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Should I Stay or Should I Go? A Cloudy Decision

Scott Leatherman
Virtana

If you've been operating in the cloud for some time now, chances are your business has changed since you first made that move and particularly during the current climate. Has your cloud usage grown considerably — and your OpEx costs? Is that just the cost of doing business in the cloud? It doesn't have to be. Here's how you can rationalize your infrastructure and determine if there are cloud expenses you can reclaim and even if it makes sense to move some of your cloud deployments into co-location.

The rush to the public cloud has now slowed as organizations realized that it is not a "one size fits all" solution. The main issue is the lack of deep visibility into the performance of applications provided by the host. Our own research has recently revealed that 32% of public cloud resources are currently under-utilized, and without proper direction and guidance, this will remain the case. What is needed is real-time data and intelligent recommendations to lower costs and assure performance.

The Need for AIOps

In order to optimize cloud resources, a third-party AIOps based resource is needed. This will provide an independent and granular view of how applications are using capacity and if it is right-sized. In addition, it will monitor the performance of the applications in real-time and provide metrics and analytics to eliminate bottlenecks. The allocated capacity can also be monitored to ensure an accurate match to workload requirements via real-time performance data.

Although the major hosts provide cost optimization tools, these are not very accurate. Analysis of billing and how it matches capacity over time as well as in real-time is what is needed for the cloud to remain a vital part in IT infrastructure. Armed with this information you can plan capacity purchases and discover wasted spend. By using a single platform for cloud management, you can monitor your infrastructure, plan capacity, and eliminate performance risks. Performance bottlenecks can be predicted before they affect clients and SLAs with multi-conditional alerting powered by advanced anomaly detection.

Cloud solutions are not only publicly provided by the likes of AWS and Azure. Co-location is also a strong option where your applications are managed on your behalf by a system integrator. This is increasingly becoming a stronger option for more business-critical applications. But to determine which is best for you, you need to start with the facts.

The "Cloud" promises IT organizations unprecedented value in the form of business agility, faster innovation, superior scalability and most importantly — cost savings. For many organizations, it is at the core of their IT digital transformation strategy. It is a disruptive force that requires application workload behavior knowledge, careful planning and collaboration from well-informed, trusted advisors.

2 Paths to the Cloud

As a first step, enterprises frequently target a subset of their less critical on-premises applications for migration to the public cloud. Typically, organizations will take one of two paths to the cloud.

A. Going cloud-native. Rewrite your application to use resources offered by a cloud provider.

B. Lift and shift. Very minimal or zero code changes to the application. Largely, just replicate the application in the cloud.

The faster time-to-production choice is to "lift and shift" the targeted applications to a Cloud Service Provider's Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). In the lift and shift option, the advantage is a reduction in the cost incurred in the physical infrastructure like hardware, floor space, cooling, security etc. and the management of that infrastructure. Savings will differ depending on your unique computing resource needs, workload refactoring and business models.

Answering the Key Questions

Even in its simplest form, IaaS migrations must be carefully planned requiring answers to some fundamental questions:

1. Will my application perform as expected in a public cloud? (Application Fitness)

2. How much will it cost to run my applications in a public cloud? (OpEx)

3. Which cloud service provider is the best choice for my applications? (Cost and Fit)

IT managers need answers to these questions before the actual migration is performed. As most internal IT organizations don't have deep cloud expertise, the question becomes who you can trust to provide you with the answers — to help you make better business decisions.

As technology and the cloud stands to play an ever-increasing role throughout organizations, ensuring that you're adopting the right type of infrastructure specifically for your business has never been more vital for continued success. Choosing a service that provides the answers to your key questions before the actual migration takes place and prepares you with vital insights into your applications and workloads targeted for cloud migration has to be an important part of the decision-making process.

As organizations continue to battle the COVID-19 storm, understanding the product that will overhaul your IT infrastructure, before you fully buy into it, is going to provide the confidence and assurance you need to make that decision a little less cloudy.

