Scale cloud operations and maximize the value of your talent
In the era of cloud-native transformation, companies are evolving from traditional ITIL-based service management to cloud-native deployment frameworks. Embracing cloud-native architecture boosts agility but demands new skills and challenges traditional management paradigms. To address skill shortages, organizations can benefit from third-party expertise.
Scott Sinclair, ESG Practice Director
Monya Keane, ESG Senior Research Analyst
Cloud-native IT is disrupting traditional management
The rise of microservices and cloud-native architectures is reshaping IT landscapes. A TechTarget ESG study reveals widespread adoption and a strong focus on developer velocity for increased revenue. With 86% emphasizing the importance of application portability, organizations leverage container-based and serverless environments across diverse locations.
This shift empowers applications with enhanced agility and flexibility, aligning with the digital era's demand for adaptable and scalable solutions in an ever-evolving business landscape.
The three most commonly identified benefits of cloud-native architectures center on speeding application developer velocity (48%), portability across environments (46%) and infrastructure independence (45%).
ESG Research
Cloud-native architectures and containers fueling distribution of apps and infra
The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) conducted a research study with 372 IT professionals, assessing the impact of containers and multi-cloud environments on IT operations. The study revealed that adopting containers amplifies infrastructure distribution, necessitating management across diverse locations. This accelerates the adoption of solutions spanning multiple sites and fuels public and hybrid/multi-cloud strategies.
The surge in cloud-native architectures, driven by a need for enhanced developer velocity and infrastructure flexibility, leads to widespread adoption of containers, resulting in distributed application environments across varied on- and off-premises landscapes. The escalating complexity places higher demands on IT administrators and necessitates a broader IT expertise spectrum.
Distributed multi-cloud environments create daunting levels of complexity
Navigating the challenges of multi-cloud environments demands a well-equipped IT department. Addressing concerns about visibility, security, and performance is paramount. According to an Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey, organizations struggle with aligning applications with enterprise requirements and face complexities in cloud migration. With the rise of cloud-native architectures, containers, and serverless technologies, administrators must adapt to dynamic, diverse infrastructures.
The survey reveals that 64% of respondents experience operational slowdowns and hindrances to digital initiatives due to IT infrastructure complexity. Balancing agility and efficiency is crucial to overcoming obstacles in this evolving technological landscape.
Skills shortages and challenges in automation
Organizations often grapple with coordination challenges due to the diverse skillsets needed for cloud technologies. While Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offers efficiency, maintaining various skillsets becomes a challenge. The complex landscape, including VMs, Kubernetes, serverless functions, databases, and more, demands a multitude of experts, exacerbated by multi-cloud adoption.
Overcoming automation challenges at scale requires a competent cloud partner offering predefined templates and outcome-based services infused with automation, guiding organizations seamlessly through the development-to-production lifecycle.
IT decision-makers grapple with shortages in IT architecture (39%) and cloud specialists (35%). Despite automation potential, 37% face skill shortages in IT orchestration and automation, as per ESG findings.
DevOps and Cloud-native IT
The evolution from traditional enterprise workloads to cloud-native practices emphasizes a shift in change and release management. Cloud-native embraces automation, challenging the traditional ITIL model. DevOps automates checks, allowing for faster changes, and separates duties between developers and admins. Properly constructed pipelines facilitate seamless production pathways, enhancing efficiency without exceeding budget constraints.
The future of distributed operations and the need to rethink IT
Historically, transformation started and often ended with a journey to the cloud. Now, it’s more complicated, with cloud- native applications being built on microservices and containers. Essentially, cloud adoption by itself is not a competitive differentiator anymore. Even cloud-native development is quickly becoming pervasive. And of course, just because an organization shifts to use cloud-native services, it doesn’t mean the things they traditionally had to do within the enterprise go away.
Increasing that percentage will be key to success. Internal IT talent is too scarce to waste on low-value activities. Organizations need to accelerate operations and cloud-native development everywhere, at scale. They need to better utilize not only their infrastructure resources, but their personnel resources as well.
On average, only 34% of a developer’s time is spent on net-new innovation.
ESG Research
How Ollion helps
Ollion envisions a seamless continuum in cloud-native IT, breaking down traditional service walls to offer tailored solutions. Leveraging public cloud benefits, Ollion empowers organizations to expand rewards across applications, freeing up internal resources for revenue-generating projects. Blending professional, run-and-maintain, and strategic-enablement services, Ollion's mission transcends helping customers optimize their cloud journey.