Reducing cloud complexity, once and for all

Many companies will be looking at their current cloud investments as a priority. And rightly so. The benefits technologies in this sphere deliver are no secret, and we’re all well aware of the pressures organisations are under to diversify and adapt to the challenges and opportunities of today’s new world order.   

A recent VMware survey of 2,000 consumers in the UK revealed that only 28 percent believe the companies they interact with now deliver an improved digital experience compared to before the pandemic. Over half also stated they would jump ship to a competitor if their digital experience didn’t live up to expectations.  

Meeting the needs of customers today and tomorrow will rely heavily on the dramatic evolution of current cloud portfolios for many companies. You only need to look at digital-natives or start-ups who use blended cloud models to see how expertly they navigate challenges, using the innovations such a setup provides to compete and grow at pace. By next year, IDC predicts that the infrastructure needs of over 90 percent of enterprises worldwide will be dependent on a mixture of on-premise/dedicated private clouds and multiple public clouds. That doesn’t mean all 90 percent will be doing this successfully.   

Such success is only possible by dismantling cloud complexity. For any organisation interested in embracing a progressive and agile approach to the cloud, here are my top tips for focusing your energy.   

Dismantling barriers to change   

Multi-cloud is a term on everyone’s lips. But by far and away its biggest selling point is the ability to simplify what has become for many companies, a complicated mixture of many different platforms. Unsurprisingly, using multiple clouds can become extremely difficult.   

There are different onboarding processes, team experiences, pricing and billing structures to account for. Companies can end up with separate teams within a business or division wedded to a particular platform, resulting in employees developing tribe-like mentalities. Team A may be determined not to use anything other than AWS for tooling, security and policies. Team B might clutch Google desperately to their chests. Team C refusing to come out of the data centre. You can see how such an ecosystem can rapidly become a minefield for innovation.   

Thankfully, there is a solution that allows everyone to play nicely with their preferred cloud, together.   

The advent of multi-cloud environments, which allow for infrastructure to be deployed across multiple models, provides flexibility for the services an enterprise chooses to use, and reduces dependence on just one cloud vendor.  

A key piece of advice when going down this route: look to identify a neutral partner that allows for and understands multiple cloud options and environments. This ensures you are given the best possible advice and support to help you on your innovation journey, allowing you to stay true to your goals with the ability to be as agile as possible.     

Future proofing ways of working  

You may be wondering why it’s so vital that companies are able to use multiple clouds. Why not stick with a single cloud vendor and keep things simple?  

As we’ve seen over the last year, our lives could literally change almost overnight, and businesses need to be in a position to quickly pivot and adapt to new market conditions or entrants. This is part of continuous learning and is a cultural mindset shift. The essence is that you can't predict future challenges but can prepare for continuous change by being agile. If a business could pick a superpower today, my bet is then in every instance it would be flexibility.   

In the context of applications, organisations need to manage and support these via the cloud, and as they evolve, so must the platforms on which they rely. To ensure they are set up for increased agility and the maximum potential for innovation, the ability to work on any cloud and allow developers to leverage any services offered provides the best route to success. Being able to move seamlessly from cloud to cloud and align multiple clouds is the future, as is the need for easy management and optimised observability.    

Fuelling creativity to build better software   

Multi-cloud environments empower organisations to distribute their workloads for maximum impact, optimise return on investment, and manage away complexity. This frees up teams to spend more time focusing on creativity and building better software. It gives developers the time to do what they love – building great applications. And as we’ve already discussed, delivering applications that meet and exceed customer expectations, are what sets companies apart from the competition.   

If you want to be one of those success stories, then this is the time to look closely at your applications and consider which ones need modernising. In doing so, you'll give yourself a head start for getting the most out of the growing multi-cloud opportunity, and ultimately avoid the dangers of getting caught in a web of cloud complexity.