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Gain the Ability for Cloud Agility

Assessing Enterprise Capacity to Embrace a Multi-Cloud Strategy

The move to next-generation IT operating models, featuring public, private and hybrid clouds, has begun in earnest in many enterprises globally. A recent study by Intel found that Hybrid cloud adoption grew three times during 2016, from some 19 percent of organizations in 2015 to 57 percent at the end of 2016. The study also forecast that within 15 months, by mid-2018, some 80 percent of all IT budgets would be committed to cloud applications and solutions. 

The advantages of the cloud—from reduced cost and reliance on corporate data centers, to improved scale, flexibility, speed, integration, and access to expertise—are all making the cloud a seemingly inevitable IT strategy for business.

Yet, the move to the cloud is also creating new layers of complexity and concern for executive management teams and their IT organizations. Indeed, the promise of greater business agility and cost efficiency is still a work in progress for most organizations. Regulatory compliance, security and business continuity concerns, the increasing complexity of managing multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments, the challenge of maintaining control over costs and maximizing performance, and guarding against cloud vendor lock-in—all of these are issues that large and mid-sized organizations must confront as they make the transition to cloud-based IT models. 

Perfecting the Ability for Cloud Agility is a new research effort by the Business Performance Innovation Network, in partnership with DBM Cloud Systems, to understand where enterprises are in their journey to implement cloud strategies for managing applications, services and vast, growing repositories of data.  It looks at the significant management issues and challenges enterprises face as they seek to effectively tap into the capacity of the cloud and its elastic compute power to keep pace with the growing demands on their businesses.

Among the issues to be explored:

  • The anticipated advantages of the cloud and where companies are in realizing those benefits
  • The impact of explosive data growth, and how companies can best manage storage costs, accessibility and performance in the cloud, including the challenges of keeping data close to the compute layer
  • The degree to which companies are adopting multi-cloud strategies, why, and the complexities and challenges of implementing them
  • Concerns about cloud vendor lock-in and how ompanies can protect themselves
  • The need to move applications and data between cloud infrastructures and the problems, costs and complexities companies face in achieving this migration
  • How companies are meeting the challenges of governance and compliance, particularly geo-sovereignty?

This study will engage IT and business leaders in a conversation about the benefits, requirements, priorities and pitfalls of building an effective multi-cloud and hybrid strategies to meet the demands of enterprises to control data management costs and increase the flexibility of their business.

The BPI Network is conducting one-on-one conversations with enterprise executives in data-intensive industries, as well as domain experts, to identify current practices, problems and rewards being realized by cloud adoption and new data storage methods.  This qualitative peer-driven research will be developed into a new strategic brief to help organizations chart the path forward.

Reports

Gain the Ability for Cloud Agility
While enterprises around the world adopt a “cloud-first” technology strategy, significant challenges still stand in the way of realizing the full potential of the cloud. This study highlights both the huge advantages and significant obstacles they face.
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Leaders

Javier Esplugas
Vice President of IT planning and architecture
DHL Supply Chain
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Sunil Anand
VP & CIO
Jubilant Pharma
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Vicky Abhishek
Group Chief Technology Officer, Asia Pacific & Global Service Leader
The Coca-Cola Company
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Greg Taffet
CIO
US Gas and Electric Inc.
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David Kline
EVP and Chief Information & Technology Officer
Viacom
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Media Coverage

November 8, 2017 - BPI Network Report
Staff, GlobalSecurityMagazine
A new report from the BPI Network underscores that despite significant progress, companies are early in this transition to the Cloud and face major challenges, including the need for new Cloud skills, concerns about data geo-sovereignty and corporate policy compliance, security and the challenges of implementing a flexible multi-Cloud strategy where data can be moved freely to the Cloud of choice. Read more »

November 8, 2017 - New report on gaining the ability for cloud agility
Staff, BizCommunity
The BPI Network has launched a new report entitled Gain the Ability for Cloud Agility: Assessing Enterprise Capacity to Embrace a Multi-Cloud Strategy, which examines the growing shift of enterprises to a cloud-first IT strategy. Read more »

