Removing Complexity in an Evolving Multicloud Environment
Everyone in a decision-making role has their own perspective on how the business should use the cloud. But it may be time for many of them to rethink their cloud approach.
The ease of using the cloud has created environments so complex, the IT practitioner in charge has no idea what’s being used, by whom, when, why, whether done in an efficient manner, and whether it’s costing the business too much. Now take that lack of understanding to an executive level, where the thinking is at a business operations level. Executives are being asked to approve spend on cloud applications, services, and resources without a clear picture of how the business’ current trajectory meets each executive’s primary concerns.
So, when it comes to the multicloud, how can the C-suite be thinking about approaching the business’ cloud strategy in a way that will put them at ease?
In this fifth blog in a 5 part series on removing complexity in an evolving multicloud environment, we’re going to look at a few specific C-level roles that should be approaching the multicloud differently.
Let’s take 4 of the most common roles in a business that may have some direct influence on how the cloud gets used and what the future strategy looks like, and briefly look at how rethinking a cloud approach that includes SD-WAN, SASE, and managed services benefits them each.
The CIO
The CIO concerns themselves with planning, deploying and maintaining IT systems and operations that meet the current and future needs of the business. When it comes to the cloud, being able to deliver services in a timely and cost-effective manner while minimising operational risk is paramount.
One of the most critical ways to achieve this at a high level is by reducing the complexity of the overall multicloud environment to promote new services, scalability of existing ones, and support for changes to the environment to meet business goals. Cisco’s SD-WAN creates a singular, optimised network, increasing performance while reducing management burden. A Cisco SASE creates a secure connection and a consistent experience for users. And managed services with a cloud-centric services partner providing expert assistance helps to increase the speed of delivery while lowering the overall cost.
The CFO
Ensuring revenue and expenses stay in balance is the focus of every CFO. And with an average of nearly one-third of cloud spend going untracked and wasted, this is a major concern for the CFO and the organisation. The CFO wants visibility into the inefficiencies that exist with current operations in order to cut waste and optimise spend. The use of applications, workloads, and resources from multiple clouds as part of the organisation’s overall operations automatically creates a lack of visibility into what’s being used and what’s pure waste.
By using Cisco SD-WAN to connect every part of the multicloud environment, you create visibility into where traffic is going, which cloud resources are in use (and which are not), helping to improve usage and drive cost-efficiencies.
The COO
Let’s assume the CIO and CFO are happy now with an optimised single environment that efficiently and cost-effectively allows the business to deliver new cloud services while managing the entire environment. A COO is thinking about the complexity of a multicloud environment and how this complexity impacts operations; delays and increased costs are the enemy of innovation. And given that most of the a multicloud environment lies outside the control of the business, this is a reasonable concern.
Using Cisco SD-WAN makes additions and changes to the multicloud environment seamless, keeping traffic moving efficiently. SASE allows users to connect to the network in a singular manner, hiding the specifics around which environment they are using, keeping people working and not calling the helpdesk. And managed services reduce delivery time of network and environment changes without impacting operations.
The CSO
Your CSO has a very different perspective from the other three roles covered in this article. While everyone else is generally concerned about the multicloud environment running well (and the benefits therein), the CSO is only concerned with exactly how secure an environment you don’t own or, in some cases, manage actually is.
SASE is a prime factor in this discussion. While most businesses are relying on VPNs (which only secure the communication, not the connection), SASE bridges the gap, making security an equally important aspect of a user’s connection to the environment. Additionally, the right managed services partner has cybersecurity practitioners with years of experience and expertise to assist in maintaining cybersecurity’s same level of importance while assisting in designing, implementing, managing, maintaining, and supporting the environment.
Rethinking the Multicloud Approach
The traditional mode of operation for most businesses was to simply bolt on ‘yet another’ cloud resource to the long list of others that have come before. But to achieve the executive-level vision that the C-suite has for the business’ use of the cloud, it’s going to take some shifts in how the business approaches its use of the cloud, and how it’s designed, accessed, optimised, and secured. By having key executives consider a new approach to the multicloud, businesses can adopt new strategies, technologies, and methodologies that reduce the risk of lack of performance, slow service delivery, wasted spend, and cyberattack.
If you would like to learn more about multicloud connectivity, click here.
Maintel, in partnership with Cisco, has a proven track record of designing and implementing secure hybrid working and multicloud connectivity solutions for any organisation. From auditing the existing infrastructure to planning network transformation, we can help you harness the power of innovative networking technology at scale.
