Cloud technology is entering the era of the multi-cloud. When using multiple clouds supported by various cloud providers, organizations can reap the best features of each, thereby making their cloud infrastructure far more flexible.

During his opening keynote at Dell Technologies World Conference in May, CEO Michael Dell expressed his views on multi-clouds as the future of cloud technology. According to Dell, multi-cloud ecosystems will harness the combined power of edge computing with artificial intelligence (AI) to “process and deliver data across 5G networks in highly automated environments.” 

Multi-cloud technology is already expanding rapidly. According to Dell, 90 percent of his company’s customers currently have both on-premise and public cloud environments, while 75 percent are using three to four different clouds. However, he also noted that multi-cloud technology is creating larger amounts of data and security challenges in the process.

“Anything you want to do in today’s world, from [decentralized finance] to blockchain to metaverse, and autonomous vehicles, and robotics, smart everythings, based exploration, AI, disaster recovery, AR/VR — all these things consume and create tremendous amounts of distributed data and distributed computing power,” he said. “And because workloads follow data, the distributed future will be much bigger than you can imagine, and so will the attack surface. Ransomware attacks are the No. 1 threat for most organizations, and are occurring every 11 seconds, with an average cost of $13 million per occurrence.”

Despite some challenges, multi-cloud technology holds huge promises for organizations. When paired with hybrid cloud, in which an organization splits its data between a cloud and an on-premise datacenter, multi-cloud infrastructure can create a truly decentralized cloud platform. This allows an organization to not depend on any singular data center or provider. According to Entrepreneur, this approach allows organizations to customize their technological environment to their specific needs.

How Cloud Technology Is Already Advancing Health Care

One industry that is already gaining benefits from cloud technology is health care. According to Forbes, these benefits include expanding access to telehealth, which has already begun under the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth is working to make it possible for more people in both rural and urban areas to access physicians. 

Other benefits include faster drug testing and manufacturing. For example, vaccine maker Moderna was able to speed approval for its COVID-19 vaccines with support from cloud computing through Amazon Web Services. By using cloud computing, the company was able to build a technology to rapidly test vaccines. 

“Moderna runs its Drug Design Studio on AWS’s highly scalable compute and storage infrastructure to quickly design mRNA sequences for protein targets. It then uses analytics and machine learning to optimize those sequences for production so that the company’s automated manufacturing platform can successfully convert them into physical mRNA for testing,” state Moderna and AWS.

Understanding Challenges of the Cloud

Organizations are only beginning to realize the benefits of cloud computing. However, before they adopt the cloud, they must first understand the challenges that come with embracing this rapidly advancing technology.

To learn more about the benefits and challenges of cloud computing and how it pertains to your organization, check out Cloud Computing on the IEEE Learning Network. This online course program includes 25 self-paced courses focused on various aspects of cloud computing technologies.

Interested in getting access for your organization? Contact an IEEE Content Specialist for more details.

Resource

Kuehne, Joe. (9 May 2022). Dell Tech World: Michael Dell Proclaims That the Future Is Multicloud. BizTech.

Montoya, Sergio Ramos. (10 May 2022). This is how cloud computing advances, a valuable resource for companies. Entrepreneur.

Schnitfink, Theo. (10 May 2022). How Technology Puts The ‘Care’ In Healthcare: The Role Of The Cloud During The Pandemic. Forbes.

Press Release. AWS Powers Moderna’s Digital Biotechnology Platform to Develop New Class of Vaccines and Therapeutics. Businesswire.

As COVID-19 continues to keep many offices closed, some organizations have digitally transformed their workforces to improve the flow of business. This change will be permanent for many. By the time the pandemic is over, a number of organizations will have embraced a hybrid in-person/virtual workforce. They will also have shifted to multiple cloud and hybrid cloud services.

Many organizations in the early steps of adoption may find themselves at a crossroads between different cloud providers. These providers offer software-as-a-service (SaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and platform-as-a-service (PaaS). With a number of third parties hosting their data, organizations will need to consider the security risks. They must take steps to mitigate these risks. One way to get ahead of the problem is to create a single cloud strategy. This strategy will ensure streamlined governance over cloud platforms.

“A best practice is to ensure that for all requested cloud services, [the services] are subjected to proper architecture and security reviews on any IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS vendor platforms, before being approved for use in the enterprise,” Ryan Smith, Chief Information Officer at healthcare provider Intermountain Healthcare, told CIO. “Guidance and guardrails must be established before any public cloud vendor tools can be provided to the organization, including ongoing monitoring of all usage.”

How to Create a Digital Transformation Cloud Strategy

Before you take your organization down the digital transformation path, you’ll want to make sure you have a strong strategy in place. This strategy will allow for easier adaption to a multi-cloud model. Here are three things organizations should consider, according to The Enterprise Project:  

Revise your strategy:
Revamp your strategy to take into account the integration of enhanced security systems, data center providers, voice technology updates, and other necessary changes. You should also document everything as you proceed. In addition, be sure to involve your senior leadership.

Prioritize security:
Make network security your top priority by embedding it into the digital transformation process. Also, establish protocols that ensure all steps are taken. Consider public versus private cloud solutions (each of which carries its own data risks). Establish a robust Mobile Device Management (MDM) or Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform. You should also train your staff on how to identify common scams such as phishing, which is the number-one way hackers break into data centers. A good strategy is to implement a multi-layered security strategy. Supplement it with routine testing, assessments, and training. 

