Leveraging a Multi-Cloud Environment with the Digital Age

No organization can avoid investing in the digital transformation.  In fact, IDC forecasts digital transformation to exceed $1.1 trillion in 2018, an increase of 16.8% more than the $958 billion spent in 2017. The reason behind the investment is quite clear -– organizations need to make significant changes if they hope to compete in the new digital economy.

Simply put, the digital economy is all about constant innovation and the ability to seamlessly empower the customer through heavily customized experiences and offerings. For most organizations, meeting this mantra means developing, introducing and constantly evolving an array of apps.  And naturally, being able to support these apps requires significant bandwidth, which often far exceeds what’s feasible in most in-house environments.

It’s no surprise that the public cloud has provided many organizations with the bandwidth they need. In the same 2018 RightScale State of the Cloud Survey that showed 81% of IT leaders prefer a multi-cloud strategy, public cloud spend is quickly becoming a significant new line item in IT budgets, especially among larger companies. Among all respondents, 13% spend at least $6 million annually on public cloud while 30% are spending at least $1.2 million per year. Among enterprises the spend is even higher, with 26% exceeding $6 million per year and more than half (52%) above $1.2 million per year.

Of course, no one cloud offers an organization everything it needs to effectively service the growing customer demands – which is understandably driving a growing number of businesses to utilize an array of cloud offerings.

Fortunately, a when organizations fully embrace a strategically developed and monitored multi-cloud environment it plays a pivotal role in their ability to compete in the new economy.

However, there is a significant difference between simply utilizing multiple cloud environments and embracing a multi-cloud strategy. A strategic multi-cloud environment combined with a comprehensive management tool can provide organizations with the various aspects that enable competitive operation. Specifically, a strategic approach to multi-cloud:

• Provides the visibility necessary to effectively forecast and control costs. Cost control is a crucial component when leveraging a multi-cloud environment. A strategic approach enables organizations to track and analyze infrastructure costs and utilization, identify wasted spend, and forecast future costs.
• Enhances automation. After all, relying on manual procedures quickly kills an organization’s ability to compete, especially in the ever-evolving digital space. With automation, it’s possible to improve workflow services performance and usability, while also reduces operating inefficiencies with capabilities through predictive analytics, automated agent and client deployment for faster upgrades and maintenance.
• Ensures the speed and performance of applications. With the right tools, a multi-cloud strategy can leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, as well as real-time monitoring to watch streaming metrics from web-scale applications and underlying cloud and on-premises infrastructure to deliver unparalleled agility and scalability.

Bottom line: Competing in the digital economy requires organizations to reassess their operations and invest accordingly. Having a multi-cloud strategy can play a pivotal role in securely providing the visibility, cost control, and performance needed to succeed in the new economy.

See how BMC Multi-Cloud Management helps optimize your current IT systems while ensuring a secure, cost-effective transition to the clouds of your choice. Learn more.