Maximizing value from cloud: Public, private or edge? Industry leaders share their views

While cloud has long been recognized as a disruptive technology, the pandemic accelerated its adoption by years. Enterprises across sectors embraced cloud to become more agile, resilient and responsive to customer needs. At the same, cloud-based technologies allowed them to drive innovation and pursue new growth. Today, cloud is not a destination, but an operating model wherein businesses can leverage different capabilities – be it public, private, or edge – basis their specific requirements.

Choosing the right cloud solution, however, is key to getting the most out of cloud investments. For example, if a company has a workload that needs unlimited scale, it will be the perfect candidate for the public cloud. Industry leaders recently shared their views on the topic with Dataquest.

Uma Anbazhagan, Lead Cloud Architect, SAP Labs India

Enterprises are looking far beyond the technical migration of applications to the cloud, they started to believe in connecting the entire company by connecting all areas of a business together, such as logistics, procurement, production, sales and service, etc,  by weaving together all essential end-to-end business processes and data so that every step is orchestrated from design to delivery to configuration and operations. Integrating across the enterprise ensures that no area works in a silo, and companies can avoid gaps or delays that keep them from delivering the best possible experience to their customers.

Along the lines of the bimodal strategy stated by Gartner, enterprises today, are believing in the strategy of ‘Stand ground-to-Expand’, wherein they wanted to keep their stand ground stable by keeping core clean and at the same time expanding towards the cloud transformation journey. Given that, enterprises are moving to the cloud in a two steps approach (a) migration of legacy/on-premise applications to take advantage of global availability, flexible hardware pricing, resiliency/failover etc. and (b) using cloud services to accelerate innovation (be in standard process extensibility, customization, or new business opportunities via automation, AI/ML, and IoT).

Starting to agree on the need to move towards the cloud, companies should look out for an open and business-centric platform which can holistically integrate data, applications and business processes thus transforming siloed IT landscape into an Integrated, Intelligent suite, offering consistent experience along end-to-end and cross-functional processes across the organisation. The platform should offer to build side-by-side extensions to existing applications in a cloud-native way to keep the core clean and power innovation by embedding intelligence across corresponding business processes leveraging technologies like automation, AI/ML and IoT. Finally, the expectations on the platform are to unify data across the extended enterprise which allows companies to offer semantic integration of business data across applications which in turn allows data-driven decisions with a consistent and reliable source of master data and also to achieve 360° insights, foresight and enterprise planning with comprehensive data warehousing and analytics.

Then it comes the Public vs Private; The choice of private and public cloud modes is purely based on the business, for e.g., the choice we make for the retail scenario to that of the finance varies. Regulated industries and markets (finance, healthcare, defence, public services/governments etc.) come with unique needs like all the data and the software should reside within premises, in some cases, they have regulations around personnel performing the cloud operations of this software so in such cases, Private cloud choice comes handy for exclusivity, security, compliance and regulatory reasons.

Finally, edge, which is a form of distributed computing, means some data will be processed at the edge node and not all data will be processed in the cloud; The Edge and the Cloud are two pillars of the Industrial IoT scenarios, so IoT data correlated with business process data can run on the Cloud and at the Edge depending on cases such as near real-time processing, processing closer to the data source, amount of data to be transmitted to cloud, network availability etc. Based on the customer use case needs, Edge or Cloud computing is preferred, however, the Cloud-to-Edge hybrid is a new way forward for many Industrial IoT deployments where customers can choose to run IoT-enabled business processes on their Edge or on the Cloud allowing for distributed computing across the cloud and multiple Edge nodes.

Companies have a complex heterogeneous landscape to manage highly complex business processes, a breadth of business networks that needs to be operational, a vast amount of data both from the enterprise as well as external sources etc.  Staying innovative and competitive has become the need of the hour to succeed still keeping the security of the entire landscape intact. With the vast service offerings from multiple cloud providers, it is extremely important to look at building a secured environment to cater to such requirements. Carving out an approach for a scalable, secured and collaborative platform for business is one of the key challenges that organizations face during the cloud transformation journey as security is one of the important aspects with so many digitization requirements.

