Navigating the Hybrid Cloud Landscape: Beyond Simple Asset Placement
The financial services industry and increasingly others, are doubling down on hybrid cloud strategies. Still, a recent HPE survey highlighted a critical gap: a lack of clarity around what “hybrid” truly means. It’s no longer sufficient to simply have some assets on-premises and others in the public cloud. True hybridity demands integration, and organizations need a robust plan to achieve it.
The Five Pillars of Hybrid Cloud Readiness
Before embarking on a hybrid cloud journey, organizations must address five key areas. First, a complete workload discovery and dependency mapping is essential – not just a partial inventory. Understanding how applications interact is crucial for successful migration and ongoing management. Second, rigorous financial modeling is needed, comparing the costs of maintaining the current state versus diversifying to a hybrid model over a multi-year horizon. This includes factoring in licensing costs and potential employee expenses related to migration.
Third, a clearly defined target operating model is paramount. How will the hybrid environment be managed, monitored, and secured? Fourth, skills alignment is critical, particularly for security teams who need training on hybrid governance practices. Finally, a tested rollback capability is non-negotiable. Organizations must be able to revert to their previous state if the hybrid implementation encounters unforeseen issues.
AI’s Impact on Cloud Costs: A New Reality
While base cloud costs aren’t necessarily increasing, a significant 17% of respondents in the HPE survey reported an overall increase in cloud spending. The primary driver? The growing employ of cloud resources for Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads. This suggests that organizations need to carefully monitor and optimize their AI deployments to avoid unexpected cost overruns. Workloads like financial modeling and weather modeling are particularly resource-intensive.
This trend underscores the need for workload-aware hybrid cloud operating models. As Rackspace Technology notes, a hybrid cloud solution can meet the unique needs of financial services firms by allowing organizations to mix on-premises infrastructure with private and public cloud services.
Data Governance in a Hybrid World
The shift to hybrid cloud also necessitates a re-evaluation of data governance strategies. Organizations are increasingly adopting federated data governance models, combining centralized policies with local execution and shared tools. This approach allows for broad adoption while maintaining a degree of control and consistency. Financial services, in particular, often start with a centralized model for oversight, then evolve towards a hybrid approach.
Different data sensitivity levels may also dictate governance approaches. Centralizing governance for highly sensitive data while allowing more flexibility for less critical information is a common strategy.
The Rise of Multicloud and Oracle’s Hybrid Offerings
The trend towards hybrid cloud is closely linked to the broader adoption of multicloud strategies. Organizations are increasingly leveraging multiple cloud providers to avoid vendor lock-in and optimize performance. Oracle, for example, offers hybrid cloud solutions and supports workloads across 29 global regions for disaster recovery.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a workload? A workload refers to the amount of processing and analysis a system needs to perform. Examples include financial modeling and data analysis from IoT sensors.
What are the three main data governance models? The three main models are centralized, decentralized, and federated. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Is hybrid cloud always the right choice? Not necessarily. A thorough financial analysis comparing “stay versus diversify” scenarios is crucial to determine the best approach for your organization.
How can I control cloud costs associated with AI? Carefully monitor and optimize your AI deployments, and consider workload-aware hybrid cloud strategies to leverage the most cost-effective resources.
Pro Tip: Don’t underestimate the importance of skills training. Ensure your security teams are proficient in hybrid cloud governance practices.
Did you know? 17% of organizations experienced increased cloud costs due to AI usage, according to a recent HPE survey.
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