multicloud Archives - IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions /blog/topic/multicloud/ IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions Fri, 14 Nov 2025 14:45:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 /wp-content/uploads/2025/11/cropped-favico-32x32.png multicloud Archives - IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions /blog/topic/multicloud/ 32 32 How WEI Is Redefining Hybrid Multicloud with Nutanix Cloud Clusters /blog/how-wei-is-redefining-hybrid-multicloud-with-nutanix-cloud-clusters/ Thu, 13 Nov 2025 12:45:00 +0000 /?post_type=blog-post&p=37302 Specializing in Nutanix as a WEI pre-sales architect, I’ve seen how transformative the Nutanix Cloud Platform has become for enterprise IT teams striving to modernize their infrastructure. Now that WEI...

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Read: How WEI Is Redefining Hybrid Multicloud with Nutanix Cloud Clusters

Specializing in Nutanix as a WEI pre-sales architect, I’ve seen how transformative the Nutanix Cloud Platform has become for enterprise IT teams striving to modernize their infrastructure. Now that WEI has achieved Nutanix Premier Reseller status within the Nutanix Elevate Partner Program, that transformation becomes even more attainable for our valuable customers.

Why Does Premier Status Matter?

Earning Premier Reseller status further cements that WEI can deliver fully validated, cluster-ready that integrate into existing enterprise networks.

For our customers, that means fewer unknowns and faster deployment. Every Nutanix cluster we deliver is tested, imaged, and validated as part of our unique and proven Integration & Testing Lab before it leaves our facility. Avoiding the costly drop-shipping model, we deliver systems that are ready to plug into your environment on day one.

This hands-on integration approach has always been part of the WEI difference, and it’s one of the biggest reasons organizations come to us for their modern hybrid cloud initiatives.

Read: Why Disaster Recovery Matters For Business Survival In The Hybrid Cloud Era

Nutanix Cloud Clusters: The Foundation for a True Hybrid Multicloud

From my architectural perspective, Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) are one of the most powerful enablers of hybrid multicloud architecture today. NC2 gives organizations the flexibility to extend their private cloud into public cloud providers while maintaining the same management interface, security policies, and software stack they already trust on-prem.

What makes NC2 so compelling is the speed it brings to enterprise transformation. Nutanix reports that customers can reduce deployment timelines from 18–24 months to as little as 3–6 months. This is a dramatic improvement for teams that face long lead times and integration challenges when moving workloads between environments.

By standardizing operations across data centers and public clouds through a unified software layer, NC2 allows enterprises to deploy workloads faster, reuse existing licenses, and avoid costly re-architecture efforts. It also aligns with Gartner’s guidance on distributed hybrid infrastructure, providing a consistent platform for workload mobility and governance across clouds.

Basically, this means IT leaders are better positioned to achieve the long-awaited “agility” of public cloud while maintaining the control and predictability of private infrastructure. This is a balance that sits at the heart of modern hybrid cloud design.

Helping Customers Build the Modern Hybrid Cloud

In most conversations I have with IT leaders, I hear the same goals: improve control, reduce operational friction, and build a foundation that’s cloud-ready, all without adding unnecessary intricacy.

With WEI’s guidance, organizations can use NC2 to:

  • Deploy clusters faster
  • Migrate workloads more smoothly
  • Maintain consistent management across hybrid environments

I’ve worked with clients who went from traditional three-tier infrastructure to that delivered measurable results. This means faster provisioning, easier scaling, and reduced lifecycle costs. When combined with WEI’s pre-configuration and lifecycle support, the result is a predictable, high-performing hybrid cloud that’s ready for anything from VDI to AI workloads.

Partnership That Extends Beyond Deployment

Achieving Nutanix Premier Reseller status reinforces our long-standing collaboration with Nutanix engineers and our shared commitment to measurable outcomes. What I enjoy most about this partnership is seeing customers gain confidence in their infrastructure strategy. When a customer unboxes a Nutanix cluster that’s already optimized for their network and ready for production, with WEI’s engineers standing by around the clock, that’s when they see what working with a Premier Reseller really means.

Together, we help medium and large enterprises modernize legacy environments, align resources to workload demand, and prepare infrastructure for future innovations like AI integration and edge computing.

My Final Thoughts

Nutanix and WEI together offer the foundation for this future. Through the Nutanix Elevate Partner Program, WEI’s status as a Nutanix Premier Reseller positions us to help enterprises adopt modern enterprise cloud infrastructure and deploy hybrid multicloud solutions that support innovation and control.

To learn how our WEI team can help design and implement an enterprise cloud strategy tailored to the needs of today’s digital business, or contact the WEI team today.

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Why Your Cloud Security Foundation Matters More Than You Think /blog/why-your-cloud-security-foundation-matters-more-than-you-think/ Wed, 25 Jun 2025 08:45:00 +0000 /?post_type=blog-post&p=32530 Imagine this: Your company has just completed a significant cloud migration. Everything’s running smoothly, until a preventable security breach brings it all crashing down.  We’ve all heard the horror stories,...

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Why Your Cloud Security Foundation Matters More Than You Think

Imagine this: Your company has just completed a significant cloud migration. Everything’s running smoothly, until a preventable security breach brings it all crashing down. 

We’ve all heard the horror stories, right? But here’s the thing: most cloud security disasters aren’t caused by sophisticated hackers using zero-day exploits. They’re caused by basic misconfigurations that could have been avoided with a solid security foundation. 

The “It Won’t Happen to Us” Mentality 

Let’s be clear: if you’re thinking “our company is too small to be targeted” or “we don’t have anything valuable,” you’re setting yourself up for trouble. Recent studies show that 80% of companies experienced at least one cloud security incident in the last year.  the organizations that are hit hardest are often those that thought they were flying under the radar. 

Cloud security isn’t just about preventing external attacks, it’s about creating a framework that protects you from: 

  • Human error (yes, even your best developers make mistakes) 
  • Insider threats (unfortunately, these are more common than enterprises would like)
  • Compliance violations (which can cost more than breaches themselves) 
  • Operational disruptions (because downtime = lost revenue)

What We Mean by “Security Foundation” 

When we talk about a security foundation, we’re not talking about buying the most expensive cybersecurity tools and calling it a day. Think of it like building a house…you wouldn’t start with the roof, right? 

Your cloud security foundation is essentially your security blueprint. It’s the set of baseline controls, policies, and practices that everything else builds upon. Whether you’re using AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or all three (hey, we don’t judge – multi-cloud is real), you need this foundation in place before you start deploying workloads. 

The Universal Truth: Shared Responsibility Model 

Here’s where a lot of companies get tripped up, regardless of which cloud provider they choose. When you move to the cloud, you’re entering what’s called a “shared responsibility model.” 

Your cloud provider handles: The physical security, infrastructure, and platform security. 

You handle: Everything else. That is, your data, applications, operating systems, network configurations, and access management. 

This applies whether you’re on AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure.  puts it clearly in their documentation: they secure the physical datacenter, network controls, host infrastructure, and foundational services, while you’re responsible for data security, identity and access management, application security, and configuration management. 

It’s like renting an apartment in a secure building. The building management handles the lobby security and fire safety systems, but you’re still responsible for locking your own door and not leaving your valuables on the windowsill. 

