Extra tags: Digital Transformation
Attributed to: Eric Liew, Solutions Architect at Zadara APACWhen Amazon launched its AWS public cloud service offerings way back in 2006, no one foresaw the huge impact it would have on the IT landscape. Fast forward 15 years to the present, it is undeniable that the cloud computing revolution is here to stay.
However, despite being over a decade old, cloud computing is still growing at an explosive rate, with the Asia Pacific region leading that growth with an estimated CAGR of nearly 20% between 2019 and 2027.
The growth rate in recent years has been driven by global events such as the ongoing pandemic and global chip shortages, and shows no sign of abating anytime soon. In fact, more companies have embarked on their cloud transformation in recent years than ever before. This adoption has been driven mainly by necessity – the need to be more agile and efficient in the face of increasing global competition.
However, the path to the cloud can be, well, ‘cloudy’. In my role as a Solution Architect at Zadara – a leading enterprise cloud provider, it is my job to advise customers on the best way to introduce cloud computing services into IT environments. In this role, I have noticed several recurring trends and challenges that I believe can be avoided with the right info and tools.
First off, let’s address the biggest myth around cloud adoption – the belief that cloud computing will automatically save a company money.
One of the main reasons for this is that cloud computing services typically include a lot of costs that are difficult to predict and typically forgotten or omitted during cost studies. Chief among these hidden costs are data transfer and network egress charges. In this regard, it is very difficult to predict what the actual cost will be as most companies do not measure the amount of data transfer in and out of their network, and within their network.
Unfortunately, both of these are chargeable elements in many public cloud services. In fact, I had a customer ask me if it was possible to move their data from a popular hyperscale cloud platform back to on-premise because their data and network charges were running into the millions of USD per year. Another shock was that it would cost them nearly one million dollars just to perform a one-time transfer of that data from the cloud back to their own data centre! So, definitely be aware of these hidden charges when you are doing your cost estimations.
Usage durations are also important when you are considering using cloud services. Most clouds charge by the hour, and this cuts both ways. If you have a temporary workload that only needs to run periodically, putting that workload on the public cloud can absolutely save you money. However, if the workload needs to run 24x7, then running it on the cloud may actually be more expensive than buying your own server and running it on-premise.
It's not all doom and gloom in the public cloud, however. There are many cost savings and efficiencies to be gained. The public cloud has enabled smaller companies and start-ups to enjoy enterprise-class IT infrastructure and services without the huge CAPEX investments usually involved with building these capabilities in-house. Many large companies have also benefited from the business agility afforded them when they moved to the public cloud, and this in-turn has improved their time-to-market and revenue metrics.
Cloud migration methodology must also be considered. The ‘lift and shift’ (a.k.a. rehosting) approach to cloud migration, may not get you the full benefits of the cloud. Public cloud platforms and architectures are not identical to on-premise architectures and hypervisors. By moving a finely tuned application as-is into the public cloud, you may introduce latencies and problems that were not there before.
The best way to adopt the cloud is to build the application in the cloud, to make the application ‘cloud-native’. If the intention is to move existing applications from on-premise to the cloud, then consider refactoring the application either before the move or after to truly take advantage of what the cloud has to offer.
From provisioning resources to transferring data and applications to those resources, you need to understand precisely how you want to accomplish that task accurately, in real time, and without it impacting the application. This is one of the reasons why there is now an arms race to provide an elegant hybrid cloud solution to enable seamless bursting of on-premise applications to the public cloud and back.
Zadara was founded in 2011 to address some of these challenges by providing a universal private and public cloud platform delivering IaaS services. The Zadara hardware and software stack is identical regardless of where it is deployed, enabling seamless migration of applications from on-premise data centres to public cloud data centres. Zadara also pioneered the Federated Edge program, a collection of nearly 80 data centres globally, operated by Zadara and its partners to provide cloud services wherever they may be required around the world. Many of these Federated Edge data centres are also connected to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud to enable true multi-cloud freedom.
All Zadara clouds are monitored and managed around the clock by our expert global support team, and this enables us to identify and remediate problems before failure occurs. Together with our zero downtime update capabilities, this enables Zadara to offer a class-leading 99.999% (five nines) uptime guarantee to our customers.
Importantly, Zadara offers true pricing transparency with zero hidden charges. Zadara rate cards are all inclusive – there is no separate charge for hardware or software or support services. Zadara does not charge for network egress or data transfer. This keeps costs predictable and helps to prevent bill shock at the end of the month.
The public cloud is here to stay and with greater awareness of the pitfalls and continued innovation in tools like those offered by Zadara, I believe companies of all sizes and industries are in prime position to fully leverage the cloud and grow their businesses.