Is it time to rip off that cloud-shaped bandage?

Migrating certain data and services to the cloud in order to cope during lockdown was a herculean effort for businesses. For most, it required plastering a cloud-shaped bandage over their data, applications, and infrastructures, just to enable remote working.

But this accelerated journey to the cloud hasn’t come without its fair share of problems in terms of operational costs, application performance, and data protection.

As IT teams look back in awe at the crazy spring / summer of 2020, it’s the ideal time to reassess your current cloud provision, to make sure it’s really delivering what your business needs, today and in the future.

Basically, it’s time to rip that bandage off.

Ouch!

Most organisations are experiencing all sorts of issues in the wake of their accelerated cloud migration efforts.

• Cost is a common pain point. Can you afford to keep running in the cloud? One organisation we’re talking to is spending a million dollars a month more than they anticipated. What’s more, these bills are hugely complicated, covering compute, ingress, egress… they’re using a bill reader just to keep track of it all.
• Then there’s performance. Are your apps running as well as they could? Some of our clients are gaining no performance benefits or experiencing suboptimal user experience from moving a particular app to the cloud. So it’s time to rethink.
• Then there are the file formats and protocols for storing and handling cloud data. Are you protecting data integrity and preventing cloud lock-in? 70% of enterprise data is actually file data. Many organisations are encountering problems when converting data for their cloud provider, resulting in errors, while the conversion process itself adds an extra layer of complexity. Is this really the best long-term plan?
• Finally – and it’s a big one – there’s data protection. Companies are realising that certain applications, such as Office 365, need a comprehensive backup strategy – not just versioning. What if someone accidentally or deliberately deletes something or if there is a ransomware attack. So, to protect business operations going forward, it’s vital organisations consider how to integrate data protection into their cloud strategy.

So, do you move forwards… or do you rebound?

Now is the time for you to consider your next steps. Should you rebound to the data centre… or do you try to optimise everything in the cloud?

In truth, the right approach is going to be a bit of both.

With NetApp technology, you can optimise your workloads in the cloud. And working with BT, we can make sure you have the optimum location and service for your needs. 

Essentially, NetApp and BT together can help you to move your workloads and data to the right place, at the right time, with the right characteristics to accelerate innovation. We can help you access insights to make more informed decisions for the future, and mitigate the risk of having ‘all your eggs in one basket’.

Our managed services take care of your complex application migration, in your BT data centre, and across hybrid cloud, removing the need to re-architect or convert your data as you go.

So, while you do need to rip the bandage off… it really doesn’t need to be as painful as you might expect.