The next BriefingsDirect cloud
deployment strategies interview explores how hybrid cloud ecosystem players such
as PwC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) are gearing up to support the Microsoft Azure Stack private-public cloud continuum.
We’ll now
learn what enterprises can do to make the most of hybrid cloud models and be ready
specifically for Microsoft’s solutions for balancing the boundaries between
public and private cloud deployments.
Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Get the mobile app. Read a full transcript or download a copy.
Here to explore the latest
approaches for successful hybrid IT, we’re joined by Rohit “Ro” Antao, a Partner at PwC, and Ken Won, Director of Cloud Solutions Marketing at HPE. The discussion is moderated by Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions.
Here are some excerpts:
Gardner: Ro, what are the trends driving adoption
of hybrid cloud models, specifically Microsoft Azure Stack? Why are people interested
in doing this?
Antao: What we have observed in the last
18 months is that a lot of our clients are now aggressively pushing toward the public cloud. In that journey there are a couple of things that are becoming
really loud and clear to them.
Journey to the cloud
Number one
is that there will always be some sort of a private data center footprint.
There are certain workloads that are not appropriate for the public cloud;
there are certain workloads that perform better in the private data center. And
so the first acknowledgment is that there is going to be that private, as well
as public, side of how they deliver IT services.
Now, that
being said, they have to begin building the capabilities and the mechanisms to
be able to manage these different environments seamlessly. As they go down this
path, that's where we are seeing a lot of traction and focus.
The other trend
in conjunction with that is in the public cloud space where we see a lot of traction
around Azure. They have come on strong. They have been aggressively going after
the public cloud market. Being able to have that seamless environment between private
and public with Azure Stack is what’s driving a lot of the demand.
 |
| Won |
Won: We at HPE are seeing that very
similarly, as well. We call that “hybrid IT,” and we talk about how customers
need to find the right mix of private and public -- and managed services -- to fit
their businesses. They may put some services in a public cloud, some services in
a private cloud, and some in a managed cloud. Depending on their company
strategy, they need to figure out which workloads go where.
We have these conversations with many of our customers about how do you
determine the right placement for these different workloads -- taking into
account things like security, performance, compliance, and cost -- and helping
them evaluate this hybrid IT environment that they now need to manage.
Gardner: Ro, a lot of what people have used
public cloud for is greenfield apps -- beginning in the cloud, developing in the
cloud, deploying in the cloud -- but there's also an interest in many
enterprises about legacy applications and datasets. Is Azure Stack and hybrid
cloud an opportunity for them to rethink where their older apps and data should reside?
Antao: Absolutely. When you look at the
broader market, a lot of these businesses are competing today in very dynamic
markets. When companies today think about strategy, it's no longer the 5- and
10-year strategy. They are thinking about how to be relevant in the market this
year, today, this quarter. That requires a lot of flexibility in their business
model; that requires a lot of variability in their cost structure.
 |
| Antao |
Public and/or private
power
Won: We help a lot of companies think
about where the best place is for their traditional apps. Often they don’t want
to restructure them, they don’t want to rewrite them, because they are already
an investment; they don’t want to spend a lot of time refactoring them.
If you look at these traditional applications, a lot of times when they are dealing with data – especially if they are dealing with sensitive data -- those are better placed in a private cloud.
Antao: One of the great things about
Microsoft Azure Stack is it gives the data center that public cloud experience
-- where developers have the similar experience as they would in a public cloud.
The only difference is that you are now controlling the costs as well. So that's another big advantage we see.
Won: Yeah, absolutely, it's giving the
developers the experience of a public cloud, but from the IT standpoint of also
providing the compliance, the control, and the security of a private cloud.
Allowing applications to be deployed in either a public or private cloud -- depending
on its requirements -- is incredibly powerful. There's no other environment out
there that provides that API-compatibility between private and public cloud deployments
like Azure Stack does.
Gardner: Clearly Microsoft is interested in recognizing that skill sets, platform affinity, and processes are all really important. If they are able to provide a private cloud and public cloud experience that’s common to the IT operators that are used to using Microsoft platforms and frameworks -- that's a boon. It's also important for enterprises to be able to continue with the skills they have.
Ro, is such
a commonality of skills and processes not top of mind for many organizations?
Antao: Absolutely! I think there is always the risk when you have different environments having that “swivel chair” approach. You have a certain set of skills and processes for your private data center. Then you now have a certain set of skills and processes to manage your public cloud footprint.