Read: Building A Cloud Center of Excellence to Drive Cloud Governance

Why Most Companies Get This Wrong (Across All Platforms) 

In our consulting work, we see the same patterns over and over again, regardless of whether clients are using AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud: 

  1. The “Move Fast and Fix Later” Trap

Companies rush to migrate to the cloud to hit deadlines or cut costs, planning to “circle back” to security later. Spoiler alert: later never comes, or when it does, it’s exponentially more expensive to retrofit security into existing systems. 

  1. The “Default Settings Are Fine” Assumption

Cloud platforms are designed for flexibility and ease of use, not maximum security out of the box. Those default settings? They’re optimized for getting you up and running quickly, not for protecting your most sensitive data. This is true whether you’re spinning up EC2 instances in AWS, virtual machines in Azure, or compute engines in Google Cloud. 

  1. The “Our On-Premises Security Will Work” Fallacy

Cloud environments are fundamentally different from traditional data centers. The tools and approaches that worked in your on-premises environment might not only be ineffective in the cloud – they might actually create new vulnerabilities. 

  1. The “One Cloud Strategy Fits All” Mistake

Here’s one we see, especially with Azure deployments: teams assume that because they’re already using Microsoft 365 and understand Active Directory, Azure security will be straightforward. While Azure integrates beautifully with existing Microsoft ecosystems, it requires its own set of security considerations and expertise. 

Read: 7 Effective Practices For Multi-Cloud Cost Optimization

The Common Security Challenges (No Matter Your Cloud) 

Let’s talk about what keeps us up at night when we’re helping companies secure their cloud environments: 

Misconfigurations Are Still King: Whether it’s misconfigured S3 buckets in AWS, improperly secured storage accounts in Azure, or overly permissive IAM roles in Google Cloud, configuration errors remain the leading cause of cloud security incidents. The complexity of cloud platforms means thousands of settings could potentially expose your data. 

Identity Management Complexity: Every cloud provider has their own identity and access management system – AWS IAM, Azure Active Directory (now Microsoft Entra ID), and Google Cloud IAM. The challenge isn’t just learning these systems; it’s implementing them correctly with the principle of least privilege while maintaining operational efficiency. 

The “Shared Everything” Problem: Cloud environments make it easy to share resources and data, but this convenience can quickly become a security nightmare if not properly managed. We’ve seen cases where development databases with production-like data were accidentally exposed because someone forgot to apply the right access controls. 

The Business Case for Getting This Right: Let’s talk numbers for a minute: 

  • The average cost of a data breach in 2024 was $4.45 million 
  • 45% of breaches were cloud-based 
  • Organizations with a comprehensive security foundation experienced 80% fewer security incidents. 

But here’s the kicker: implementing a proper security foundation from the start costs a fraction of what you’ll spend dealing with security incidents later. 

Plus, there’s the compliance angle. Whether you’re dealing with GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, or industry-specific regulations, all three major cloud providers offer compliance tools, but only if you configure them correctly from the beginning. 

What’s Coming Next in This Series 

Over the next few posts, we’re going to dive deep into the practical side of building these foundations across all three major platforms: 

  • AWS-specific strategies that go beyond the basic compliance checklists 
  • Azure security blueprints that leverage Microsoft’s latest security framework and tools 
  • Google Cloud security foundations that work in the real world 
  • Multi-cloud considerations for organizations using multiple providers 
  • Implementation tips we’ve learned from helping dozens of companies secure their cloud environments 

But before we get into the technical details, ask yourself: Does your organization have a clear answer to these questions? 

  1. Who owns cloud security in your organization? 
  2. Do you have visibility into all your cloud resources and their configurations across all platforms? 
  3. Can you prove compliance with your industry regulations? 
  4. Do you have an incident response plan that accounts for cloud-specific scenarios? 
  5. Are you leveraging native security tools like AWS Security Hub, Azure Security Center (now Microsoft Defender for Cloud), or Google Cloud Security Command Center? 

If you’re hesitating on any of these, you’re not alone, and you’re exactly who this series is designed to help. Please reach out to my incredible team at WEI to learn more or  on LinkedIn for any questions.

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7 Effective Practices For Multi-Cloud Cost Optimization /blog/7-effective-practices-for-multi-cloud-cost-optimization/ /blog/7-effective-practices-for-multi-cloud-cost-optimization/#respond Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:30:00 +0000 https://dev.wei.com/blog/7-effective-practices-for-multi-cloud-cost-optimization/ If you’re part of an organization that’s jumped on the multi-cloud bandwagon, you’ve probably realized that managing costs across various cloud platforms can be challenging. Each cloud provider comes with...

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If you're part of an organization that's jumped on the multi-cloud bandwagon, you've probably realized that managing costs across various cloud platforms can be challenging. Each cloud provider comes with its own set of pricing models, billing structures, and management tools, making it a challenge to get a clear picture of your cloud spending and spot opportunities for optimization. But don't worry, we've got your back! In this blog post, we're going to walk you through some tried-and-true strategies and best practices for optimizing costs in multi-cloud environments.

If you’re part of an organization that’s jumped on the multi-cloud bandwagon, you’ve probably realized that managing costs across various cloud platforms can be challenging. Each cloud provider comes with its own set of pricing models, billing structures, and management tools, making it a challenge to get a clear picture of your spending and spot opportunities for optimization. But don’t worry, we’ve got your back! In this blog post, we’re going to walk you through some tried-and-true strategies and best practices for optimizing costs in multi-cloud environments.

Understanding Multi-Cloud Cost Drivers

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of optimization techniques, let’s first get a handle on the factors that drive cloud costs in a multi-cloud setup:

  • Diverse Pricing Models: Each cloud provider offers a variety of pricing models, like on-demand, reserved instances, spot instances, and committed use discounts. Trying to navigate these options across multiple clouds can feel like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube blindfolded.
  • Fragmented Visibility: Each cloud provider has its own dashboard and reporting tools, which can make it tough to get a bird’s eye view of the total cost of ownership (TCO) across all your clouds.
  • Complex Cost Structures: Cloud providers may charge based on different metrics (think hourly, per-second, per-request), have different pricing tiers for regions, and offer different discounts. This can make cost estimation and budgeting feel like you’re trying to hit a moving target.
  • Increased Management Overhead: Keeping track of spending across multiple cloud platforms can require more effort, collaboration, and potentially additional tools. It’s a bit like juggling, the more balls (or in this case, clouds) you add, the harder it gets.

AWS Workshop With WEI



Multi-Cloud cost Optimization Strategies

Now that we’ve covered the cost drivers, let’s move on to some strategies that can help you keep those costs in check:

  • Consistent Tagging and Resource Allocation: Establish a consistent tagging strategy across all cloud environments. This can help you accurately attribute costs to teams, projects, or applications, improving accountability and enabling granular cost tracking and optimization.
  • Automated Cost Controls: Make use of automation tools and processes to enforce budgets, set alerts for cost anomalies, and automatically scale resources based on demand or schedules. This can reduce manual effort and ensure proactive cost management.
  • Rightsizing and Resource Optimization: Keep a close eye on resource utilization and leverage rightsizing recommendations to match allocated resources (like compute, storage, etc.) with actual workload demands. This can help you avoid over-provisioning or under-utilization.
  • Leveraging Pricing Models: Analyze your workload characteristics and usage patterns to determine the most cost-effective pricing models (like reserved instances, spot instances, committed use discounts) across different cloud providers.
  • Cloud-Native Design and Automation: Embrace cloud-native architectures and automation practices. This can ensure resources are provisioned and scaled dynamically based on demand, minimizing waste and maximizing cost-efficiency.
  • Centralized Cost Management Platform: Consider implementing a centralized cost management solution. This can consolidate cost data from multiple cloud providers, giving you unified visibility, cost allocation, analysis, and optimization recommendations.
  • Multi-Cloud Governance and FinOps: Establish a comprehensive multi-cloud governance framework and adopt FinOps practices. This can help align cloud spending with business objectives, enforce policies, and enable cost transparency and accountability across teams and projects.

