More than 85 percent of organisations will be cloud-first by the year 2025.
This means, when they need new systems or services, organisations will choose the cloud over upgrading their on-premise stack. A trend likely to result in the rapid growth of cloud-native technology.
That said, you might not be ready to retire your legacy systems completely. Perhaps some of your applications aren’t cloud-compatible. Or maybe you’re aware that cloud migration can be a huge undertaking that needs careful planning.
Thankfully, in this cloud-first world, there is another option - hybrid cloud.
What is cloud-first?
When you adopt the cloud-first strategy, you move away from keeping your tech stack on site. This frees up the office space used to house internal servers. And, because you won’t need a dedicated IT staff to maintain your infrastructure, you can cut down on wages, too.
But, arguably the most attractive benefit of the cloud is its scalability. With on-premise, you have to decide in advance how much space you need for storage. The forward-thinking business usually overprovisions rather than risking not having enough capacity down the line. This, however, can be costly.
Migrating to the cloud allows you to rightsize your resources, so you’ll only ever pay for what you use. It also enables you to customise your infrastructure, upgrading the most important workloads and downgrading those that matter less.
The result is a highly optimised system tailored to your business’s specific needs.
Why not cloud-only?
We get it - the thought of overhauling your entire infrastructure can be overwhelming.
Besides the cost of migrating all your systems at once, you need to think about how much downtime your business can tolerate. You’ll also need to make sure that you have cloud experts on-hand to assist with your migration, as well as training your staff in advance for the big switch.
That’s why the hybrid cloud is a great alternative. Businesses benefit from the agility of the cloud without scrapping the safety net that their on-premise infrastructure provides.
It’s the best of both worlds, enabling you to scale your services within the cloud as well as continuing to use the apps and workflows that aren’t cloud-compatible.
So, you can invest and scale in the cloud at a rate which makes sense for your business. All while still getting the most out of your on-premise resources.
Benefit from the hybrid cloud
‘By progressively blending public-cloud and private-cloud solutions into hybrid-cloud configurations, companies can quickly take advantage of sophisticated cloud services and even move sensitive applications into the public cloud without disrupting their IT architectures and operations.’ - McKinsey
Taking the cloud-first approach will help your business keep up to date and competitive. But, it’s not something you should rush headlong into.
That’s why we’ve partnered with Microsoft to provide a free Azure Foundations Assessment. We’ll use it to estimate your migration costs and which workloads to prioritise, so you’ll know how to get the most out of the cloud even before you make the move.
Cloud transformation is a journey, so don’t be afraid to take it one step at a time. The hybrid cloud allows you the time to create a roadmap to a cloud-first future, while benefitting from smaller changes today. All you need is the right partner to guide your way.
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