Enterprise cloud strategy - there can be only one.
Every conversation I have with enterprise customers has them using the words public, private and hybrid to describe the projects or phases of projects they’re thinking about. It’s fantastic that people are now (finally) thinking about how they will use different types of resources available to them, but this mindset of “many clouds” in your enterprise is flawed. I’m not the first person by a long shot to say this, but it needs repeating because most enterprises aren’t listening.
The market— vendors, analysts, etc— have conditioned buyers to think about cloud as three or more separate projects and buying decisions. There are even more if they’re separating by cloud vendor or technology choices.
Let me be clear:
Don’t think about your enterprise cloud strategy as being different pools of resources from different providers or technologies. Build and deliver ONE cloud to your users.
Think about cloud as the attributes it provides that you and your users care about. (Go back and read blog posts from the last decade if you aren’t sure what they are.) Then, plan how you will make the pools of resources available in various locations and with different characteristics available to your users as transparently as possible. You need security? The cloud has that, but the resources might be on-premise. You need to be in a specific geography? The cloud has that, but it might be with a specific public provider. You need specific performance attributes? The cloud has that, but it might be spread across on-prem and public resources to meet your needs. Your users need to see the cloud as one thing, and you need the governance to make that possible.
So when an enterprise user asks, “Where should I put this app?”, your answer should be: the cloud - not “cloud #5”, and you should have the tools and processes wrapped around your implementations to make sure that answer actually works :)
Agree or disagree? Follow me on twitter and tell me! @scottsanchez