Cloud cost optimization is an ongoing process, as your business requirements, workloads, and cloud service offerings evolve over time. Regularly reviewing and adjusting your cloud environment is essential to maintain cost-efficiency.

WEI’s cloud solutions include cost optimization engagements, where our experts work closely with your team to monitor, analyze, and optimize your cloud environment, ensuring you stay ahead of changing demands and take advantage of new cost-saving opportunities.

By embracing these cloud cost optimization strategies and leveraging WEI’s expertise, you can unlock the full potential of cloud computing while maintaining a cost-effective and sustainable cloud infrastructure. Contact WEI to learn more. 

Next Steps: Enterprises are increasingly shifting to a hybrid cloud strategy to support and modernize their operations model. Learn why this is critical to meaningful digital transformation. Download our free whitepaper, to find out more.

 

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What WEI’s Microsoft MPO Authorization Means For You /blog/what-weis-microsoft-mpo-authorization-means-for-you/ /blog/what-weis-microsoft-mpo-authorization-means-for-you/#respond Thu, 21 Sep 2023 01:01:00 +0000 https://dev.wei.com/blog/what-weiaes-microsoft-mpo-authorization-means-for-you/ As a value-added reseller (VAR), WEI relentlessly pursues avenues to enrich the solutions our customers opt for. Our enhanced value propositions encompass installation and ongoing support services, software and hardware...

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As a value-added reseller (VAR), WEI relentlessly pursues avenues to enrich the solutions our customers opt for. Our enhanced value propositions encompass installation and ongoing support services, software and hardware integration processes, solution customization, and much more. Recently, WEI added another groundbreaking value add as we to facilitate Multiparty Private Offers (MPO) for Microsoft commercial marketplace customers who purchase eligible cloud solutions. For Microsoft Azure Marketplace customers who have unused Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) funds, any qualified software purchase through MPO will count toward filling their pre-committed cloud spend.

As of this writing, WEI is just one of a handful of VARs in the United States that has earned this authorization as it is an early adopter of the MPO program.

What Does This Mean For Our Customers?

In simplest terms, customers with a cloud consumption commitment to Microsoft could review and accept private offers within the marketplace. While this approach brought discounted pricing, it added inefficiency and complexity for organizations that valued the guidance and extended services of preferred partners such as WEI. Often, companies outside the IT field often lack the professional network to build meaningful relationships with more than a handful of solution providers.

With MPO, WEI has the capability to directly procure independent software provider (ISV) solutions for customers and deliver these solutions in streamlined fashion. This eliminates multiple steps, offering a unified marketplace experience. Just like with private offers, customers’ MPO acquisitions count toward their MACC. This commitment, which involves a predetermined spend with Microsoft, grants businesses access to more favorable pricing and terms.

WEI customers can source the diverse SaaS applications essential for their business goals to better realize their strategic spending objectives. WEI Azure specialists can guide developers and IT professionals to obtain the critical technical building blocks they are looking for, responsibly, to make the most of committed spend.

What This Means For ISVs

For ISVs offering software to the Azure community, the MPO program provides a way to reach a greater number of customers and untapped markets by scaling through preferred partners such as WEI. Because WEI serves as a trusted advisor to our customers, we can quickly understand their needs and identify SaaS solutions that add value. Our customers are no different than any consumer shopper that wants their promised cashback from an enrolled cashback program, or the promised number of airline miles made through a loyalty card. With 100% of your purchase costs for eligible solutions contributing toward committed cloud spend, we can make sure you maximize as much of those pre-committed dollars.

Reasons To Consider Azure

The MPO program is a major step for Azure Marketplace, as WEI has witnessed the transformative impact of cloud migration firsthand. While WEI extends support to all prominent cloud services, including Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, Azure is emerging as a popular choice. It is noteworthy that neither AWS nor Google are present within your datacenter, and with most enterprises currently operating in hybrid mode, Azure becomes a logical fit. Microsoft offers the flexibility of transferring select licenses and resources to save money. For those organizations that run Hyper-V, Azure is about the only game in town.

Financial Engineering Alongside Technology

Technology itself cannot fulfill all your business goals. A synergy between financial and technology engineering is essential to ensure the financial sustainability of your transformative cloud ventures. WEI recognizes the importance of bringing financial, IT, and DevOps leadership together to monitor and fine tune these practices in the long term.

Our seasoned Azure experts are well-versed in Azure’s technological possibilities and also its financial dimensions. They are adept at facilitating your cost and financial management endeavors using Azure’s extensive accelerators, programs, and tools. As an early adopter of the MPO program and a certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert, WEI offers customers the luxury of choice, flexibility, and scalability.

Allow us the opportunity to demonstrate how enhanced choices and tailored preferences can benefit your business. Contact our team here to get started.

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Next Gen HCI: How Nutanix Can Support Your Hybrid Multi-Cloud Environments /blog/next-gen-hci-how-nutanix-can-support-your-hybrid-multi-cloud-environments/ /blog/next-gen-hci-how-nutanix-can-support-your-hybrid-multi-cloud-environments/#respond Tue, 02 Nov 2021 12:45:00 +0000 https://dev.wei.com/blog/next-gen-hci-how-nutanix-can-support-your-hybrid-multi-cloud-environments/ Companies have spent the past decade racing to achieve their digital transformation. One of the primary means of achieving this objective is through the cloud – a simple solution to...

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Featured Image - Infrastructure, Multi-Cloud, Hybrid Cloud Environment, Nutanix, HCI

Companies have spent the past decade racing to achieve their digital transformation. One of the primary means of achieving this objective is through the cloud – a simple solution to a complex problem.

The problem is that there isn’t just one cloud. The found that “84% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy.” Hybrid cloud environments are challenging enough by themselves, but things have grown even more complex due to the adoption of another IT architecture, edge computing. In a rush to migrate everything to the cloud, we found the cloud isn’t the optimal environment for everything in an enterprise.

Problems With Configuring Modern Environments

When it comes to cloud migration the hybrid cloud environment doesn’t necessarily equate to multi-cloud interoperability. Enterprises face challenges when it comes to integrating all their clouds into a single ecosphere in order to create a framework that routes workflows in an automated fashion amongst themselves.

The practice of uploading all data to the cloud for processing adds too much latency for some mission critical operations. Additionally, many companies have had to face real costs that often exceed those anticipated. While OPEX cost modeling has significant advantages over CAPEX, it doesn’t always equal lower expenses. Now, IT leaders find it cheaper to run things back on-premises. Enterprises need to attain a multi-cloud infrastructure in order to define and create policies to improve efficiencies, accelerate deployments and minimize security risks across their entire cloud portfolio.

