EDITOR’S QUESTION
YOUSUF KHAN, CIO,
PURE STORAGE
– and that means building a
hybrid cloud. Today, major retail
brands – which were previously
never considered technology
companies – are generating more
data than high tech firms did a
decade ago. To gain advantage
from that data, organisations
must be highly analytical and
strategic about which workloads
and applications live where.
F
or consumers and businesses alike,
digital technology has proven
disruptive. Consumers can, in theory,
embrace or reject the trend as they see
fit. But a reluctance to embrace digital
technologies can leave organisations
falling behind competitors.
The good news is that enterprises in
the Middle East are already making
strides in this area. In a recent survey we
conducted, of 300 IT decision makers in
the region, 72% of respondents stated
that their organisations are committed
to being information-based companies.
It is often the responsibility of IT leaders
to innovate in line with the business’s
digital vision, without breaking the
bank. In response to this, public cloud
has seen increased adoption across a
multitude of industries. The demand
for simpler storage, combined with
a data explosion, has created the
perception of an unstoppable drive
towards the public cloud. A ‘cloud-first’
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INTELLIGENTCIO
strategy is the popular buzzword for
executive leadership. But it’s important
to understand what that really means.
The narrative that cloud and traditional
storage are at direct odds, while
compelling, is oversimplified. Within
today’s landscape, there are more
options than just public cloud and
traditional on-premise.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has
exploded, while private cloud has also
seen significant increase in relevancy. A
strategy that deploys some combination
of these options is referred to as
hybrid cloud. This is a route that most
enterprises in the Middle East are opting
with 69% of businesses saying they will
increase their public cloud usage in the
next 18 to 24 months.
In parallel, private cloud (57%) and
SaaS (56%) usage is also expected to
grow in the same timeframe. Strategic
infrastructure is key to optimising for
the new reality of digital business
Analytics and business
intelligence are two of the top
focus areas for CIOs with 74%
of survey respondents reporting
that they see more demand
in the business for real-time
analytics than a year ago.
To effectively utilise both, IT
professionals must understand
the strengths and limitations
of different infrastructure
options to create the optimal
hybrid environment for their
organisation. Public cloud has
revolutionised the standard for
easy IT. It’s simpler to manage,
and removes the time and
energy burden of technology
upgrades from the customer. It’s
a utility model, which is attractive
to organisations for which CapEx
is limited, and provides the
flexibility needed to scale up
and down quickly depending on
fluctuating demand. The other
side of the same coin is scale
over time. As an organisation’s
data requirements grow, so does
the public cloud bill. Many CIOs
report directly to the CFO, and
when we speak to them, cost
certainty is a recurring theme.
A volatile and unpredictable
operating expense can be
untenable when building a
digital organisation. n
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