Antao: Absolutely! I think there is always the risk when you have different environments having that “swivel chair” approach. You have a certain set of skills and processes for your private data center. Then you now have a certain set of skills and processes to manage your public cloud footprint.
One of the big problems and challenges that this solves is being able to drive more of that commonality across consistent sets of processes. You can have a similar talent pool, and you have similar kinds of training and awareness that you are trying to drive within the organization -- because you now can have similar stacks on both ends.
Won: That's a great point. We know that
the biggest challenge to adopting new concepts
is not the technology; it's
really the people and process issues. So if you can address that, which is what
Azure Stack does, it makes it so much easier for enterprises to bring on new
capabilities, because they are leveraging the experience that they already have
using Azure public cloud.
The biggest challenge to adopting new concepts is not the technology; it's really the people and process issues.
Gardner: Many IT organizations are familiar
with Microsoft Azure Stack. It's been in technical preview for quite some time.
As it hits the market in September 2017, in seeking that total-solution, people-and-process
approach, what is PwC bringing to the table to help organizations get the best
value and advantage out of Azure Stack?
Hybrid: a tectonic IT shift
Antao: Ken made the point earlier in this
discussion about hybrid IT. When you look at IT pivoting to more of the hybrid
delivery mode, it's a tectonic shift in IT's operating model, in their
architecture, their culture, in their roles and responsibilities – in the
fundamental value proposition of IT to the enterprise.
When we
partner with HPE in helping organizations drive through this transformation, we
work with HPE in rethinking the operating model, in understanding the new kinds
of roles and skills, of being able to apply these changes in the context of the
business drivers that are leading it. That's one of the typical ways that we
work with HPE in this space.
Won: It's a great complement. HPE understands
the technology, understands the infrastructure, combined with the business
processes, and then the higher level of thinking and the strategy knowledge
that PwC has. It's a great partnership.
Gardner: Attaining hybrid IT efficiency and
doing it with security and control is not something you buy off the shelf. It's
not a license. It seems to me that an ecosystem is essential. But how do IT
organizations manage that ecosystem? Are there ways that you all are working
together, HPE in this case with PwC, and with Microsoft to make that
consumption of an ecosystem solution much more attainable?
Won: One of the things that we are doing
is working with Microsoft on their partnerships so that we can look at all
these companies that have their offerings running on Azure public cloud and
ensuring that those are all available and supported in Azure Stack, as well as running
in the data center.
We are
spending a lot of time with Microsoft on their ecosystem to make sure those
services, those companies, or those products are available on Azure Stack -- as
well fully supported on Azure Stack that’s running on HPE gear.
Gardner: They might not be concerned about
the hardware, but they are concerned about the total value -- and the total
solution. If the hardware players aren't collaborating well with the service
providers and with the cloud providers -- then that's not going to work.
Quick collaboration is
key
Won: Exactly! I think of it like a
washing machine. No one wants to own a washing machine, but everyone wants clean
clothes. So it's the necessary evil, it’s super important, but you just as soon
not have to do it.
Gardner: I just don’t know what to take to
the dry cleaner or not, right?
Won: Yeah, there you go!
And in a
three-way fashion, we have focused on being able to define accelerators to deploying
these solutions. So codifying a lot of our experiences, the lessons learned, a
deep understanding of both the public and the private stack to be able to
accelerate value for our customers -- because that’s what they expect today.
Won: One of the things, Ro, that you
brought up, and I think is very relevant here, is these three-way relationships.
Customers don't want to have to deal with all of these different vendors, these
different pieces of stack or different aspects of the value chain. They instead
expect us as vendors to be working together. So HPE, PwC, Microsoft are all
working together to make it easier for the customers to ultimately deliver the
services they need to drive their business.
Low risk, all reward
Gardner: So speed-to-value, super important;
common solution cooperation and collaboration synergy among the partners, super
important. But another part of this is doing it at low risk, because no one
wants to be in a transition from a public to private or a full hybrid spectrum --
and then suffer performance issues, lost data, with end customers not happy.
PwC has
been focused on governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) in trying to bring about better
end-to-end hybrid IT control. What is it that you bring to this particular
problem that is unique? It seems that each enterprise is doing this anew, but
you have done it for a lot of others and experience can be very powerful that
way.
Antao: Absolutely! The move to hybrid IT is a fundamental shift in governance models, in how you address certain risks, the emergence of new risks, and new security challenges. A lot of what we have been doing in this space has been in helping that IT organizations accelerate that shift -- that paradigm shift -- that they have to make.
