Cloud computing 3.0: Every second counts – ETCIO

Businesses today are moving a portion or all of their applications and data to cloud computing environments. The third wave of cloud computing entails dealing with multiple cloud computing environments and a cloud maturity model that is ever-evolving.

Public cloud services rose by 18.4% in 2021 as against 6.1% in 2020. indicating that cloud use is rising dramatically year after year. In fact, the fastest-growing segment of the industry is Desktop as a Service (DaaS), which expanded by 95.4% in 2020 and 61.5% in 2021.

Choosing the best cloud deployment strategy among public clouds, private clouds, hybrid clouds, and multi-clouds for the organization is the first stage in the planning process for cloud adoption. As business and technological requirements change, an organization might transition between several deployment strategies.

That said, when it comes to cloud models, different companies have different opinions on which type of cloud model they prefer. The public cloud model is the most sought-after cloud model in India. It is available for the general public and the data is generated and stored by 3rd-party service providers which means companies need not maintain their hardware, this is what Vineet Aggarwal, CIO, Paras Healthcare has to say.

He further explains that this model is quite effective during a smooth transition across clouds over time. The key benefits include greater privacy and security, simplified data and application portability, increased scalability, and lower costs.

With a private cloud, organizations must build and maintain all kinds of servers to meet spikes in demand across various divisions or functions. It is a better option if data and infrastructure require the best possible security at multiple levels like healthcare companies Rahul Mahajan, CTO, Nagarro said.

However, Mahajan also agrees to the public cloud model being the most preferred one. The shift, by and large, has been towards the public cloud, including SaaS and PaaS. Most of the leaders in the retail, automobile, BFSI, and manufacturing industries are heavy users of the public cloud, he adds.

A hybrid cloud configuration may incorporate many cloud providers, making it hybrid as well as multi-cloud. Using one or even more public clouds in parallel to existing on-premise servers can help businesses make the most of the cloud by facilitating and simplifying application management.

Manoj Dhanda, Founder, and CTO, of Microhost Cloud, concurs, The hybrid cloud model gives businesses the ability to dynamically scale their IT infrastructure up or down as needed, making it more agile and responsive to changing business needs, he Mentions.

Many businesses use multiple public cloud service providers. When separate user departments buy their own cloud services without IT awareness or if a merger or acquisition brings a new provider into the business cloud fold, organizations "accidentally" adopt a multi-cloud Deployment.

In India, multi-cloud adoption is still in its infancy. Digital natives, IT/ITeS, and select enterprises are partnering with multiple cloud providers to accelerate their digital investments. Per, Gartners 2020 Cloud End-User Buying Behavior Survey (with 117 respondents from India), Seventy-eight percent of Indian respondents use multiple cloud providers; 67% use a primary provider and additional secondary providers, while 11% use multiple providers with no clear primary provider. Twenty-two percent of respondents engage with a single cloud provider (n = 94). Increased security risks, the complexity of operating multiple technologies, and complexity of managing multiple bills are the top three challenges related to working with multiple public clouds., Naveen Mishra, Sr Director Analyst, Gartner explained.

A multi-cloud strategy is still the standard practice among businesses. Eighty-nine percent of respondents said they have a multi-cloud strategy, and 80 percent employ a hybrid approach that combines public and private clouds.

Source: Flexera cloud-computing-trends-2022-state-of-the-cloud-reportData security and protectionTo ensure data security and data protection, businesses must evaluate built-in security. Data security is a top priority for cloud providers. For this reason, a growing number of companies opt to store their data with a cloud service provider.

They provide additional advantages like scalability and flexibility in addition to a high level of security. A cloud service is the best option if you want to keep your data in a secure and safe manner.

Given the importance of the topic, we have a dedicated internal security council. The council issues patterns, guidelines, and best practices to be followed by all the public accounts in the organization in collaboration with multiple COEs, said Mahajan.

Access controls are very stringent with cloud providers too though. This implies that the information kept on their servers can only be accessed by authorized employees. This makes it considerably more difficult for anyone without authorization to access the data.

Cloud providers additionally protect data by using two-factor authentication. This implies that users would require a second form of identification in addition to their passwords, such as a fingerprint or an iris scan, in order to access their accounts. This makes it much harder for someone to access data held by a fintech without authorization.

The chosen cloud vendor should have strong internal controls in place and must offer robust tools to help secure data. Also, the majority of cloud providers provide some measure of both in-transit and at-rest encryption. Businesses must enable both of these. They should also consider adding additional layers of encryption as per their needs, Aggarwal comments.

From fewer than 5% today, 40% of enterprises will have a multi-silo, hybrid, and multi-cloud data encryption strategy by 2023.

Growing with cloud techDespite the fact that the cloud in its current form is a relatively new concept, interest in cloud computing is growing. The following are some key reasons why we see such increasing growth for cloud adoption and strong growth in the ERP/CRM, Fintech, and Cloud Telephony industries:

GlobalLogic is addressing the challenges of cloud security and cost management by using cloud-native tools from the cloud providers as well as evaluating third-party tools that wrap around cloud-native capabilities for better recommendations, monitoring, and enforcement, Kumar adds.

After the pandemic, hybrid work environments started to emerge, which has increased the desire to expand beyond traditional cloud models. In order to overcome the obstacles and solve long-term issues, such as adaptability, security, productivity, and efficiency, cloud-based resources are being increasingly used, and multi-cloud solutions are starting to develop.

The change is being seen as cloud service providers take a more important role in counseling clients about the expanding advantages of using multi-cloud architecture and helping them create a more intelligent and long-lasting business.

While all of these present cloud computing as critical to maintaining a profitable technology-driven business organization, the returns on cloud investment opportunities are still subject to a few critical challenges, including successful effective cloud migration, cybersecurity, cloud resource enhancement, people and change management, and a long-term sense of direction for cloud-enabled digital transformation.

Also read: Technology trends shaping the cloud and cloud security landscape

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Cloud computing 3.0: Every second counts - ETCIO