Total read time 13 min
10 moves to consider
The ability to effectively monitor and manage end-to-end IT operations is a challenge for IT organizations and only 25% of surveyed IT leaders feel they can do it well.¹
Introduction: Ensure simple cloud management
2 min read
The ability to effectively monitor and manage end-to-end IT operations is a challenge for IT organizations and only 25% of surveyed IT leaders feel they can do it well.¹
Many business leaders say moving workloads to the cloud is a top priority, but they worry doing so may disrupt business continuity. As a result, most businesses have not yet begun to move mission-critical applications to the cloud. The right approach to hybrid cloud management can ensure you have a seamless transition.
While a hybrid cloud environment increases complexity, this infrastructure helps unlock the full potential of your workloads, and provides you a greater return on cloud investments.
This ebook provides 10 considerations to help effectively manage a
hybrid multicloud environment that increases consistency:
1. Improve efficiency
2. Mitigate risk
3. Meet consumer expectations
4. Implement smarter application management
5. Reinforce infrastructure resiliency
6. Manage IT across locations and providers
7. Automate multicloud management
8. Optimize your hybrid cloud infrastructure
9. Customize your network
10. Use flexible payment plans
Citations
¹“Multicloud Management.” IBM Market Development and Insights, June 2019.
Only 26% of IT leaders say they can effectively monitor and manage their IT environment.¹
Client story: Improved efficiency, faster innovation
1 min read
Only 26% of IT leaders say they can effectively monitor and manage their IT environment.¹
Implementing a hybrid multicloud strategy often means collaborating with multiple service providers for the skills, processes and technology needed to execute at scale—but you may not have to.
A single management provider can help you gain operational and cost efficiencies. For example, SimCorp A/S supports large investment companies’ operations with its flagship asset management software, SimCorp Dimension. Its clients began asking for the software to be delivered as a service so they wouldn’t have to manage it themselves.
Together, SimCorp and IBM Services designed a standardized, automated and fully managed service. The resulting solution allows SimCorp to offer SimCorp Dimension as a Service as a fully managed application on IBM Cloud. In the past, establishing new clients required the installation and configuration of both hardware and software at the client site. With SimCorp Dimension as a Service and IBM Cloud, the process no longer requires either, and it takes less than a week.
Watch SimCorp executives describe their experience.
Citations
¹“Multicloud Management.” IBM Market Development and Insights, June 2019.
50% of security professionals now spend most of their time securing the cloud.²
Mitigate risk
1 min read
50% of security professionals now spend most of their time securing the cloud.²
Security is a driver and an inhibitor to hybrid multicloud adoption. Critical data must be protected, but a cloud environment can create governance challenges.
Cyber resilience has become a competitive advantage, especially with the right framework. An effective strategy helps ensure data and application availability and reliability. You can adapt and recover from attacks and use different technologies to radically shape your ability to respond. Without proper cyber resilience, you can be increasingly exposed to attacks that paralyze operations.
In addition to malicious attacks, many regulations spanning different geographies and industries can put you at risk of serious fines without continuous validation of controls. But there are ways to help set your organization up for success.
Read the IDC white paper on the 5 key technologies for establishing a cyber-resilience framework.
Citations
²IDC white paper, sponsored by IBM, 5 key technologies for enabling a cyber resilience framework, April 2019.
By 2021, 98% of organizations plan to adopt multicloud architectures, but only 41% have a multicloud management strategy and just 38% have procedures and tools to operate a multicloud environment.³
Meet consumer expectations
1 min read
By 2021, 98% of organizations plan to adopt multicloud architectures, but only 41% have a multicloud management strategy and just 38% have procedures and tools to operate a multicloud environment.³
A streamlined management approach is key to managing multiple clouds.
You can’t digitally transform your organization without a single way to manage workloads. A single cloud management platform helps you and your service providers scale your common operations, compliance and governance approach.
