By Srikanth Doranadula
The last few years have amplified what the many farsighted organisations already knew — the immense power of cloud computing. However, while cloud has globally proved its worth and has become an important investment, there is no common template for cloud success —it is not a ‘one size fits all’ situation. Moving to the cloud should always be a result of a good strategy unique to an organisation’s goals.
This is especially true in today’s cloud-first era where the battle for market leadership is no longer between an on-premise and a cloud-first organisation but between two businesses with highly powerful cloud strategies in the very same sector. In order to emerge as a leader, businesses must be cognisant of their long-term and short-term innovation goals to chart out a strategy accordingly.
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Magic mix of a right cloud environment
After identifying the relevant goals, businesses must cherry picking crème de la crème of the cloud world — right from the cloud provider to the cloud environment. If the business requires two different clouds to successfully run different workloads then it must choose a multi-cloud environment that offers smooth interoperability. If it is in a highly regulated space or due to any other reason, wants complete control over some of its data and keep it on premise then it must choose a hybrid cloud environment. Understanding what’s best for a business’ performance and choosing to deploy exactly that can be game-changing. Having any trade-offs in costs, performance or even cloud environment can be detrimental to long-term business success.
Another key consideration is the type of cloud provider they pick. A responsible cloud vendor will always play the role of a strategic advisor and will not only ensure a smooth deployment process but also leave no stone unturned for a seamless post deployment service. Additionally, while security is always a shared responsibility between a customer and the cloud provider, businesses must always choose a cloud which runs on security-first principles.
Maximising ROI
Firms try to prepare an economical roadmap for cloud but still are surrounded by the web of egress costs. While they do try to have an overview of their egress costs in advance to some extent, even then these costs can be supremely high. Thus they must choose a cloud provider that offers not only reduced complexities on such costs but also offers low standard billing.
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Ultimately, cloud is an omnipresent catalyst of business continuity; firms must learn to leverage it effectively to ensure better ROI along with an edge above the rest. Also, cloud is no longer a business differentiator but a necessity for transformation. Therefore, organisations must understand their goals and pick a cloud environment that is uniquely best-suited for them.
The writer is Group VP, Technology and Systems, Oracle India