A foundation for innovation
Cloud is the foundation upon which true digital transformation is built. Exceptional and innovative customer and employee experiences – backed by artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, and automation – cannot be realized at speed and scale without it. Building a strong cloud foundation now will pay off long into the future.
Effective remote working, agile supply chain management, seamless digital commerce, and increased regulatory compliance are just some of the benefits that cloud offers. And scalability is the major differentiator. “On-premise is a finite resource that can quickly turn into a sinking ship if it’s overloaded – cloud simply brings in more ships, Of course, you don’t want to realize you have scalability issues when you’re ready to scale.
Boosting employee productivity with cloud
A global bank was using on-premise computing to calculate its risk balance at the end of every day to report to regulators. This took so much time and resources that it was becoming cost-prohibitive. However, by harnessing the power of cloud, reporting is now 4x faster, decisions are driven by real-time data, and employees can act on insight at unprecedented speed.
Across every industry, cloud doesn’t just present an opportunity for enterprises to be bigger – it presents an opportunity for them to be better, too. Cloud underpins better experiences for customers, employees, partners, and stakeholders who increasingly expect seamless digital interactions.
Building on business outcomes
Connecting cloud to the transformation of core business functions is where the greatest impact can be realized. A basic ‘lift and shift’ approach for cloud is popular, but can’t deliver on its true potential. A cloud-smart approach – beginning with a deep understanding of the business issues being solved and the expertise to apply technology appropriately – will result in better business outcomes.
A cloud-smart approach calls for a change in the way cloud is considered, something that’s already happening in the enterprise. “Before COVID-19, everybody was talking about cloud as a system of engagement. All about the easy wins, such as digital workloads, “Now, they are harnessing the power of cloud to reimagine those systems and use data and cloud to filter out the noise and create systems of insight.”
With a deep understanding of your business processes and operations, it becomes easier to identify how cloud can support better ways of working. Then you can introduce and apply AI, automation, and analytics to transform experiences for maximum impact.
From “Cloud Chaos” to “Cloud Smart”
The solution and next phase in the cloud journey – “Cloud Smart”. Raghuram describes this as taking an architected and planned approach to multi-cloud and digital transformation. With a “Cloud Smart” approach, organizations have the freedom to select the right cloud for the right app, based on the needs of the individual app.
So how can businesses make the jump from “multi-cloud happened to me” to “multi-cloud is a deliberate strategy”?
- Move from disparate development, operations, and security to a new approach where you can accelerate app dev on any cloud. The key here is a consistent developer experience across clouds, which reduces developer toil.
- Move from today’s siloed cloud infrastructure to a new approach where you have consistent enterprise infrastructure across any cloud with greater resilience, security, and cost-efficiency.
- Move from today’s fragmented employee experience to a more frictionless experience in which employees can seamlessly and securely access any app from any location, whether they’re at home, on the road, or in an office environment.
- Here’s how some companies successfully migrated from cloud chaos to cloud smart.
VMware’s Cross-Cloud Services portfolio incorporates these strategies, helping organizations transition from “Cloud Chaos” to “Cloud Smart”. Raghuram illustrated the five key areas critical for every organization at VMware Explore 2022 (below):
- A state-of-the-art platform for building and deploying your cloud-native apps.
- Cloud management for monitoring and managing the performance and cost of your apps across different clouds.
- Cloud and edge infrastructure for operating and running your enterprise apps.
- Security and networking to connect and secure all your apps and clouds.
- Anywhere Workspaces for accessing any app on any device securely.
Among all areas VMware Cross-Cloud Services targets, I am most thrilled by its cohesive solution to monitor, manage, and mitigate security risks, improve governance, and simplify compliance with confidence. With increased visibility to the multi-cloud platforms, risk exposure and access leaks can be identified and addressed quickly. Consistently enforcing security controls is made easier and less resource intensive as well. Data breaches, third-party cyberattacks, and other security events can be evaluated, mitigated, and controlled. Evidently, centralized governance across multi-cloud with a single set of rules is a critical piece of the journey to “Cloud Smart”.
The Big Picture
When I work with CXOs on the transition to smart multi-cloud environments, the conversation always comes back to people, processes, and tools. Based on Gartner and my personal experiences, we should strive to:
- Adopt a coordinated, holistic approach for multi-cloud management and governance.
- Standardize cloud policies, define processes, and clarify ownership.
- Align IT priorities with business and compliance objectives. Map out functional business needs for app platform, cloud management, cloud and edge infrastructure, security, networking, and anywhere workspace.
- Balance functional and IT requirements to materialize functionality, drive consistency and efficiency across different cloud platforms.
- Leverage best-in-class multi-cloud management platforms, services, and processes to smartly manage multi-cloud environments.
To be transformational, competitive, and successful today, organizations must accelerate their digital transformation and innovation. The best and fastest way to get “Cloud Smart” is to follow innovators and best practices. A unified and multi-cloud management solution should be top of mind as you adopt a “Cloud Smart” approach.