To drive this challenge and make the adoption easier, cloud providers are providing platforms which are ready and scalable in terms of data, security and applications. Approaches for building flexible applications with a choice of best-of-breed technologies, creating compatibility and interoperability among different platform providers, availability of connectors and adapters to build seamless integrations, ensuring security from network, application and users’ (SSO) perspectives etc. are some of the answers to how can we build secured environment. 

Companies need talent with a cloud-first mindset and the right skills to help them navigate thru heterogenous integrations, complex cloud economics, and operating-model changes needed to make the cloud transformation journey a reality, In fact, 95% of respondents in a recent McKinsey survey cited lack of cloud talent as one of the biggest roadblocks.

So skill transformation is one of the most important and needed strategies in developing cloud skills in talent, in addition to this, companies should also invest in improving developer experience so that talent can focus on building innovations than spending time on redundant and obsolete processes/approvals.

Many organizations have carved out the journey one needs to go through to get themselves equipped to be able to work in cloud platforms. Apart from being technically equipped, it is quite important to instil and develop the mindset of cloud qualities (like security, scalability, and high availability) and business context (like scenarios, user personas, and customer journeys). This will ensure and provide an outlook for building the cloud talent ecosystem. Cloud transformation has already begun and is well ahead, it is a journey that needs acceleration and speed for adoption with clear direction and support.

P Saravanan, Vice-President, Cloud Engineering, Oracle India

Given the absolute criticality of cloud today, businesses aim to be future ready and want to go above and beyond to ensure maximum performance, lower costs along with a smooth migration process. However, for any organisation - big or small - choosing the right cloud strategy can be one of the most daunting and critical decision. Enterprises can simplify this process by readying a non-negotiable checklist of their top priorities which could Predictable costs, security, manageability, strategic DR locations and overall customer satisfaction. As Gartner predicts that the end-user spending on public cloud services will total $7.3 billion in 2022, an increase of 29.6% from 2021, well-defined cloud decisions must be taken by organisations as a business priority to ensure a distinct competitive edge.

As businesses aim for a fruitful cloud journey with a set of pre-set goals and expectations, they must aim to become cloud smart with customized cloud strategies that complement their business. For example, CIOs can begin by aiming to seek beyond just picking a single cloud provider for all their application. Given how dynamic the cloud market has become, the question shouldn’t be an ‘this cloud provider or that cloud provider’, rather businesses must focus on tapping into the benefits of evolving cloud environments like Multicloud and leverage multiple providers for their unique offerings. Not only will this help avoiding challenges like vendor lock-in, but also ensure the utmost level of cost optimization which could be at the top of the priority list for many businesses. Additionally, organisations can also tap into the benefits of a hybrid cloud environment to ensure any compliance requirements set by the industry regulators. This especially becomes important for organisations in the public sector.

Faiz Shakir, Managing Director - Sales, Nutanix India & SAARC at Nutanix

Our customers tell us they are using a variety of applications every day to run their businesses.  When choosing the best cloud solution for them, they now realise they need to consider various factors including the cost, what environment is best for their applications - whether public and/or private clouds, the capabilities and configuration of their current infrastructure, the scalability of the solution, and whether they might need to move their applications back and forth between clouds. Additionally, it is essential to keep in mind that different clouds, including public, private, and edge clouds, offer different advantages based on a variety of reasons. 

Monish Darda, Co-founder and CTO, Icertis

Over the years, cloud computing has transformed how businesses store and access data and is a core priority in any CIO’s portfolio. The myriad benefits of cloud computing make building a robust cloud infrastructure a business imperative. However, as part of transitioning to the cloud, IT teams need to identify and select older systems ripe for a revamp to do cloud-first development and lift and shift everything else.

When assessing which cloud ecosystem to choose from, the public cloud is most suited for SMBs, unless your domain (healthcare, financial, etc.) precludes you from it. The hybrid cloud is best for large businesses because of the various strategic requirements needed to address every app, sensitive data, and regulation. Since all public cloud providers now have a clear hybrid strategy and tools to support, large businesses should leverage the hybrid cloud model.

