June 27
With rapid advancements in the cloud industry, it’s crucial for businesses to stay up-to-date with the latest technology. By utilizing certain innovative aspects of the cloud, organizations can improve their businesses, streamline innovation, and quickly reach their goals. But how is that achieved?
Through implementing an innovative hybrid cloud strategy designed for application agility, businesses can get the best of cloud and the best of their own data center.
Here are the top five tips to consider when modernizing applications.
1. Identify Key Objectives of Your Digital Transformation
Before your organization can proceed with a cloud adoption plan, you’ll want to recognize existing concerns and areas of opportunity to best achieve your business goals.
Key objectives for your organization may include:
- Application agility. By optimizing your applications, you can provide an improved experience for your end users, respond quickly to industry changes, and have applications that are flexible to your needs.
- Operational efficiency. Your business may be focused on achieving a sustainable approach to collaboration, innovation, and more through a new data infrastructure.
- Infrastructure flexibility. With an adaptable plan, your business can store your data and run applications within the most effective infrastructure, while ensuring you only pay for what you need.
- Data security. With a combination of cloud security, physical security measures, and compliance requirements, you can be certain your data is secure.
When looking at performance, cost, and security, an application-first approach that considers both the cloud ecosystem and colocation can help optimize a digital transformation.
Every organization’s needs are different, and it’s important to consider what you want to achieve before putting any plans into action.
2. Understand Your Organization’s Digital Transformation Stakeholders
Before executing your plans, select who the stakeholders are within your organization. Once you’ve selected them, you’ll want to define their roles and responsibilities within your hybrid cloud strategy to help your organization make informed decisions during your digital transformation.
Communicate with your stakeholders so they can be included in decisions regarding the digital transformation process. In an effort to ensure a smooth transition, provide them with decision-making power, important information, and any requirements they need to implement.
3. Determine Data Infrastructure and Tech Needs
To find the best route forward, consider how to identify requirements for your data infrastructure while being aware of important transformation trends. When evaluating your needs, consider: Are there data security needs driven by new or forthcoming compliance requirements?
Security, of course, is always a priority, but this is also the time to consider any compliance requirements your cloud or colocation providers must meet. Often, these are industry-wide requirements that affect businesses in many fields, including financial, medical, and government.
For example, considering Protected Health Information (PHI) guidelines is necessary when determining data infrastructure for organizations in the health industry.
Once these compliance requirements are identified, you can better understand your organization’s necessities and implement an infrastructure that keeps your business and end user data secure.
Do your organization’s applications have specific requirements to be fully functional both now and in the future?
The evolution and agility of your applications should not be limited by a fixed infrastructure. Instead, a scalable data platform can be used to keep your applications’ data and processes aligned with your overall business goals.
Have you considered new data trends and the impact on your current and future needs?
Technology trends such as edge computing and new 5G network needs can be utilized to get ahead of the curve to fully modernize your data and prepare for future growth and development. The chief digital information officer (CIO) can analyze components such as tech support offerings when considering which data trends to utilize in their growth strategy.
4. Ensure Your Digital Transformation Is Scalable
Your digital transformation plan should include evolution to prepare for inevitable changes in data and cloud technology. It’s important that your infrastructure can evolve and adapt to meet the future needs of your organization.
Some key features you’ll want to consider include:
- Long-term goals with their respective timelines.
- Key objectives for your organization to track.
- Who within your organization is involved in and responsible for these ongoing changes.
- Business, compliance, and other requirements that your organization needs to meet on an ongoing basis.
- An effective budget that provides your business with flexibility to create the architecture it needs, without spending more than necessary.
Each of these aspects are key to long-term agility, which can scale your data infrastructure in a way that allows your business to continue operating with little to no downtime during your transition.
5. Consider a Digital Transformation Partnership
Partnering with data infrastructure experts can help you:
- Identify areas of opportunity.
- Mitigate potential risks.
- Provide support for internal skill gaps.
- Give insight on future industry trends and how it relates to your business.
- Optimize and implement data-driven strategies for your transition.
When you choose a digital transformation partnership, make sure that they are the right fit for your business. You’ll want to work with a team of experts that can guide your company toward application designs that maximize existing infrastructure investments and the benefits of the cloud.
Discover How Colocation and the Cloud Work For Your Business
While having a solid cloud strategy can help take your business to the next level, flexibility through colocation can accelerate your business now and in the future. That’s why many organizations are now opting for a hybrid solution that meets all of their needs, improves their application performance, and empowers scale at the speed of progress.