November 8, 2017 - Healthcare Cloud Hosting
John Lynn, Hospital EMR & HER
Taming big data will take new strategies and new IT skills, neither of which are a no-brainer, according to new research by the BPI Network. Read more »

November 6, 2017 - Shift To Multi-Cloud Architectures Requires New Data Management Approaches
A.R. Guess , DataVerse
A new report from the Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network underscores that despite significant progress, companies are early in this transition to the Cloud and face major challenges. Read more »

November 2, 2017 - Report: Shift to Multi-Cloud Architectures Requires New Data Management Approaches
Michael Essany, Mobile Marketing Watch
A new report from the BPI Network underscores that despite significant progress, companies are early in this transition to the Cloud and face major challenges, including the need for new Cloud skills, concerns about data geo-sovereignty and corporate policy compliance, security and the challenges of implementing a flexible multi-Cloud strategy where data can be moved freely to the Cloud of choice. Read more »

November 2, 2017 - Report: Shift to Multi-Cloud Architectures Requires New Data Management Approaches
Staff, UrLinked
The BPI Network has launched a new report entitled Gain the Ability for Cloud Agility: Assessing Enterprise Capacity to Embrace a Multi-Cloud Strategy, which examines the growing shift of enterprises to a cloud-first IT strategy. Read more »

November 1, 2017 - Shift To Multi-Cloud Architectures Requires New Data Management Approaches To Improve Cloud Flexibil
Staff, Business Insider
A new report from the Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network underscores that despite significant progress, companies are early in this transition to the Cloud and face major challenges, including the need for new Cloud skills, concerns about data geo-sovereignty and corporate policy compliance, security and the challenges of implementing a flexible multi-Cloud strategy where data can be moved freely to the Cloud of choice. Read more »

November 1, 2017 - BPI Network Study: Shift To Multi-Cloud Architectures Requires New Data Management Approaches
Hosting Journalist, HostingJournalist.com
Enterprises are increasingly turning to the cloud as the go-to platform for managing explosive data growth, according to a report by the BPI Network. Read more »

November 1, 2017 - Shift To Multi-Cloud Architectures Requires New Data Management Approaches
Staff, Sys-Con Media
A new report from the BPI Network underscores that despite significant progress, companies are early in this transition to the Cloud and face major challenges, including the need for new Cloud skills, concerns about data geo-sovereignty and corporate policy compliance, security and the challenges of implementing a flexible multi-Cloud strategy where data can be moved freely to the Cloud of choice. Read more »

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Facts & Stats

The worldwide cloud computing market grew 21 percent to $110 billion in 2015 according to Synergy Research Group. (Source)

According to RightScale's State of the Cloud survey, 17 percent of enterprises run over 1,000 VMs (virtual machines) in the public cloud, compared to 13 percent in 2015.  (Source)

Worldwide spending on public cloud services could double from almost $70 billion in 2015 to over $141 billion in 2019, according to research firm IDC. (Source)

The IaaS/PaaS markets are often dubbed the "cloud infrastructure" market. IaaS spending -- fueled by the growing need for remote computing power and storage -- could rise from $38 billion this year (2016) to $173 billion in 2026, according to Forbes. (Source)

According to RightScale, 31 Percent of enterprises run over 1,000 VMs in the private cloud, compared to 22 percent last year. (Source)

The biggest challenge for the cloud market today is a lack of resources and expertise, according to RightScale. 32 percent of respondents felt that their IT departments were poorly equipped to handle the growing workloads in the cloud, compared to 27 percent in 2015. (Source)

The average company uses about 1,427 cloud-based services, according to Skyhigh Networks. (Source)

It is estimated that data center electricity consumption is projected to increase to roughly 140 billion kilowatt-hours annually by 2020, corresponding to about 50 large power plants, with annual carbon emissions of nearly 150 million metric tons. The financial impact for the DC management is also huge since a DC spends between 30 percent to 50 percent of its operational expenditure in electricity: the expected figure for the sector in 2020 is $13 billion per year of electricity bills. (Source)

