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In a recent episode of the Actionable Futurist Podcast, I had an in-depth conversation with Steve Young, UK SVP & Managing Director for Dell Technologies, on why it is now critical that CEOs, CIOs, CFOs and CISOs play a role in driving a well-planned multicloud strategy for their businesses.
In recent years, cloud technology has proliferated. However, many are realising that not all workloads and applications are suited to a single public cloud environment. Or, in fact, a public cloud environment at all.. As such, going ‘multi-cloud’ has been implemented unintentionally rather than strategically.
The need for a multi-cloud approach is now more urgent as companies are deploying more complicated applications and services, so this Podcast is timely and important for business leaders in any organisation to hear.
The discussion made me realise that multi-cloud strategy is not just about the tech world – and as Steve highlights, it has significant implications for various industries, including financial services and FMCG.
Steve explains how multi-cloud adoption has moved from being a mere convenience to becoming critical for digital transformation programs and must now be implemented thoughtfully. But the challenge is transitioning from unintentional adoption to a more deliberate, well-planned strategy that uses multi-cloud environments to the business’s advantage.
Interestingly, the responsibility of building the technology an organisation needs sits in a growing number of functions. The role of the CEO, CIO, CFO and CISO in driving this is now key. The decision to take a cloud-smart approach links to real-world outcomes for the organisation and opportunities for growth.
In the podcast, we discussed how a financial services organisation has efficiently utilised multi-cloud for cost and efficiency using ground-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground approaches.
We also explored Dell Technologies’ vision and differentiation in the multi-cloud space and how they focus on enabling customers to consume public cloud-style services irrespective of where their data and applications sit.
Dell Technologies is helping to bridge the gap in the market for multi-cloud skilled talent. Artificial Intelligence also impacts the multi-cloud environment, and we talked about how AI will function in a multi-cloud world.
It’s fair to say that multi-cloud environments offer numerous benefits, from increased flexibility and agility to improved cyber resilience; however, the journey towards effective multi-cloud adoption is filled with challenges.
We examined in detail how each member of the C-suite can benefit from a multi-cloud approach.
More and more, CEOs understand the importance of technology in driving business innovation and growth. Embracing a multi-cloud strategy allows CEOs to get their organisations on the front foot of digital transformation.
For CIOs, the goal should be to provide a “menu” of cloud options for workload placement based on application needs. This includes public cloud, private cloud, co-location and edge services. In an ideal world, workload placement decisions would be automated based on characteristics like latency and data sovereignty requirements.
Adopting a multi-cloud approach helps CFOs optimise costs by leveraging existing infrastructure investments wherever possible. It allows organisations to accelerate public cloud commitments while still using on-premises assets. A multi-cloud model can also be structured financially as an operating expense through “as-a-service” models, avoiding large upfront capital expenditures.
The growing threat of ransomware attacks makes a coherent multi-cloud cybersecurity strategy critical for CISOs. Having data and applications distributed across public cloud, private cloud, edge, and on-premises environments improves the ability to avoid risks and recover from attacks. It prevents a single point of failure and reduces the potential impact of any one compromise.
Steve explained how organisations can successfully navigate the multi-cloud maze through strategic planning, business understanding, and the right technological support.
We also spoke about the Dell Technologies Forum on November 28th in London that I’m attending, the premier conference for technology enthusiasts and business leaders looking to drive innovation and growth. You can sign up for a free pass at futurist.click/dell-forum
You can listen to the Podcast above, via podc.st/dell-technologies or search “actionable futurist podcast” in your podcast app.