Workload Optimization Series: Why different workloads require different infrastructures
Cloud adoption is a key component of any successful digital transformation.
Analyst firm Gartner noted in a recent piece that organizations might want to consider a cloud-smart strategy, instead of a cloud-first strategy, in order to strike a balance between cloud adoption, budget and business objectives. Cloud offers clear benefits for many workloads and business processes, while there are still instances where legacy infrastructure is a better option. The decision revolves around issues like data sovereignty, security, performance, cost and control. We couldn’t agree more. Below, we’ve listed a few infrastructure options along with workloads that could be well-suited to each one.
Public Cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Public cloud eliminates the need to manage traditional infrastructure components, freeing you up to focus on improving business processes. A public cloud SaaS model works well with back-office applications such as email and human resources management applications.
It’s important to remember that while public cloud services have low up-front costs, they do have ongoing operational costs Over months or years, their overall expense can add up.
Public Cloud IaaS and PaaS
Public cloud IaaS and PaaS solutions let organizations run applications without needing to invest in physical IT infrastructure. Their big advantage is scalability — if your application needs to grow, you can add more resources just by clicking a button. Test/dev environments are a good example of applications ideally suited to public cloud IaaS and PaaS.
On-premise
Some workloads can’t be shifted over to the cloud, at least in the short term. If you’re running licensed software from a company, you won’t be able to move it easily over to the public cloud. In circumstances like this, it’s often simpler and more cost-effective to maintain a legacy on-premises implementation until you have the time and money to re-architect the software for the cloud.
Private Cloud
Sometimes it’s possible to move a workload to the public cloud, but it isn’t the best option in terms of performance and/or cost. A private cloud might be a good alternative in such a case, with an organization owning their own infrastructure and providing virtualized cloud-type services to their users.
Private clouds are well-suited to database applications with a high input/output (I/O) requirement, where there are large volumes of reads and writes requiring a high-performance cloud environment. These applications can have significant operational costs in a public cloud environment.
Private clouds are also ideal for compliance purposes — for example if data needs to stay within a particular country because of regulatory requirements.
It’s critical to take the right approach
Whatever the IT infrastructure, Aptum is dedicated to helping organizations drive cloud transformation, modernize data infrastructure and build digital platforms for resilience and growth. That inevitably means having the right workloads in the right place for the right reason.
What makes Aptum unique is we are thoroughly invested in the cloud, but our roots are in legacy infrastructure. Contrast that with the many cloud service providers that avoid legacy infrastructure altogether. Their entire focus is to move customers completely to the cloud when in reality it might not be the best approach for the business.
At Aptum, we know how to manage all types of infrastructure and have been doing so for a long time. It’s key to our ability to help customers choose the strategy that best suits their unique business needs. We are a vendor-agnostic partner to our customers with a breadth of capabilities spanning cloud, complex managed services, security and connectivity, allowing us to offer true hybrid solutions.
For a more detailed look at the importance of workload placement, please see a recent blog by our CRO Leigh Plumley at IT World Canada.
If you’re interested in learning more about workload management, we’ll be publishing an ongoing series of blogs going into more detail on how to assess your workloads and place them in an environment that offers the right mix of resiliency and cost. Stay tuned!
Read more: How to avoid cloud migration mistakes
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