How Nutanix Supports A Hybrid Multi-Cloud Environment

It’s obvious that enterprises can’t regress back to on-premise infrastructures. Too many executives have witnessed the enormous impact digital transformation has had in terms of greater innovation and profitability. The solution is a next-generation hyper converged infrastructure (HCI) HCI is cloud-like technology, but it isn’t restricted to the cloud.

is a combination of servers and storage in a distributed infrastructure platform with intelligent software to create flexible building blocks that replace on-premise infrastructure. It consists of separate services, storage networks, and storage arrays. Advanced HCI solutions today can manage enterprise applications in a hybrid cloud environment. No more choosing between public or private cloud. The unifying nature of today’s leading HCI solutions puts you in charge of what goes where. Latency sensitive processes and compliance abiding applications can reside on local infrastructure while other apps can be assigned to their optimum cloud environment. On top of that, admins can then manage both their private and public cloud infrastructures through a single management plane, eliminating the need to bounce between interfaces and portals to manage everything.

Today’s advanced HCI solutions can create a borderless IT estate in which silos are a thing of the past. No need to purchase a bunch of servers and pair them with an external storage solution while connecting it all together with a network switch. Because they were purchased separately you never benefited from purchasing the best of breed for every component. You may have ended up with a complex mesh of compartmentalized equipment that required training and kept you in a proprietary lockdown. Additionally, the implementation and upgrade processes were so expensive, enterprises embraced the practice of oversizing their infrastructures for future growth.

How HCI Continues To Grow

The recent challenges presented by the global pandemic showed how critical the need for great elasticity really is in the . This has accelerated the transition to multi-cloud infrastructures that utilize the appropriate mix of both private and public clouds.

Today’s advanced Nutanix’s HCI solutions are designed for this new era. HCI allows you to create heterogeneous clusters that can accommodate hybrid cloud environments that include multiple CPU generations, all-flash storage, and multiple hypervisors. Additionally, HCI significantly condenses the footprint of your data center or edge computing environment. You also have the ability to choose your hardware preference. You can select the most optimal cloud for your apps and business needs. HCI has the potential to deliver turnkey infrastructure for any app at any scale, across any location, whether it’s an on-premises data center, computing edge location or public cloud service. This cross-platform mobility gives enterprises the duality to run enterprise applications through multi-cloud infrastructures without any code change.

In a world without borders, you need an enterprise hybrid cloud environment that is void of borders as well, one that provides frictionless agility, management simplicity and fractional consumption of services regardless of where they reside, Nutanix’s HCI is innately designed for this.

Next Steps: We’ve helped countless enterprise IT teams transform their business with Nutanix. Leverage our team’s knowledge and expertise to discuss how you can achieve a next-gen HCI solution customized for your business needs. Sign up for a commitment-free conversation with our Nutanix expert, Mark Gabryjelski today!

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How VMware Tanzu Supports Your Journey To Application Modernization /blog/how-vmware-tanzu-supports-your-journey-to-application-modernization/ /blog/how-vmware-tanzu-supports-your-journey-to-application-modernization/#respond Tue, 05 Oct 2021 12:45:00 +0000 https://dev.wei.com/blog/how-vmware-tanzu-supports-your-journey-to-application-modernization/ Every enterprise has its own library of applications and many of these libraries include a core set of applications that, while older, still play an incredibly important part in the...

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VMware Tanzu, Application Modernization, digital transformation, modern apps

Every enterprise has its own library of applications and many of these libraries include a core set of applications that, while older, still play an incredibly important part in the day-to-day operations of your enterprise. However, as enterprises prioritize digital transformation these legacy applications may start lagging behind and integration complexity grows. That’s where application modernization comes in.

Through application modernization enterprises can protect their investments and refresh their software portfolios to take advantage of new advances in technology, without creating large disruptions for the rest of the digital environment.

Once an enterprise understands the value of undertaking an application modernization project, the next question is which applications should we prioritize, and how do we get started? has been a leading answer for countless enterprise organizations, and it could be the right answer for your business as well. Keep reading to find out why.

What Is VMware Tanzu?

The suite of products offers enterprises the tools they need to tackle the modernization of application and infrastructure, and in doing so, these tools provide a number of benefits to the business, a key one being improved productivity. Through VMware Tanzu enterprises can take full advantage of cloud native infrastructure throughout their application portfolio.

How Does VMware Tanzu Support Enterprises Through Application Modernization?

Beyond the technical aspects of VMware Tanzu, it’s important to understand ‘s philosophy for application modernization. In their own words, the following are four tenants to a successful application modernization initiative:

  1. Start small – Regardless of the size of your entire application portfolio, it’s important to start small and choose one business unit or group with just a handful of applications.
  2. Automate everything – Reduce manual processes however you can with IT automation, whether that’s test-drive development, continuous integration or continuous deployment.
  3. Learn by doing – Take your mistakes and learn from them. Keep your successes and losses in mind and use them to inform your strategy and build new skills and playbooks as you go.
  4. Break things down – Take a larger problem and break it down to its component pieces. In other words, “Iterate quickly and continually on thin slices of complex systems.”

Additionally, before beginning an application modernization project, there are few prerequisites that VMware recommends every enterprise have:

  1. A list of viable application candidates
    Start your application modernization journey by selecting a set of custom apps that have relevance to your current business model and are actively being used.
  2. Organizational commitment
    Ensure that the business unit or group selected at the start of the project is committed to cloud computing and can invest the time and resources required for transformation.
  3. The right people
    Select your team carefully. Pick people that understand the application domains. It’s also important to ensure the application modernization team are allowed to focus entirely on this project.

Which VMWare Tanzu Edition Is Right For You?

Once enterprises decide to move forward with VMware Tanzu for their application modernization needs, they must decide is the right fit for their business goals.

All editions share several common principles, including multicloud enabled, open source-aligned, and tools that allow enterprises to facilitate a environment.

That’s where the similarities end. In choosing the right VMware Tanzu edition for your enterprise, you must consider which specific challenges you’re looking to address and the resources you have at your disposal.

VMware Tanzu is available in the following formats:

  • Tanzu Basic. This edition offers the tools enterprises need to handle simple, containerized off-the-shelf workloads and is also the most affordable and accessible of the four editions.
  • Tanzu Standard. This version caters to enterprises that need to manage at scale on public cloud or across multiple clouds.
  • Tanzu Advanced. Tanzu Advanced builds off the previous versions and offers additional functionality to enable enterprises to full embrace a DevOps practice, even stretching towards DevSecOps.
  • Tanzu Enterprise. The last and most powerful in the lineup is Tanzu Enterprise. This edition is perfect if you need to address important objects for operators and developers, such as more efficiency and control, and more speed and freedom.

Regardless of the edition you choose, VMware Tanzu can help your enterprise throughout your application modernization journey.

Partner with WEI for Application Modernization

VMware offers enterprises solutions that will help them manage and run consistent infrastructure, across on-premises data centers and public clouds, improving user experience and overall business operations. Their innovative approach to cloud offers architecture that is easy to deploy and manage, increasing enterprise agility and flexibility.

Now, couple industry leading VMware technology solutions with the virtualization, infrastructure, cloud and modern apps experience WEI provides. Our team’s collective expertise is light years ahead of other VARs. In fact, WEI holds four VMware master services competencies and employs an early VCDX recipient. If you’re wondering how to get started with application modernization, or you’re hitting roadblocks on your journey, . We’re here to help!

Next steps: Get insights from our experts about getting started with containers in our eBook, IT Leader’s Guide to Preparing for Containers, by clicking below.

