Cloud computing and storage is fast becoming a necessity for all business enterprises. What are the key factors a CTO should remember while choosing – a) the cloud computing vendor and b) the cloud integration software?
Not all cloud platform vendors are created equal. CTOs should consider pricing models (consumptive model or upfront flat fee), uptime availability, and certifications. But most important is choosing a cloud provider that meets your specific technology requirements, such as database services, search, or artificial intelligence.
A difficult element of choosing the right cloud platform vendor is nobody knows who will win the cloud war . To help manage this uncertainty, many organizations have moved to a hybrid or multi-cloud model. This is why integration software is important; businesses need a modern elastic technology that bridges multiple cloud solutions and future-proofs their technology investments.
Many companies are opting for a multi-cloud strategy. In what cases is this a legitimate choice? Is this a decision functional heads should be involved in?A multi-cloud strategy makes sense if your business faces competitive or regulatory pressures, plans to be involved in a merger or acquisition, or invests in emerging technologies whose staying power is still in question.
Core to a successful multi-cloud strategy is the ability to unite each of those services and applications. If you can achieve this, working with more than one cloud offers flexibility, experimentation, and scalability.
What are some of the most common misconceptions about the cloud that you have heard of and would like to dispel from the minds of our readers? What about big data?
Businesses tend to overestimate the security of on-premises systems and assume the cloud is inherently less safe – which isn’t true . Of course, there’ve been some high-profile breaches but these breaches are rarely happening in the cloud.
The other misconception comes down to speed and latency when moving massive amounts of data between applications and data sources.
Our customers are often surprised at the speed, predictability, and performance levels when using cloud-based infrastructures over their on-prem counterparts when moving their data.
What are some exciting upcoming trends that you have observed in the cloud integration sphere?The future is self-service. Application acquisition and management have moved away from IT and directly into lines of business.
Self-service allows business units to fulfill their needs faster. They know their data best. The application of AI and new assistant technologies will only accelerate self-service and user productivity. While IT will always be critical for security, compliance and governance, the power lies in the hands of the new wave of citizen developers and integrators.
Beyond applications moving to the cloud, how is SnapLogic helping its customers with big data’s move to the cloud?
We recently announced SnapLogic eXtremeOpens a new window to support complex data processes on cloud-based big data services like Amazon EMR and Microsoft HDInsight. We built it in response to two main problems our customers are seeing. First, many organizations simply hit the power and cost limitations of conducting big data computations on-premises. Second, our customers want to have the power to process their data lakes while taking advantage of elastic compute infrastructures — both in terms of the ability to scale out, and also to spin up and shut down processing and only incur expenses as necessary, instead of perpetually licensing software for boxes that might only be used intermittently.
About SnapLogic:
SnapLogic is the leader in self-service integration. The company’s Enterprise Integration Cloud makes it fast and easy to connect applications, data, APIs, and things. Hundreds of Global 2000 customers — including Adobe, AstraZeneca, Box, GameStop, Verizon, and Wendy’s — rely on SnapLogic to automate business processes, accelerate analytics, and drive digital transformation. SnapLogic was founded by data industry veteran Gaurav Dhillon and is backed by blue-chip investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Capital One, Ignition Partners, Microsoft, Triangle Peak Partners, and Vitruvian Partners.