Traditional centralized IT operations often have rigid controls, but we recommend creating a developer-driven cloud operations model. This model should combine services and capabilities from multiple providers at all levels of the stack. While avoiding vendor lock-in, you can provide enterprise developers, DevOps and IT operations teams with choice and consistency.
Learn how IBM Multicloud Management Platform can help simplify hybrid cloud management
Citations
By 2025, 90% of current applications will still be in use, and most will continue to receive insufficient modernization investment.⁴
Implement smarter application management
1 min read
By 2025, 90% of current applications will still be in use, and most will continue to receive insufficient modernization investment.⁴
A smarter and security-rich application portfolio management approach can bring your team confidence.
As you pursue your full cloud potential through hybrid and multicloud strategies, you undergo fundamental shifts in your application management approach. The worldwide public cloud services market was forecast to grow 6.3% in 2020 to total USD 257.9 billion, up from USD 242.7 billion in 2019.⁵ With an expected cost savings of 39% when using a managed cloud service, that's not a surprise.⁶
These changes are why managing applications in a hybrid cloud world is complicated—especially when enterprise portfolios reside both on-premises, off-premises and across different clouds. In this new model, traditional ways of application management are ineffective, costly and uncompetitive. To overcome this challenge, you’re rethinking your management approach by looking for opportunities to drive innovation, efficiency and resiliency into your application management practices and harnessing the power of modern capabilities.
Read about the benefits of application management services in this Forrester report.
Citations
⁴Thomas Klinect, Stefan Van Der Zijden. “Application Modernization Should Be Business-Centric, Continuous and Multiplatform.” Gartner, 15 August 2019.
⁵Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud Revenue to Grow 6.3% in 2020, Gartner Press Release, July 23, 2020.
⁶ U.S Buyer Needs and Requirements for Managed Cloud Services, IDC, DOC # US42629518, 2019.
41% of organizations expect cloud management platforms to help manage IT consistently across traditional data centers and multicloud IT environments.¹
Reinforce infrastructure resiliency
1 min read
41% of organizations expect cloud management platforms to help manage IT consistently across traditional data centers and multicloud IT environments.¹
Capitalize on your existing investments in your cloud strategy.
You spent decades investing in traditional infrastructure. With a hybrid cloud approach, you can incorporate existing systems into your cloud architecture. This strategy maximizes ROI, minimizes vendor lock-in and optimizes change management.
Consider the case of higher-education technology provider, Jenzabar. The Boston-based company supports more than 1,300 campuses worldwide with tailored student-information software and related services. For schools large and small, the growing cost and complexity of running an in-house IT infrastructure makes it an unwelcome distraction from the core business of education.
Recognizing this, Jenzabar wanted to ease the pressure on its clients’ technical resources and help those with legacy ERP struggling to meet growing student expectations. Choosing IBM Cloud has simplified operations for Jenzabar, helping the organization reduce costs and more cost-effectively serve a wider range of higher-education institutions.
Citations
¹“Multicloud Management.” IBM Market Development and Insights, June 2019.
98% of organizations plan to use multiple hybrid clouds within three years.⁴
Manage IT across locations and providers
1 min read
98% of organizations plan to use multiple hybrid clouds within three years.⁴
Multiple clouds can lead to systems lacking stability, but a cross-platform management approach helps.
Workload stability issues don’t go away when you move to cloud. In fact, solving them can be more complex when you don’t own the infrastructure and your application workloads are spread across public, private or hybrid cloud environments.
A cross-platform management approach delivers consistency across the management, governance, orchestration and security of your overall architecture. This holistic and integrated approach to management and optimization can help you achieve the scale of cloud and the reliability of your existing infrastructure across environments.
A multicloud strategy helps ensure high availability by having multiple clouds running at once. When tackling multicloud management, focus on ensuring automation, visibility and governance.
Learn how IBM Multicloud Management Platform can help simplify hybrid cloud management
Citations
⁴Assembling your cloud orchestra: A field guide to multicloud management, IBM Institute for Business Value, October 2018.