Additionally, whether large or small, a company needs a good partner to grow with along its cloud journey. Businesses must ensure that they select a partner vested in their success for business growth. ROI is another factor that companies usually keep in mind while shifting to the cloud. It involves assigning and monitoring strict budgets to control cloud costs. With cloud being pay-per-use, leaving the tap open is considerably more expensive than owning the asset in a traditional environment. Without effective ROI analysis, monitoring, and budget implementation, most companies spend more on the cloud than on on-prem infrastructure. 

In most cases, going to the cloud with a solid execution plan and partner will mean that your data is more secure than it was on-prem. That may sound like a paradox, but it is true! Cloud providers spend billions of dollars on security, and with the right strategies for identity and encryption, your data can be more secure than ever. Lastly, it is essential to remember that a cloud-first approach is also a mindset change. Technologies remain the same or similar, but using pay-per-use infrastructure is like living in a rental home rather than the one you built yourself. Make sure your cloud strategy is top-down AND bottoms up – and stakeholders clearly understand the long-term value of sticking to plan!

Milan Sheth, EVP IMEA Region, Automation Anywhere

Enterprises in India have realized that digital transformation is critical to creating sustainable business processes, and automation is a key step in keeping up with the evolving industry. More than 99% of enterprises are migrating their existing automation implementations to the cloud, and 97% of them have established cloud-first mandates for all new automation initiatives.

When choosing the infrastructure to support cloud-based automation, enterprises need to focus on the data security, disaster & backup policy, data management policy relevant to the location where the data is stored, and cloud access control policy of the cloud service provider. There is a rising demand for cloud-based intelligent automation in data-led sectors such as Finance and analytics, tech, customer servicing, FMCG, and telecom with 93% of businesses increasing their automation budget.

The efficiency of cloud solutions depends on the type of infrastructure that supports it. The public cloud structure requires less management effort as the service provider manages the hardware while providing the computing resources. However, one has less control over who can access the cloud, and it depends entirely on the public internet. Meanwhile, private cloud service offers you complete control over how the cloud workloads are hosted and configured and who can access them. It operates on a private network, facilitating better security.

Srinivasan Ramachandran, Vice President & Global Head – Infra, Cloud & Cyber Security, Birlasoft

Enterprises everywhere now clearly understand the need to reinvent themselves in the face of changing customer expectations, stiffening competition (from rivals - both traditional & non-traditional), and changing regulatory demands. Digital transformation is no longer "nice-to-have". It is an imperative that can only be animated through the reimagination and reformulation of an enterprise's IT capabilities. The core to this transformation is cloud adoption.

The primary factor that drives the choice between private cloud, public cloud, and edge computing in an enterprise is the nature of the business or the use case. While public and private clouds offer their own set of advantages, edge computing plays a very important role in enterprises that extensively use OT and IoT in addition to traditional IT; by enabling data processing at the periphery rather than sending oceans of data to the data center or public cloud.

Some of the other factors that determine the choice of cloud are the dynamic nature of computing & storage requirements, compliance with laws & regulations and data privacy concerns. While the private cloud provides a fixed capacity with absolute control, the public cloud provides the elasticity needed for ever-changing needs without any upfront investment and lead time to build capacity.

In addition to IaaS, the public cloud also provides unique Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions that are not available on a Private Cloud, such as serverless code execution, managed databases, storage without servers and very low-cost archive storage. These services are charged based on capacity utilized and significantly impact IT budgets.

An optimum solution would be a hybrid of public, private and edge cloud that optimally balances the data privacy, performance, availability, and budget requirements. Using multiple public clouds is also recommended to make the best use of unique services provided by each and to avoid a single point of failure.

Public clouds are as vulnerable as private and edge clouds. The main challenge with public cloud security is that enterprises assume that the public cloud is secure by default. While private cloud security is wholly managed by an enterprise, security on the public cloud is a joint responsibility between the enterprise and the Cloud Service Provider (CSP). The CSP provides the enablers for securing the cloud resources and applications. On the other hand, deploying those enablers optimally is the enterprise's responsibility. Enterprises may also deploy additional third-party solutions to augment the security solutions provided by the CSP. There are many recommended approaches to developing and nurturing cloud talent.