Most sentences that include both on premises and cloud usually put the word “or” between them, or perhaps “vs.” But most enterprises operate in the world of “and.” In other words, they have workloads on premises and in the cloud—and that little three-letter word makes a world of difference.
First, consider where we are right now. According to The State of Multi-Cloud Management survey report that Virtana published earlier this year, 98% of respondents have workloads running in the public cloud. Of course, while nearly all organizations have workloads in the public cloud, it doesn’t follow that all of their workloads are in the cloud. In fact, only 13% said that more than three-quarters of their workloads are running in public clouds. The majority—78%—have between 26% and 75% of their workloads in public clouds. This means that the remaining 25–74% of workloads must be in non-public-cloud environments. In other words, most organizations are managing a hybrid cloud infrastructure. Specifically, the same study found that, on average, 17% of enterprise workloads continue to run on premises while 22% are in a private cloud.
Furthermore, with multiple cloud service providers (CSPs) to choose from, the public cloud isn’t one monolithic environment. Most organizations—82%, according to our survey—use more than one CSP. In other words, they are managing an infrastructure that is both hybrid and multi-cloud.
The problem with “or”
Managing a hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure with an “or” mindset means you’ll tend to frame each of those critical environments as its own distinct ecosystem. It is true that on premises, private cloud, and public cloud are all different, just as AWS, Azure, and GCP public clouds are all different—they each have their own unique characteristics. But while there may be cases where an application or service is fully contained within just one, it’s highly likely that the majority traverse these environments. For example, you could have data living on premises that is used by an application in one public cloud and by another application in a different public cloud.
Given the interconnectedness of all these environments in terms of ongoing workload and application operation, it can be problematic if visibility into and management of those environments is siloed. For example, how would you know if repatriating a workload from the cloud back on premises, or migrating it to another CSP, could deliver substantial cost savings? Or which is the best-fit public or private cloud provider to meet your specific performance and risk criteria? Or how to ensure sufficient capacity to achieve business objectives and minimize potential issues when the unforeseen inevitably happens?
The power of “and”
When you have an “and” mindset—and the tools and processes to go with it—you’re no longer managing a collection of different environments but rather one interconnected infrastructure. To get there, you don’t need to replace all of the environment-specific tools you have in place, but you do need to layer on capabilities to consolidate and analyze the data and then enable the appropriate actions in response. Yes, this requires investment. However, when you consider the time spent manually stitching together data and reports, the inefficiency of “swivel-chair” monitoring and management, and the impact of blind spots wherever there’s a “seam” between silos, you can see how that investment will quickly pay off. Furthermore, it’s only from this vantage point that you can truly optimize your entire infrastructure for better performance and reduced risk at a lower cost.
Get to “and” with Virtana Platform
Virtana Platform provides unique performance, availability, capacity, and cost information to enable you to better manage your entire IT infrastructure. The high-performance platform consists of four modular products that help you monitor and optimize Infrastructure Performance Management, Capacity Planning, Cost Management, and Workload Placement. We deliver these capabilities across a multi-cloud environment, providing a unified view that manages both your on-premises and cloud infrastructure assets. With Virtana Platform, you can make data-driven investments and accelerate planning, all tied to business outcomes that support your business requirements and goals. Try it for yourself.
Amit Rathi
VP of Engineering, Virtana