51% of multicloud organizations are too busy to innovate.⁷
Automate multicloud management
1 min read
51% of multicloud organizations are too busy to innovate.⁷
Many of the benefits associated with multicloud deployments–from faster operations to reduced costs–rely on automating core IT processes.
In a multicloud environment, you’ll need a layer of automated management so the business can scale with the expansion of services. With increased IT automation as a near-universal goal, it’s no surprise that organizations are pursuing a number of strategies to improve the ROI of their automation investments.
One of the top ways to do so is by using analytics. Analytics not only help you identify which processes to automate, but also help measure the effectiveness of any automation efforts.
Citations
⁷IDC Technology Spotlight, sponsored by IBM Global Financing, Managing a Multi-Cloud Environment, April 2019.
IDC estimates that, by 2023, at least 25% of public cloud deployments (as measured by computing core shipments) will be running in third-party, on-premises, and edge locations, powered by public cloud vendors' distributed cloud platforms.⁸
Optimize your hybrid cloud infrastructure
1 min read
IDC estimates that, by 2023, at least 25% of public cloud deployments (as measured by computing core shipments) will be running in third-party, on-premises, and edge locations, powered by public cloud vendors' distributed cloud platforms.⁸
A private cloud is a strategic asset and its benefits can go beyond increased security and uptime.
Your private cloud infrastructure is critical for supporting application development and growth plans across a hybrid multicloud environment. This infrastructure helps serve as a foundation that seamlessly links your dedicated private and public cloud resources that reside either on or off premises.
When a private cloud infrastructure is consumed in an as a service managed model, it provides virtually unlimited infrastructure resources—without requiring your teams to procure, maintain and manage the technology. By helping maintain capital expenses and free up internal resources for other strategic needs, a managed private cloud can lower your total cost of ownership.
Learn how you can use IT infrastructure and private cloud models as strategic assets. (274 KB)
Citations
⁸“Worldwide Whole Cloud Forecast, 2019-2023,” IDC DOC# US45101619, June 2019.
36% of IT leaders say excessive cost of IT operations from the use of multiple tools, systems, and processes is a primary challenge in managing their hybrid environments.¹
Customize your network
1 min read
36% of IT leaders say excessive cost of IT operations from the use of multiple tools, systems, and processes is a primary challenge in managing their hybrid environments.¹
As service levels improve, your clients expect each experience to meet or exceed their last interaction.
Delivering on these customer expectations is virtually impossible with the limitations of traditional network technologies and architectures. To support a hybrid multicloud environment, your networks need to be always on.
As a result, your traditional networks must evolve to meet hybrid cloud requirements and boost availability. A simplified management approach, using virtualization and automation technologies, helps ensure your networks are reliable, flexible, scalable and secure.
Watch this webinar to learn how to mitigate challenges and deliver an always-on hybrid model.
Citations
¹“Multicloud Management.” IBM Market Development and Insights, June 2019.
65% of organizations will modernize legacy systems with extensive new technology platform investments through 2023.⁹
Use flexible payment plans
1 min read
65% of organizations will modernize legacy systems with extensive new technology platform investments through 2023.⁹
Technology transformation can demand a significant investment.
A flexible payment solution may enable you to accelerate your move to cloud despite budget constraints. Payment plans for IBM Services can help you minimize upfront cash outlays, preserve cash, enhance cash flow and increase ROI. These improvements can empower you to start projects sooner and achieve business goals faster. While increasing agility, your organization can use the deep knowledge of IBM to help optimize your IT infrastructure and improve ROI.
Learn more about how to accelerate hybrid multicloud projects with flexible payment plans
Citations
⁹IDC Technology Spotlight, sponsored by IBM Global Financing, How Flexible Payment Solutions Can Accelerate Digital Transformation (PDF, 855 KB), IDC, March 2020.