Change constantly forces businesses to evolve in order to survive. It also serves as a great forcing function for IT organizations as they empower their business. The end goal remains the same – grow the business because the outcome of having no income is going out of business. Therefore, every IT organization needs to adopt a business mindset as they iterate through the numerous solutions that could meet their business’s needs.
Buy or build cloud
Organizations know that they need the flexibility and scalability benefits of cloud, but do they buy or do they build cloud? IT organizations always ask this question as they navigate the solutions landscape. Key factors that come into play involve having the talent and expertise to do so, deciding on a cost expenditure model that would benefit the business, and incorporating the overall business objectives.
Let’s explore the “buy cloud” branch. In this scenario, an organization may lack the talent to deliver and maintain a cloud ecosystem for their business units, they may not have the right datacenter facilities of their own to house them, or they may prefer to allocate their talent to other strategic responsibilities while addressing their cloud infrastructure needs as a commodity. Public cloud is often the first and only choice because it offers the path of least resistance with the hotness of resume worthy technologies.
Well-architected platform
However, not all commodities are created equal, and this is where organizations can make costly mistakes. Instead of creating disruptive innovation to gain a competitive advantage in their industry, they end up disrupting themselves.
To remedy this, infrastructure services need a well architected foundation to provide flexibility, stability, and scalability. In addition, organizations need partners that can become trusted advisors, who they can count on during the good, the bad, and the ugly times. Infrastructure services are just one component of the solution.
A recent TierPoint and Nutanix webinar discussed this in detail. And the highlights were nicely summarized in this TierPoint 6 Dos and Don’ts for Successful Cloud Strategies blog post. Hint: if you don’t include business goals and objectives in your IT solutions, then you’re destined to fail regardless of your buy or build decision.
Trusted advisors
Workloads are moving back from the public cloud for a variety of reasons such as security, cost, and performance per IDC’s Matt Eastwood. Workload characteristics influence workload placement. For example, a general rule of thumb is for predictable workloads to stay on-premises or in a service provider colocation, while elastic workloads go to the public cloud.
Many solutions are good enough until they are too costly and not well understood by organizations. Service providers are key to bridging successful cloud strategies as organizations execute on their hybrid and multicloud solutions. Trusted solutions like TierPoint’s Hosted Private Cloud powered by Nutanix and Cloud to Cloud Recovery powered by Nutanix. In this case, TierPoint provides the talent and expertise that organizations can lean on to continuously integrate and deliver their solutions to their business. In Matt Pecheco’s Cloud Migration Woes: Two Examples of Unforeseen Pitfalls blog, he points out that “on average, an IT professional may see one or two data center or cloud migrations in their career.” An experienced managed cloud provider can provide the rigor and discipline that translates into the difference between success and failure for cloud migration or repatriation efforts.
Business Outcomes > People, Process, and Technology
Ultimately, business success trumps people, process, and technology. Positive business outcomes have to be a part of any digital transformation effort. In other words, the positive outcome for digital transformation is transforming the business to survive and thrive in the global economy. And you’ll need the rigor and discipline of trusted partners like TierPoint to deliver digital transformation through well architected solutions that enable successful business outcomes.
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