Many enterprises are moving towards hybrid cloud environments, but they face a challenge when it comes to working out how to control their cloud use effectively.

If they fail to do this and govern their cloud use properly, then any gains in agility they achieve will come with high costs and operational risks. We spoke to Andrew Hillier, CTO of Cirba, the company behind the Densify.comSaaS hybrid capacity analytics software, to find out how enterprises can bridge the gap between cloud hype and reality.

BN: What are the main factors driving the move towards cloud use?

AH: There are numerous factors that are driving the move towards cloud use for all sizes of enterprises. Agility is cited the most, as public cloud allows businesses to scale their operations up or down depending on needs, while quickly responding to the business. Cost competitiveness is another. We have even heard from some customers within which boards are pushing to get out of the business of owning and operating data centers. And even if that isn't the case, most organizations want to avoid expanding their physical footprint or building more data centers -- we have one customer that was running out of power in their data center and had the choice of looking to relocate or use the cloud. The reasons are as varied as the organizations using cloud resources.

BN: What's the impact to the business of IT infrastructure in the cloud now being an operational rather than a capital expense?

AH: One of the benefits of old school data centers is that organizations knew how to plan out their costs. They typically over-provisioned to plan for growth and sunk a bunch of money into hardware and software. The move to cloud presents a more dynamic cost structure with variable usage, costs and even changing vendor catalogues and cost structures. That traditional planning exercise is still important, but rather than happening cyclically, it is now an ongoing, dynamic process. This means that everything needs to happen faster, and it requires consistency in approach, with the proper governance and policies in place to not make a mess or have costs spiral out of control. To constantly optimize public cloud OPEX, and to strike the right balance between incurring new costs versus leveraging the sunk CAPEX costs of existing infrastructure, requires more than spreadsheets and smart people. It needsanalytics that can incorporate a dynamic model of demand and a deep, up-to-date understanding of the various hosting environments, to scientifically determine the best options for workload placements and resource allocations. We are finding that most companies don't have their heads around how to do this yet.

BN: How important is proper governance of cloud strategy?

AH: All of the benefits of migrating towards a cloud strategy -- flexibility, scalability, security, etc. -- are not worth anything if your IT department hasn't figured out how to properly manage and govern its cloud usage effectively. Proper governance is the most important aspect of a successful cloud migration strategy, but it is often an afterthought in many organizations, as that early cloud adopters in Dev/Test didn't always need to deal with governance rules, and they didnt experience the long-term costs that can rack up when things move into production. In fact, I've heard surprised reactions from many IT decision makers who began the migration process and were shocked when expected savings turned into higher monthly costs.

To avoid this, companies need to have a formal set of criteria and guidelines for decision making as to where to place workloads in order to effectively leverage both on premise and cloud infrastructure. And this isn't just a documentation and awareness exercise -- these criteria need to be codified into the analytics and automation systems being used, so the right decisions can be made rapidly and automatically. This will help not just in governance and compliance, but also in ongoing cost control. All in all, it's important that CTOs and IT teams remember that the reality of the cloud wont ever live up to the hype if its not being governed and controlled properly.

BN: Does too much control risk loss of agility?

AH: It doesn't have to -- the ability to codify the ground rules and use analytics to optimize and automate cloud hosting decisions means that complex hybrid decisions can be made in real time, giving the business exactly what they need without slowing them down. But don't expect cloud provisioning and orchestration tools to have this level of intelligence -- being good at provisioning a new system is completely different from being very good at figuring out exactly where that system should be provisioned, especially in hybrid cloud. To automate these processes and not create an ungoverned mess, you need analytics that can model all necessary criteria for the workloads, the capabilities of the infrastructure and the governing policies.

BN: What's the future for hybrid cloud?

AH: One thing I think we can all agree on is that cloud is becoming more widely accepted and will play an increasing role in infrastructure strategies. How much ends up in the cloud is anyones guess at this point, and will likely vary significantly for each organization depending on the nature of their applications and the patterns of their workloads, but we do know that customers see public cloud as the yard stick for speed and cost against which internal IT departments will be measured. I believe this will be the year that many companies will finally figure out how to leverage that yard stick to scientifically determine what to migrate to the cloud successfully, and what not to. By properly analyzing workloads, many organizations will undoubtedly find that a portion of their applications are more cost-effective and efficient in on-prem virtual environments, at least until their existing data centers run out of space.

And we shouldn't underestimate the power of virtualization -- the rise of interest in bare metal offerings, where you can bring your own hypervisor, is also changing the dynamic. The ability to intelligently stack workloads and over commit resources is clearly very powerful, and also translates to the cloud as a powerful way to drive cost savings. VMware's partnership with AWS is going to enable this, and it could have a major impact on the way organizations adopt 'cloud,' as well as the systems they need to manage and optimize these hybrid environments.

