Cloud Automation Done Right: A Platform-First Approach

Businesses of all sizes are shifting some or all of their data and applications to the cloud to ensure high availability and scalability. However, in the last few years, there has been a change in ‘how’ organizations deploy the cloud in an increasingly multi-cloud reality, with hybrid cloud as the dominant cloud delivery model to tackle issues like vendor lock-ins. That said, many businesses that are new to the multi- and hybrid cloud rush through setting up environments without a foundational strategy on automation, security, and integration, leading to inconsistency and redundancy issues. The rise of hybrid and multi-cloud brings along many challenges that can potentially derail an organization’s digital transformation efforts.

Challenges in hybrid and multi-cloud adoptions

As enterprises rush to access the cloud’s computing powers, cloud and IT admins often find it difficult to manually orchestrate, track, and scale applications and resources across diverse cloud environments. Due to multiple individuals trying to perform configurations, discrepancies like data silos, lack of governance, and security snags start to materialize. Adding to this, a lack of strategy for supporting business and IT goals and managing associated risks and costs can lead to enterprise challenges in areas like:

Cloud infrastructure deployment and configuration

From integrating management into deploying and orchestrating cloud services in the multi-vendor landscape to steering corporate resources toward compliance, enterprises end up deploying multiple capital-intensive cloud management tools in addressing any cloud infrastructure and configuration needs.

The learning curve for cloud environment management

As the cloud footprint of an organization grows, there is a need for visibility into different cloud environments, integrations, and architectural considerations. Here, the learning curve to gain and manage this visibility becomes longer and more complex without a one-stop management platform.

Cloud governance

Many businesses lack a tracking portal facility for provisioning requests and a single interface to monitor deployment audit logs for compliance. This creates traceability and governance issues over cloud deployments in the long run.

Training and hiring initiatives with cloud and automation SMEs

Enterprises face a significant challenge in training and hiring cloud and automation SMEs. There is a huge skill gap in becoming familiar with an organization’s legacy technologies and then training for new skills and systems to be better positioned to enforce a successful multi- or hybrid cloud strategy.

Implementation and rollouts

Enterprises face a lack of agility in cloud implementation and rollouts due to inconsistent workflows across cloud environments, data silos, poor collaboration, and multiple complex processes. These bottlenecks further hinder the ability of businesses to fully operationalize their multi- and hybrid cloud environments.

The ideal solution for hybrid and multi-cloud environments must accommodate automated provisioning through standard Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and configuration management tools, along with self-healing for compliance.

A cloud-vendor-agnostic orchestration solution is the way forward

Since there is a need for a resource-effective approach toward the use of diverse clouds, a cloud-agnostic architecture and strategy fits the bill for using every opportunity to create a highly portable system. The ideal strategy must accommodate automated provisioning through standard Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and configuration management tools, along with self-healing for compliance. Driving such a ready-to-go platform are cloud accelerators, offering single-pane-of-glass management with advanced automation and a choice of multi-cloud, multi-vendor, or multi-technology options. With a dedicated cloud-vendor agnostic orchestration framework and a hassle-free integration layer, the platform must streamline cloud provisioning and help enterprises achieve higher process efficiencies and seamless rollouts.

Champion diverse cloud environments with the right mix of expertise and solutions

Cloud automation is essential for businesses of all sizes and industries, but to navigate this journey toward increased revenue, agility, and scalability, businesses need holistic ingredients and domain expertise for integrating a hybrid cloud automation framework. HTC’s Cloud Hyper Automation Platform, a single-interface solution monitors automation efforts, helps create custom automation workflows, and enables API-based integrations to build catalogs using open-source tools. Deploy at the click of a button and scale on demand, employing HTC best practices for innovation, flexibility, transparency, and simplification throughout your cloud hyper-automation journey.

AUTHOR

Ganesh Dattu Pote

Ganesh Dattu Pote

Associate Director, Cloud and Infra Practice

SUBJECT TAGS

#cloud
#hybrid cloud
#data
#automation
#multi-cloud
#cloud infrastructure
#cloud governance
#cloud hyper automation platform

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