Unapproved
cloud applications self-provisioned by Business Units without
involvement of IT teams negatively impacts security and productivity
and increases costs for regional businesses
DUBAI,
United Arab Emirates, 13th
August, 2014:
The new wave of cloud computing applications is dramatically changing
the way businesses leverage technology. Together with the promise of
increasing efficiency, driving speedy adoption of cutting-edge
technologies and decreasing costs, these cloud services are proving
to be an attractive option to many businesses. IT research
powerhouse, Gartner has predicted that from 2013 through 2017, US$3.8
billion will be spent on cloud services in MENA region, $1.1 billion
of which will be spent on business process as a service (BPaaS)1.
Yarob
Sakhnini, regional director, MEMA at Brocade
says that one trend that has arisen out of this revolutionary
technology delivery model is that it has enabled Line of Business
(LOB) managers to circumvent IT departments and procure the solutions
they need faster.
With
the pace of business rapidly advancing, this may seem like a good
idea. But instead, it raises new challenges and risks. As insecure
and ungoverned cloud applications are adopted and utilized to store
and process sensitive corporate information, the risk of data loss
increases. Organizations may also suffer diminished productivity as
users accustomed to integrated solutions are forced to toggle between
disparate, isolated silos of data and functionality in the cloud. And
as IT departments play catch-up with each unapproved cloud
application, unnecessary costs emerge as they retroactively attempt
to integrate multiple vendors on disparate, remote and proprietary
platforms as a result of rogue IT spending.
Today,
IT executives need to straddle the line between business and
technology. As Line of Business (LOB) managers rush to the cloud, IT
managers must get in front of this trend before disaster strikes.
What is most concerning is the fact that many IT executives don’t
realize how pervasive this trend has become and what to do about it.
LOBs go as far as swiping credit cards and use their own budget
discretion to get the applications, services, and capabilities they
need as quickly as possible. As a result, the IT department is
disappearing from the LOB managers’ view as the resource to help
govern, support, or advise them on cloud-based solutions.
Why
IT is losing control
Despite
the growing need for technology to revolutionize the way business is
conducted, IT budgets and staff increases fail to grow at equally
impressive rates. At the same time, IT departments spend 70 percent
of their stagnant budgets on maintenance, leaving them with very
little capacity for innovation. This makes it difficult to respond
quickly to LOB requests. Worst of all, this dynamic has created a
“relevance gap” and as IT funding and authority shifts closer to
LOBs, this relevance gap widens.
Closing
the Gap
Fortunately,
in recent years enterprise organizations have made great advancements
in their IT infrastructures by virtualizing servers and storage and
thus bringing these data center components into the 21st century.
However, organizations across the Middle East have yet been unable to
fully modernize their network infrastructures and are thus faced with
a major barrier to IT agility. Now more than ever, enterprises must
invest and future-proof their networks. And with Ethernet Fabrics,
they can bring the same agility and cost efficiencies of
virtualization to their networks. Ethernet fabrics automate the
mundane, leaving IT departments with time to innovate. Starting with
as few as two switches, an Ethernet Fabric self-forms and is fully
compatible with the existing infrastructure. IT departments can thus
leverage Ethernet Fabrics to once again regain their relevance in
today’s fast paced business environment.
Increase
innovation capacity by eliminating time-consuming, error producing
tasks:
With
Ethernet fabrics, network links are automatically formed and
self-heal while network traffic is automatically and continuously
load balanced. This means organizations can move their data center
infrastructures into the 21st century, and create the agility they
need.
Evolve
existing IP storage to a dedicated Ethernet fabric-based network:
Big
Data analytics and other mission-critical workloads are increasingly
leveraging IP-based storage to drive down operational costs and
improve provisioning time. Storage array vendors have met this
challenge by improving resilience and performance. To reap these
benefits however, it is essential that these services are matched
with a proven, dedicated fabric based network.
Virtually
eliminate server-to-appliance traffic and dramatically reduce capital
and operational costs
Instead
of costly, dedicated appliances running outside the organization's
servers, businesses can choose to run these services as virtual
machines inside company servers using Network Functions
Virtualization (NFV) technologies. Today, these technologies are
widely accepted and used by cloud providers because they enable
agile, optimized execution of network services.
Achieve
new levels of automation and orchestration between applications,
servers, storage, and the network with Software-Defined Networking
(SDN)
Though
wide spread SDN roll-outs are still a couple of years away, IT
departments can gain an early advantage by laying the foundation and
planning for SDN. This would mean preparing teams, refining
processes, and ensuring purchase decisions today include only open
SDN-ready infrastructure, designed to work with industry standard
technologies such as OpenStack, OpenDaylight, and more. This will
provide a critical link and improved integration between the data
center and the cloud, and help the organization develop its own
hybrid cloud.
Cloud
based applications are today affordable and functional enough to
convince LOB managers to purchase them without the involvement of the
IT department. In the long term however, this leads to integration
difficulties, uncontrolled and insecure applications, and general
loss of productivity. However, if IT managers invest in solutions
which automate laborious processes, deliver agility and performance
and simplify management, they can free up manpower and budget while
creating a solid platform for innovation. When it comes to the
network infrastructure, Ethernet Fabrics is the way forward.
Leveraging these technologies today can put IT departments back in
the driver's seat and eliminate the need for rogue IT spending.
