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Adopting and shaping the multi-cloud

A solution approach with Future Cloud Infrastructure (FCI)

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Future Cloud InFrastruCture WhIte PaPer— Adopting and shaping the multi-cloud

Whether wanted or not, and whether strategic or opportunistic, the multi-cloud is a phenomenon companies need to tackle. Despite the challenges in terms of complexity, the multi-cloud is the sourcing model of the future. This is because it is the only tool that can leverage the advantages of a best-of-breed approach and give companies optimum platforms for both sides of IT—the established, plannable side and the new, agile side. The hybrid cloud is paving the way for efficient multi-cloud management that also keeps compliance requirements and costs under control. With its Future Cloud Infrastructure, T-Systems offers a solution for this kind of future-oriented multi-cloud management.

Digitization, the cloud and its consequences

No one can seriously dispute the fact that digitization has dramatically changed our society for the long term. We are in the midst of a never-before-seen change process which only seems to be speeding up as a result of easily available IT resources, services and options from the cloud.

The cloud is one of the essential driving forces behind this development; it enables companies to adapt to new market rules. One of these maxims is: ‘Start fast, grow fast’. This encompasses three elements: Firstly, an ability to innovate; secondly, swift efficiency in providing the innovative services on the market; and thirdly, the capability to quickly expand these services if necessary (i.e if they are successful). The new services are often aimed at impro-ved user or customer experiences that are designed to inspire or keep clientele loyal to the company/service. The combination of these elements creates differentiation on the market, and determines a company’s success over its competitors.

It is on this basis that new, dematerialized (virtual) solutions (‘new business’) emerge, laying a new foundation for physical interactions. Uber and Airbnb are probably the most prominent examples of these revolutionary approa-ches in the Western world. But digitization has also given rise to many other new business models that don’t make the same headlines. These include compressed air as a service, remote doctor consultations, predictive mainte-nance of systems/machinery, and process automation using artificial intelligence. In this way, ICT is becoming an integral part of services, or directly maps the service rendered.

These examples of successes are fuelling business visions and also prompting companies long established in the physical realm to test out the possibilities offered by the cloud. This raises several fundamental questions for user companies: Should established, differentiating processes continue to be managed and developed at great effort (and expense)? Or are there alternative, 80-percent solutions standardized in the cloud, but which only incur a frac-tion of the cost? Or should the cloud be reserved for development projects that create differentiation on the market?

Statements such as ‘transform, digitize or die’1 have permanently changed company managers’ views of the cloud and digitization, and sometimes even sparked unrealistic expectations. For even the cloud needs to yield to existing realities such as legal framework conditions, transformation expenses, and limited capabilities. An interesting and explosive IT mix is thus emerging at companies – and the challenge is only growing. Forecasts predict that more business applications will be rolled out in the next five years than have been in the last forty.

Innovativeness as competitive strength

door opener for new business


2020 - 20251979 - 2019

Speed of business apps rollout

x 8

v

tSource: T-Systems

3


The multi-cloud is reality

Companies’ IT reality is bimodal2. This term, originally coined by Gartner3, denotes a split IT world within a com-pany, reflecting the needs of differing user groups. On the one hand, there are legacy applications (mode 1), which reliably support the companies’ sophisticated processes. On the other, there are agile development, DevOps and public cloud services (mode 2), which make businesses agile. Most companies have yet to master the art of integrating these two worlds, which instead coexist as a kind of two-class IT landscape. One of the approaches originally designed to merge the two worlds is that of ‘cloud-first’ or even ‘cloud-only’.

But attempts to transfer the entire application landscape to the public cloud not only resulted in considerable tech-nical challenges, it also showed that even regulatory and security requirements of ‘public cloud complete’ strate-gies have their limits. The European Union in particular is governed by regulations such as the GDPR, which pro-hibit random data transfers to certain jurisdictions. Data centers themselves, but also the potential access to data (via management tools), play a key role in assessing the legality of data-processing methods.