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6 Reasons Why You Need Cloud Observability /blog/6-reasons-why-you-need-cloud-observability/ /blog/6-reasons-why-you-need-cloud-observability/#respond Thu, 25 Mar 2021 12:45:00 +0000 https://dev.wei.com/blog/6-reasons-why-you-need-cloud-observability/ The Digital Transformations that the world has undergone has led to an insatiable appetite for applications and built a robust reliance on them. This reliance on apps and infrastructure has...

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The Digital Transformations that the world has undergone has led to an insatiable appetite for applications and built a robust reliance on them. This reliance on apps and infrastructure has been greatly magnified this past year by the absence of physical face to face contact stemming from remote work strategies. Because your business is dependent on applications, the performance of your business is tied to the performance levels of your applications. Now compound this with the great cloud migration, and it becomes challenging to discern what is truly happening out there with your apps and the cloud(s) in which they reside. These are but some of the reasons why your enterprise needs a Cloud and Application Monitoring solution that is built with the future in mind. Below are some of the benefits you can derive from a premier APM solution, such as Dynatrace.

1. Continuously learn your environment

Proper inventory management is imperative for any retail or manufacturing company. If you don’t know what’s in your warehouses, then you don’t know the actual financial status of your business. The key is to put all of your inventory to work. Think of your enterprise network in the same way. Beneath your critical applications is a complete underground of underlying components and dependencies that make up the application stack. Undoubtedly, there is a fair percentage of this undergrowth that your IT team isn’t aware of. Chances are, there are a number of weak links in the application chain in these gray areas. Weak links create weak performance.

A premier cloud and application monitoring solution adds clarity to the full application stack. It can map dependencies between components such as processes, services, and hosts both horizontally and vertically. This allows you and AI-driven intelligence to truly understand the call relationships between these dependencies. This knowledge then allows for an intelligence based APM solution to pinpoint potential problems that can impact performance.

2. A greater reliance on applications

People have been using applications since the dawn of the PC. The reliance that employees and customers have with their involved applications today is unprecedented, however. When there is a disruption in a Zoom, Teams, or Slack session, the meeting stops and frustration builds. When a disruption occurs within your ecommerce application, money transactions stop. When your CRM doesn’t function correctly, the help desk lights up with call. Disruption is a dirty word today when it comes to enterprise applications. That is why observability is so important. A solution such as Dynatrace, provides a that can prevent problems before users see them, thus keeping your revenue generating sessions running as expected.

3. Stop playing detective

So, here’s how the traditional application monitoring process played out. The monitoring system consistently fed your admin support team with droves of log files. That backlog required the laborious task of sifting through all of the noise in order to piece the puzzle together. Let’s face it. Your IT team doesn’t have the time for that anymore, nor does your business have the money to finance it.

While some APM solutions dress up these logs with snazzy charts and dashboards, they still don’t provide answers. That is changing, however. Modern observability solutions created for today’s digital transformation trends, such as the Dynatrace , are designed to deliver answers, not endless logs that no one wants to read. Dynatrace AI uncovers the root of the problem in order to automatically discover and prioritize answers to issues instantly. Your company doesn’t have time for disruption, nor does it have time to solve them. In some cases, problems are remediated by the time your admins are notified. That’s a major improvement from traditional monitoring processes.

4. Automate cloud operations

Why have so many enterprises migrated resources to the cloud in the past decade? One of the chief reasons is scalability. Enterprises today have the ability to match resources with workload demand in real time thanks to the ease at which servers, services and software defined components can be spun up and retired. Shouldn’t your APM solution be able to scale in equal fashion? Cloud monitoring offers you the same levels of scalability and flexibility as any other cloud-based solution within your environments. It can also provide you valuable insight into which clouds are being used for specific applications and data queries.

With Dynatrace you can simplify cloud operations through AI and automation to build and run cloud native apps faster. 

5. Compliance and SLA & SLO confirmation

While there are a great many benefits to cloud computing, there is always a presence of nagging uncertainty. How certain are you that your SLA performance agreements are being delivered? How do you know if your company is meeting its security compliance requirements? APM can help clear up these uncertainties, giving you the insights and information to show you what is truly going on within your on-premises facilities, as well as that murky location we all know as the .

6. Eliminate inefficiencies across your IT environment

A big part of managing a business is maximizing the efficiencies of the involved departments. Maximizing the efficiency of your shipping or manufacturing departments leads to greater profitability. Now think about efficiency in term of your IT environment. Maximizing the efficiencies of your application stacks can significantly enhance the digital user experience. An effective APM goes further by focusing on environment optimization, locating looping code, excess DB calls or those extra network hops that have plagued you for years. It can also eliminate duplicative work efforts for your staff by automating monitoring functions that were once manually driven. By providing granular directives to your support staff, issues can be dealt with in record time, saving you labor hours.

One more thing

We would be remiss not to talk about the power of self-healing. No, this blog is not about to take a turn toward meditation and breathing exercises. What we are talking about here is automating remediation and building reliable solutions. AI is a great tool for identifying and remediating issues, but you need a solution that enables you to use that insight to build resilient systems. Leveraging modern monitoring tools enables you to execute specific remediation actions in a much smarter and efficient way. If you give the ability to embed Dynatrace into their delivery pipeline they can get feedback right away, which enables early optimization.

Andreas Grabner from Dynatrace goes into greater detail about Site Reliability Engineering and the self-healing capabilities of Dynatrace in his blog article here:

Next Steps: In the time you have read this article, an APM could have already averted a disrupting event within your enterprise. There are a lot more than six benefits that can be derived from an intelligence based APM solution such as Dynatrace. We invite you to reach out to our subject matter experts here at WEI to find out all of the ways that a software intelligence solution driven by automation and AI can benefit your company today.

Continue learning more about automation and continuous delivery in our tech brief below, “How to Accelerate Your Business Transformation with DevOps and Automation.”

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5 Critical Steps To Transform IT Service Delivery /blog/5-critical-steps-to-transform-it-service-delivery/ /blog/5-critical-steps-to-transform-it-service-delivery/#respond Tue, 12 Jan 2021 13:45:00 +0000 https://dev.wei.com/blog/5-critical-steps-to-transform-it-service-delivery/ When it comes to service delivery, there has never been more pressure on IT teams than today. With rapid adoption of digital technology and the prioritization of responsiveness, employees, customers,...

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When it comes to service delivery, there has never been more pressure on IT teams than today. With rapid adoption of digital technology and the prioritization of responsiveness, employees, customers, vendors, and enterprise leaders expect digital needs to be fulfilled faster than IT can often provide.

For this reason, IT leaders must improve the speed and efficiency of service delivery in order to keep business moving forward and stay ahead of the game when it comes to these new technologies.

IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) has been a buzzword for some time, and the industry is at a point where best practices for implementing ITaaS have been developed and the benefits have been proven to be effective, making the transition to ITaaS all the more attractive for enterprise IT organizations.

Five critical steps every IT organization should take to transform IT service delivery:

  1. Promote self-service IT
  2. Quickly integrate and optimize
  3. Establish policy and controls
  4. Provide seamless delivery
  5. Plan for Day-2 and beyond

By linking together all of the tools and technologies in a way that acknowledges the people and process challenges of modernization, you can improve control and agility at the same time. Let’s take a closer look at these 5 steps to examine what is involved so that you can effectively plan your ITaaS delivery strategy.

