The Doppler Quarterly Special Edition 2019 | Page 86

In today’s competitive business environment, these are problems enterprises do not want. Companies therefore need to consult with the right experts to make sure their cloud implementations go as smoothly as possible and position their businesses to meet future IT needs. Cloud Management Options Going Solo Some organizations prefer to manage their cloud environ- ments themselves. This can work, in certain situations. Some large companies insist on going it alone in order to retain control over their environments and their invest- ments. Others will start with an MSP to get the necessary tools, training and methodology, and then manage the environment themselves. However, these arrangements usually take longer to achieve the value the customer wants. Practice makes perfect. An organization embarking on a cloud implementation for the very first time is taking a big chance learning on the job. Working With a Niche MSP As more enterprises move to the public cloud, many are engaging with service providers who specialize in migrating to and managing implementations by one of the three main cloud providers: AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform. These MSPs usually have tooling and expertise in only one of the cloud choices – but what if the implementa- tion involves more than one cloud, or resources in a data center environment? The majority of MSPs are still “bou- tique” cloud service providers, and many do not have the capabilities to service multiple IT environments. Working With an Enterprise MSP Experts roundly agree that the future will be dominated by hybrid IT environments, with hybrid cloud spending expected to nearly triple from 2016 to 2021. Data center environments will not go away entirely, housing workloads it makes no sense to move, while the rest of the workloads move to public and private clouds. This means future envi- ronments will become more complex, requiring help from MSPs who possess a broad range of skills, resources and management models. 84 | THE DOPPLER | SPECIAL EDITION 2019 To guide enterprises in the future, MSPs will have to branch out in a number of ways. They will need to manage on- and off-prem environments, multiple public clouds and enter- prise-grade implementations. They will need to exercise flexible processes and methodologies. And they will need to pay close attention to compliance, cost controls and global IT demands. Here are five elements enterprises should look for in a cloud MSP. 1. A hybrid model, applied consistently If an MSP proposes multiple models for multiple private clouds, it will be very difficult to unify those operating mod- els. Managing workloads in different clouds – and in data centers – in the same way reduces the risk of opening gaps that create security holes. 2. A focus on enterprise-level concerns in all places An approach like our Minimum Viable Cloud (MVC) meth- odology gives an MSP the ability to build environments that are fully enterprise-enabled out of the gate. If an MSP offers low-ball pricing to stand up a simple environment to migrate particular workloads into, that environment will not be designed for enterprise-class workloads. Its security, audit- ability and compliance functions will not be operable at the level an enterprise needs. 3. A commitment to flexibility Enterprises may have similar needs, but every implementa- tion is different. You want your MSP to be consistent, but it should not be so locked down it cannot adapt to changing requirements. An enterprise may make tooling choices that have to be incorporated into the environment. If the MSP can accommodate the request, it should. If the customer wants to use its own tools, the MSP should have the resources to bring those tools into the automation frame- work, so they are not being hand deployed every time they are used. You do not want unlimited variability, but a rigid, cookie-cutter approach is never successful. 4. An enterprise-class focus on bedrock issues