Public or Private Cloud?

Is Public Cloud the Greatest Business Enabler in a Generation?

Undoubtedly it is, disrupting old business models and providing a lifeline for many during the pandemic. It has enabled and provoked massive shifts in technical operations and business opportunities Companies which have neglected or been slow to pursue their digital transformation are most likely to have struggled during the pandemic or been forced to spend unbudgeted amounts for stop gap solutions. The trends towards greater public cloud use is certain to increase in a world which seems increasingly volatile.

Is Public Cloud Secure?

Some of the perceived challenges to adopting public cloud are security and compliance, and yet Amazon Web Services offers a full portfolio of certified security and compliance standards, compare this to the effort and resources required to achieve and retain the same level of certification on-prem or on Private cloud

Is Public Cloud Innovative?

Unsurprisingly aligning IT with the business is a well-cited business advantage of the Public Cloud. Businesses need to be agile, to adapt quickly to external opportunities and pressures and to take advantage of the largest area of innovative development in technology. Public Cloud should be part of every CIO’s agenda, no business can afford to ignore this.

A Phased Approach?

While many business’ long-term strategy is fully Public Cloud, a Hybrid approach is a common phase of that journey. AWS provides some of the most advanced Hybrid Cloud tools to enable that transition, protecting your investment in legacy systems which may be slow or difficult to replace or migrate

Savvy businesses are embracing advanced cloud services, taking advantage of the low barrier to access these services, availability on-demand, and potential ROI. Good Cloud MSPs should be advising their customers of value-added services which are designed for and exist solely in the Public Cloud

Some organisations are wary of being locked into a single cloud provider, if this is the case you may be better served by working with an agnostic Public Cloud partner who will focus on your business not your cloud platform. The uptake of Platform as a Service (PaaS) now rivals Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) which indicates that businesses with true digital strategies are already evolving more mature cloud enabled ways of working that underpin a central foundation for resiliency and scalability.

What makes Public Cloud so Different?

Well, there are many services and utilities which are differentiators but probably the most significant difference is that your technology is now driven by code, not physical servers, or even virtual machines. Infrastructure is created, reviewed adapted and operated with code. This ensures consistent results, the ability to peer review configurations and adapt versions of the same code for different requirements. It has produced the AWS Market Place which enables hundreds of partner developers to offer specialist or industry specific software globally

Serverless and Fully Managed Services offer opportunities which formerly would have been beyond the reach of many businesses, think AI, Machine Learning, Big Data, Automation and Global Content Delivery. Its even possible to operate and control data communications to satellites using AWS Ground Station, which Private cloud can compete with that?

There is a need to understand and embrace a new mentality and cloud skill set, businesses may need to repurpose or retool technical teams. Partner with your cloud provider to do this, approach it with sensitivity and ensure your teams understand the opportunity this gives them