Cloud Gate Statue by Anish Kapoor in Chicago, IL. Photo Credit: Selena Sage

Traditional Applications Run Better in Public Cloud

Public Cloud = More Choice + Better Data Protection

Public cloud works. Not just for SaaS, cloud native applications, or test and development. Not just for startups or executives bragging to each other on the golf course. Public cloud works for traditional, stable applications. It can deliver better service levels and reduce costs … even compared to a well-run on-premises environment.

To date, market analysts have focused on cloud disrupting who buys IT infrastructure. Frustrated lines of business pounced on the chance to bypass IT. Cloud let them “Fail Fast or Scale Fast”. They didn’t have to wait for IT approval, change control, hardware acquisition, or governance. Lines of business continue to embrace cloud’s self-service provisioning at a low monthly cost.

Still, conventional wisdom says public cloud can’t compete with a well-run on-premises environment. IT architects argue that public cloud can’t match the performance and functionality of legacy environments. IT Administrators can’t tweak low level knobs. IT Directors can’t demand custom releases. How can vanilla cloud handle the complex requirements of legacy applications? Financial analysts note that public cloud charges a premium for its flexible consumption. Stable workloads don’t need that flexibility, so why pay the premium?

Conventional wisdom is wrong. Most traditional workloads don’t need custom-built environments. You don’t need a Formula-1 race car to pick up groceries, and you don’t need specially-made infrastructure to run most applications. Moreover, public cloud’s architectural advantages can reduce IT costs, even with the pricing premium.

Do you need custom-built environments for all your applications?

In the next stage, public cloud will change how we architect IT infrastructure. Public cloud has two architectural advantages for traditional applications: more price/performance options and on-demand provisioning for data protection.

Public cloud offers more price/performance choices than on-premises infrastructure. Outside of the Fortune 50, most companies don’t get to buy “one of everything” for their infrastructure. Instead, they buy a one-size-fits-all workhorse system to support all the workloads. The public cloud offers more technology choices than even the largest IT shop. It is the biggest marketplace (pun intended) for different technology configurations. Cloud levels the playing field between smaller and bigger companies.*

* NOTE: For this to happen, we need to solve the operational challenges of running different cloud configurations.

One size does not fit all for application infrastructure.

Public cloud can improve data protection. For years, IT has struggled to deliver high-performance disaster recovery, backup, and archive. Companies can’t afford to run DR and archive environments for all their applications; maintaining two near-identical sites costs too much. That’s why they pretend that their backups can be DR and archive copies. Unfortunately, when disasters or (even worse) legal issues strike, recovery cannot begin until IT provisions a new environment. Companies collapse before recoveries can complete.

Public cloud’s on-demand provisioning enables cost-effective first-class DR, archive, and backup. Customers don’t waste money on idle standby environments. Nor do they treat “hope that nothing goes wrong” as a strategy. Instead, when necessary, they near-instantly spin up compute and storage in a new location. Then, they near-instantly restore the data and start running.* With public cloud, IT can unify enterprise-class DR, backup, and archive. Organizations are already moving backup copies to cloud object storage. The next step will be to use those copies for unified data protection.

*NOTE: For this to happen, we must create cost-effective cloud protection storage and build near-instant data recovery mechanisms.

Cloud can change how you think about data protection.

Public cloud works for traditional applications. You can run applications on the best configuration, rather than what is available. You can have first-class DR and archive, rather than “best effort” with backup copies. You can replace your hand-crafted environments with something less expensive and more functional. Public cloud should not threaten IT; instead its architecture should help IT to deliver better services. It’s time to stop resisting and start building.