Harnessing the power of economic data solutions toward data-driven security and innovation

With organisations doubling down on the role of IT, spending on cloud infrastructure services has continued to build momentum, forecasted to hit $18.7 billion in Australia according to Gartner.

Today’s reality is that almost every organisation uses multiple cloud services and will continue to respond to a rapidly changing business environment defined by hybrid working and technology adoption.

As businesses look beyond the initial rush to procure cloud services, experienced by many at the beginning of the pandemic, the focus is now on how to maximise the value of all their cloud and data.

Taking advantage of hybrid and private cloud solutions can deliver the key benefits of cloud, such as agility, automation, elastic scalability and consumption-based pricing, combined with the control over security, data-driven innovation and cost management.

So what are some of the factors organisations may be overlooking as they seek to evolve and optimise their overall multicloud strategy? Here are three to consider.

Factoring in data sovereignty to your cloud strategy

As more global companies look to move data freely across regions the rules and regulations of each country will impact how they access and move data across the organisation.

Considering the need for cloud infrastructures to offer tight security while following the data sovereignty of each country adds more work on an already overloaded IT team.

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Getting ahead of legal obligations can be a matter of establishing data protection at the start of your cloud journey. Consideration needs to be taken of the following steps:

• Know the law: Consult with legal and compliance departments and clarify all requirements.
• Know the regional variances: Become familiar with different countries’ encryption requirements for different types of data
• Plan for periodic reviews: Remaining compliant requires constant vigilance. Make sure there is a monitoring plan in place.
• Consider data security by design: Assume that the business will be impacted by upcoming legislation and implement data security practices that will allow compliance with any new laws.
• Architect for mobility: When possible, architect cloud solutions to allow for the mobility of data should one region establish legislation that has business impact.

Experienced partners can offer customised solutions to help navigate the waters of data sovereignty, freeing IT teams to keep moving the needle forward.

Avoiding the pitfalls of data gravity

A significant barrier to allocating resources and labour towards innovation lies in the burden of data gravity. As the body of IT infrastructure expands across cloud, specific data centres in large global cities have served as meeting points for all networks, dumping data into digital hotbeds with customers finding it difficult and costly to move information.

While major hyperscale cloud providers do afford you a discount if you connect to them through a private network, organisations must deploy a presence in the oceanfront real estate of digital infrastructure. Thus resulting in a higher overall cost associated with that discount, and it is not easily accessible.

Free your data and eliminate data gravity by deploying your data to a neutral environment from the start. Put your data in a neutral environment with low-latency connectivity to these interconnected digital hotbeds to avoid data being held hostage.

The pain of egress fees

Egress fees add up in a hurry. Often worse still, they’re often underestimated. They have long presented a challenge in keeping cloud costs under control and avoiding unpredictable expenses, negatively impacting business agility and innovation.

The situation for many companies is worse in the multicloud era. Organisations that store data with a hyperscaler may face substantial egress charges to share data or move it from one cloud to another, even with applications on premises and at the edge.

The path to reducing egress fees incorporates several key elements, including disaggregated storage, a secure global private network backbone and the ability to manage data, applications and toolsets.

Look for a solution that puts one or all these elements together in an integrated solution – in a way that lets organisations avoid the need for large-scale migrations to the public cloud.

While this can seem like a lot to consider, they should not be ignored. With skills shortages stretching today’s IT departments thin, addressing these early in your cloud journey can help free up teams to innovate around your core competencies and effectively leverage data.

Angeline Maronese is the managing director, ANZ at Rackspace Technology.