Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2024. Read them in this 16th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Workload Portability Becomes Ready for Mainstream Adoption in 2024 and Beyond, Solving Challenges in Hybrid Cloud Environments
By Sameer Zaveri,
Co-Founder of Datamotive
Based on what we see today in hybrid cloud environments, there
is another prediction that belongs here in the VMblog series: workload
portability solutions are ready for mainstream adoption and are expected to
capture a much more significant share of the business continuity market in
2024. The market will see increased competition and innovation in order to
solve hybrid cloud challenges as organizations seek to overcome the challenges
of fragmentation, Financial governance of their cloud spend (FinOps), and achieve seamless business continuity
across multiple cloud providers, leading to more robust and versatile solutions
catering to diverse organizational needs.
So while organizations are distributing workloads across
multiple cloud providers for cost and performance benefits, this creates
business continuity challenges. Portability eases management and reduces risk.
The growing adoption of hybrid cloud strategies along with the growth in the
generative AI market will fuel the demand for workload portability solutions
that will become more and more advanced to handle a wider range of workloads
and platforms. Distributed cloud empowers generative AI by ensuring cost-optimized
deployments across diverse regions, addressing location-specific needs without
sacrificing affordability.
Workload portability is a safety net for business continuity in
hybrid cloud environments. It seamlessly shifts critical applications and data
between public and private clouds, on-premises data centers, or even different
cloud providers. This ensures uninterrupted operations during unforeseen
events. Imagine a natural disaster rendering the on-premises data center
unusable. With portable workloads, organizations can instantly spin them up in
the cloud, minimizing downtime and safeguarding business continuity. Similarly,
if a public cloud provider experiences service disruptions, organizations can
readily migrate workloads back to the private cloud or another provider,
avoiding costly losses and damage to your reputation.
Increased awareness of the limitations of vendor-specific
solutions and the benefits of cloud-agnostic approaches will further drive
workload portability market adoption. Leading vendors in the space will expand
their offerings and address existing limitations, like platform services and
containerized workloads, while startups will continue to innovate, offering
organizations vendor-agnostic ways that will enable workload portability
solutions to handle a wider range of workloads and platforms. Integration with
data replication, disaster recovery (DR) plans, and security measures will
create comprehensive solutions for hybrid cloud resilience.
Organizations that embrace workload portability will benefit
from:
- Improved agility and flexibility due to vendor lock-in
elimination
- Enhanced consistency and streamlined business continuity
processes
- Minimized downtime and disruption for users
- Simplified compliance
with regulatory mandates
So what is in store for 2024 and beyond? Forget vendor lock-in
and inconsistent recoveries. Imagine a cloud-agnostic technology that
consolidates any workload into a single business continuity hub, no matter the
provider. This unlocks:
1. Freedom and Efficiency: Break free from cloud silos and
manage resources across platforms flawlessly. Optimize costs, boost
flexibility, and embrace true hybrid agility.
2. Steady Consistency: Achieve uniform recovery SLAs, regardless
of where your workloads reside. Say goodbye to platform chaos and hello to
streamlined SOPs for effortless business continuity.
3. Click and Recover: Downtime becomes a relic. Single-click
recovery ensures seamless user experiences, boosts productivity, and delights
customers.
4. Compliance Confidence: Navigate any regulatory landscape with
ease. Consistent business continuity meets data residency needs, reducing legal
risks and building trust.
5. Strengthen Security: Maintain consistent security protocols
and data governance across hybrid environments
While challenges remain, such as handling complex workloads and
ensuring data security, workload portability is rapidly maturing and poised for
further mainstream adoption in 2024 and beyond. Organizations seeking to unlock
the full potential of hybrid cloud would be wise to consider this dynamic and
evolving landscape. In a nutshell, workload portability will become a key
component of successful hybrid cloud strategies, playing a crucial role in
ensuring business continuity and resilience. Portability is not just a
dream anymore. The distributed cloud is rewriting the rules and those stuck in
vendor lock-in mode have to consider how workload portability can help them.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sameer Zaveri is an entrepreneur, global
business leader and the co-founder of Datamotive.
Before Datamotive, he worked at tech companies such as Trianz, Experian, Cisco
and HPE in the enterprise, cloud and fintech markets.