Image Credit: Maksim Kabakou / Shutterstock

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Solving the puzzle of hybrid cloud [Q&A] - BetaNews

Research To some, cloud computing is synonymous with so-called public cloud services such as AWS and Azure, but this isnt the view of Reg readers. When 668 of you provided feedback during a recent survey on meeting infrastructure-level needs, the adoption of private cloud (defined as cloudy architecture running in your own datacentre) was what came through most prominently:

Whats also clear from this picture is that evangelical claims of everyone now having a cloud first strategy greatly overstate the level of commitment out there. Many organisations are still in the investigation or planning stage in relation to different types of cloud and use cases, and while most of the remainder are open-minded in each area, a significant level of scepticism persists.

Looking at adoption in a different way, we see that all those phrases suggesting a rapid market shift cloud explosion, stampede to the cloud, etc. are also considerably overstated. The reality is that adoption over the last five years or so would be better characterised as a slow burn:

The other key observation is that even when you look across all the use cases listed above (as that last chart does), there are still quite a few organisations yet to do anything meaningful with infrastructure-level cloud, particularly in relation to public cloud services.

Implicit in the data presented is the notion that most organisations active with cloud are mixing and matching solutions and services: generally speaking, the requirement to support hybrid environments came through very strongly. This leads to the need for a range of capabilities that enable harmonious and efficient coexistence of different cloud flavours. An example that clearly illustrates this is workload migration:

The same principle of aiming for coherency across all the internal and external clouds you use applies to management and monitoring, access security, data protection, application integration, and all of the other things that are important for maintaining integrity and flexibility, and preventing runaway costs and risks.

And as illustrated on the chart, when thinking about this we need to interpret the word hybrid in its broadest sense. Its not just about getting on-premise systems working together with hosted services, its about acknowledging the reality of dealing with multiple cloud environments and instances running in your own datacentre, while simultaneously exploiting multiple public cloud services, and even those more traditional forms of infrastructure and hosting.

This is where the latest generation of private/hybrid cloud solutions come into play. The idea of these is to create a platform or framework that provides on-premise cloud capability in its own right, but also represents a single point of coordination for effective management and operation of the various clouds you adopt. Get it right, and the result is freedom and flexibility, e.g. to move workloads around freely and make sure a given application is always running in the most appropriate cloud, based on its performance characteristics, compliance requirements, economics, and so on.

Of course, this is easier said than done, particularly in a larger and more complex environment where you will generally end up with more than one hybrid cloud platform. Even then, however, its better to have a discrete number of properly managed hybrid setups than a sprawling, disjointed mishmash of private and public cloud instances, which is the obvious danger, given the way many organisations are headed.

The good news and the bad news is that the IT vendor community have pretty much all gone hybrid cloud crazy at the moment, which means lots of choices, but also lots of hype and spin to work through. At the 40,000 feet level, one of the big debates is whether you should take a pure software-based approach to building your hybrid environment, or take advantage of the growing range of pre-integrated hardware/software stacks or appliances. When considering this question, Reg readers who have a firm preference tend to lean towards the software-based approach, though the most common view is that you should keep your options open because requirements will vary:

The other big question is whether you should turn to virtualisation platform incumbents such as VMware and Microsoft, or give a chance to newer players, who claim to approach the problem with a fresh mindset and no baggage. This isnt an easy decision as there are pros and cons in each direction:

What most readers agree on, however, is that whichever way you go, it makes sense to structure and pace your hybrid-cloud activity in a proactive but considered manner:

And so the slow burn of cloud computing adoption continues, though we hope in a more joined up and organised way.

If you are interested in seeing the complete set of findings from the study, and reading a more in-depth discussion of hybrid-cloud practicalities, you can download the full research report here.

Read more:
Cloud computing is bigger than AWS and Azure - The Register

Huawei is evolving its cloud business by investing in a public cloud platform. During the companys annual global analyst summit in Shenzhen, China, this week, Eric Xu, Huaweis rotating CEO, said the company is committed to working with operators on their cloud services as well as building Huaweis own public cloud.

According to Mobile World Live, which has analysts attending Huaweis analyst conference, Huawei plans to create a new cloud business unit and will invest $1 billion in the initiative. It will do that by first transforming itself into a digital company and then working with operators to help them changetheir businesses.

William Xu, executive director and chief strategy marketing officer at Huawei, said that according to the companys 2017 Global Connectivity index, cloud computing is gaining steam on a regional and national scale, and many industries are seeing the importance of the cloud. The company also touted its All-Cloud platform, which has three key features including hardware resource pooling, which allows the pooling of computing and storage resources; distributed software architecture, which includes scalability, service quality, and service agility; and automated operations, which means the network is self-healing and optimized for efficiency.

This isnt the first time Huawei has talked about the public cloud. At the 2016 analyst conference, company executives made many references to leading U.S. cloud platforms, including Amazon,Microsoft, andFacebook, and talked about how Huawei could help telecom companies move as quickly as possible to the cloud model.

Of course Huawei isnt the only company looking to take market share away from the big public cloud providers. In January China Mobileannounced it had deployed nearly 2,000 publiccloudservers at two existing data centers in Beijing and Guangzhou. China Mobile choseNokiasNuage Networkssoftware-defined networking (SDN)technology for the project.

