Sophisticated cloud environments: How 2023 can be the era that defines smart investments in cloud tech

Up until a few years ago, moving to cloud was considered a huge milestone - almost an achievement - and allowed businesses to bask in the glory of being an early mover. However, things have changed. Today there is a massive cloud wave pushing every organization, even the early fence sitters, to take the cloud route. With such a massive acceptance, businesses have realized that a default cloud approach will not help achieve revolutionary results. As versatile as cloud maybe, it is important to add an extra touch of personalisation to refine the cloud strategy and align it to organizational goals. This extra effort can be the basis of a supreme competitive edge. Having cloud receive the title of a business prerequisite and with it being omnipresent, the responsibility lies with the businesses as well to go a layer deeper than just simply moving the workloads. Businesses also need to understand that considering cloud is now the base of all innovation, a primary rule to cloud strategy should be - no trade-offs. 

For example if two different clouds seem to fulfil different requirements, then businesses must choose both! Additionally, another trend I have observed is that many customers want deployment choice. This essentially points towards them wanting to run some workloads on their own cloud infrastructure. Cloud providers must realise this and aim towards providing customers with the ‘power of choosing from multiple options’ resulting in more control over their cloud investments. I expect the year 2023 to be the year when customers will demand choice more prominently and they will run the show making informed decisions on their cloud deployments. Considering wanting the best for all your workloads isn’t an option anymore, businesses must look beyond the traditional way of leveraging cloud. As this happens, they will inevitably need to move to more sophisticated cloud environments including multicloud and hybrid cloud. 

A multicloud strategy essentially allows customers the flexibility to cherry pick the best-of-breed cloud providers for each of their workload. Having vendor specific capabilities can be game changing and can help achieve full value from cloud. Businesses must understand that each cloud has been designed to cater to a unique problem. While trying to get complex workloads to run might work however in some cases it can deter organisation’s growth and push it back by years. Additionally, multicloud also allows customers to pick and choose cloud providers basis various criteria including costs, performance, location all the while helping to avoid vendor lock-ins as well. The baton also lies with the vendors to initiate partnerships or offering where multicloud isn’t looked at as a hassle given interoperability issues. One example of vendors teaming up to give choice to the customers and provide a simple path to multicloud is the partnership between Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Microsoft Azure. The service allows low-latency connectivity between Microsoft Azure and OCI. It deploys Oracle Database on OCI and provides metrics on Azure. With such efforts, multicloud can truly become a reality as customers start to view it as a simplified process. 

Another significant cloud environment that can assist with wider cloud acceptance is hybrid cloud. With this type of strategy, customers get the best of both worlds with on-premise resources and public cloud services. It helps address security concerns around some of the most sensitive data held by any and every sector. Even beyond that, it helps ensure that commitments such as data sovereignty are fulfilled in the most efficient way possible. Hybrid cloud also especially supports the regulatory requirements of public sector and helps them maintain a balance between ensuring compliance and also constantly innovating. Industries such as BFSI, telecom, defense can also benefit from such an offering. A well-crafted hybrid cloud strategy can support organisational development in a very unique manner and also motivate for a wider acceptance of cloud. In my conversations with various technology leaders, I still witness the willingness to know more about cloud before they decide to start their journey. For them, a hybrid cloud approach can prove to be ideal considering it allows them to slowly enter the cloud world by only deploying non critical workloads first. 

Ultimately, the success of either of these environments only comes with having a cloud provider who understands that their partnership with the business only starts at deployment. Cloud journey can be daunting for some organisations but at the same time sticking to traditional methods can be catastrophic too. Having a unique blend of the cloud environment with hybrid or multicloud and a responsible cloud provider can not only give businesses the competitive advantage but also allow  them to constantly innovate on their own terms. 

Views are personal. The author is Group Vice President, Technology and Systems, Oracle India. 

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