Cloud or non-cloud? For most companies, this is no longer a serious question: according to the current KPMG cloud monitor and Bitkom, 66 percent of German companies are now taking computing resources from the digital cloud. For large companies with more than 2,000 employees, that is even 83 percent. What workload do they move to the cloud? A survey by Netapp has shown that cloud service organizations are mainly for storage #70.1 percent#, reserves #66.5 percent#, file storage #59.9 percent#, database #57.4 percent# and recovery disasters #49 , 7 percent#. The cloud environment is also a standard in the storage sector.
pros and cons
The multi-cloud environment is very popular: According to a study by Crisp Research, more than 75 percent of companies will switch to cloud hybrid or multi-cloud architecture by 2020. The advantages are clear: With multi cloud, companies can consolidate different services from different providers and combine them in one management interface. This helps to conceive IT and avoid data silos. Because in most companies, departments already use public cloud services without getting information from the IT department.
With multi cloud, the company also has the option to choose the best provider for each application. This increases flexibility. At the same time, the desires of different departments can be fulfilled, because developers tend to use Google, while traditional IT administrators prefer to use AWS or Azure.
However, the multi-cloud environment is complicated, which brings new challenges:
- Various cloud providers make integration difficult.
- Different services carry different user interfaces, pricing models and licenses.
- Fast cloud service speed requires a lot of information to stay informed about the latest news.
In addition, storage offers on the spot and in the cloud often differ significantly. In a multi-cloud environment because data in various public clouds and locally distributed infrastructure, it is recommended that data prior to migration to consolidate and clean. This makes it easier to track what data is stored and help keep data in sync. If it fails, there is a risk that different users will work with different data. This can cause errors and inconsistencies. The result is increased management efforts, which require a lot of time and knowledge.
Control through data management
Appropriate data management ensures consistent data transfer, for example when migrating from one cloud to another. It is important to be able to take advantage of the benefits of multi cloud and move data quickly and easily from one cloud to another cloud, for example, because the offer is better or cheaper there.
It also ensures that data is available at the speed needed, wherever needed, wherever it is located. In addition, data management helps keep data synchronous, integrates all processes across infrastructure and cloud, ensures high data quality no matter how many times data has been moved, cloned, supported, or restored in the past.
In order for the advantages of multi cloud to be used optimally, it is necessary to overcome not only archiving but also administration of data in various cloud providers with one solution. Both companies and storage providers must therefore think more and invest in this direction in the future.
Scenario of Application Database Migration
Let's look at the practice: Databases are one of the most common applications that companies use to outsource to public clouds. When migrating, administrators face many questions regarding data storage and management: how can I move databases quickly without sacrificing productivity? How do I secure the database without affecting access? Can I scale the memory when the amount of data increases? How do you prevent data from crashing in the old infrastructure? And how can I enter existing applications into the cloud?
One way to easily carry out such a migration is to bring in an external consultant. Meanwhile, there is also a suitable solution. Ideally, migration can be done using the lift-and-shift approach. For example, the Cloud Volumes Service Netapp solution pushes existing on-premise architecture into the public cloud without having to rebuild the application.
Administrators can quickly move and synchronize data between different locations. Encryption protects data transfer. The size and performance of the required storage volume can be adjusted as needed at any time. In addition, the NFS and SMB file systems can run at the same volume. And snapshots make it possible to back up and restore data at any time.