Scott Leatherman is CMO of Virtana

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Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

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Should I Stay or Should I Go? A Cloudy Decision

Scott Leatherman
Virtana

If you've been operating in the cloud for some time now, chances are your business has changed since you first made that move and particularly during the current climate. Has your cloud usage grown considerably — and your OpEx costs? Is that just the cost of doing business in the cloud? It doesn't have to be. Here's how you can rationalize your infrastructure and determine if there are cloud expenses you can reclaim and even if it makes sense to move some of your cloud deployments into co-location.

The rush to the public cloud has now slowed as organizations realized that it is not a "one size fits all" solution. The main issue is the lack of deep visibility into the performance of applications provided by the host. Our own research has recently revealed that 32% of public cloud resources are currently under-utilized, and without proper direction and guidance, this will remain the case. What is needed is real-time data and intelligent recommendations to lower costs and assure performance.

The Need for AIOps

In order to optimize cloud resources, a third-party AIOps based resource is needed. This will provide an independent and granular view of how applications are using capacity and if it is right-sized. In addition, it will monitor the performance of the applications in real-time and provide metrics and analytics to eliminate bottlenecks. The allocated capacity can also be monitored to ensure an accurate match to workload requirements via real-time performance data.

Although the major hosts provide cost optimization tools, these are not very accurate. Analysis of billing and how it matches capacity over time as well as in real-time is what is needed for the cloud to remain a vital part in IT infrastructure. Armed with this information you can plan capacity purchases and discover wasted spend. By using a single platform for cloud management, you can monitor your infrastructure, plan capacity, and eliminate performance risks. Performance bottlenecks can be predicted before they affect clients and SLAs with multi-conditional alerting powered by advanced anomaly detection.

Cloud solutions are not only publicly provided by the likes of AWS and Azure. Co-location is also a strong option where your applications are managed on your behalf by a system integrator. This is increasingly becoming a stronger option for more business-critical applications. But to determine which is best for you, you need to start with the facts.

The "Cloud" promises IT organizations unprecedented value in the form of business agility, faster innovation, superior scalability and most importantly — cost savings. For many organizations, it is at the core of their IT digital transformation strategy. It is a disruptive force that requires application workload behavior knowledge, careful planning and collaboration from well-informed, trusted advisors.

2 Paths to the Cloud

As a first step, enterprises frequently target a subset of their less critical on-premises applications for migration to the public cloud. Typically, organizations will take one of two paths to the cloud.

A. Going cloud-native. Rewrite your application to use resources offered by a cloud provider.

B. Lift and shift. Very minimal or zero code changes to the application. Largely, just replicate the application in the cloud.

The faster time-to-production choice is to "lift and shift" the targeted applications to a Cloud Service Provider's Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). In the lift and shift option, the advantage is a reduction in the cost incurred in the physical infrastructure like hardware, floor space, cooling, security etc. and the management of that infrastructure. Savings will differ depending on your unique computing resource needs, workload refactoring and business models.

Answering the Key Questions

Even in its simplest form, IaaS migrations must be carefully planned requiring answers to some fundamental questions:

1. Will my application perform as expected in a public cloud? (Application Fitness)

2. How much will it cost to run my applications in a public cloud? (OpEx)

3. Which cloud service provider is the best choice for my applications? (Cost and Fit)

IT managers need answers to these questions before the actual migration is performed. As most internal IT organizations don't have deep cloud expertise, the question becomes who you can trust to provide you with the answers — to help you make better business decisions.

As technology and the cloud stands to play an ever-increasing role throughout organizations, ensuring that you're adopting the right type of infrastructure specifically for your business has never been more vital for continued success. Choosing a service that provides the answers to your key questions before the actual migration takes place and prepares you with vital insights into your applications and workloads targeted for cloud migration has to be an important part of the decision-making process.

As organizations continue to battle the COVID-19 storm, understanding the product that will overhaul your IT infrastructure, before you fully buy into it, is going to provide the confidence and assurance you need to make that decision a little less cloudy.

Scott Leatherman is CMO of Virtana

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...