Cloud computing has radically transformed the way products and services are conceived and delivered. It’s revolutionized the way we work and the speed at which we do business. Organizations flock to the cloud model for a number of reasons including greater agility, better performance, and potential cost savings.
Ask any CIO who has repatriated applications and workloads after going all-in on a single cloud, and they’ll tell you that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work. A single provider requires standardization that an IT estate amassed over decades with a mosaic of architectures and stacks can’t realistically align with. The gap between legacy mission critical applications and modern cloud native applications is too wide to span without costly refactoring and modification. Instead of shoehorning older infrastructure into a modern environment, it makes sense to place each application in the optimal environment across a variety of providers. But each additional cloud can increase complexity.
Organizations are turning to a multi-cloud approach to address complexity, optimize existing investments, and accelerate transformation. The Flexera 2021 State of the Cloud Report suggests most organizations have already started using multiple cloud providers.
Expedient and Microsoft Azure make it easy for companies to realize the full benefits of a multi-cloud approach. Based on 20+ years of experience, Expedient helps IT teams avoid obstacles along their journey to the cloud and introduces best practices to show ROI quickly. Without delivering results quickly, many businesses give up or hit a wall and don’t know what to do next.
According to research from security provider Fortinet, conducted by IHS Markit, of 350 global IT decision-makers surveyed, 74% reported they had moved an application back to their own infrastructure. If that wasn’t bad enough, an Enterprise Strategy Group report found that 84% of those businesses that pull back from the cloud were less likely to use public cloud services in the future.
A significant reason for this retreat is that these businesses lack expert guidance needed for a successful cloud journey. Without a partner like Expedient, companies blindly embrace the assumption that a single cloud migration is the fastest, most straightforward, and most cost-efficient answer. From this point, the effort becomes increasingly more derailed, as unexpected fees and performance issues pile up, and concerns arise around compliance and security.
The reality is that no single cloud can provide the digital twin that an expansive IT estate requires, which is why businesses turn to Expedient and Azure. These two cloud experts recognize that the cloud journey begins with an understanding—the road to cloud success requires a balance across a proven hyperscale cloud like Azure and Expedient Enterprise cloud coupled with the on-premises environment currently in place – a portion of which may remain.
This balance is just the beginning, of course. From there, the Expedient team examines each application and workload to determine precisely where each element will call home in this multi-cloud world – across Azure, Expedient Enterprise Cloud, or on-premises based on its unique characteristics. Placing the right workload on the right platform is the essential for businesses to finally begin to replace complexity with performance.
By selectively placing workloads onto Azure, and others on Expedient Enterprise Cloud, companies can avoid unexpected migration, egress, and data transfer fees which can start siphoning off critical budget. While eliminating these fees, they also maximize the valuable credits they get when signing up for Azure. These credits can then be applied to vital Azure services such as Virtual Machines, Azure DevOps, Azure Active Directory, and Azure bots.
For those concerned about exceptional performance and reduced costs may come at the expense of security, think again. Expedient’s Cloud Safer approach is designed to manage and monitor the entire environment, from on-premises to Azure and everything in between, all from a single location. Expedient offers Push Button DR, a fully managed disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) capable of supporting Azure as well as on-premises environments, simply and effectively.
Companies are learning that if you want to do cloud the right way, you need to work with proven experts. With the proper guidance, tools, and execution, there’s a huge opportunity to transform the way organizations operate.
Check out a complimentary assessment from Expedient. A team of expert will demonstrate how you can accelerate your multi-cloud journey with the powerful duo of Expedient and Azure.
