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European service providers are currently busy with the creation of multiple data centres, yet in an effort to ensure customers are able to access their data in the locations they are looking for many are being left at risk of having to return to manual provisioning. This is a pitfall providers need to avoid and, to do so, will need to consider how they can offer self-service to their customers, with the choice of data location built-in.

Offering a choice of VM template, but no choice as to where to deploy it, means that data sovereignty for cloud solutions providers not only goes out the window, but can become a serious issue. This is where best of breed cloud orchestration solutions come into play. Offering customers both the choice of VM template and also where to deploy it, best of breed cloud allows cloud providers to create a range of more personal and flexible services for their end customers.

But these end customers need more than just the choice of location; they require a full set of reports across all the cloud infrastructures they use. These requirements are driving many customers to consider their own private, hybrid cloud platforms in an attempt to gain the control they demand. Not only will this allow them to choose if they should set-up a virtualised infrastructure in their data centre of choice, but also to use public clouds when appropriate. Alongside this, a useful by-product is support for DevOps as a strategy – one hybrid cloud platform for all clouds means one API for all clouds too!

How can organisations successfully negotiate the challenges of cloud computing?

Cloud computing provides organisations with many benefits, for example  the potential to reduce costs while increasing value with a more efficient use of IT resources and the ability to increase capacity while reducing the need to purchase capital equipment (servers, networking equipment etc.). These both allow enterprises to push that cash back into the core business.

It’s important for businesses to have a clear understanding around the use of cloud computing technology in order to implement an effective cloud strategy. Organisations must review their existing enterprise IT assets and ensure there is potential for cloud computing to bring value, which is specific to an organisation’s business processes and their existing way of doing IT. Most enterprises will find that cloud computing can solve many existing efficiency issues and moving to cloud computing will provide clear and measurable value.

Arguably however, the most vital decision an organisation has to make on the journey to successfully navigating cloud computing is to decide whether hybrid cloud is a key part of an IT strategy, or whether IT should be put in the hands of a trusted provider.

Once this decision has been made, organisations then need to look at their IT systems and decide which are truly critical and, for the ones that are, what the compliance requirements are. It’s at this point that an organisation should be able to decide which would be more beneficial; running a private hybrid cloud platform, or outsourcing to a provider offering a true hybrid cloud solution.

An organisation must remember to ask itself however; how can it get the data in and out of its chosen cloud or clouds? This should be a vital part of the thought process when making the final decision on a desired cloud platform.