Determining the Right IT Infrastructure Despite Cloud Fever

The expected mass exodus to the cloud isn’t happening as predicted. While many enterprises are gaining cost savings and better performance with cloud resources, they’re also finding that a migration to the cloud is a bit more complicated in some cases than anticipated. IT infrastructure is still complex, and requires careful consideration to determine which type of environment works best for the enterprise.

It seems that enterprises are needing some time to feel their way from hardware-centric IT infrastructure to one relying on cloud software. In the meantime, it’s difficult to predict whether public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud solutions will end up as the primary choice, or if digital transformation will largely happen on a case-by-case basis. Public cloud usage is soaring, and much of the innovation to hit the IT industry is coming from this arena, including blockchain, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing.

There are a few challenges that prevent orienting IT infrastructure in the cloud from becoming a standard path for enterprises:

Costs are hard to control: Cost savings is a big driver of cloud migration, and yet many enterprises quickly find that the transition is not what they’d hoped. From costlier-than-expected data storage to unanticipated adjustments that need to be made to legacy systems before migrating to the cloud, there are many ways to allow cloud costs to spiral. While the ability to categorize spending as operating expenses rather than capital investments is attractive to IT and finance alike, the monthly charges for cloud services can be wildly inconsistent.

Lack of flexibility and control: In a rush to capture the early competitive advantages of migrating to the cloud, many enterprises failed to set up the necessary governance and security policies, or to clearly establish a strategy for cloud adoption policies. As a result, many were left to navigate problems with shadow IT, security breaches, and other challenges.

Failure to create a strong exit strategy: While many enterprises are now cautious about vendor lock-in, the initial agreements between enterprises and cloud providers didn’t leave much room for a change of heart. As a result, many IT personnel favor a multi-cloud approach, in which enterprises are free to choose from the best applications offered by a variety of vendors. This allows IT to optimize the right cloud solutions for the right workload.

As cloud services are being shaped and improved to serve enterprise needs, it’s clear that the days of purchasing off-the-shelf products for IT infrastructure are over.

One Connect’s mission is to ensure our clients receive the very best customer service in the industry. Contact us to learn more about our strategy for helping you access cloud services without sacrificing performance or security.