What does “ready for cloud” mean at your organization?

If you’re at the beginning of your cloud journey, it might simply mean accessing public cloud services to gain new capabilities and flexibility.

Further down the line, it could mean having cloud infrastructure in place – with virtualization-based workloads that run in the data center and the cloud of your choice.

For forward-thinking enterprises, however, cloud today means hybrid multi-cloud – a concept that promises maximum freedom and flexibility to choose the best resource for each workload. 98% of enterprises plan to use this approach within three years, according to IBM.

But what is hybrid multi-cloud? And how can you take advantage of it?

What is hybrid multi-cloud?

Hybrid cloud means multiple types of cloud – usually private and public – in the same deployment, with integration between them.

With hybrid cloud, organizations can choose to keep some workloads in their data center where they have more control over performance, security, and so on. Workloads that are suited for public cloud – maybe because they’re less critical or less latency-sensitive – can be migrated there.

Multi-cloud means multiple public clouds in the same deployment, again with integration between them.

With multi-cloud, organizations can pick and choose the best cloud for each workload. They can also build applications that bring together features from different clouds.

Hybrid multi-cloud is simply a combination of the two: a single deployment integrating multiple public and private clouds. So, you have the benefits of hybrid (choice of public or private) and of multi-cloud (choice of different public clouds).

Assessing readiness for hybrid multi-cloud

You can see the advantages of a hybrid multi-cloud. Now, how do you build one?

Interoperability between multiple public clouds is a key feature of hybrid multi-clouds – and as you can imagine, it isn’t easy to connect all the parts together.

Your first step should be to assess your current infrastructure.

Assess whether your on-premises servers offer the performance levels needed. Make sure your storage can interact with your chosen public clouds. Check whether your network can reliably handle connections between multiple clouds.

Your second step should be to assess your workloads and applications.

Which of your workloads can be migrated to public cloud? Which have dependencies that tie them to the data center? Do your applications need to be modernized before you can migrate them?

These questions are not always easy to answer. So, it can help to partner with organizations that have delivered cloud projects before.

Which servers are best for hybrid multi-cloud?

What if your infrastructure assessment reveals a need for new servers? In our team’s experience, the server line best suited for hybrid multi-cloud is IBM Power Systems.

Power Systems servers are designed to make hybrid multi-clouds easier to build. For example:

• They offer IBM Cloud Paks, which are enterprise-ready, containerized software solutions that make it easy to “stitch together” multiple clouds in hybrid deployments. There’s a Cloud Pak for integration, applications, data, multi-cloud management and more.
• They make it easy to migrate IBM workloads to public cloud. If you’re already in the IBM ecosystem, you’ll find you can run AIX and IBM i in the public cloud – making your workloads easily portable across clouds. AIX and i in public cloud also connect easily to other cloud services like IBM Blockchain and AI.
• They’re ideal for Linux. Power Systems combine with Red Hat Enterprise Linux in hybrid multi-cloud deployments to reduce infrastructure costs by up to 50% and accelerate development cycles by 66%, according to Forrester Consulting.

Next steps

If you want to take the first step towards hybrid multi-cloud – assessing your current infrastructure – GBM can be your partner. We’ve helped many Middle East organizations to progress their cloud journey, starting with an independent assessment and consultation on how to achieve your goals.

If you have questions about cloud or want to discuss your business objectives, contact the GBM team today.

Are you ready for hybrid multi-cloud?

What does “ready for cloud” mean at your organization?

If you’re at the beginning of your cloud journey, it might simply mean accessing public cloud services to gain new capabilities and flexibility.

Further down the line, it could mean having cloud infrastructure in place – with virtualization-based workloads that run in the data center and the cloud of your choice.

For forward-thinking enterprises, however, cloud today means hybrid multi-cloud – a concept that promises maximum freedom and flexibility to choose the best resource for each workload. 98% of enterprises plan to use this approach within three years, according to IBM.

But what is hybrid multi-cloud? And how can you take advantage of it?

What is hybrid multi-cloud?

Hybrid cloud means multiple types of cloud – usually private and public – in the same deployment, with integration between them.

With hybrid cloud, organizations can choose to keep some workloads in their data center where they have more control over performance, security, and so on. Workloads that are suited for public cloud – maybe because they’re less critical or less latency-sensitive – can be migrated there.

Multi-cloud means multiple public clouds in the same deployment, again with integration between them.

With multi-cloud, organizations can pick and choose the best cloud for each workload. They can also build applications that bring together features from different clouds.

Hybrid multi-cloud is simply a combination of the two: a single deployment integrating multiple public and private clouds. So, you have the benefits of hybrid (choice of public or private) and of multi-cloud (choice of different public clouds).

Assessing readiness for hybrid multi-cloud

You can see the advantages of a hybrid multi-cloud. Now, how do you build one?

Interoperability between multiple public clouds is a key feature of hybrid multi-clouds – and as you can imagine, it isn’t easy to connect all the parts together.

Your first step should be to assess your current infrastructure.

Assess whether your on-premises servers offer the performance levels needed. Make sure your storage can interact with your chosen public clouds. Check whether your network can reliably handle connections between multiple clouds.

Your second step should be to assess your workloads and applications.

Which of your workloads can be migrated to public cloud? Which have dependencies that tie them to the data center? Do your applications need to be modernized before you can migrate them?

These questions are not always easy to answer. So, it can help to partner with organizations that have delivered cloud projects before.

Which servers are best for hybrid multi-cloud?

What if your infrastructure assessment reveals a need for new servers? In our team’s experience, the server line best suited for hybrid multi-cloud is IBM Power Systems.

Power Systems servers are designed to make hybrid multi-clouds easier to build. For example:

• They offer IBM Cloud Paks, which are enterprise-ready, containerized software solutions that make it easy to “stitch together” multiple clouds in hybrid deployments. There’s a Cloud Pak for integration, applications, data, multi-cloud management and more.
• They make it easy to migrate IBM workloads to public cloud. If you’re already in the IBM ecosystem, you’ll find you can run AIX and IBM i in the public cloud – making your workloads easily portable across clouds. AIX and i in public cloud also connect easily to other cloud services like IBM Blockchain and AI.
• They’re ideal for Linux. Power Systems combine with Red Hat Enterprise Linux in hybrid multi-cloud deployments to reduce infrastructure costs by up to 50% and accelerate development cycles by 66%, according to Forrester Consulting.

Next steps

If you want to take the first step towards hybrid multi-cloud – assessing your current infrastructure – GBM can be your partner. We’ve helped many Middle East organizations to progress their cloud journey, starting with an independent assessment and consultation on how to achieve your goals.

If you have questions about cloud or want to discuss your business objectives, contact the GBM team today.