By Avishai Sharlin, Division President, Amdocs Technology
The
disruption brought on by the pandemic shows that at any moment, businesses must
be ready to evolve to meet new demands. Over in the past year, I believe many
enterprises realized they need to accelerate their cloud adoption to improve
their IT infrastructure. In fact, our research indicates
that 60% of enterprises in the U.S., U.K. and India are expediting or extended
their cloud journeys.
And
as this adoption continues to accelerate among enterprises, hybrid cloud -
where two or more different technologies (for example VMware on-premise and AWS
on the cloud) run simultaneously to collectively manage, configure,
automate, and scale - will become increasingly important. Here's why.
The
incremental move to a new world
While
everyone expects new approaches and technologies (Kubernetes, containers) to
become part of our daily operational practice, we still face the issue that we
live in a world where existing apps, networks and operational tools have to
function as they always have. In other words, as new cloud-native applications
are deployed, they will need to exist and integrate with current traditional
systems and customer channels while also ensuring backward compatibility, ease
of use and seamless operations.
With
71% of U.S. enterprises claiming to
increase cloud spending in 2021, It is likely this "era of
co-existence" will become as critical of a topic as ever.
What
does co-existence look like?
We
will witness co-existence on many levels - traditional monolithic applications
alongside cloud-native applications, virtualized data centers alongside private
and public cloud infrastructure, and virtualized networks alongside traditional
ones.
Moreover,
when we look at the "human" aspect, employees everywhere will need to gain new
skills
to co-exist with their current ones - enabling them to operate new technologies
together with present applications and processes.
So
with co-existence being essential for the foreseeable future, businesses will
need to ensure an ongoing, functional business environment. The question is,
what are the things to consider to achieve this?
What
to consider when going hybrid
The
first thing to look at when running a hybrid environment is your operations.
Consider looking in to "lift and shift" opportunities and where you
can "containerize" apps. Organizations should try and make their life
simple by trying to adapt existing applications to run within containers.
Easier said than done in some cases; this process will take time and reskilling
of personnel, so make sure to include these aspects in your operating costs.
Next,
consider how you plan to scale your apps. Are you going to use Kubernetes in a
standard way, or do you need other methods and techniques? Your approach may
determine the best way forward while also setting expectations for changes in
development directions and tooling costs.
Consider
how you plan to monitor and log your hybrid environment and consider using
standard Kubernetes patterns such as native Prometheus and standard output
logs.
As
part of a holistic end-to-end hybrid design and architecture, there are
additional aspects to look into, including
security and interoperability. These topics will determine the way your
organization moves forward and its speed and agility.
As
you evolve, don't forget where you came from
The race to adopt cloud has
accelerated due to the pandemic, but failure is imminent if a well-defined hybrid
approach that ties everything together isn't implemented. Since the
co-existence era will likely be with us for quite a while, taking the time to
figure out your best approach without forgetting about your existing systems
will set you in the right direction.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Avishai
Sharlin heads Amdocs Technology. His wide range of responsibilities include the
company's core BSS and digital offerings, technologies such as cloud and
microservices, and the CTO office. He also leads new activities such as user
identity and hybrid billing, and ensures implementation of cutting-edge
technology foundations and standards across all company units.