Over the last decade, thousands of organizations jumped on the opportunity to migrate to the cloud, especially to hyperscalers, with the promise of value, performance, and only paying for what the organization uses. However, when companies made the transition, they did not have a full understanding of how they needed to update their environments and applications to run successfully in the cloud.
Author: Pascal Jaillon, OVH Cloud USAt the time, the cloud was what hyperscalers said the cloud was, which was public cloud, and there were not many alternative options and very few resources to close the skills gap. On top of the cost of establishing the infrastructure, there were and are additional costs to manage, maintain and upgrade the hardware.
As a result, organizations are now looking at different solutions that meet their needs both operationally and budgetarily. Many organizations that had moved to the cloud have now started to reconsider their cloud approach, and even for some, to repatriate their workloads back to on-prem due to the overall time and monetary investments to smoothly make the transition, close the skills gap, and address hidden costs, being too great.
While repatriation is one way to go, organizations may not realize there are other options that would better serve their needs. Today, there are other cloud providers and alternatives to hyperscalers that do offer cloud options and stepping-stones to help with the on-prem to cloud transition. Instead of going back to on prem, organizations should look at adopting a hybrid or multi-cloud solution using an alternative cloud provider, like OVHcloud US.
Transition to the Cloud with Alternative Cloud Providers
With the days of managing an entire on-premises IT environment behind us, organizations small and large have compared the costs between on-prem and cloud environments, and in nearly all cases, it does not make sense to maintain a 100% on-prem environment anymore. Today’s cloud offers several advantages that just cannot be ignored. However, making that transition can be challenging for certain organizations. From determining the type of cloud that best fits an organization’s needs, to the quality and affordability of their provider, CIOs today are faced with difficult decisions. And there are multiple aspects organizations should also take into account when planning their transition:
- Ease of Transition – Apps and databases built for on-prem systems can pose challenges when migrating to the cloud, so organizations need to consider whether the cloud provider offers a capability to run specific apps without needing to be reconfigured to work in a cloud environment (‘Lift & shift’). Many organizations find out the hard way their data and legacy apps sometimes aren’t compatible with a new cloud environment.
- Budget – In a world where operating costs have skyrocketed, IT departments are dealing with strict budgetary constraints and must consider all the different costs when budgeting for a transition. For instance, hidden expenses such as steep egress fees for moving data out of the cloud can really throw off the budgeting process. These types of fees and expenses need to be factored in before deciding on a future cloud provider.
- Shortage of IT Expertise – Organizations often find themselves asking, “Does our staff have the right training and knowledge to move us to the cloud?” In some cases, an IT department trained to run an on-prem environment won’t always have the requisite skill set to efficiently move an organization to the cloud. For example, nearly all hyperscalers use proprietary technologies and software that require specialized training and certifications to work in that cloud environment, and this needs to be considered into the transition process.
- Security/Disaster Recovery (DR) – It goes without saying that security and disaster recovery are still the highest priorities of all organizations, especially with continued attacks around the world. The reality, however, is that not all organizations are prepared for a massive ransomware attack because they are not working with their cloud provider to develop and test a DR plan before its needed. Bad actors can gain access to a system undetected, and if not properly prepared, an organization can find themselves crippled like many other organizations. The basic rule of thumb is the 3-2-1 backup strategy that means you have three copies of your data, two different media and one copy at a completely different site. This system provides the best plan to recover from a DR incident.
- Data Sovereignty – Privacy, regulatory requirements, and the security of data being stored and used by an organization is a priority for all organizations. Early cloud providers decades ago had very few regulations when compared to cloud operators today. Maintaining the integrity of data to fulfill regulatory requirements is critical and is often what separates some cloud providers from the rest. Without a strong understanding of regulatory rules and restrictions, an organization can find itself in a bad situation.
At the end of the day, an organization must choose a cloud provider that will help them make the transition to the cloud as seamlessly as possible, with the capability to scale and grow while still meeting important budget constraints. This is why it is of the upmost importance for companies to choose a cloud provider that will cater to their specific needs, and is why alternative cloud providers, like OVHcloud US, are so attractive.
Alternative providers will take the time to develop more intimate relationships with customers that are less transactional and take the time to learn the specific needs of their customers, which can help determine specific cloud solutions that will offer on-prem performance at cloud costs. This way, if you are not ready to go from an on-prem legacy setup to the full cloud or even cloud native experience, users can still have the advantages of the cloud with bare metal cloud or private cloud with access to cloud computing software like VMware or Nutanix that allow organizations to make a seamless transition with little-to-no skills gap.
One of the ways this is being done is through ‘professional services.’ Instead of a managed service approach, alternative cloud providers like OVHcloud US are making their system architects and other experts available to help customers who want to take advantage of technologies like Kubernetes and public cloud but might lack the skill set to do so. If requested, these cloud providers can educate an organization’s IT staff members how to best set up and manage their cloud environment. It’s the cloud form of teaching someone how to fish instead of just giving them a fish.
Alternative cloud providers offer additional benefits as well, like having the ability to run wider array of applications, including legacy apps, without having to re-engineer them for a proprietary cloud management system which requires different skill sets and budget. When some companies migrated to the public cloud, they didn’t really understand they needed to update their applications and hire new staff with additional skill sets to run in the cloud, something that is even more compounded by Kubernetes. Professional services can help bridge those gaps and get customers up and running fast in the cloud.
In addition, because public cloud doesn’t meet everyone’s needs, alternative cloud providers are providing valuable services though bare metal and private cloud solutions that offer all the advantages of public cloud without the learning curve. Customers can move on-prem workloads to a cloud provider like OVHcloud US, and immediately start realizing the benefits of the cloud, which is the reduction in capital expenditures (Capex) and switch from CapEx to operational expenses (Opex). The major advantage is eliminating the need to maintain an on-prem or co-location data center to maintain and refresh the hardware.
The key takeaway is that companies have options. While hyperscalers do offer some significant advantages for some, it is not a one-size-fits-all. More and more companies are learning the benefits of working with an alternative cloud provider, including personalized services that help them develop the right-size solutions that meet their needs and get them migrated to the cloud faster and more efficiently. OVHcloud US has built a reputation for putting the customer’s needs first and it remains committed to providing that level of support as it continues to grow.