In that context, we have been working very closely with HPE to understand what the requirements of that new world are going to look like. We can build and bring to the table solutions that support those needs.
Won: It’s absolutely critical -- this
experience that PwC has is huge. We always come up with new technologies; every
few years you have something new. But it’s that experience that PwC has to
bring to the table that's incredibly helpful to our customer base.
There’s this whole journey getting to that hybrid IT state and having the governing mechanisms around it.
Antao: So often when we think of
governance, it’s more in terms of the steady state and the runtime. But there's
this whole journey between getting from where we today to that hybrid IT state
-- and having the governing mechanisms around it -- so that they can do it in a
way that doesn't expose their business to too much risk. There is always risk
involved in these large-scale transformations, but how do you manage and govern
that process through getting to that hybrid IT state? That’s where we also
spend a lot of time as we help clients through this transformation.
Gardner: For IT shops that are heavily
Microsoft-focused, is there a way for them to master Azure Stack, the people,
process and technology that will then be an accelerant for them to go to a
broader hybrid IT capability? I’m thinking of multi-cloud, and even being able
to develop with DevOps and SecOps across a multiple cloud continuum as a core
competency.
Is Azure
Stack for many companies a stepping-stone to a wider hybrid capability, Ro?
Managed multi-cloud
continuum
Antao: Yes. And I think in many cases
that’s inevitable. When you look at most organizations today, generally
speaking, they have at least two public cloud providers that they use. They
consume several Software as a service (SaaS) applications. They have multiple
data center locations. The role of IT
now is to become the broker and integrator of multi-cloud environments, among
and between on-premise and in the public cloud. That's where we see a lot of
them evolve their management practices, their processes, the talent -- to be
able to abstract these different pools and focus on the business. That's where
we see a lot of the talent development.
Won: We see that as well at HPE as this
whole multi-cloud strategy is being implemented. More and more, the challenge
that organizations are having is that they have these multiple clouds, each of which
is managed by a different team or via different technologies with different
processes.
So as a way to bring these together, there is huge value to the customer, by bringing together, for example, Azure Stack and Azure [public cloud] together. They may have multiple Azure Stack environments, perhaps in different data centers, in different countries, in different locales. We need to help them align their processes to run much more efficiently and more effectively. We need to engage with them not only from an IT standpoint, but also from the developer standpoint. They can use those common services to develop that application and deploy it in multiple places in the same way.
Antao: What's making this whole
environment even more complex these days is that a couple of years ago, when we
talked about multi-cloud, it was really the capability to either deploy in one
public cloud versus another.
Within a given business workflow, how do you leverage different clouds, given their unique strengths and weaknesses?
Few years later, it evolved into being able to port workloads
seamlessly from one cloud to another. Today, as we look at the multi-cloud
strategy that a lot of our clients are exploring this: Within a given business
workflow, depending on the unique characteristics of different parts of that
business process, how do you leverage different clouds given their unique
strengths and weaknesses?
There might be portions of a business process that, to your point earlier, Ken, are highly confidential. You are dealing with a lot of compliance requirements. You may want to consume from an internal private cloud. There are other parts of it that you are looking for, such as immense scale, to deal with the peaks when that particular business process gets impacted. How do you go back to where the public cloud has a history with that? In a third case, it might be enterprise-grades workloads.
So that’s where we are seeing multi-cloud evolve, into where in one business process could have multiple sources, and so how does an IT organization manage that in a seamless way?
Gardner: It certainly seems inevitable that
the choice of such a cloud continuum configuration model will vary and change.
It could be one definition in one country or region, another definition in
another country and region. It could even be contextual, such as by the type of
end user who's banging on the app. As the Internet of Things (IoT) kicks in, we
might be thinking about not just individuals, but machine-to-machine (M2M), app-to-app
types of interactions.
So quite a bit of complexity, but dealt with in such a way that the payoff could be monumental. If you do hybrid cloud and hybrid IT well, what could that mean for your business in three to five years, Ro?
Nimble, quick and
cost-efficient
Antao: Clearly there is the agility
aspect, of being able to seamlessly leverage these different clouds to allow IT
organizations to be much more nimble in how they respond to the business.
From a cost
standpoint, and this is actually a great example we had for a large-scale
migration that we are currently doing to the public cloud. What the IT
organization found was they consumed close to 70 percent of their migration
budget for only 30 percent of the progress that they made.