Self-service for all

If an IT organization can’t get ahead of service requests, there will never be time for digital innovation. For this reason, promoting self-service for end-users is paramount. Whether the request involves providing access to business critical apps, spinning up a new (VM) or cloud resources, cutting through the noise and allowing employees to find the answers they need quickly, easily, and securely, will free up IT for long-term digital transformation initiatives.

As a secondary bonus, self-service cuts down on instances of , where users bypass the IT service stream entirely, whether due to impatience, wait times, or any other reason, and go off in search of answers themselves. Not only does this pose increased security risks, it can result in increased costs.

Integration and optimization

A majority of enterprises are running a mix of several platforms and clouds, with new options being added all the time. For this reason, utilizing software that promotes third-party integration is a game changer when it comes to optimizing your environment for efficiency. To fully take advantage of the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and automation, IT must have visibility and integration across the network.

Controls and policy

Third on the list is establishing effective role-based access control (RBAC). Regardless of your desired governance model, utilizing RBAC to effectively manage user access, provide self-service and automation, while still ensuring security, is a key piece of the IT service delivery puzzle.

Seamless delivery

Speeding up product delivery a high-priority goal for many IT organizations. That said, hurrying along the development of software development is of no use if the delivery and implementation process does not quicken as well. By bringing together development and implementation, IT organizations can create a seamless path for efficient delivery.

Post-implementation administration (Day-2 Ops and beyond!)

Automation will be your friend for managing Day-2 operations. While the provisioning process is accelerated through the above strategies, it’s also crucial to include lifecycle management as part of the IT service delivery equation. IT leaders are often expected to push out new applications or services as quickly as possible, but IT’s job doesn’t end once the new technology goes live. After that first day, IT is responsible for the administration and management of every new technology and ensuring that lifecycle management, including monitoring, logging, and data management, is part of your long-term plan for IT service delivery is key to preventing roadblocks in the future.

Consider transforming IT service delivery with Morpheus

Morpheus originally began as an in-house agnostic application automation platform and has now grown to serve some of the largest Fortune 1000 companies and service providers in the world. Offering CloudOps, DevOps, SecOps, and FinOps as a unified platform, Morpheus drives innovation and propels enterprises forward.

There is no single product or “magic bullet” that can make your digital transformation initiatives an instant success, but Morpheus stands behind their agnostic automation and orchestration platform as a catalyst to help you get there faster and provide the freedom to quickly adapt to an ever-changing landscape.

Regardless of where you are in your digital transformation or innovation journey, can provide the platform and tools your enterprise needs to promote efficiency, reliability, and speed throughout IT service delivery.

Questions about Morpheus? WEI has the answers.

WEI’s engineering team has vast experience helping IT organizations in several industries implement automation across infrastructure, cloud, and application management. Our goal is to help you simplify the management of your unique IT environment, while also ensuring all your business goals are met. Our experience with Morpheus will prove to be a critical factor in your assessment of their automation and orchestration platform. Contact us today to learn more about how Morpheus can work in your environment and what implementation will look like. We’re here to help.

NEXT STEPS: The speed and agility benefits of hybrid cloud provide a way to accelerate digital transformation, while maintaining control and security. You might be interested in our white paper below as a helpful resource on your digital transformation journey. Click below to read our paper, “How Hybrid Cloud Can Launch Your Digital Transformation” today.

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Top 10 Multicloud Storage Use Cases /blog/top-10-multicloud-storage-use-cases/ /blog/top-10-multicloud-storage-use-cases/#respond Thu, 03 Jan 2019 13:45:00 +0000 https://dev.wei.com/blog/top-10-multicloud-storage-use-cases/ Last week, we covered a checklist of core requirements needed to prepare for multicloud storage deployments. This included internal operations and capabilities needed, as well as important questions to ask...

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multicloud-storage-use-casesLast week, we covered a of core requirements needed to prepare for multicloud storage deployments. This included internal operations and capabilities needed, as well as important questions to ask during the process.

This week, we will be looking at the top ten use cases for multicloud storage strategies.

  1. Expanding Cloud Backup Options to Cut Costs
  2. On and Off-Ramping Data
  3. Clustering Mission-Critical SQL Databases in the Cloud
  4. Accelerating Development, Automating DevOps
  5. Moving an Application Using Docker Containers
  6. Using the Cloud for Disaster Recovery
  7. Cloud Bursting for Free (Almost)
  8. Switching Between Public Cloud Providers in a Flash
  9. Monitoring and Predicting Usage Costs
  10. Using Cloud Storage like You’d Use Your Storage Area Network

Expanding Cloud Backup Options to Cut Costs

42% of enterprises use cloud for reasons. Multicloud storage services provide highly efficient data transfer and storage capabilities to create low-cost, flexible, safe alternatives for cloud backup. They cut the cost, while increase the performance and scalability of object storage, making it possible to harness the cloud for long-term retention and archiving of critical data.

On and Off-Ramping Data

Many organizations need the capability to move data from the data center to the cloud and back again in an easy and cost effective way. Multicloud options provide a great opportunity for that, particularly ones built specifically for enterprise applications and workloads. These storage clouds:

  • Accelerate migration with compression and change block tracking technologies
  • Enable simplified data transfer processes
  • Offer direct compatibility across clouds (previously not possible)
  • Include enterprise-class reliability and security features

The simplicity of on and off-ramping data with multicloud is a simplified, cost-effective process with a pay as you go structure ensuring enterprises aren’t paying for storage and capabilities they don’t need.

Clustering Mission-Critical SQL Databases in the Cloud

Typically, an organization’s most sensitive and important data is stored in SQL databases. If anything goes wrong with that SQL database, the results could be disastrous. Clustering cannot be done with cloud block storage because clustering requires two compute instances. A workaround that mutlicloud provides is hosting those important SQL databases in a cloud with added redundancy. This ensures that the data is still available if anything happens to the cloud. In addition to this added level of redundancy, organizations use multicloud for this reason because clustering can be done to add shared access to the cloud where this data is being stored.

Accelerating Development, Automating DevOps

Multicloud is suitable for developers that need to be able to create data sets and clones for building, testing, and deploying apps into production. Multicloud is a viable and more affordable strategy than investing in more CapEx to cover the needed development resources. The portable and accessible nature of cloud structures extends to all databases, file servers, file shares, and any other needed applications and resources developers would need.

Moving an Application Using Containers

Containers are increasingly being used across enterprises because of the capabilities and features they provide. and are two of the major players in the container space. Containerization allows for an entire software program, including everything it needs to run successfully, to be housed in one unit (container) to avoid errors between different applications, deployments, and systems. It can also be more efficient than virtual machines, as multiple containers can be run on one operating system and with a smaller amount of required space needed. Multicloud and seamlessly align with one another, making containerization an easy opportunity to see for any organization taking advantage of multicloud storage.

Using the Cloud for Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery is one of the most frequently used and planned for aspects of a multicloud strategy. Organizations look into multicloud for backup and disaster recovery reasons alone. This is in large part due to the efficiency and appealing cost structure that a secure offsite data repository provides. With the advent of cloud-ready data protection, cloud-based DR has become even more practical and cost-efficient.

By allowing enterprises to put data in the cloud, or in multiple clouds, the cloud-ready data protection model provides new options for DR while bringing down the cost. Instead of maintaining a separate DR site with redundant compute infrastructure that doesn’t get used unless there’s a disaster (or you’re testing your DR capabilities), now you can simply move data copies to the cloud and avoid all that CapEx.

