The future of Cloud

The future of the cloud and difficulties for enterprise to make the big jump (cost, complexity, security).

Over the last 6 months, I had the opportunity to talk with peers, cloud expert, suppliers or reporters about the cloud itself (for the generic term) and what would will the trend for the next 5 or 10 years. it really helps me to understand how the cloud will evolve in the future, and how, as a technology expert, it can help me building a robust and long-term strategy for my enterprise.

It’s a fact - the world is moving fast –technology is everywhere. Companies (especially those not named as a startup) need to implement a digital transformation to apply a fundamental change to continue to progress. A few (and quick) research on Internet gives us a good direction:

• Per Gartner: “56 percent said that their digital improvements have already improved profits.” 
• Per Forrester: “...nearly half of revenue will be driven by digital by the year 2020”

So, by Digital Transformation”, we generally have these elements often cited:

• Customer experience
• Operational agility
• Culture and leadership
• Workforce enablement
• Digital technology integration

Companies need now to fight against competitors faster than before – Technologies is here to help (but not only, teams and mindset need to evolve as well !). Things are changing exponentially (as oppose to linearly as before).

Transforming the company will help going in the right direction.

Traditional model is now over – and companies start to adopt a digital strategy:

• any cloud : public cloud or private cloud
• any applications: Traditional applications, Cloud Native, SaaS
• any device: Mobile, Tablet, PC, MAC, IOT, Cars, Flights, Cameras, etc…

The question to find the best scenario is complex and link to each company. This is – for sure – not only an IT question, but a company’s strategy that must be shared at executive level as these transformations have direct impact on the business expectations. As business need agility & innovation, IT must sponsor to them.

Thus, the mission of IT is straightforward: optimize (predictable) cost, modernize the infrastructure, deploy new applications/platform, provide flexibility and agility and scalability (to IT & to the business), implement a proper security, ensure SLA is consistently met, …

One of the scenario I like the most, as a scenario is : multi-cloud providers (private and public) with a “multi-speed delivery” model.

• The multi-cloud providers give you the ability to decide which environment is the best for you – whatever it’s a test / dev / qual or prod environment. You can then balance between cost, agility and security.
• The multi-speed delivery: IT and Digital are not working “at the same speed” (please think on gears running together with different size). However, IT is today much mature in terms of governance, application management where Digital is good for release strategy and fast testing. Both are complementary and provide value to the enterprise.

Now, the question is how to be sure that all these “elements” work all together?

First, you need to be able to implement a good cloud orchestrator to control all your environment. I know that many of you have still “legacy” systems which will be hard to implement, however, for new system, you must be sure they are API (most of SaaS providers are). It is absolutely not recommended to develop an interface (proxy or gateway) between your apps and the orchestrator.

Second, you must automate as much as maximum all tasks. Nobody wants to manually install or tests platform / application. It may generate delay, mistake unwanted.

All cloud architecture has their place (SaaS, FaaS, PaaS, CaaS, IaaS). New companies start and evaluate with no infrastructure, relaying on SaaS partners. It required only a strong network foundation.

Public cloud is now mature (and enough secure) to permit new model that will provide flexibility, scalability and cost control to company’s infrastructure.

IT Teams need to embrace this change and adopt new way to work. Everyone has something to gain – IT and the business.

I’m more than happy to exchange and debate on this. Feel free to contact me directly.

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