Plus, just last week Europeancloudhosting provider OVH announced it was buying VMwares vCloud Air business as part of theexpansion of its cloud business. OVH recently received a $250 million investment from KKR and TowerBrook to help fund the companys U.S. expansion and fuel competition with big public cloud providers like AWS and Microsoft.

Sue is VP of Content and Editor-in-Chief at SDxCentral. Prior to SDxCentral, Sue was the Editor-in-Chief of FierceMarkets Telecom Group. Sue has more than 20 years of experience reporting on the telecom industry, including roles as the Executive Editor at Wireless Week and Managing Editor at Convergence magazine. She has also worked as an analyst for Paul Kagan Associates, specializing in wireless and broadband technologies. She can be reached at smarek@sdncentral.com

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Huawei Invests $1 Billion in Public Cloud Platform - SDxCentral

Digital agencies, financial firms, small and medium enterprises, all are migrating more applications and workloads to the cloud every day. In fact, the cloud is having such a meteoric impact that Gartner estimates as much as $216 billion will be spent on the cloud shift by 2020.

It isnt hard to see the advantages to this approach employees enjoy easier access to critical systems and data while business leaders benefit from lower, more predictable IT costs.

But whats in it for the internal IT team?

Ensuring the right choiceAs more and more cloud solutions become available, the number of choices can quickly become overwhelming, even for the most well-versed IT decision-maker.

This is where a partnership with a managed cloud hosting provider becomes so valuable. Executives can lean on this relationship to ensure they are making the right decisions with their IT investments which should drive ROI and eliminate missteps. Starting the cloud journey off on the right foot is important and leveraging a managed hosting partner can ensure every cloud need is addressed.

Shifting workloads means shifting responsibilitiesTodays IT professionals are the bedrock of most organizations, ensuring that all critical systems provide optimal functionality. Whats more, these responsibilities only expand as the number of devices connected to the network grows.

How do they ensure that everything hums along as it should? A managed cloud solution provides an answer to this struggle. As more and more important workloads migrate to the cloud, this responsibility shifts from the internal IT team to the managed cloud hosting provider. In short: while the company still owns everything migrated to the cloud, the managed service provider now takes care of maintenance and upkeep.

Providers of managed service will make sure your system is configured properly for your load, keep an eye on security issues, patch your software as needed and manage backups among other tasks, CNET contributor David Gewirtz wrote.

This liberates the internal IT team to conquer other pressing technological initiatives, such experimenting with new software or investigating a new IT strategy. The possibilities are endless.

The power of the cloud without the complexityThe cloud is a powerful asset for businesses, no matter their size or industry. This investment becomes even more impactful when coupled with a partnership with a managed services provider.

Taking advantage of the expertise of a managed service partner helps ensure that the right technology is in place and that this environment is skillfully maintained for now and the future.

Finally, IT teams can rejoice.

> Navigating the cloud doesnt have to be hard: Sign up for Cloud Connection, our new, soon-to-be-launched newsletter.

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Why IT Teams Should Be Thankful for Managed Cloud Hosting - The Media Temple Blog (press release) (blog)

VMware is selling its vCloud Air business to OVH.

VMware is selling its infrastructure-as-a-service offering vCloud Air to global hyperscale cloud provider OVH.

VMware launched vCloud Air Network in 2014 with the aim of providing greater flexibility to users of VMware technology. Three years on, its public cloud business is set to be bought by French cloud computing and web hosting company OVH.

In an interview with Fortune, VMware chief executive Pat Gelsinger said the sale will include vCloud operations and sales staff, datacenters, and customers. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, and the buyout is expected to be completed during the second quarter of this year.

Once the sale is completed, OVH will operate the service as 'vCloud Air Powered by OVH', continuing to use VMware's hybrid cloud technology and working with VMware to provide customer support for datacenter extension, datacenter consolidation, and datacenter recovery.

"We have enjoyed a long and successful partnership with OVH and view this acquisition as an extension of our partnership and a positive for our customers and partners," Gelsinger said in a statement about the planned deal.

"Customers will have access to OVH's global footprint, high-touch customer support, and still retain the VMware SDDC technology innovation that they are accustomed to," he added.

One of the world's largest cloud service providers, OVH has over a million customers and 260,000 servers in datacenters across four continents. The company is looking to the VMware acquisition to aid large enterprise demands for hybrid cloud, and help it break into the US.

"With this acquisition, OVH will offer a very unique value proposition for larger enterprise deployments, including rich capabilities for migration and advanced hybrid functionalities for virtual data centers. This will benefit all our clients across the globe," said Octave Klaba, chairman and CEO of OVH.

VMWare's decision to sell its public cloud offering comes as the company looks to concentrate on providing hybrid and cross-cloud software and services.

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VMware shifts away from public cloud hosting with sale of vCloud Air to OVH - ZDNet