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Articles

July 27, 2017 - Hybrid cloud security: 8 key considerations
The Enterprisers Project
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July 27, 2017 - Making cloud work for the business
Gulf News
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July 25, 2017 - Understand the multicloud management trade-off
Info World
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July 24, 2017 - The very real dangers of betting on hybrid cloud
Network World
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July 23, 2017 - 5 Principles for Running Securely in a Multi-Cloud Environment
Business 2 Community
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July 20, 2017 - The Three Phases Of Digital Transformation: Simplifying Migration To The Hybrid Cloud
Forbes
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July 18, 2017 - Open hybrid cloud enables government IT service delivery
Washington's Top News
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June 30, 2017 - One ring to rule them all: Best practices for a multi-cloud strategy
MSDynamicsWorld
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April 12, 2017 - Risks and rewards of cloud computing in the UK public sector: A reflection on three Organisational case studies
Springer International Publishing AG
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January 22, 2017 - Top Ten Challenges of Cloud Implementation
Peak 10
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January 1, 2017 - Federated cloud resource management: Review and discussion
Elsevier Ltd.
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November 3, 2016 - Big Data and cloud computing: innovation opportunities and challenges
Informa UK Limited
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August 31, 2016 - Hierarchical Approach for Efficient Workload Management in Geo-Distributed Data Centers
IEEE
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White Papers

Cloud technology options towards Free Flow of Data
This whitepaper collects the technology solutions that the projects in the Data Protection, Security andPrivacy Cluster propose to address the challenges raised by the working areas of the Free Flow of Datainitiative. The document describes the technologies, methodologies, models, and tools researched anddeveloped by the clustered projects mapped to the ten areas of work of the Free Flow of Datainitiative. The aim is to facilitate the identification of the state-of-the-art of technology optionstowards solving the data security and privacy challenges posed by the Free Flow of Data initiative inEurope. The document gives reference to the Cluster, the individual projects and the technologiesproduced by them. Read more »

Platform as a Service (PaaS) in Public Cloud: Challenges and Mitigating Strategy
Cloud computing is geared towards the effective and efficient use of computational resources and it has been making a big revolution in the field of information technology by reducing capital investment. It delivers computing as a service, that enables effective utilization of computational resources, rather than, a product, for a fraction of the cost. This paper explores key security issues associated with PaaS and proposed mitigating strategies are provided. These security challenges slow down the adoption of PaaS. Mitigating these security issues could increase PaaS adoption. This paper focuses on the security issues associated with Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering on a public cloud platform and provides various mitigating techniques to address these security issues. If properly implemented, we could realize an increase in PaaS adoption. Read more »

5G innovations for new business opportunities
5G is the next generation mobile network that enables innovation and supports progressive change across all vertical industries and across our society . Through its Radio Access Network (RAN) design and its orchestrated end-to-end architecture, it has the potential to boost innovation and generate economic growth in the European economy. The 5G service models support agility and dynamicity, thereby impacting the granularity, duration and trustworthiness of business relationships. The ability to combine private and public networks and data centres across multiple domains in a secure and controlled way facilitates collaborative business processes. It reshapes the digital business ecosystem with new value chains linking stakeholders from the telecommunications world and the vertical industries in win-win situations. Read more »

Market Reconstruction 2.0: A Financial Services Application of Google Cloud Bigtable and Google Cloud Dataflow
The FIS Market Reconstruction Platform (MRP) is a market surveillance and forensics utility designed for the daily ingestion, linkage and analyticsof U.S. equity and equity options market events over multi-year periods. In May of 2015, FIS’ Advanced Technology group (formerly SunGard)released a white paper detailing its experiences using Google Cloud Bigtable in prototyping the MRP. In the months that followed, Google openedseveral other services within its Cloud Platform suite to general availability (GA), among them Google Cloud Dataflow. The solution architectureis revised to include both Cloud Dataflow and Google’s BigQuery service in addition to Bigtable. With the combination again considered inthe context of the MRP requirements, we conducted additional experiments measuring the speed and scalability of the revised architecture.We have found that while it is imperative that engineers adopt specific approaches that capitalize upon cloud and parallel computing paradigms,employing these services together does yield the potential for extraordinary computing performance. Read more »

