Cloudification – a match made in the clouds

The story begins with the marriage of the network, the data centre and the cloud and ends with the marriage of enterprises worldwide to their preferred cloud providers. Marriage is built on security, flexibility and reliability, which the cloud is readily offering the enterprise.

For this reason, enterprises are moving en masse away from a monogamous relationship with their childhood sweethearts, the in-house data centre, and forging hybrid relationships between their existing data centres and new cloud-hosted solutions. Those enterprises that haven’t yet done so will soon follow suit.

Jumping on the bandwagon and moving to the cloud is fast becoming a no-brainer for most enterprises. Hybrid cloud solutions are cost effective, and according to recent research carried out by Tata Communications, 98% of enterprises believe that they have realised cost savings since migrating to the cloud. Thanks to the flexibility, there is a move of costs from capex to opex, and a reduction in the need for expenditure on management and specialist expertise.

Hybrid cloud has, of course, been an option for years. Traditionally, however, many enterprises shied away due to fears around predictability and security. IT directors need to have the guarantee of a secure and predictable internet connection to make their cloud infrastructure viable. Tata Communications’ global network platform for enhanced hybrid cloud enablement, IZO™, and other platforms like it, help enterprises to realise their hybrid cloud solution, giving them ultimate peace of mind – it’s match-making on a global network level!

Before rushing into a new cloud partnership, however, the one thing that enterprises must take into account is security, the underlying promise of any successful relationship. With the new EU data protection law introduced in 2014, cloud breaches come with serious cost implications for service providers.

Enterprises must ensure that they opt for a solution that complies with local regulation and provides adequate security – for example, any applications based in the cloud must have the necessary user authentication layers in place. Enterprises need to identify the right platform to navigate this complex landscape.

There’s no doubt that the “cloudification” of business is well underway. The reason for this is primarily that there has been widespread smartphone and tablet penetration in the workplace, as well as the fact that more and more enterprise applications are now internet-based, driving enterprises to re-consider legacy infrastructure to keep up with modern business needs.

So, what does the future hold for the relationship between the cloud and the enterprise? Companies are not going to totally abandon their legacy infrastructure and on-premise data centres, but will build a tailored solution that marries the data centre and the cloud to form a hybrid cloud solution that really works for them. As enterprises adopt new hybrid cloud solutions, they must ensure that they choose the right cloud provider for their specific requirements to complement their existing infrastructure and find a true match made in the clouds.

Cloud computing is now a well-established proposition — but has it lived up to the hype? Watch our short film and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.