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Stay out of the hot seat with turnkey private cloud

In the pursuit of digital transformation, most organizations will use a mix of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and cloud-native platforms (PaaS) deployed across both public and private cloud called multi-cloud strategy. (See the CIO.com blog: Overcoming the Digital Dilemma for more details.) A cloud operating model is supposed to reduce friction, i.e., make it easy to deliver the digital systems on which most organizations rely. The problem is that implementing and maintaining a private cloud can be challengingthis introduces friction in the form of delays, costs and risk. As we know from physics, friction results in heat, and in this scenario, IT pros whose projects incur undesirable delays, cost and risk find themselves in an uncomfortable placethe hot seat! Choosing a turnkey private cloud instead of pursuing a do-it-yourself (DIY) cloud implementation reduces the friction in your multi-cloud strategy keeping you out of the hot seat.

Most organizations will use both private and public cloud computing for appropriate workloads. Steady-state workloads can be hosted on your private cloud at a lower cost than public cloud hosting while the cost of public cloud can be lower for shorter-lived and spike workloads (see the white paper The Cost of Using the Public Cloud.) A private cloud allows strict control over data placement within the requirements of an organization and therefore public cloud is more likely to be considered for less sensitive workloads, i.e., those with low concerns regarding data sovereignty or the risks of multi-tenancy. The use of the proprietary development and management tools of public cloud platforms creates barriers to exit which can be a crucial concern for systems with strategic value. Choosing the right toolset with which to build your strategic applications provides flexibility to develop and deploy in your choice of the most common private and public clouds.

There are two types of frictionstatic friction and dynamic friction. Static friction exists when an object is at rest and acts to resist the initiation of motion. Dynamic friction comes into play once an object is in motion. These two types of friction can be used in our discussion of the challenges faced with a DIY private cloud. Static friction is created by the activities that must take place between the time when a decision is made to implement a private cloud and the time when its actually up and running in production. Activities involved in standing up your DIY private cloud, such as designing, purchasing, installing, integrating, testing, etc., all serve to resist your move to implement a private cloudthey are the static friction that is preventing you from getting to production! Dynamic friction is experienced once your cloud is up and running. Maintaining, patching, upgrading and scaling your DIY private cloud can consume significant resources and create undesirable risk as they slow down your velocity and generate heatmaking things uncomfortable for all involved.

Adopting a turnkey private cloud reduces friction and accelerate results. (For a discussion of turnkey private cloud see the IDC report: The Power of Hybrid Cloud.) A turnkey private cloud is one that is delivered to your organization ready-to-run. All the components are racked, stacked and cabled. All the software is installed, integrated and configured. In other words, when compared with a DIY approach pursued by many organizations to deploy a private cloud, a turnkey private cloud eliminates the static friction, accelerating results so that your private cloud will be up and running in days instead of months. (See the Principled Technologies report; IT service transformation with hybrid cloud: buy or build?.)

But what about dynamic friction? Once your private cloud is up and running, a different set of challenges must be faced. These are sometimes called day 2 challenges. A turnkey private cloud dramatically reduces the challenges associated with the ongoing operation of your private cloud. It is built in a well-known configuration whereas a DIY private cloud is almost always a one-off, bespoke configuration. Like snowflakes, no two DIY private clouds are the same. As a result, a turnkey private cloud can be patched and upgraded with known validated packages resulting in no drama operations. A turnkey private cloud is supported as one so that there is no multi-vendor finger pointing. With a turnkey private cloud, risk and costs are minimized in a way that dramatically reduces the dynamic friction caused by DIY private cloud operations.

When it comes to implementing a multi-cloud strategy, your approach to private cloud can have a dramatic effect on your organizations results. When compared with a DIY private cloud approach, implementing a turnkey private cloud will dramatically reduce the friction you experience. Less static friction with a turnkey private cloud means that your strategy will be implemented faster, accelerating time-to-value. Less dynamic friction with a turnkey private cloud means that ongoing cost and risk will be reduced, resulting in improved service levels and a better bottom line. Less friction means less heat. Keep yourself out of the hot seat and adopt a turnkey private cloud.

Dell EMC offers the following turnkey private clouds for both IaaS and cloud-native platforms: Dell EC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, Dell EMC Native Hybrid Cloud and Dell EMC Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack. For more information on the full suite of turnkey private cloud options available from Dell EMC, visit dellemc.com/cloud.

As a Senior Consultant for Cloud Solutions Marketing at Dell EMC, Bob Ganley is working to speed the time-to-value for customers through the creation of outcome-focused solution content. In prior roles he has experience as a software engineer, product manager and sales professional spanning several generations of enterprise architectures. He is now leveraging that experience to bridge the gap that often exists between traditional product offerings and the real-world results that customers must achieve with information technology. You can follow him on twitter at @ganleybob

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Stay out of the hot seat with turnkey private cloud - CIO