The GSX Blog
According to IDC, global expenses in the Public Cloud should be multiplied by 2 in the next 4 years to reach 177 billiards in 2018. That is an average yearly increase rate of 30% in 4 years.
As we are currently attending a Microsoft Conference, the TechDays in Paris France, we were able to hear about metrics related to the local market and particularly the French Cloud Market which has increased of 20% according to the Xerfi, when only 20% of SMBs actually used the Cloud computing.
During this event most discussions were based around the cloud and therefore I wish to underline the main common beliefs associated to the Cloudification of the It.
Transition to the Cloud is an easy process
The value of the Cloud is recognized and its fame has no limit. Agility, flexibility, reactivity, mobility, availability and cost optimization are the key selling arguments to accelerate Cloud adoption. However, the cost killer should not be the first criteria, according to KPMG,as more than 30% of companies which moved to the Cloud found out that the migration process was more expensive than initially planned.
Moreover the cloudification of your IT environment is not THE solution to all your problems. It is a new purchase approach, based on saving internal usage resources. The Cloud is an efficient way for you to solve your main resources, however the project’s success is not guaranteed. Indeed the transition to the Cloud might be very complex (read article: 5 key Questions IT admin need to know when Migrating to the Office 365).
The IT Department is not a service provider
The SaaS model (Software as a Service) is the most popular type of cloud, gathering about 70% of the expenses in 2014 (Source IDC). Then come the IaaS, and the PaaS (platform as a Service). The PaaS shows the largest growth because of the increasing interest of companies for Big Data and business applications.
Some IT professional still fear that outsourcing critical messaging and collaboration applications to the cloud could put their jobs at stake, but the move is just changing their role, allowing them to concentrate more on high-level consideration. The management is now expecting from the IT department more than technical expertise, with high use value service. This is a great opportunity for IT administrators to get involved better in functional and business needs instead of a simple technical side.
The cloudification positions the IT department as a strategic service provider (Read this article about how to build bridges between IT and the business)
Cloud is great. Let’s move 100% of our IT in the Cloud
Nowadays, the Hybrid Cloud is a priority for 7 companies out of 10 in 2015 (source Avanade). This is the best of both worlds, customers can leverage the benefits of the Cloud, while maintaining some strategic part On-premises. Organizations usually want to host messaging and collaborative applications in-house to secure the data or for critical user’s privacy. A good balance represents the capacity to deliver the same quality of service and keep these running optimally in both configurations.
From a company level, ensuring the availability of all information in order to enhance the end users productivity is critical. However from an administrator’s point of view, a limited visibility and no unified set of tools to manage and support both Online and On-premises environments can represent trouble. Read more on the article The Hybrid Cloud Wonderland: Wonders and … disenchantments.
My Cloud provider promised perfect service
How many times have we heard our customers say “I do not need to monitor my environment as my Cloud provider is promising perfect service” or “I did not monitor my Exchange environment while it was On-premises, why would I need to monitor it in a Hybrid environment? “.
To date, one of the main roadblocks to Cloud adoption has been performance issues and service interruptions. However, proactive and automated performance monitoring tools, allow IT administrators to track the root cause of performance problems in real-time, and pinpoint whether the issue is coming from Exchange Online or the On-premises Exchange servers. IT administrators can also use performance monitoring tools to establish a better management of resources, and proactively match supplies with the demand to avoid oversized or undersized infrastructures, thereby reducing costs. Read article Perfecting the Art of Service Delivery with Hybrid Microsoft Exchange.
 |
You want more? Let us guide you through the cloud! |