Cloud Bursting for Free

is the capability of extending workloads to the public cloud when the computing capacity needed to run an application in a data center or private cloud increases. In earlier cloud bursting models, this capability also brought with it some data security risks. Even more secure cloud bursting strategies didn’t come without a significant cost associated with it. It is now possible to create many copies of data using cloning features without the need to pay for multiple copies of data. Unfortunately, cloud bursting is never completely free, but organizations can take advantage of cloud bursting in a multicloud model with incredibly low incremental costs, creating an illusion of it being free compared to the associated costs organizations experienced when cloud bursting prior.

Switching Between Public Cloud Providers in a Flash

Multicloud strategies enable organizations to avoid vendor lock-in with any cloud provider or company. Fortunately, the reasons for this give organizations the control and freedom to determine exactly which cloud providers will be utilized and at which times. The entire philosophy of multicloud is to provide increased flexibility and capability to move around and access data. This seamless accessibility extends into making decisions to entirely switch between public cloud providers.

Monitoring and Predicting Usage Costs

By integrating with predictive analytics capabilities, multicloud storage services can now perform automated monitoring and tracking of the resources you’re actually using, so you know what your costs are going to be. You can see precisely how much capacity you’re using in any given period of time, so there are no surprises when you receive an invoice. Multicloud storage services can also help you estimate future usage based on any number of variables that you provide, and resize capacity on-the-fly to meet future requirements.

Using Cloud Storage like You’d Use Your Storage Area Network

The multicloud model makes it easy to on-ramp data to the cloud and still get enterprise-grade data capabilities and consistent data services, so you can actually start using the cloud the way you used to use storage area networks, but for a lot less money.

Now What?

At this point we have covered a range of topics within the realm of multicloud storage strategies, such as:

  1. What’s Your Multicloud Strategy?
  2. 7 Tips for Multicloud Success
  3. Ultimate 10-Point Checklist for your Multicloud Storage Strategy
  4. This blog on multicloud storage use cases

Multicloud is and has proven to be a worthwhile strategy for enterprises to take advantage of on the road to digital transformation. This series of blogs covered all angles of a multicloud storage strategy and deployment. Talking to an IT solutions provider can help to answer any additional questions. For more information on how to optimize your multicloud strategy or to get started with multicloud, talk to the multicloud experts at WEI.

Next Steps: Get everything multicloud in one place by downloading HPE’s full eBook,

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Ultimate 10-Point Checklist for your Multicloud Storage Strategy /blog/ultimate-10-point-checklist-for-your-multicloud-storage-strategy/ /blog/ultimate-10-point-checklist-for-your-multicloud-storage-strategy/#respond Thu, 27 Dec 2018 13:45:00 +0000 https://dev.wei.com/blog/ultimate-10-point-checklist-for-your-multicloud-storage-strategy/ Last week, we looked at the top 7 multicloud success tips. Some of the tips discussed included taking advantage of visibility, optimizing predictive analytics capabilities, and preparing for the data...

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multicloud-storage-strategyLast week, we looked at the top 7 multicloud success tips. Some of the tips discussed included taking advantage of visibility, optimizing predictive analytics capabilities, and preparing for the data center of today and tomorrow.

This week, we will be walking through a 10-point multicloud checklist to ensure you have everything necessary for optimal success aligned and accounted for. Like many IT endeavors, planning is often one of the most important parts. The goal of this blog is to help you decide how prepared you are to make decisions surrounding your multicloud storage strategy.

  1. Data Durability
  2. High Availability
  3. Enterprise-class Performance
  4. Copy Management
  5. Strong Data Protection
  6. Interoperability
  7. Minimal Data Gravity
  8. No Vendor Lock-in
  9. Cloud and Data Center Monitoring Capabilities
  10. Predictive Analytics

1. Data Durability

Native cloud block storage has a 0.1% to 0.2% annual failure rate. Data durability is millions of times more durable with multicloud storage offerings. Ask what the annual failure rate is for any service offering prior to committing.

2. High Availability

Don’t simply hear someone say their multicloud offering is a high availability architecture and buy in. Ask for the specific metrics surrounding the offering. Settling for less than 99.95% availability on your SLA is ill-advised. Also be sure to ask what is and isn’t included in the calculations for those metrics, ensuring no surprises pop up later on. High availability should be guaranteed in any multicloud offering.

3. Enterprise-class Performance

The key for this step is to look for both low latency and exceptional performance. Look for a service that is capable of delivering low latencies and tens of thousands of IOPS, even in the face of widely varying workloads. Once you feel confident at this step of your multicloud storage strategy, verify that the performance it is configured for can be delivered.

4. Copy Management

The ability to create and retain read-only and read/write clones without performance impacts can save both time and money. Look for flash-optimized snapshot capabilities that can provide instant, high-performance copies or clones in large numbers. Mention fast and easy clone creation when talking to multicloud service providers.

5. Strong Data Protection

Strong data protection and security capabilities should never be overlooked, particularly when it involves an organization and any type of cloud strategy. If it integrates with your primary array GUI, you can expect end-to-end protection from the data center to the cloud. In addition, thoroughly evaluate the offering’s malware protection, advanced persistent threat (APT) defenses, policy and permission controls, remote wipe, and 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption capabilities to ensure optimal multicloud security.

6. Interoperability

Focus on getting native support for the cloud, as well as the ability to move data back and forth between clouds with ease. You should also be able to manage your storage through a simple web portal, just as you do with AWS or Azure. Compression and change block tracking technologies make the on/off-ramp transfer very efficient. Your data is mobile between clouds without the need for data migration.

7. Minimal Data Gravity

Don’t settle for less than optimal flexibility. You’ll need to determine whether the cloud storage service will increase or reduce data gravity. If the service provides mobile attachment and detachment of storage volumes from public cloud compute instances and lets you attach it to another cloud provider, chances are, it will diminish data gravity, which is what you want. Low data gravity makes moving applications much easier and less risky.

8. No Vendor Lock-in

Data is the greatest source of vendor lock-in in the cloud. When data is stored with one public cloud provider, it’s sometimes very difficult and expensive to move it anywhere else. Data becomes trapped because you can only use or access it within the confines of that cloud provider. Make sure there’s no huge effort or expense required to move data between cloud providers or back in-house. Also, check the contract carefully for data egress charges and make sure you understand them clearly, they should be minimal.

9. Cloud and Data Center Monitoring Capabilities

Unless you’re pursuing an all-cloud, all-the-time strategy, you’ll need the ability to monitor and track both your cloud and data center data storage and data movement activities. You need global visibility across the entire infrastructure stack, no matter where that data may be.

10. Predictive Analytics

Analytics can enable cloud security systems to evaluate the significance of critical security information, analyze user behavior and find suspicious activity, and pinpoint other risky behavior before a breach occurs. According to IDC, “cloud-based predictive analytics are not yet considered a requirement in enterprise storage, but there are undeniable benefits to its use: higher performance, better reliability and availability, more efficient management, a vastly improved support experience, and a much better understanding of how your storage is performing on a variety of different metrics that inform daily administration as well as future planning.” So, ask prospective service providers whether, and to what extent, they leverage predictive analytics.