And a
larger part of that was because the minute you have your workloads sitting on a
public cloud -- whether it is a development workload or you are still working
your way through it, but technically it’s not yet providing value -- the clock
is ticking. Being able to allow for a hybrid environment, where you a do a lot
of that development, get it ready -- almost production-ready -- and then when
the time is right to drive value from that application -- that’s when you move
to a public cloud. Those are huge cost savings right there.
Clients
that have managed to balance those two paradigms are the ones who are also
seeing a lot of economic efficiencies.
Won: The most important thing that people
see value in is that agility. The ability to respond much faster to competitive
actions or to new changes in the market, the ability to bring applications out
faster, to be able to update applications in months -- or sometimes even weeks
-- rather than the two years that it used to take.
It's that
agility to allow people to move faster and to shift their capabilities so much
quicker than they have ever been able to do – that is the top reason why we're
seeing people moving to this hybrid model. The cost factor is also really
critical as they look at whether they are doing CAPEX or OPEX and private cloud
or public cloud.
And so part
of it is also the revenue impact discussion, and using public cloud in a way
that allows you to manage some of those risks in terms of that analytical power
and that computing power you need closer to the edge -- closer to your internal
systems.
Gardner: Microsoft Azure Stack is reinforcing
the power and capability of hybrid cloud models, but Azure Stack is not going
to be the same for each individual enterprise. How they differentiate, how they
use and take advantage of a hybrid continuum will give them competitive
advantages and give them a one-up in terms of skills.
It seems to
me that the continuum of Azure Stack, of a hybrid cloud, is super-important. But
how your organization specifically takes advantage of that is going to be the
key differentiator. And that's where an ecosystem solutions approach can be a
huge benefit.
Let's look at
what comes next. What might we be talking about a year from now when we think
about Microsoft Azure Stack in the market and the impact of hybrid cloud on
businesses, Ken?
Look at clouds from
both sides now
You will see that as a break in the boundary of private cloud versus public cloud, so think of it as a continuum.
Won: You will see organizations shifting
from a world of using multiple clouds and having different applications or
services on clouds to having an environment where services are based on multiple
clouds. With the new cloud-native applications you'll be running different
aspects of those services in different locations based on what are the requirements
of that particular microservice. So a service may be partially running in Azure, part of it may be running in Azure Stack. You will certainly see that as a kind of break in the boundary of private cloud versus public cloud, and so think of it as a continuum, if you will, of different environments able to support whatever applications they need.
Gardner: Ro, as people get more into the
weeds with hybrid cloud, maybe using Azure Stack, how will the market adjust?
Antao: I completely agree with Ken in
terms of how organizations are going to evolve their architecture. At PwC we
have this term called the Configurable Enterprise, which essentially focuses on
how the IT organization consumes services from all of these different sources
to be able to ultimately solve business problems.
To that
point, where we see the market trends is in the hybrid IT space, the adoption
of that continuum. One of the big pressures IT organizations face is how they are
going to evolve their operating model to be successful in this new world. CIOs,
especially the forward-thinking ones, are starting to ask that question. We are
going to see in the next 12 months a lot more pressure in that space.
Gardner: These are, after all, still early
days of hybrid cloud and hybrid IT. Before we sign off, how should organizations
that might not yet be deep into this prepare themselves? Are there some
operations, culture, and skills? How might you want to be in a good position to
take advantage of this when you do take the plunge?
Plan to succeed with
IT on board
Won: One of the things we recommend is a workshop where we sit down with the customer and think through their company
strategy. What is their IT strategy? How does that relate or map to the
infrastructure that they need in order to be successful?
This makes
the connection between the value they want to offer as a company, as a
business, to the infrastructure. It puts a plan in place so that they can see
that direct linkage. That workshop is one of the things that we help a lot of
customers with.
We also
have innovation centers that we've built with Microsoft where customers can
come in and experience Azure Stack firsthand. They can see the latest versions
of Azure Stack, they can see the hardware, and they can meet with experts. We
bring in partners such as PwC to have a conversation in these innovation
centers with experts.
Gardner: Ro, how to get ready when you want
to take the plunge and make the best and most of it?
You want to
create that from a top-down perspective, being able to tie in to where this adds
the most value to the business. From a grassroots effort, you need to also
create champions within the trenches that are going to be able to manage this
new environment. Combining those two efforts has been very successful for
organizations as they embark on this journey.
Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Get the mobile app. Read a full transcript or download a copy. Sponsor: Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
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