The right way of solving the cloud challenges

Data is growing faster than ever before and by the year 2020, about 1.7 megabytes of new information will be created every second for every human being on the planet. By then, our accumulated digital universe of data will grow from 4.4 zettabytes today to around 44 zettabytes, or 44 trillion gigabytes. At the moment, less than 0.5% of all data is ever analyzed and used, just imagine the potential here. Amongst all that data are solutions to countless problems in research, medicine, business and many more.

The terms Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have been discussed for decades, but the convergence of Big Data and Cloud, which fuels Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, is a very real technology now because the computing resources available today, via the cloud, are exceptional and with access to technologies like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, is no longer a constraint.

Cloud is no more optional for companies to remain competitive, as confirmed by over 70 percent of enterprises in a Veritas survey. Exponential data growth in terms of unstructured data and real-time data from IoT networks, and economics of digital storage and cloud computing are the growth drivers for Machine Learning across industries.

Ever since its evolution, any sort of technological innovation has been partially or wholly dependent on cloud. Cloud has come a long way from just addressing storage concerns to playing a critical role in sustainability of businesses. With Cloud computing gaining huge momentum, 60 to70 percent of all software, services and technology spending will be cloud-based by 2020, as predicted by Forbes. Businesses can transform and grow exponentially with the right mix of cloud solutions and can scale up productivity while reducing costs of their ageing IT infrastructure.

Here are some of the solutions to overcome major challenges for smooth cloud implementation and adoption –

Lack of Cloud Expertise: Cloud maneuvers require dedicated and specialized resources to implement, maintain, manage and monitor cloud infrastructure to realize maximum business benefits. The substantial demand for cloud adoption is not met with inadequate supply of cloud experts. With the rapid pace of innovation in cloud technologies, staying updated with the current trend due to the availability of multiple cloud strategies is a challenge for most businesses.

Organizations can either train readily available in-house talent to move into cloud domain. Outsourcing of cloud services to specialized firms working on similar technologies and platform is also one way of addressing this challenge.

Security: Security has always been a concern around Cloud infrastructure and services. Security has always been a top most priority for companies embracing cloud. The intangibility factor and the anonymity of cloud server location has raised questions about the potential threats and measures on combating them. Businesses find it hard to trust sensitive and confidential data to cloud which can be widely accessible from any part of the globe.

Prevention is always better. Scrutinize your cloud solution provider thoroughly to check how they confront the common and increased threats of malware and virtual machines attacks. Let user identity access management and disaster recovery be on your checklist for choosing cloud solution provider. Demand transparency for security architectures of the provider to understand the capabilities for securing data in cloud and also inspect the cloud provider’s privacy & compliance norms.

Cost: Although capital cost savings has been the key for cloud platform, there are monetary concerns to cloud adoption and deployment. Organizations are often unaware of additional costs incurred while using cloud; like cost for network load balancers, inter-zone networking costs, advanced monitoring and security appliances costs. These implied costs can bear heavy on business finances.

Businesses can align with pay-as-you-go cloud model relieving organizations from paying more than what they actually need. Organizations can also automate shut down for temporary workloads, move workloads to the economical cloud/region, monitor utilization and right size instances.

Multi-Cloud Strategy: Multi-cloud strategy, is the future of cloud computing. However, organizations have to conduct extensive background work and research before coming to a conclusion on implementing this approach. While defining your next cloud strategy, assess your IT needs, resources and requirements to address this challenge, spanning workload over multiple clouds and leveraging devoted cloud options for different needs granted multi-cloud strategy a win-win situation with cost balance.

Pick cloud providers enabled with automated standards and policy deployment across all the network while adhering to compliance and security procedures.

Overcoming Cloud Challenges

Knowing your current IT infrastructure, technologies and future plans about expansion is very crucial for your cloud journey. Cross checks for contingency plans with the cloud provider and prioritize operations to avail the best of cloud opportunities. Embracing cloud as a technology can really be helpful in making efficient use of resources, only if you have chosen the right cloud fit for your business.

About Author

Sudip Kar is the Vice President – Delivery of Cambridge Technology Enterprises (CTE). He joined CTE in 2003 to lead and implement enterprise software and cloud development projects using global delivery model. He manages and nurtures the relationship of most of the large strategic clients of CTE in the United States and India. He heads the delivery and client management from various CTE locations in the world, servicing the Company’s U.S, EU and India based customers. He also heads the PMO – the quality and delivery monitoring unit of CTE. Sudip works with our partner Amazon Web Services (AWS) to spread the benefits and awareness of cloud to numerous companies through workshops, events and webinars helping them reducing their IT budget and CapEx by as much as 50%. Prior to joining CTE, he was a founding member of a USA based start-up in San Francisco Bay Area, and successfully merged its technology with a French conglomerate. Over his 20 years of experience in IT industry, Sudip worked both in India and the USA for various companies like HCL, HP and Delsoft.

About Cambridge Technology Enterprises

Cambridge Technology Enterprises (CTE) is a leading global technology company transforming organizations into "AI-first" leaders. CTE is enabling its customers to create AI solutions that transform their businesses; by helping solve the world's complex and most interesting business challenges with AI. CTE gives organizations unparalleled access to cutting-edge technology by bringing together the best-in-industry using its years of expertise in building solutions for some of the world’s largest and most innovative enterprises; leveraging Big Data, Cloud & Machine Learning experience. CTE’s products and services address all the transformational AI needs of an organization — from strategic workshops to implementation of transformative business solutions through its AI as a Service (AIaaS). CTE’s expertise across multiple domains makes it the preferred choice for organizations seeking an AI Partner to innovate and leapfrog the market. CTE is assessed at Maturity Level 5 for CMMI v1.3 with ISO 27001:2013 certification. For more information, visit www.c7e.co or follow @cam_technology on twitter.

Sudip Kar
Vice President, Cambridge Technology