Hybrid Cloud

Preventing IT Silos with Hybrid Cloud

We should be focusing on using Hybrid Cloud services, preventing the past mistakes of IT silo creation

IT silo approaches and hardened environments will not work in the hybrid cloud future that’s already coming around the bend. That’s the take-home message in this news feed.

Looking at 2016, industry experts such as Lynn LeBlanc CEO of HotLink, are predicting enterprises will have more workloads in the cloud, with several cloud providers in their hybrid mix. Unlike in the past, when “corporate IT developed best practices’ around isolating like resources to harden the environments and reduce risks of failure,” IT teams “will need the ability to administer and manage several cloud platforms and a range of on-premises resources from a single pane of glass.”

The past simply won’t work anymore.

LeBlanc said that “technologies have advanced, demands on IT have increased, cycle times keep shrinking, and IT budgets won’t keep pace. The only solution is data centre transformation, and IT decision makers need to look for those technologies that provide orders of magnitude productivity improvements to survive.”

For good reasons, in the past, corporate IT developed best practices around isolating like resources to harden the environments and reduce risks of failure. But technologies have advanced, demands on IT have increased, cycle times keep shrinking, and IT budgets won’t keep pace. The only solution is data centre transformation, and IT decision makers need to look for those technologies that provide orders of magnitude productivity improvements to survive.

“As we move into 2016 and beyond, enterprises will want to move more and more workloads into the cloud, but not every cloud offering will be the right fit for every workload.” comments Craig Ashmole Founding Partner of London based IT Transformation consulting CCServe. “We’ll see more organisations with a range of cloud providers in their hybrid IT portfolios. These needs will change over time, as well, so the ability to mix, match, and reshuffle will be key.”

Simultaneously, data centre teams will need the ability to administer and manage several cloud platforms and a range of on-premises resources from a single pane of glass and single point of integration and automation.

Hybrid IT environments have historically been very complex and expensive to deploy, manage, and automate. Why? Because disparate platforms aren’t designed to work together. As a result, a plethora of tools, consoles, databases, APIs, scripts, etc. are likely to comprise the typical hybrid data centre.

Naturally, different skills are needed for all these solution stacks. This is basically an IT silo approach to managing multi-platform infrastructure. Unfortunately, this classic methodology completely erodes the economic benefits and agility organisations hope to gain from the cloud. That’s why it is essential to consider hybrid IT management strategies from the beginning.

How will IT streamline management of on- and off-premises resources? How will they leverage the familiar management tools the team has already mastered? And how will they structure management processes to retain the economic and agility benefits the cloud can offer? These are all key questions enterprises should address from the start, rather than repeat the costly IT silo mistakes of the past.

Most enterprise roadmaps are now hybrid, and IDC predicts that will continue, with more than 65 percent of IT departments moving toward the hybrid cloud before the end of 2016. That shift is prompted largely by the pursuit of cost savings, agility, and speed to market. To capture all of those benefits, IT teams have to architect their environments to manage a wide range of possible on- and off-premises resources without increasing operational complexity or headcount — and without succumbing to vendor lock-in.