EXPERT OPINION
the job you’re doing isn’t good enough
anymore. In addition, with automation one
of the core technologies enabled by the
cloud, innovation can actually compound
hesitation due to the perceived risk it
poses to their job security.
In reality, the opposite is true. The cloud
stands to liberate employees from keeping
the organisation’s core processes running
and give them the time and space they
need to grow their skillset.
In fact, failing to retain staff is
tantamount to undermining the resilience
of the business, especially during periods
of change.
These are the people who understand
where the challenges lie in the current
system, as well as where the shortcuts are
(i.e. system rationalisation) and existing
best practices that should be retained.
Businesses undergoing modernisation
need to seize the opportunity to empower
their staff not only with new digital
tools, but through regular engagement
and bespoke training programmes that
reinforce an individual employee’s sense of
worth to the business.
www.intelligentdatacentres.com
Applications
With the freedom that cloud affords (i.e.
public vs. private, scalable infrastructure,
etc.) also comes the paradox of choice.
With things like cost, security and
regulation already muddying the waters
when it comes to choosing which
applications to host in public vs private
cloud environments, businesses must also
find the best execution venue from which
they can be run.
This is especially true for the myriad
businesses with legacy IT looking to
modernise using the cloud. Issues such
as latency and shadow IT can lead to
network paths being disrupted when
legacy applications are migrated. This
leads to businesses being bitten by early
onset issues and a premature return to
hosting applications in-house, dealing
a massive blow to the momentum of
modernisation strategies.
It’s clear that the on-premises data
centre is here to stay, bolstered by the
bourgeoning number of partnerships
between typical data centre providers
and cloud providers offering hybrid cloud
solutions. Hybrid gives businesses the
flexibility needed to find the best location
for the application, (i.e. where it will be
secure and where it will encounter better
application uptime).
Crucially, hybrid breeds resilience, as it
allows businesses to take an incremental
approach to migrating to the cloud and
mitigate the chance of disruption when
moving high-risk applications. While no
one wants change processes to drag on,
it’s equally important that businesses
BUSINESSES
MUST NOT
UNDERESTIMATE
THE GRAVITY
THAT MOVING TO
A CLOUD-BASED
BUSINESS MODEL
ENTAILS.
Issue 12
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