EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
ANDRE REITENBACH , CEO , GCORE
As technology infrastructure evolves and the opportunities to leverage data for success expand , companies must make decisions that will serve them in the long term . The best way to approach this is by prioritising four key areas : cloud strategy ; data protection ; compliance ; and monitoring and analytics .
Cloud strategy
A well-defined cloud strategy is fundamental to success . If we assume that a business has decided to deploy its platforms , applications , assets and workloads into the cloud , it will need to make informed decisions about whether it adopts a single cloud provider or embraces a multi-cloud system . The advantages of a single cloud , such as simplified orchestration of the technology and a uniform cybersecurity approach , make accessing resources straightforward . However , for maximum flexibility , a multi-cloud approach provides service offers that match specific parts of the business and potentially gives companies the option to compare competitive prices and redundancy for business applications between different cloud providers .
If it ’ s important for an organisation to deliver its own services with redundancy and low latency , it must consider the strength of the network in different regions and the location of the data centres that support that multi-cloud network . There ’ s also a decision to be made about whether a public cloud , which offers scalability and affordability advantages , would be preferable to a private cloud , which can be customised to the needs of the business .
While these are important priorities , businesses must decide what matters most to them , not just for their current needs , but as they scale in the future too .
Data protection
It has never been so important to ensure sensitive information is protected . The more that data is distributed across diverse platforms and networks , the more crucial it is to put in place state-ofthe-art security measures . Organisations can consider different ways to protect data but if they are using a public cloud , they will need dedicated security resources to accelerate resilience , reliable infrastructure protection against DDoS attacks and web security mechanisms to enable stable application operation . Data must be protected at rest and in transit , ensuring enterprises maintain control over their proprietary information .
Compliance
The risks of not complying with government regulations , such as GDPR , are expensive in terms of cost and reputation . However , meeting compliance requirements adds a layer of complexity for companies using cloud services . The best approach is to discuss the compliance features that are offered by providers , which will help organisations align with the regulations in their geographical and vertical markets , further supporting the goal of regaining control .
Monitoring
Migrating into the cloud means making use of measurement , evaluation and monitoring tools that determine if cloud-hosted applications and platforms are performing within their SLAs . All services that are offered should be monitored and companies can make use of analytics tools to gather critical data on everything from end-user experiences to identifying changes that need to be made .
While these are important priorities , businesses must decide what matters most to them , not just for their current needs , but as they scale in the future too .
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