Define what “cloud” means to your organization:
Before you execute your digital transformation, decide exactly what utilizing the cloud means to your organization. Also, consider what your cloud strategy will entail. Consider questions such as: 

  • How should the cloud be defined in a work-from-home environment?
  • What do we need cloud computing to accomplish?

By asking questions like these, you will be able to avoid unnecessary cloud projects that could waste your organization’s time and money.  

Digital transformation will come with many risks and rewards. However, organizations that adopt an appropriate cloud strategy will be able to quickly identify and solve problems in advance. They will enjoy a much easier transition in the process.

Prepare Your Organization for Digital Transformation

Get your organization ready for Digital Transformation. The IEEE five-course program, Digital Transformation: Moving Toward a Digital Society, is aimed to foster a discussion around how digital transformation can transform various industries. It also provides the background knowledge needed to smartly implement digital tools into organizations.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist to get access for your organization.

Interested in the course for yourself? Check out the courses below on the IEEE Learning Network.

Resources

Demetrius, Jim. (25 March 2021). Digital transformation: 3 ways to get infrastructure updates back on track. The Enterprise Project.

Violins, Bob. (8 March 2021). Mitigating the hidden risks of digital transformation. CIO.

cloud-for-remote-work

The COVID-19 pandemic is fueling reliance on remote work, thereby increasing the need for cloud computing in organizations.

The video conferencing platform Zoom has received a 300% day-to-day increase in use, according to a JPMorgan study. Additionally, Microsoft’s collaboration platform Teams saw a jump in 12 million daily users the week of March 18. In India, 64% of organizations are expected to transition to cloud computing amidst the pandemic. In Europe, a cloud computing project dubbed Gaia-X—a collaboration between the European Commission and the French and German governments—aims to create a European-based cloud environment that will lessen the continent’s dependence on private companies. 

“Cloud computing, which has been touted for its flexibility, reliability and security, has emerged as one of the few saving graces for businesses during this pandemic,” writes Evan Ellis, CEO and President of K2, in Forbes. “Its use is critical for companies to maintain operations, but even more critical for their ability to continue to service their customers. However, many organizations have lost sight of the original purpose of the cloud and are therefore failing to fully harness its potential.”

The Benefits of Transitioning to the Cloud

Without cloud computing, this large-scale dependence on remote work would not be possible. As the pandemic pushes more organizations to rely on the cloud, it will likely speed a shift from hybrid public-private cloud models to fully-integrated cloud models. According to David Linthicum, Chief Cloud Strategy Officer at Deloitte Consulting LLP, the benefits of fully transitioning to the cloud include:

1) Flexible storage: Because the public cloud is more flexible than physical storage, it offers benefits such as virtual servers that don’t need to be managed manually, quick access to on-demand storage with no limit to the amount you can store, and the ability to embed resiliency.
2) The ability to shift processes to different areas in the cloud and maneuver around disruptions.
3) Enhanced security features including identity advanced encryption in flight and at rest, multifactor authentication (MFA), access management (IAM), and biometrics.
4) Advanced remote control over assets in the public cloud in situations where physical assets cannot be accessed, such as the current situation of widespread business closures during the pandemic.

How to Adopt Fully to the Cloud

To transition fully to the cloud, Ellis recommends the following steps:

1) Have a plan: Make an assessment of your current infrastructure before moving forward.
2) Prepare your apps: Some apps may already be ready to move to the cloud, while you may need to be modernize or replace others.
3) Make the commitment to transition fully to the cloud: Enable and train your users to utilize apps in the cloud. Additionally, prepare to adapt to a cloud system that will require smaller and more frequent updates.

Understand the Challenges

Before moving forward, you’ll need to consider the challenges involved. First, inexperienced IT professionals may inadvertently expose private data when transitioning data to the public cloud—meaning it is vital to make sure they are properly trained before making the transition. Second, it’s important to have a good understanding of how much storage you will need to provision before you make the switch.

“The overall message here is that there is value in looking at potential cloud computing solutions,” writes Linthicum. “When the crisis passes and IT falls into a ‘new normal’ routine, enterprises should assess how well they fared through the event by checking in with their ops teams. If your ops teams have worked regular days during the crisis, chances are you had the right mix of cloud or noncloud technology. A stressed ops team could mean there is much that can be improved.”

Understand the Cloud

Learn more about the benefits and challenges of cloud computing and how it pertains to your organization. Check out the Cloud Computing Course Program, which offers 37 self-paced courses focused on various aspects of cloud computing technologies.

Contact an IEEE Content Specialist for more details about getting access to this program for your organization.

Interested in getting the program for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network today.

Resources

(3 June 2020). 64% Indian firms to adopt cloud computing amid COVID-19 pandemic: IDC. The News Minute.

Potoroaca, Adrian. (4 June 2020). France and Germany back plans to create a European cloud computing ecosystem dubbed Gaia-X. TECHSPOT.

Linthicum, David. (26 May 2020). Leveraging The Cloud During The Pandemic. Forbes.

Ellis, Evan. (22 May 2020). The Current Pandemic Gives Cloud Computing A Needed Jolt. Forbes.