Determining the right tasks for public clouds versus those that are unsuitable: a guide
In the rapidly evolving landscape of technology, the public cloud has emerged as a powerful force in the world of Enterprise IT. This shift towards cloud computing offers numerous benefits, but it's crucial to understand when and where to leverage this technology effectively.
Suitable Workloads for Public Cloud
Dev/test workloads and customer analytics are potential candidates for public cloud, as they can take advantage of sanitized data and the benefits it offers. High-demand, non-sensitive workloads, such as web servers, development/test environments, and analytics with non-sensitive data, are well suited for public cloud. These workloads often have fluctuating traffic and scalability needs, and public cloud provides elastic scaling, pay-as-you-go cost models, and ease of access for innovation and expansion [1][3].
Sensitive Workloads and Private Cloud
On the other hand, sensitive workloads handling regulated or confidential data, such as financial systems, healthcare patient records, and government classified data, typically require private cloud or on-premises environments to ensure strict data protection and compliance with encryption standards, access controls, and regulatory mandates [1][2].
Hybrid Cloud Solutions
Mixed or variable sensitivity workloads may use hybrid cloud, where core or sensitive systems reside on private clouds, and less sensitive, scalable workloads run on public cloud. Workload classification should consider CPU, RAM, IOPS demand, security requirements like encryption (AES-256, TLS 1.3), access controls, and regulatory compliance [1].
Data-Sensitive Enterprise Data Warehousing and Analytics
For data-sensitive enterprise data warehousing and analytics, modern cloud-native architectures separate storage and compute and use serverless models that auto-scale with workload demand. Hybrid and multi-cloud setups allow sensitive data to remain on-premises/private while leveraging public cloud elasticity and cost efficiency for processing [4].
Key Considerations for Public Cloud Adoption
- Workload Demand: Public cloud fits high-variability, scalable, and bursty workloads due to elastic resource provisioning.
- Data Sensitivity: Sensitive or regulated data workloads often require private/hybrid clouds with strong encryption, compliance, and isolation.
- Compliance and SLAs: Evaluate provider SLAs, encryption standards, data jurisdiction, and audit capabilities.
- Cost and TCO: Include direct and indirect costs, including data egress and integration overhead [1][2][4].
The Unique Needs of Each Company
The conversation about public cloud adoption should be structured around the unique needs and factors of each company. Factors such as company culture, vertical, and specific workload types may influence the decision to use public cloud or SaaS solutions [5].
Cost Savings and Added Security Strategies
SaaS solutions like Workday, Gmail, Salesforce.com, and Sugar CRM can offer cost savings and additional security strategies that a local IT team may not have bandwidth for [6]. Utilizing public cloud allows IT teams to pay for exact capacity needed, with the option of automating using auto-scaling approaches [7].
The Growing Trend of Public Cloud Adoption
Public cloud spending was up 32% in 2015 and is expected to reach $16.5 billion this year [8]. The most obvious candidate for public cloud is a customer-facing marketing website due to its public-facing data and variable demand [9]. Providers like Google or Microsoft have the resources for super redundant networking and power, and other security fail-safes [10].
Balancing Cost and Security
Every company must discover the parts of the grey area they are comfortable with based on their own needs when considering public cloud adoption. For instance, certain financial operations like batch jobs have sensitive data and take about the same amount of computing power every time they run, making them better suited for capital expense budget and internal data centers [11]. If a VM is rented 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it may become less expensive to run it on internal hardware [12].
In conclusion, the decision to adopt public cloud should be based on a thorough understanding of an enterprise's workload demands, data sensitivity, and unique needs. By carefully considering these factors, businesses can harness the benefits of public cloud while ensuring the security and compliance of their sensitive data.
In the realm of enterprise IT, businesses can effectively utilize public cloud for workloads such as development and testing, customer analytics, web servers, and scalable analytics with non-sensitive data, due to the benefit of elastic scaling, pay-as-you-go cost models, and easy access for innovation and expansion [1][3]. Conversely, workloads handling regulated or confidential data, such as financial systems, healthcare patient records, and government classified data, often necessitate private cloud or on-premises environments to ensure strict data protection and compliance [1][2].
