CIO OPINION
the role of each environment in delivering business outcomes – is so important . Without it , IT teams would need a different team of people with the skills to manage the specific requirements of each cloud that their company uses – a prospect that is unrealistic both in terms of likely cost , and also of enough talent being available with the appropriate skillsets . But with one cloud management platform , IT teams have the comfort blanket of a single toolkit that enables them to manage all clouds within their estate . As well as reducing complexity and simplifying management , this also makes cloud environments reversible by design .
Let me explain what I mean by this . We have seen – and continue to see – many of our customers who move to the cloud quickly be taken by surprise when it grows faster than they expected , which in turn spawns too much usage , and incurs far greater costs than they had budgeted for . Businesses like these need to be able to reverse decisions and have the flexibility to move workloads both into and out of the cloud , based on their needs . A consistent cloud approach allows IT teams to wrap security , latency and governance policies around a workload so that those policies then exist wherever that workload goes – whether that be into private or public cloud environments or onpremises – and that application or workload performs optimally wherever it is hosted .
One of our customers , Salvatore Cassara , CIO at SGB-SMIT Group , explains how his organisation has benefitted from multi-cloud and the consistency it provides , when it comes to everyday data access : “ We have a multi-cloud solution that is made up of various cloud providers and a private cloud solution , and VMware helps bring these elements together ,” he said . “ It allows us to confine the data that is more sensitive within our private cloud and then distribute the rest through the other cloud providers . That reach makes the data available for those that need it , when they need it .”
The benefits of application modernisation for IT
The practical benefits of this consistency for businesses , including both the ability to facilitate seamless use of the cloud , and to enable application modernisation , has been discussed . But there are also key operational benefits for IT teams . Having the freedom to take existing applications , move them to their preferred cloud and use the native services of that particular cloud , removes the need to maintain older instances of applications , making it easier for businesses to avoid downtime as they move applications to newer platforms .
This portability also allows IT teams to deliver better services to lines of business because they don ’ t have to worry about that element of the application and can instead focus on providing underlying support of in the form of back-up services , networking , security , governance and so on .
Adopting a multi-cloud strategy makes it technically , commercially and strategically easier for businesses and their IT teams by delivering consistency , not complexity . This acceleration of cloud capabilities and the subsequent impact that it will have on application modernisation , is one positive from the last year that we need to hold on to and continue to build upon . Cloud shouldn ’ t be seen as a take it or leave it trend , but one that needs continual nurturing during its growth and is enhanced , not restricted , by choice . p
40 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www . intelligentcio . com