Next Steps

When your organization is planning on moving enterprise applications to the cloud, ask about any fully understand all of that service provider’s enterprise-class capabilities. In order to contend in the highly competitive global economy in which we operate, IT leaders must create a data structure that gives users the ability to access data, process it, and bring it to value as quickly as possible.

Software Defined Storage (SDS) is opening the door for new innovations and is giving IT managers the levels of data management and cost control that up until recently was only imaginable. Talk to a trusted technology partner about the benefits of SDS. Learn more by downloading our white paper,

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Overcoming the Top 10 Multicloud Challenges /blog/overcoming-the-top-10-multicloud-challenges/ /blog/overcoming-the-top-10-multicloud-challenges/#respond Thu, 13 Dec 2018 13:15:00 +0000 https://dev.wei.com/blog/overcoming-the-top-10-multicloud-challenges/ Last week, we published the first blog in this series, titled, “What’s Your Multicloud Strategy?” We looked into key terminology surrounding the topic and then explored multicloud strategy benefits. Some...

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multicloud-challengesLast week, we published the first blog in this series, titled, “What’s Your Multicloud Strategy?” We looked into key terminology surrounding the topic and then explored multicloud strategy benefits. Some of the benefits discussed included:

  • Enterprise-grade features
  • Easy mobility
  • Global visibility

In this post, we will look into and discuss the top ten challenges and misconceptions. These misconceptions are:

  1. Risk of data loss
  2. No enterprise-grade support
  3. Data gravity increases in the cloud
  4. Cloud services create vendor lock-in
  5. Cloud storage will never be secure enough
  6. Backup and recovery options will be limited
  7. Surprise fees will blow up the business case
  8. The “black box penalty” will increase costs
  9. You’ll need separate tools and processes to take advantage of analytics and automation
  10. “Cloud-first” and “all-in-cloud” strategies are best

Top Ten Multicloud Misconceptions

  1. Risk of data loss. It is a common misconception that clouds increase the risk of data loss. There are some risks associated with not backing up data, particularly when using cloud-based block storage. This belief commonly leads to discussions surrounding multicloud because it is also a cloud-based offering. Fortunately, the reality is that multicloud services can bring enterprise-grade reliability and data protection to the public cloud and deliver measured, proven data durability that is millions of times higher than cloud-native block storage.
  1. No enterprise-grade support. Another common misconception with multicloud is that vendors won’t offer enterprise grade support. Cloud strategies can create confusion about what is the responsibility of the customer versus the provider. This can lead to concerns about gaps in maintaining all elements of a cloud strategy. Fortunately, multicloud service providers currently have the expertise, know how, and capabilities to offer around the clock support, including enterprise-grade support.
  1. Data gravity increases in the cloud. According to HPE, is the idea that as workloads scale, data is a harder and harder component of a workload to move. Thinking about moving data through an infrastructure that consists of multiple clouds with multiple providers sounds even more complicated, but the reality is that a single multicloud storage repository can interact with any other system or infrastructure assigned to it. This makes for easy mobility and access to all data.
  1. Cloud services create vendor lock-in. Many organizations feel locked into their current cloud provider because of the time and cost commitments it would take to transition to another strategy. While this is true to some extent, it can all be avoided with proper planning and assistance from an IT consulting technology partner. Take advantage of the resources out there that have it in their best interests to keep their clients’ IT strategies nimble and flexible.
  1. Cloud storage will never be secure enough. A downside of being an organization with heightened security measures using public clouds is that the cloud providers control the security protocols of the data it hosts. This was one of the biggest hesitations for organizations when cloud computing first began. It is important to understand, however, that these organizations are responsible for the data of many organizations and a data breach could potentially put the provider out of business. They have the experience and means to keep their clients’ data safe. If this isn’t convincing enough, adding an on-premises private cloud to your multicloud strategy is also a solution. This keeps control at the hands of the organization.
  1. Backup and recovery options will be limited. A financial concern is the price of paying for every gigabyte of data being stored on a public cloud and the cost of accessing it or backing it up. A timely concern is the speed and ease at which accessing this information is possible. While this may be true to some extent for cloud offerings, multicloud services take this into consideration. Multicloud storage offerings adhere to and enable proper use of the best practice “3-2-1” rule for hybrid IT data protection. This backup and disaster recovery rule suggests that it is best practice to keep three copies of an enterprise’s data, two on site and one off-site. Cloud capabilities makes this best practice easy to utilize. The automated storage tiering in multicloud can also reduce total costs.
  1. Surprise fees will blow up the business case. There are many different factors that go into a final cost of utilizing storage services. Many organizations think some capabilities are free that aren’t. This leads to not following best practices and as a result, seeing huge bills that make them think cloud was a bad investment. The root cause of these awful surprises is poor monitoring and tracking tools, as well as a lack of knowledge of best practices on cloud use. Multicloud services can track current usage, estimate future usage, charge only for the resources used, and provide features that help minimize the bill (such as charging only for newly changed data rather than full copies) compared to cloud-native storage.
  1. The “black box penalty” will increase costs. We already addressed that cloud providers control the security measures implemented. In many cases, there is no visibility into what is going on in the background of a cloud environment, potentially creating . This leads organizations to purchase additional third-party solutions to gain that leverage and visibility. Unfortunately, that adds costs that originally were not planned for. Fortunately, this is all another misconception for multicloud offerings. Working with multicloud storage providers provides free access to visibility tools and monitoring capabilities. All of those concerns are a thing of the past with the proper multicloud storage strategy in place.
  1. Analytics and automation not included. Some cloud offerings require separate tools and processes to be able to take advantage of analytics and . The very nature and primary motivator for cloud computing involves automation and agility. If you do your initial research, it is possible to find multicloud offerings specifically designed to take advantage of analytics and intelligent automation using existing tools and processes. Some providers even offer predictive analytics capabilities that work to further optimize operations and cost savings.
  1. “Cloud-first” and “all-in-cloud” strategies are best. This is another common misconception. Cloud is the space that enterprises are finding opportunity to truly modernize IT capabilities. With that being said, this doesn’t suggest that enterprises should up and move everything to the cloud overnight. Cloud needs to become a part of an organization’s IT strategy, meaning it needs to be prepared for and on boarded like one. It is unrealistic to think that an organizations can go from no cloud capabilities to all cloud computing, but it is possible to offload a few workloads to a cloud environment. After understanding how it works and growing in comfort and confidence with monitoring and operating within a cloud environment, more data can be moved over to clouds. Overtime, more clouds may be utilized, reaching a full multicloud strategy. This idea of starting slow with cloud and balancing between traditional practices and cloud usage is nothing we are making up. It is the very premise that defines Hybrid IT.

Now what?

We went through ten of the most common myths and misconceptions surrounding multicloud storage strategies. In order to move forward, it is best practice to talk to an IT consulting technology partner that can answer questions and guide your enterprise through the process. Some questions to consider asking include:

  1. Is IT ready for multicloud?
  2. How much will people have to learn to succeed with multicloud?
  3. How solid is the business case surrounding multicloud from a financial perspective?

Starting slow and proceeding with caution is and forever will be an IT best practice, especially when dealing with unfamiliar technologies. That take it slow hybrid IT approach discussed within misconception ten is the smartest step towards digital transformation. Start slow with cloud and gradually move more and more workloads to cloud spaces, while still leveraging on premise solutions.

Next Steps: Prepare for all that Hybrid IT has to offer by downloading our white paper,

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