Aligning to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework in the AWS Cloud
Governments, sectors, and organizations around the world are increasingly recognizing the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) as a recommended cybersecurity baseline to help improve the cybersecurity risk management and resilience of their systems. This paper evaluates the NIST CSF and the many AWS Cloud offerings public and commercial sector customers can use to align to the NIST CSF to improve your cybersecurity posture. It also provides a thirdparty validated attestation confirming AWS services’ conformance to the NIST CSF risk management practices, allowing you to properly protect your data across AWS. Read more »

Moving Financial Market Infrastructure to the Cloud
DTCC plays a critical role in protecting the integrity and stability of the global financial system. The firmstands at the center of the global marketplace, and in its role as the holding company for SystemicallyImportant Financial Market Utilities (SIFMUs) in the United States, its services are deemed essential forthe safe and efficient functioning of the marketplace. Historically, DTCC’s core platforms and systems havebeen hosted in private data centers owned and operated by the firm – an approach that was consistent withmany of its peers in the industry. Read more »

Azure Stack: An extension of Azure
Azure Stack is an extension of Azure, bringing the agility and fast-paced innovation of cloud computing to on-premises environments. Organizations can now build modern applications across hybrid cloud environments, balancing the right amount of flexibility and control. Developers can build applications using a consistent set of Azure services and DevOps processes and tools, then collaborate with operations to deploy to the location that best meets the business, technical, and regulatory requirements. Read more »

Google Infrastructure Security Design Overview
This document gives an overview of how security is designed into Google’s technical infrastructure. This global scale infrastructure is designed to provide security through the entire information processing lifecycle at Google. This infrastructure provides secure deployment of services, secure storage of data with end user privacy safeguards, secure communications between services, secure and private communication with customers over the internet, and safe operation by administrators. Read more »

Sponsor

DBM Cloud Systems
DBM Cloud Systems believes that all companies should have a choice when it comes to managing the explosion of unstructured data in the Cloud. They focus on delivering Real-time Cloud Resource Brokering to lower Cloud spend, improve SLA's and efficiently manage data across all Cloud and on-premise repositories. Their team has extensive experience in deploying leading data management solutions – both on-premise and in the Cloud. They are storage and Cloud veterans with the technical and management expertise to partner with customers and deliver success.
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Books

