Navigating the Cloud Spectrum (Guest blog from Nutanix)

Author: Radena Lowe, Systems Engineering Manager, UK Public Sector at Nutanix

In recent years, the pace of digital transformation has been very demanding on Public Sector and one way to speed up innovation, whilst reducing datacenter footprint, improving efficiency and resiliency, has been to adopt a cloud computing model.

Supported by the UK Government’s Cloud-First policy, many Public Sector organisations have embarked on a journey to do just that - evaluate and adopt cloud services for all projects by default. But a successful digital transformation is more than simply moving data and applications to the cloud, it touches every part of the organisation - skills, processes, technology, and often times requires a phased approach with organisations maintaining their existing datacenter footprint while migrating services to their chosen flavour of cloud.

Furthermore, one cloud provider may not deliver all services needed to meet an organisation’s full requirement which may drive them to maintain a footprint in more than one. In fact, a recent study by UK researcher Vanson Bourne polled 1450 IT decision makers around the world and found that 73% of the UK respondents leveraged more than one IT infrastructure (mix of private and public clouds, multiple public clouds, or a combination of on-premises and hosted datacenter infrastructure), expected to grow to 86% in one to three years.

The challenges organisations will face in a hybrid multi-cloud world

The UK communications regulator Ofcom recently conducted a study into the cloud market and observed a number of challenges posed by the adoption of cloud computing when it comes to flexibility, portability and interoperability.

Each cloud provider operates its own ecosystem - the underlying technology stack varies from cloud to cloud, including workflows, processes, APIs and more. Native cloud services are a very powerful way to innovate but can require a significant investment into re-design and re-architecture of existing applications and workloads that can make migrations more time-consuming, complex and costly than initially anticipated. Additionally, services from different providers are often incompatible or require extensive modification to seamlessly integrate, calling for deep knowledge in each cloud’s service offerings.

So what would be the capabilities of a true hybrid cloud?

To achieve a true hybrid multi-cloud, it should be able to deliver:

• a unified platform where resources can be managed and orchestrated across multiple cloud computing solutions using centralised management and control.
• the free movement of data and workloads across environments.
• interoperability with cloud native services for innovation.

This would enable organisations to truly leverage the best of cloud without creating more silos, re-skilling and re-tooling IT teams and risking lock-in to a single cloud platform that might not offer every feature required.

The hybrid multi-cloud operating model can free up IT teams’ time from having to manage multiple environments with different IT stacks while still allowing them to choose the right location for the workload and easily reassessing in the case of a more financially optimal option. The January 2023 study by Vanson Bourne identified that 85% of IT decision makers are concerned with managing cloud cost, going as far as considering repatriating applications to mitigate some of the unexpected spend. However, moving workloads back can have its own challenges as well.

Nutanix’s approach to the hybrid multi-cloud model is rooted in the key principles of simplicity and freedom of choice. The Nutanix Cloud Platform stretches across on-premises, edge, hosted datacenters and multiple public cloud environments, providing a common control plane that allows them to be operated as a single cloud. The consistent software stack gives organisations with the flexibility to choose where to best place their workloads, quickly and easily migrate them across and between environments, and ensure efficient use of resources, helping to reduce cloud waste. Through robust partnerships and alliances with multiple cloud providers, the Nutanix Cloud Platform offers a number of operating models with native integrations that give organisations the freedom to choose the flavour of cloud that meets their needs.

With Public Sector’s conflicting priorities, Nutanix can provide a way to accelerate adoption of cloud services, reducing the risks of native public cloud inconsistency while helping keep the cost of innovation down. Many Public Sector organisations are recognising these benefits and choosing Nutanix as the platform to help them on their cloud journey, including the UK Department For Work & Pensions, Forestry & Land Scotland, Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, Falkirk Council and more.

Authors

Radena Lowe

Systems Engineering Manager, UK Public Sector, Nutanix