At the other end of the spectrum are application developers. These are a rare resource at companies, who need suitable development platforms that are available as PaaS on demand, and which permit agile working (DevOps), in order to work efficiently. But an optimum platform for their cloud-native mindset generally does not exist. Devel-opers work with different platforms depending on requirements and skills. Further challenges arise as a result of the fact that the DevOps method takes into account both the ‘dev’ and the ‘ops’ part. Development on modern PaaSes typically also requires operation on a suitable PaaS. As such, the mode-2 approach not only provides an alternative IT (‘shadow IT’) both through development and in terms of application operation.

But the phenomenon of public-cloud use extends beyond application development. The vast majority of sales reve-nue on the cloud market comes from SaaS4. More and more business departments are turning to these standar-dized, ready-to-use services to support their processes and provide customers with an outstanding user experi-ence5. This leads to a multi-cloud landscape of non-integrated cloud services, which is driven by silo mindsets and a narrow set of specific demands.

The result of these developments is clear. According to figures published by Rightscale6, 84 percent of companies are already operating in a multi-cloud world. Gartner7 estimates this to be 81 percent. The multi-cloud is reality.

Multi-Cloud user

of all companies

>80%


Workload distribution within a company

Cloud native

Cloud optimized

Ready for cloud migartion

Partly cloud adopted

Legacy/Monolitic stacks

50%

35%

15%

Source: T-Systems

4


Requirements Multi-Cloud

Transparency/Cost controlGovernance for data and IT compliance/SecurityEfficient management

Pros and cons of the multi-cloud

There are two paths that companies can follow into the multi-cloud world. One is the unregulated, unplanned, opportunistic path, the second is the planned, strategic path characterized by hybrid-cloud projects or a cloud catalogue/shop. And, when assessing user companies in terms of the cloud, it is also worth remembering the private-cloud approaches, which are an initial important step towards making infrastructures and platforms flexible and virtual. Private clouds are already widespread at many companies, including for critical workloads such as SAP operation.

The theoretical advantages of a multi-cloud approach are obvious: Multi-clouds provide every stakeholder within the company with precisely the capacities and functions they need to carry out their project. They meet needs for flexibility, scalability and tools in the best possible way while being easily available and only requiring payment where necessary. Every cloud has different strengths and weaknesses. Criteria for choosing to use a cloud may include costs and available (management) services, technical performance, capacity for integration, service levels, or security features. The multi-cloud marketplace enables best-of-breed approaches, and effectively prevents vendor lock-in.

Multi-Clouds herald a future in which the old, traditional cloud dream could become a reality, namely moving workloads freely

and independently from specific infrastructures/platforms.

But it’s guts before glory. A successful multi-cloud strategy doesn’t sell itself. Multi-cloud projects in particular are complex. Every new sourcing option increases the effort and expense required to manage additional services in-house, and intensifies the need for relevant skills, e.g. in relation to APIs.

When adopting a multi-cloud strategy, companies must therefore ensure that there are no shortcomings in data/IT governance (including security, compliance) and (overall) business efficiency. It is also important to achieve trans-parency/cost control for the respective cloud service as part of an efficient (and largely automated) management system for the multi-cloud.

Achieving efficient multi-cloud management

Hybrid clouds pave the way for efficient multi-cloud management. Hybrid clouds generally emerge in the context of a specific business case—based on the assumption that a process or sub-process can be moved to the public cloud for reasons pertaining to cost or dynamics8. A review of the use case then reveals that moving processes out into the public cloud presents its own set of challenges, which can be resolved by adopting a hybrid concept. Typical challenges here include latency, unexpectedly high costs (e.g. through additional network capacities or an unsuitable pay-as-you-use model) or—frequently—the issue of data residency: Is the respective data being stored and processed in accordance with applicable regulations?

Hybrid scenarios are currently being used for backup or disaster recovery, though cloud bursting is also common when limited private-cloud resources are available for high-performance workloads. It is also common to find pro-cesses being ‘split’ into a front end that is accessible via the Internet and operated in the public cloud, and a back end that runs in a private cloud.

In addition to integrating public clouds and private clouds, companies must also be sure not to forget about the legacy IT when setting up their future cloud infrastructure/platform.