The Enterprise Cloud: Best Practices for Transforming Legacy IT
Despite the buzz surrounding the cloud computing, only a small percentage of organizations have actually deployed this new style of IT—so far. If you're planning your long-term cloud strategy, this practical book provides insider knowledge and actionable real-world lessons regarding planning, design, operations, security, and application transformation. This book teaches business and technology managers how to transition their organization's traditional IT to cloud computing. Rather than yet another book trying to sell or convince readers on the benefits of clouds, this book provides guidance, lessons learned, and best practices on how to design, deploy, operate, and secure an enterprise cloud based on real-world experience. Author James Bond provides useful guidance and best-practice checklists based on his field experience with real customers and cloud providers. You'll view cloud services from the perspective of a consumer and as an owner/operator of an enterprise private or hybrid cloud, and learn valuable lessons from successful and less-than-successful organization use-case scenarios. This is the information every CIO needs in order to make the business and technical decisions to finally execute on their journey to cloud computing.
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Enterprise Cloud Strategy
How do you start? How should you build a plan for cloud migration for your entire portfolio? How will your organization be affected by these changes? This book, based on real-world cloud experiences by enterprise IT teams, seeks to provide the answers to these questions. Here, you’ll see what makes the cloud so compelling to enterprises; with which applications you should start your cloud journey; how your organization will change, and how skill sets will evolve; how to measure progress; how to think about security, compliance, and business buy-in; and how to exploit the ever-growing feature set that the cloud offers to gain strategic and competitive advantage.
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Application Performance Management (APM) in the Digital Enterprise: Managing Applications for Cloud,
Application Performance Management (APM) in the Digital Enterprise enables IT professionals to be more successful in managing their company’s applications. It explores the fundamentals of application management, examines how the latest technological trends impact application management and provide best practices for responding to these changes. The recent surge in the use of containers as a way to simplify management and deploy applications has created new challenges, and the convergence of containerization, cloud, mobile, virtualization, analytics, and automation is reshaping the requirements for application management. This book serves as a guide for understanding these dramatic changes and how they impact the management of applications, showing how to create a management strategy, define the underlying processes and standards, and how to select the appropriate tools to enable management processes.
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The Journey to Hybrid Cloud
This book describes the journey to setting up and using hybrid cloud environments. Based on the authors substantial body of experience over many years, it focuses on how to achieve the most appropriate cloud solution based on specific use cases. Topics that are covered include: Planning a cloud migration strategy Tools, services, and methodologies Organizational considerations and design challenges Workloads/application placements Cloud architectures and building blocks Perspectives on the future of multi-cloud and cloud native platforms Written as a practical guide to achieving top results, the book contains numerous examples of real-world scenarios, lessons learned, and best practices. As the migration of organizations IT operations to multi-cloud hybrid environments continues to evolve, a key takeaway for readers of this book is to acquire a more complete understanding of how to evaluate, plan, and navigate the most successful pathway through the clouds.
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Hybrid Cloud Complete Self-Assessment Guide
In a project to restructure Hybrid Cloud outcomes, which stakeholders would you involve? What key business process output measure(s) does Hybrid Cloud leverage and how? Does Hybrid Cloud systematically track and analyze outcomes for accountability and quality improvement? Record-keeping requirements flow from the records needed as inputs, outputs, controls and for the transformation of a Hybrid Cloud process. ask yourself: are the records needed as inputs to the Hybrid Cloud process available? Have all basic functions of Hybrid Cloud been defined? Defining, designing, creating, and implementing a process to solve a business challenge or meet a business objective is the most valuable role… In EVERY company, organization and department.
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Multi Tenancy for Cloud-Based In-Memory Column Databases: Workload Management and Data Placement
With the proliferation of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings, it is becoming increasingly important for individual SaaS providers to operate their services at a low cost. This book investigates SaaS from the perspective of the provider and shows how operational costs can be reduced by using “multi tenancy,” a technique for consolidating a large number of customers onto a small number of servers. Specifically, the book addresses multi tenancy on the database level, focusing on in-memory column databases, which are the backbone of many important new enterprise applications. For efficiently implementing multi tenancy in a farm of databases, two fundamental challenges must be addressed, (i) workload modeling and (ii) data placement. The first involves estimating the (shared) resource consumption for multi tenancy on a single in-memory database server. The second consists in assigning tenants to servers in a way that minimizes the number of required servers (and thus costs) based on the assumed workload model. This step also entails replicating tenants for performance and high availability. This book presents novel solutions to both problems.
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Service Orchestration as Organization: Building Multi-Tenant Service Applications in the Cloud
Service orchestration techniques combine the benefits of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Business Process Management (BPM) to compose and coordinate distributed software services. On the other hand, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is gaining popularity as a software delivery model through cloud platforms due to the many benefits to software vendors, as well as their customers. Multi-tenancy, which refers to the sharing of a single application instance across multiple customers or user groups (called tenants), is an essential characteristic of the SaaS model. Written in an easy to follow style with discussions supported by real-world examples, Service Orchestration as Organization introduces a novel approach with associated language, framework, and tool support to show how service orchestration techniques can be used to engineer and deploy SaaS applications.
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