.
Factors leading to the adoption
Previously, enterprises were adopting hybrid cloud or multi-cloud to drive scalability and store huge amount of workloads. But now enterprises are focusing more on multi-cloud to help meet many business goals like simplified management, agile application development etc. The other drivers that lead to the adoption include data sovereignty, Government regulations, cost efficiency goals, vendor lock-ins issue and high uptime needs.
According to Naresh Singh, Sr Director Analyst, Gartner, no single cloud provider can meet all the cloud requirements effectively. For example, the best Infrastructure as a Service player may not be the best SaaS provider and vice versa. He said, “Hybrid cloud brings associated benefits such as redundancies, distributed security risks, and best of breed solutions.”
Challenges on the way
Like any rapidly evolving space, multi-cloud adoptions come with their own set of challenges. Thus, enterprises that are early adopters should carefully take into account the complexity, costs, and difficulties that these challenges might ultimately entail.
The major challenge is that the costs can multiply in a hybrid cloud and multi-cloud world. While at the outset realizing cost efficiencies by leveraging more than one cloud provider might seem reasonable, but the lack of integrated identity and access management, lack of infrastructure management, lack of tools and standards, lack of security skills and other inefficiencies to train and track usage and costs across cloud platforms might prove expensive in the long run. On the other hand, the companies who have already adopted cloud are not using it well and are also unable to justify their investments.
Vilas Pujari, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at ACG stated that ideally, one would expect cloud adoption to happen faster. Unfortunately, pricing of cloud (whether hybrid cloud or multi-cloud) is still unaffordable if we take a 3-5 years perspective. He added, “On the other side cloud offering organizations are not able to offer better pricing due to lower scale. This will change in the next 2-3 years. We expect the cloud pricing should come down by about 30% to make it attractive.”
Thus, hybrid cloud and multi-cloud is a holistic and integrated approach in an enterprise’s overall cloud strategy and Indian enterprises should prioritize it with strong automation, security and interface consistency.
Learn more on Hybrid Cloud and Multi Cloud at the upcoming DCD>Bangalore Conference.
DCD>Bangalore
The 9th annual DCD>Bangalore conference & expo is all set to return to Bangalore on July 18, 2019 with the brand new themes: Executing Hybrid IT strategy, Sustainable Infrastructure, Modernization & Lifecycle Management
Tailored for India, the event will bring together the region’s data-center & cloud infrastructure eco-system, allowing you to connect with 850+ senior IT experts. You will have the opportunity to share best-practice with counterparts, as well as showcase the technologies enterprises can adopt to remain competitive and prepare for the new digitalized world.
For more information on what DCD>Bangalore 2019 has in store for you, visit: https://dcd.events/conferences/bangalore#benefits or email [email protected]
