The elements of a 'cloud first strategy'

Enterprises should make cloud databases the preferred deployment model for all new business processes, workloads and applications, reports Gartner.

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Public cloud services are an innovation juggernaut and a cost-competitive rival to traditional, on-premises hosting environments.

Gartner

Cloud is really the new normal, every conceivable workload is being uploaded to the public cloud.

This was among the key messages AWS officials highlighted at its annual summit in Auckland last week.

But, as analyst firm Gartner points out, organisations will live in a hybrid IT world in 2016 and beyond.

Even with rapid adoption of cloud databases, enterprises will have to maintain traditional, on-premises databases, says Gartner in a report released last week.

Critical to success for organisations will be managing all of the integrations and interdependencies while adopting cloud databases to deliver new capabilities for the business, according to the Gartner report on Evaluating the Cloud Databases From Amazon Web Services by analyst Lyn Robison.

Recognise that cloud is no longer optional, the report advises.

“The potential benefits of data in the cloud are compelling for most enterprises today, and AWS is a proven cloud vendor for enterprises to consider.”

“Public cloud services such as AWS are an innovation juggernaut and a cost-competitive rival to traditional, on-premises hosting environments,” it states.

Gartner recommends enterprises to consider cloud-based databases, including AWS database offering, to support new capabilities and innovation in the business.

Cloud databases can potentially deliver easy deployment, elastic scalability, cost savings and previously unattainable performance, it states.

Gartner likewise recommends organisations to develop a “cloud first strategy” now.

The shift can be difficult and takes time, says Gartner. Therefore, enterprises should make cloud databases the preferred deployment model for all new business processes, workloads and applications.

Likewise, organisations must determine the right database for their needs.

“You must understand the ideal usage patterns and anti-patterns of each option. Matching the right technology to a specific use case is critical to success (or failure) when using these products,” concludes Gartner.