According to Flexera, 59 per cent of enterprises name migrating more workloads to cloud as their top initiative for 2021. It’s no wonder considering the benefits associated with cloud computing, including reduced costs, enhanced collaboration capabilities and greater flexibility.
And while different cloud providers offer different strengths, this often leads to companies adopting multiple cloud providers with unique cloud strategies. To help set themselves up for success, businesses should consider how cloud services fit into their overall IT landscape.
Common cloud misconceptions
Cloud computing, which was meant to create an environment with a single pane of glass for easy visibility and governance, has become a fragmented, hybrid environment. In this environment, unifying your strategy by aligning decisions and mitigating data sprawl helps identify which systems need to connect to what, where the vulnerabilities are, where specific data is stored, and whether every data silo complies with the necessary regulations.
There are many reasons companies choose to keep some of their data on-premises or use multiple cloud providers. The majority of companies already use multiple cloud providers to assist with things like balancing different workloads and often companies will try to avoid vendor lock-in.
There is also the redundancy component – if one cloud provider experiences an outage, enterprises running in a hybrid environment are in a better position to avoid holding up their business operations.
For example, you may want to keep multiple copies of your data in different locations for compliance and governance. The 3-2-1 backup rule is an easy-to-remember acronym for a common approach to keeping data secure in almost any failure scenario.
The rule is: keep at least three (3) copies of your data, and store two (2) back-up copies on different storage media, with one (1) of them located offsite. You want to do all you can to protect your data against hazards that may result in increased downtime and cost. Protecting data against disk failures, voltage surges, fire or water hazards is fairly well documented. How about protecting your data from malicious attacks, and viruses?
CTOs need modern tools for modern data protection
What enterprises need is a standardised way to envelop all their data, from all sources – and across all cloud environments – and view and manage it in one place. This single source of truth is essential for:
Mobility: today’s work environment – both remote and hybrid work models – requires flexible solutions for employees, so they can communicate and collaborate from anywhere in the world. This should be balanced by CTOs needing to have visibility into their distributed workforce’s data in order to properly manage and secure it.
Security: understanding who has access to your data, what is happening with your data, and what your data contains is key to identifying and recovering from a cyber disaster.
Compliance: different types of data have different compliance requirements, whether based on type or geography. It’s important for businesses to know where all their data is to ensure they aren’t inadvertently defying regulations.
Governance: data governance is about using best practices to manage data at every phase of the data lifecycle. This allows companies to ensure data protection while also generating value from their data.
Back-up and Restore: companies need to know where all their data is in order to protect it. According to IDC, the world will generate 175 zettabytes of data by 2025, presenting enormous back-up and recovery challenges for CTOs.
Here’s where Rubrik’s partnership with NetApp comes into play. With Rubrik’s orchestrated data services provided across NetApp’s data fabric, whether on-premises or in the cloud, enterprises can streamline data management while continuing to embrace the benefits of a multi-cloud strategy.