8CIOReview | | DECEMBER 2021StrategyA key part of any strategy is deciding what not to do. The first question that enterprises need to answer is whether a wholesale migration to a public cloud environment is part of their cloud strategy. If the answer is no, by definition, their strategy is going to involve hybrid cloud(i.e. splitting workloads across on- premise and public cloud environments). If enterprises are also planning to leverage multiple cloud provider environments(i.e. AWS, GCP, Azure) for running different workloads that benefit from the unique capabilities of the major cloud providers, their strategy now includes multi-cloud. A key thing to note is that hybrid cloud is a necessity while multi-cloud is a choice. Their strategy also need to account for how they are going to govern their cloud adoption of infrastructure as a service(IAAS), Platform as a service(PAAS) and Software as a service(SAAS) service models of cloud.PeopleCloud requires a change in mindset, toolset and skillset. As a result, any cloud based transformation needs to include a role centric(for example application developer, data scientist/data engineer, infrastructure engineer, security engineer, architect)training/upskilling & continuous learning program.Security:In IAAS/PAAS, public cloud operates with the shared responsibility model. In this model, the cloud providers are responsible for the security of the cloud while customers are responsible for security in the cloud. To address security in the cloud, enterprises need to build preventive, detective and corrective controls to mitigate confidentiality, integrity and availability risks. Cloud security needs to address Identity & access management, application, infrastructure , data security, detective controls and security incident response functional areas.ApplicationsAs enterprises embark on modernization journeys, cloud applications enable enterprises a pathway towards modernization by enabling the build out of new cloud native applications like function as a service/serverless applications as well as the ability to modernize legacy applications by leveraging innovative and fully managed cloud platform capabilities.Certain applications(i.e. bursty, cyclic and part-time) benefit from the elasticity of a cloud environment. A key part of the cloud application strategy involves doing an application portfolio rationalization by deciding which existing applications are a good fit for a replacement through a SAAS purchase, refactoring custom monolithic applications into capability oriented micro-services/API's as well as which applications need to be retired as well as which applications should not be considered for a move into a public cloud environment. In addition, in order to innovate, enterprises need to be able to do many experiments and fail fast. Public cloud as an experimentation platform reduces the cost of each experiment. DataSystem of insights (i.e. data warehouse, business intelligence reporting, ad hoc analysis and reporting, predictive analytics using machine learning and enterprise data lakes) are ENTERPRISE PUBLIC CLOUD ADOPTIONBy Gerum Haile, Vice President, Technical Fellow-Chief Cloud and Platform Architect, USAAIN MY OPINION
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