Optimize Efficiencies Through Digital Innovation in the Cloud
- By Paul Mah
- November 29, 2022
As the effects of geopolitical risks and softening markets grow, doing more with less have never been more important. But how can organizations leverage the cloud to innovate and optimize their efficiencies?
To cope with the evolving technology landscape, we must continue to change and adapt our strategies, says Dane Anderson, senior vice president of International Research and Products at analyst firm Forrester. Indeed, he noted that many of the rules that used to apply may not work as well as they used to.
Anderson said this at a recent in-person roundtable discussion held at the Sofitel Singapore City Centre, hosted by CDOTrends and sponsored by Microsoft, VMware, Intel, and Logicalis. Attended by more than a dozen senior executives in charge of IT, strategy, or data science, attendees heard about the latest technology trends and engaged in discussions with their peers.
The cloud story so far
Across the board, over 80 percent of organizations in the Asia Pacific (APAC) have already adopted the cloud, says Anderson, though figures vary from country to country. What stood out was the small number of businesses that rely solely on one public cloud.
“What we found is two-thirds of those customers have adopted hybrid cloud deployments. And those who use public clouds, over 80 percent use multiple public cloud platforms,” he said. “The market sometimes thinks in binary ways – in terms of a winner and a loser in the public cloud space. But there is more than one winner here; I think most organizations are now adopting multiple public clouds.”
And where organizations previously turned to the cloud to achieve cost savings, cost is no longer the key driver. Instead, businesses are leveraging the cloud to innovate and develop the capabilities they would otherwise not be able to build.
“Businesses are now investing in the cloud as a means for innovation. They are innovating for competitive differentiation, to enhance their ability to be adaptive, creative, and resilient – all these go up when you invest in the cloud,” said Anderson.
“Now, I’m not saying everything should go 100 percent into the public cloud; there are other considerations such as cost, data residency, and compliance to look at. But by leveraging the cloud, you can put in little innovations or little bits of code and have a huge impact.”
Digital innovation in the cloud
Sourabh Chitrachar, the regional vice president at Liberty Mutual Insurance recounted the cloud journey at his organization two years ago.
“When you first start migrating to the cloud, one decision that you are immediately confronted with would be: Should we just lift and shift? Or should we optimize and then migrate?” he shared, noting that the former does not give the organization the full benefits of the cloud. Yet with all eyes from the company’s leadership expectantly tracking the cloud journey, expect strong pressure to hasten the migration with a lift and shift.
And reskilling existing employees proved to be one of the biggest challenges, he says, with the need to retrain engineers and system administrators to manage everything in the cloud. Then there is also the need to attract new cloud talents and bring them on board to review and further optimize the cloud deployment.
There is no question that the cloud is a game changer, however. Chitrachar said: “There are so many benefits that we are getting from the cloud, such as the ability to set up new offices very, very quickly, or to decommission branches in a short amount of time. And there are also other benefits in terms of DevOps pipelines, DevSecOps adoption.”
“It is a multi-cloud, multi-tenant journey for us. We are not where we want to be yet. But there are already many benefits that we are reaping right now. Our developers are benefiting, for instance, as we start leveraging some of the cloud-based development tools, the serverless architectures, and the low code or no code environments.”
Chitrachar has this advice for technology leaders making a move to the cloud: “When you go to your board or your leadership, go with a storyline that says it's not just a pure cost play on the infrastructure side. Highlight how the cloud will benefit the business by helping you scale up your applications, your websites, and whatever you're building – quickly. The cloud gives you this ability to be agile and to innovate.”
Overcoming resistance to the cloud
Chua Chwee Koh, who is a senior advisor at Certis Cisco Security cautioned attendees not to underestimate the innate resistance of infrastructure specialists who cut their teeth on physical infrastructure to the cloud. “Some on the infrastructure team might fear coding. And cloud infrastructure is essentially code, right? When it is time to make changes, what do they do? Give the keys to the software developers.”
Healthcare is particularly concerned about the confidentiality of their data, says Jin Xin, who heads Data Science and Analytics at Alexandra Hospital, noting that healthcare adoption of public cloud is “almost zero” right now. He enquired about the stance of public cloud providers in the event of a cybersecurity breach.
Anderson noted that public cloud providers are responsible for fulfilling service level agreements and will compensate accordingly should the cloud go down. But the responsibility for security ultimately resides with the business to put it together. However, he noted that the cloud generally offers higher security.
“Even in highly regulated, high-risk industries, I think the security solutions for the public cloud can be superior to what is available in-house for a lot of businesses. In some cases, when we do an analysis, we find that businesses are overestimating their existing security profile. And a cloud solution could be a superior option,” said Anderson.
Finally, just because the cloud is well accepted now does not mean that deploying it is smooth sailing. Eric Sim, who heads the Technology Office at ST Logistics, mused about the ambiguity that still exists when it comes to deploying cloud solutions such as Microsoft Exchange or Office 365.
“It can be close to impossible to get explicit approval for a cloud deployment. It comes to a point where you must take a leap of faith because the users need the capabilities. And as long as you are not hearing anything that is telling you ‘no’, to keep engaging with stakeholders and to push your cloud deployment through.”
Paul Mah is the editor of DSAITrends. A former system administrator, programmer, and IT lecturer, he enjoys writing both code and prose. You can reach him at [email protected].
Image credit: iStockphoto/Jackie Niam
Paul Mah
Paul Mah is the editor of DSAITrends, where he report on the latest developments in data science and AI. A former system administrator, programmer, and IT lecturer, he enjoys writing both code and prose.