Intelligent Data Centres Issue 06 | Page 36

FEATURE Supporting on-prem and cloud- native apps When planning better support for enterprise applications in the public cloud, make sure that the data services you select not only meet the feature requirements of your operations, but that the performance of those services can scale appropriately to the needs of your apps. Assaad El Saadi, Regional Director, Middle East, Pure Storage Many have shied away from moving critical client workloads offsite, choosing instead to maintain them in their own data centres. And travelling workloads are also beset by licensing restrictions that shrink the number of options for IT organisations. And so, the relatively short history of hybrid cloud has furnished us with several cautionary tales. If these uncomfortable anecdotes were to be compiled into a single volume, its title would read: ‘Plan Ahead’. Jumping the gun in IT projects has never yielded a happy ending and yet we still do it. But those who ask the right questions as they design their hybrid IT infrastructures are more likely to recount a happily-ever-after story than those that jump in with both feet. When you are careful to select services that are compatible with your data centre storage, you are taking the step of ensuring that APIs and management are consistent across all your environments. Now your architecture looks more like a hybrid infrastructure is supposed to look – with apps free to move more between your data centres and the cloud. They can even span environments, delivering that all-important agility that you seek. If your big win is to prepare your data centres for the support of cloud-native apps, then you will need to add container support and object storage capabilities. This code portability allows cloud-native applications to run on your premises. In addition, associated automation tools and self-service facilities can lead to an appreciable surge in your organisation’s agility and allow you to deliver on cloud- native application development. The bottom line is that modern IT environments should facilitate data strategies based on flexible consumption models, across on-premises, hosted and What are your targets? Identify your goals, zero in on your biggest pain points and plan your attack. Maybe you want to find better ways to run traditional applications in a public-cloud setting. You might want to explore ways to unlock the limitless computing power inherent in cloud-native applications and cloud-native development in your data centres. Or perhaps you just crave the cybersafety of the public cloud for the protection of your data and the options for business continuity. 36 Issue 06 IN THE MIDDLE EAST, THERE HAS BEEN A GROWING MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE ADOPTION OF HYBRID IT ENVIRONMENTS. public cloud – aligning application workloads with the most effective infrastructure. Most importantly, the modern IT environment should work harmoniously with a common management interface, 100% non-disruptive architecture and proactive/predictive support services. Securing the digital estate Meanwhile, the digital threat landscape has become a bugbear for us all. In recent years – especially in the Arab Gulf region, amid a surge in cloud migration – the cybersecurity worry-lines www.intelligentdatacentres.com