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SUNDI BALU,
CIO TELSTRA
ENTERPRISE AND
INTERNATIONAL
EDITOR’S QUESTION
“
HYBRID CLOUD IS
BECOMING THE STRATEGY OF
CHOICE FOR ORGANISATIONS
THAT WANT THE FLEXIBILITY
AND AGILITY OFFERED BY
PUBLIC CLOUDS.
T
oday’s competitive and dynamic
business environment is challenging
many businesses. Those companies
that are thriving, however, have been
early adopters of new platforms
and technologies, in particular cloud
technologies. It’s also not a simple case of
whether an organisation is using the cloud,
but how their cloud is set up and whether
their cloud is delivering business outcomes.
Hybrid cloud is becoming the strategy of
choice for organisations that want the
flexibility and agility offered by public clouds,
the security and control of private cloud
infrastructure, as well as the ability to choose
the environment in which they should deploy
their legacy and cloud-native workloads
and applications. RightScale’s State of
the Cloud 2017 report revealed that 85%
of enterprises already have a multi-cloud
strategy. Of the 85%, 58% use hybrid cloud.
When deployed effectively, hybrid cloud
infrastructure leads to cost savings, agile and
innovative ways to reach customers, better
staff collaboration and a mobile workforce.
In fact, 90% of the most successful cloud
initiatives have already resulted in expansion
38
INTELLIGENTCIO
into new markets, as well as the creation of
new revenue streams and business models.
The challenge for businesses is to architect
the right mix of private and public clouds to
achieve scalability and cost-effectiveness,
alongside security and control. Enterprises
that have successfully navigated such
complexity have often turned to a managed
services provider, one capable of effectively
curating the cloud platforms and cloud-
dependent technologies to meet unique
requirements, before delivering end-to-end
support for cloud migration, management
and cost optimisation.
The effective use of cloud is also
dependent on the ability of the underlying
network to be equally agile. Speedy,
reliable and on-demand connectivity
remain a key determinant of cloud
success. In addition, the network must
be programmable at its core and able
to automate the provisioning of new
applications. This enables businesses to
quickly add new services and capabilities
that deliver better end-user experiences, as
well as access multiple clouds via a simple
and secure user interface.
Cloud technologies also empower today’s
new way of working. They amplify the voice
and value of employees, allowing people to
work anywhere and stay connected to their
data, colleagues and customers around the
clock. For this reason, Springer Nature, the
world’s largest academic book publisher,
turned to Telstra to design a cloud-based
Cisco Unified Collaboration platform
capable of getting 13,000 employees
in 22 countries on the same page. The
technology is delivering point-to-point video
and audio conferencing, multi-party video-
conferencing, instant messaging and shared
desktop experiences. It is also connecting
disparate and legacy phone and IT systems
that were hindering collaboration within and
across offices.
Properly executed, cloud-based unified
communications bring the different
elements needed for employee collaboration
together, making things seamless
for employees to use and easy for IT
departments to manage. After all, it’s a
safe assumption that a system, which is
enjoyable and easy-to-use for employees,
will translate to an improved experience and
level of consistency for customers.
www.intelligentcio.com