*The following is an article contributed by Sujith Kumar, Director Solutions – APAC, Getronics
Cloud is pretty much everywhere these days. It has evolved from being a mere tool into a genuine platform to leverage and enable a smooth customer experience for businesses. The cloud is crucial for the development of companies, and central to three key questions in IT: security, data and workplace.
According to Gartner, the global public cloud service market is anticipated to grow by a CAGR of about 12 percent between 2018 and 2022, reaching US$331.2 billion. In Southeast Asia, the cloud computing market is also expected to grow, reaching US $40.32 billion by 2025 due to increased demand for services from SMEs. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is also working diligently to build a strong ICT infrastructure and industry within the member nations to improve collective capabilities.
It may seem that cloud migration is a simple, quick process; however, it is very complex. It needs to be extremely reliable and secure, yet adapt to the constant need for flexibility and mobility – both in terms of devices and access to services. In fact, the cloud is becoming more complex due to the ongoing development of new features and innovations. The cloud is not a finished product, but a platform on which apps and solutions are built. Therefore, migrating to the cloud is not an endpoint but a beginning.
As such, cloud requires skills and know-how that traditional companies usually do not have in-house. The logical choice is to call on a managed services provider (MSP) to help with the transition to the cloud and manage it once everything is up and running.
Making the right choices and managing costs
Countries in Southeast Asia have scored high on the Asia Cloud Computing Association’s cloud readiness index, as Singapore is not only a leader in the region, but also globally. However, the latest index indicates that a gulf may be emerging between emerging economies and the top countries in the region.
Now companies need to make investments to put their readiness for cloud computing to use. Managed service providers can guide companies and help them monitor costs before, during and after the migration process by unifying the various best-in-class cloud solutions. This also requires buy-in across multiple levels and processes within the enterprise including IT, governance, security & compliance, billing, reporting, and aligning the customer with the end-client.
The three stages of migration
Generally, migration to the cloud happens in three stages: a lift and shift of existing infrastructure, a review of the application landscape and front-end review of services. The lift and shift of existing infrastructure and applications from the traditional IT infrastructures (legacy or on-premise) to the cloud and the adoption of adjacent new services is the low-hanging fruit that most companies have come around to. This allows for good performance and services while delivering immediate cost-saving and a broader scope of capabilities and features including AI, big data, IoT, and data analytics.
The second stage includes taking a closer look at the companies’ application landscape to determine how to leverage the cloud further by changing or refactoring applications. This involves modernising apps to use new tools or features offered by cloud providers. An example of this is database services, where the more traditional server systems are replaced by public cloud database or analytics services. In the third stage, the front-end is reviewed and services can begin to be offered.
This is where companies can really start leveraging new features by developing modules and capabilities in their applications, such as data analytics. Depending on the context of the enterprise, the stages can be approached differently.
Hybrid vs. Public Cloud
An important decision businesses need to make when migrating to cloud is whether to use a public cloud (hosted and managed by an external provider) or a hybrid cloud (a model that features a combination of public, private and on-premise solutions). While the public cloud often appears to be the easier solution, it is not the answer for all situations and comes with certain traps which should be monitored. Expert guidance is crucial to aid companies in deciding their needs, which should be based on context and a number of specific criteria, including cost, the overall applications landscape and IT infrastructure, regulation, and security needs.
In recent times, we have seen a cloud repatriation by companies deciding to go back from public cloud to a hybrid solution that incorporates privately hosted or even on-premise infrastructures for cost or security reasons. The hybrid model gives businesses the flexibility to choose where to store different sets of information so companies can take advantage of the scalability and cost benefits associated with the public cloud while still maintaining security levels for sensitive data. When managed properly, the public cloud is one of the most secure environments for sensitive company data, with different layers of protection, such as two-factor authentication, firewalls and anti-intrusion utilities, added on top of the providers’ security wrapping. Maintaining these high security levels is a question of both investment and capabilities that a strong and reliable partner can help companies navigate.
What does the future hold?
In the near future, we anticipate major progress in applications. As new features and possibilities emerge, and knowledge of cloud improves, businesses will be able to operate more effectively and have the space to innovate. Only then will we be able to grasp the true extent of the possibilities the cloud has to offer. All of this is linked to security, data and workplace, to which the cloud can be a very good solution.
