No one knows what the future holds
Yet, we can make some educated guesses and move forward, based on what we know today. Many in IT are in this position — with a variety of options, you must decide how to proceed in terms of your IT strategy.
As I talk with customers and look at trends in the industry, it’s pretty clear that public cloud is fast becoming an extension of the data center as another option for workload placement. Yet as both public and private cloud continue to grow in popularity, I’m seeing some dramatic changes. The IT industry is now more educated on cloud options — more discriminating and more careful about where they place their mission-critical workloads.
Rethinking public cloud
Businesses are becoming concerned about lack of control, latency/performance issues and the spiraling costs of public cloud. I’m also hearing more stories of businesses that are leaving public cloud and moving to a hybrid IT structure, one that uses a combination of public cloud, private cloud and traditional IT. With these diverse options, organizations are starting to really scrutinize their financial risk of various deployment models for each application — comparing the OpEx model of public cloud to the CapEx model of traditional on-premises IT or private cloud.
Today’s CTOs and IT admins are also embracing new technologies, such as composable infrastructure and hyperconvergence. These innovations provide many of the benefits of public cloud, yet provide the control, security and cost benefits of deploying on premises. Adding to the mix containers, microservices, Azure Stack and many more options, businesses are faced with several complexities as they chart their course into the future.
Simplifying hybrid IT
Now that the public cloud has matured, businesses are better able to evaluate its pros and cons — and they are recognizing that the right mix of hybrid IT infrastructure provides a better approach. IT experts have always analyzed their workloads and taken care to configure them in the most effective deployment models (such as a VM farm, a dedicated cluster for HPC apps or a database attached to a SAN technology). Today’s IT admins are doing the same, adding a variety of cloud options to their on-premises infrastructure.
Instead of rushing to move everything to public cloud, savvy IT teams are utilizing public cloud as another tool in their ever-increasing toolbox of solutions. They are eager to gain the agility and OpEx model of public cloud for certain workloads, yet recognize that certain aspects of their current traditional infrastructure still make it the best option for many workloads. And as new on- or off-premises technologies start to appear, they are in a better position to evaluate and adopt them as needed.
We are living in a world that is moving extremely quickly. Those in IT may understand this better than most as they must constantly evolve to meet the rapidly changing and accelerating pace of business. To keep up with new technologies and new IT strategies, many are turning to industry experts to help them understand their options and develop a hybrid IT strategy that enables them to move forward quickly and successfully.
Taking the next step
We have moved into a cloud world, and those businesses that can take advantage of it will survive. Those that can’t, well… they won’t.
The IT strategy you choose can empower the future of your business. What’s your next move?
About Gary Thome
Gary Thome is the Vice President and Chief Technologist for the Software-Defined and Cloud Group at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. He is responsible for the technical and architectural directions of converged datacenter products and technologies including HPE Synergy. To learn how composable infrastructure can help you achieve a hybrid IT environment in your data center, download the free HPE Synergy for Dummies eBook.To read more articles from Gary, check out the HPE Converged Data Center Infrastructure blog
