You’ll never turn out the lights in your data center. Even if the company goal is “cloud only,” there are good reasons to keep some systems in-house:
Data privacy regulations
Firms that do business in multiple countries need to comply with the data privacy laws of each location. This may require adhering to data residency requirements or to achieve compliance certifications not available in cloud.
High performance workloads
For applications with a need for high throughput, achieving low-latency means minimizing network delays. This can require a high-speed network under your control, as well as ensuring that data travels as short a distance as possible. When high performance means high availability, having your own infrastructure may be a preferable architecture.
Security
We all know by now that the initial concerns about cloud security were overblown and that cloud may actually be more secure than on premises environments. That doesn’t change the fact that the shared cloud environment presents additional risks to the security of highly sensitive data, and it may be reasonable to keep those resources in-house.
Visibility and control
IT managers aren’t being control freaks when they want insight into systems down to the level of bits, and they aren’t being control freaks when they want the ability to completely dictate what’s deployed on infrastructure according to what schedule. Ensuring the company’s IT needs are met requires high levels of detail and the ability to control system changes.
Legacy systems
Press hard enough, and many IT managers will admit to having systems running on an obsolete version of an operating system that isn’t supported in cloud. While no one wants to encourage that, and migrating to cloud can press businesses to finally deal with these problematic systems, until business can find a modern replacement, these legacy systems need to remain on site. Even legacy systems on supported platforms may be poor architectural fits for cloud.
Expensive systems
Although cloud is often motivated by cost savings, not every workload will achieve savings in every cloud provider. It’s important to assess all the elements that contribute to cost in the cloud and estimate the associated costs. Applications that have very heavy usage demands may not be well-suited for pay-per-use scenarios.
Backups
Good backup practices require creating multiple copies of data on multiple types of media and storing them in multiple locations. In many cases, one of those locations will be on your premises.
Because of these reasons, businesses should expect that they’ll always have some level of IT infrastructure on site. In this kind of hybrid IT environment, support benefits from minimizing complexity. Look for products and solutions that can be applied in both the cloud and local environments. Also look for support from a managed services provider with capabilities across platforms. VAST IT Services helps businesses tackle IT challenges in multiple cloud providers as well as on premises.
Contact us to learn how our comprehensive services can enhance your IT capabilities in every environment.
