​INSIGHT: Managing the complexity of Hybrid Cloud

Cloud is becoming the new norm for enterprises.

More and more companies across the globe are using a combination of two or more private, hosted, or public cloud services - applying different technology stacks to different business scenarios.

“HybridCloud management is now an important priority that enterprise architecture (EA) professionals should consider to support their organisations on the journey toward becoming a digital business,” says Charlie Dai, Research Analyst, Forrester Research.

To unleash the power of digital business, Dai believes businesses from all corners of the world should analyse the strategic hybrid cloud management practices of visionary Chinese firms on their digital transformation journey.

“Align hybrid cloud management capabilities with your level of maturity,” Dai adds.

As explained by Dai, hybrid Cloud maturity is a journey of digital transformation covering four steps: initial acceptance, strategic adoption, hybrid operationalisation, and hybrid autonomy; maturity is measured by familiarity with, experience with, and knowledge of how to operate Cloud.

“EA pros should build their management capabilities step by step, aiming to unify and automate Coud managed services by understanding technical dependencies and business priorities,” he adds.

“Understand hybrid cloud complexity and systematically evaluate hybrid cloud management vendors.

“The complexity of hybrid Cloud management arises from strategic decisions about the deployment model, technology stack, and integration capabilities.”

According to Dai, hybrid Cloud management is still an emerging market to address these challenges.

“EA pros should comprehensively evaluate the hybrid cloud management solution providers in the market, focusing on the support of their deployment models among three categories of solution providers in the market,” Dai adds.

For Dai, business should learn from leading Chinese companies embracing digital transformation.

“Firstly, Wasu Media established an automated operations platform to manage its hybrid infrastructure environment and enable its digital media business,” he adds.

“Secondly, China Merchants Bank is accelerating its transformation by proactively unifying its Cloud management capabilities on both the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) layers.

“Thirdly, Suning adopted mainstream open source software on both the IaaS and PaaS layers to enable its digital operations while Yihaodian successfully accelerated its eCommerce business by automating hybrid cloud operations.”

When managing the complexity of the hybrid Cloud, Dai suggests businesses ask themselves the following questions; How do you manage hybrid Clouds? What maturity level has your company reached?

“It’s time to put hybrid cloud management on your agenda if it’s not there already,” he adds.