Hitachi Application Reliability Centers

Optimize CloudOps to Deploy Apps Faster at Scale

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  • 1.  Optimize CloudOps to Deploy Apps Faster at Scale

    Posted 11-09-2022 11:32

    Part one from a four-part series of conversations with Forrester

    In the span of a few short years, the perception of the cloud has gone from being a different kind of hosted infrastructure to an entire ecosystem where workloads run. An amalgamation of previously siloed applications, data, and infrastructure, brought together to support the way business works now.


    For many companies, the ability to manage the complexity of this new reality hasn’t kept pace. “The notion of your infrastructure going beyond your data center, to a more distributed ecosystem, makes it extremely important you update your skills as a CloudOps team,” says Prem Balasubramanian, CTO, Digital Solutions at Hitachi Vantara, during the first of four cloud conversations with experts from Forrester. 

     

    A new type of ecosystem demands a new approach to management 

     

    The upside is, thanks to new ways of optimizing cloud operations, IT leaders can more easily put plans in place to achieve the control, resilience, and agility they need to get the best possible outcomes from their investments.

    According to Forrester Principal Analyst Lee Sustar, demand originates with the need to deploy applications faster, at scale, with greater sustainability. “Businesses of all types have to find ways to replicate that kind of performance, which is increasingly expected by internal users and by customers,” he says.

    Since those apps are being built in entirely different ways, many organizations suddenly find themselves facing unexpected challenges. “We’re seeing the containerization of apps now passing 50%,” Sustar says. Those “applications need to be orchestrated at scale, which implies the embrace of cloud data technologies such as Kubernetes.”  

     

    First step: embrace the DevOps mindset 

     

    The gravity of these changes requires an equally different approach to management. That means stepping back from traditional methods of managing applications, infrastructure, and data independently, and seeing them in the context of an integrated workload. And finding corresponding ways to modernize organizational practices.

    Hitachi’s Balasubramanian says getting your head around this requires rapid embrace of the DevOps mindset, bridging the gap between two previously disconnected disciplines. “The more optimal your code is, the more efficient your cost management should be on cloud,” he says. 

    Balasubramanian also says organizations need to think about building or augmenting their cloud and app modernization capability by closing the CloudOps skills gap, so they can scale by capability, not just capacity. “You just can manage this by throwing people at it; you need to leverage automation and appropriate tools,” he says.   

     

    No workload should be left behind 

     

    The need to bring design, run and operate together to properly manage new workloads must be a philosophy, rather than a process only. This is critical to make sure “no workload is left behind,’ says Hitachi Vantara’s Samta Bansal, who moderated the event, What’s In and What’s Out? Optimize Your Hybrid and Distributed Cloud Environments.

    “The difference between workloads and infrastructure is an important distinction. In the past, infrastructure leaders would be tending to big data centers, suites of virtual machines,” Lee says. “Now I think we’re seeing this flip towards workload approaches where people figure out what is the most important thing for us and where should it run.”

    Forrester’s Lee Sustar with Hitachi Vantara’s Samta Bansal, top right, and Prem Balasubramanian, bottom right 


    Be sure to catch the entire conversation at the link above, along with the rest of the series, also available at the links below.


    Taming the Complexity of Cloud Operations 

    A four-part webinar discussion series With Forrester 

     

    Episode 1 

    What’s In and What’s Out? Optimize Your Hybrid and Distributed Cloud Environments. Featuring: 

    • Prem Balasubramanian, CTO – Digital solutions, Hitachi Vantara 
    • Lee Sustar, Principal Analyst, Forrester 
    • Samta Bansal, Global Consulting Portfolio Marketing Leader, Hitachi Vantara (moderator) 

     

    Episode 2: Optimizing the Cloud Economics and Scale 

    Episode 3: Design Your Workloads for Reliability and Cost 

    Episode 4: Redefining CloudOps – Breaking Down the Walls Between DevSecOps and SRE 


    #ApplicationModernization
    #CloudAdvisory
    #CloudCostManagement
    #CloudMigration
    #CloudOperations
    #CloudSecurity

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    Premkumar Balasubramanian
    SVP Technology and Solutions Office
    Hitachi Vantara
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