2020 20222018

2015

25 2530

38

+250%

+48%

Private CloudPublic Cloud

billion €

Market forecast


Source: T-Systems

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An integrated platform for the future: Future Cloud Infrastructure

The Future Cloud Infrastructure (FCI) by T-Systems is a concept enabling user companies to smoothly transition into a managed multi-cloud. FCI is provided as a managed service. It uses a VMware-based private cloud with VMware’s Cloud Foundation (VCF) as a central hub for all cloud services. VCF is an integrated stack of software components that takes charge of lifecycle management for all components at a software-defined data center (SDDC). It relies on a hyperconvergent infrastructure (HCI): Computer, storage and network components are fully virtualized and can be managed automatically—both during initial deployment (‘day 1 automation’) and during ongoing self-service management (‘day 2 automation’). Lifecycle management also includes log and network analyses, as well as monitoring. FCI thus offers users a high degree of usability and flexibility: The private cloud can be scaled like a public cloud and provided on demand.

FCI can be installed in a T-Systems data center or in a customer’s own data center. This setup gives users two options for legally storing and processing data. APIs, meanwhile, not only enable automatic connections to public-cloud platforms; they also facilitate access to native management tools for these platforms, which are aggregated in a service portal. This is also where the orchestration, monitoring, governance and cost management happens for the multi-clouds, enabling various platforms to be managed based on business KPIs. At present (December 2019), FCI can manage all VWware-based workloads (including legacy systems), OpenStack resources and Azure Stack. AWS will be integrated in 2020.

FCI allows legacy workloads to be smoothly migrated to public clouds via private clouds. User companies can orchestrate continuous development towards a multi-cloud approach from a secure platform, and the needs of the various stakeholders at the company can be met under one roof. FCI can be used regardless of the respective company’s cloud maturity. The hyperconvergent infrastructure also means that even legacy applications can be brought onto the platform via Lift and Shift.

SDDC with comprehensive automation

Gentle migration of legacy workloads



[1] Transform or Die: The Value and Purpose of Digital Transformation, IDC, zitiert in busiweek.com[2] Bimodale IT, Enzyklopädie der Wirtschaftsinformatik, Nils Urbach (German only)[3] Bimodal, Gartner Glossary[4] Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud Revenue to Grow 17.5 Percent in 2019, Gartner, 2019

[5] A Comparison of Major Cloud Codes of Conduct, IDC, Dominic Trott, Michael Larner, 2019[6] RightScale 2019 State of the Cloud Report, Flexera, November 2019[7] Why Organizations Choose a Multicloud Strategy, Gartner, Laurence Goasduff, May 2019[8] Multicloud Hybrid Cloud and Hybrid IT - Do Product Managers Know what Customers Really Want?, Gartner, Craig Lowery, 2019


CONTACTMartin HolzingerE-Mail: [email protected]

www.t-systems.de

EDITORT-Systems International GmbHHahnstr. 43d60528 Frankfurt am MainGermany

As a modern private-cloud/hybrid-cloud approach, FCI resolves four of the current challenges associated with the multi-cloud:

1. Cost pressure: A modern, automated platform enables more efficient management of new and existing resources. FCI reduces both basic management costs and cloud costs. The integrated multi-cloud cost management identifies unused resources and deactivates them. Studies estimate the unnecessary cloud costs incurred through non-transparent use of public clouds to be around 25 percent of the cloud budget. FCI also eliminates the vacancy risks associated with private-cloud use.

2. Digitization pressure: The specific interests of individual stakeholders are effectively catered to. Every user chooses the right one for them from the available pool of cloud platforms. Solid operation via private clouds is supported to the same extent as agile development projects and, if applicable, even agile operation in a cloud-native mode.

3. Complexity: The pooling of management tools on one platform and the high degree of automation resulting from software definition dramatically reduces management expense. The orchestration and integrated management make the various platforms look like one infrastructure. The boundaries between different sourcing models dissolve.

4. Compliance: Multi-cloud governance enables the introduction of policies that automa-tically map the regulatory or internal requirements for data handling. The possibility of operating it either at an in-house data center or a T-Systems data center gives users additional options for further security functions.

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