In just the past couple of years, many businesses have swung from initial suspicion of cloud computing, based on uptime and security concerns, to seeing it as an IT cure-all thatโs as simple as opening an account with a provider and sliding a credit card. But as cloud matures, companiesโ expectations are becoming more realistic. Thereโs a growing understanding that with hybrid IT, as with any big transformation effort, you have to put in the work to reap the benefits. That means, among other things, putting the right workloads in the right place; controlling the upfront cost of the infrastructure; monitoring the true cost of service; and building a governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) posture thatโs intelligible and acceptable for stakeholders who are responsible for those dimensions.
In my last blog, โHybrid IT Made Faster, Simpler, Easier: A Consumption-Based Approach,โ I described how HPE GreenLake Hybrid Cloud helps companies tackle these challenges. Announced at HPE Discover 2018 Las Vegas in June, HPE GreenLake Hybrid Cloud is a comprehensive, automated cloud operating model that helps you manage and optimize your on- and off-premises clouds. In this post, Iโll describe some key methodologies and managed services from Cloud Technology Partners, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, that are infused into the solution.
Shaped over many years of helping companies to get the most from their hybrid IT initiatives, these three engines of cloud success are core components of a solution that we believe is unique in the marketplace:
1. Minimum Viable Cloud: a proven methodology to accelerate and secure your success in a public cloud environment.
MVC is our methodology and design pattern, perfected over hundreds of engagements, for building an enterprise-grade, secure, scalable infrastructure in a cloud. MVC is a secure public cloud environment running at least one client application. Itโs important to start with an architecture that has rigorous security, so the way that we do monitoring, logging and tagging of resources is critical. We align security protection to Cloud Security Alliance guidelines, ISO, and other frameworks, with encryption of data at rest and in transit, log management and analytics, network traffic inspection and protection, and segmentation of the network into multiple zones.
On top of that, weโve built a set of automation tooling that allows us to deploy MVC environments very quickly from a set of pre-configured components โ antivirus, firewall monitoring, logging agents and tools, and more. Weโve automated these infrastructure-as-code components to accelerate deployment, and then we work with you to structure the accounts. We're able to stand up your enterprise-grade environment very, very quickly because we have this pre-built automation. The difference could be one to two weeks vs 12 weeks done the old way, in many cases.
The modelโs topology and architecture and its approach to automation and deployment need to be consistent, whether youโre running it on AWS, or on Microsoft Azure, or on-prem in Azure Stack. We ensure that consistency through what we call the โMVC everywhere strategy.โ There may be minor differences because the platforms are different, but we build a basic consistency into the way they look, the way theyโre architected, and the way they operate. Which means that our operations teams and automation tools can apply in a uniform way, no matter where the workloads reside. That has tremendous value in enabling us to deliver the service in an efficient and cost-effective way.
If you're already running some cloud infrastructure, we construct a new environment based on the MVC approach and move you into that environment. Itโs a far cry from the kind off-loading approach that weโve all heard described as โyour mess for less.โ Instead, itโs a disciplined, best-practices-based, integrated method that drives down the cost and increases the quality and value of operational services.
2. Continuous Compliance Services: A single source of truth for cloud governance, risk and compliance (GRC).
With a secure MVC foundation in place, we add Continuous Compliance Services to enable real-time monitoring and remediation recommendations.
With Continuous Compliance Services we monitor over 1,000 regulatory and compliance controls, ranging from peripheral component interconnect (PCI), to HIPAA, to the EUโs general data protection regulation (GDPR). It also aligns to your internal rules, via APIs. You donโt want databases on environments that are exposed to the public internet โ so when you start an environment, we can test for that because everything is available through an API. Is that instance on the public internet? Is it in the right security group? Have I configured firewalls? What ports are open? Have I installed the agents that are required to achieve an assurance that Iโm monitoring and logging the right things, so that I can prove that this component of my system is in compliance with some control framework?
If a system is started even though it's not set up correctly, we alert you immediately. We'll get you on the phone and ask you, "Should we shut that one down?" Continuous Compliance Serviceโs single source of truth, together with our monitor-and-advise approach, delivers real peace of mind.
3. Continuous Cost Control Services: A holistic view of your cloud financials.
IT leaders tend to underestimate the sheer volume of financial data thatโs involved in managing hybrid IT setups. With Continuous Cost Control Services, HPE GreenLake Hybrid Cloud provides a way to make data-driven decisions by continuously monitoring, managing and optimizing costs in the cloud.
If you're not paying attention to what you're using in a public cloud, you can easily end up overpaying. You might leave environments running when youโre no longer using them. Or you might overlook opportunities to save up to 75% by pre-purchasing reserved instances instead of expensive on-demand services. Or you may be paying for much larger cloud resources than you really need.
With Continuous Cost Control Services, you know what you're running, you know what the environment is doing, and you know whether you're on the right instance. We can help you move to an environment that's highly controlled and provides real operational efficiency. We can help you reconcile actuals back to cloud ROI projections, and alert you when a cost structure looks out of line. And we have the deep expertise and experience to track down the best cost saving opportunities.
As Mitchell Feldman wrote in this post, businesses have only scratched the surface of what cloud has to offer, and for most, the best is definitely yet to come. We believe HPE GreenLake Hybrid Cloud will play a major role in helping companies tap into the cloudโs vast potential. See the video below for my interview with vlogger Jake Ludington at HPE Discover Las Vegas 2018 for more on this topic.
Get started today with HPE GreenLake, our pay-as-you-go consumption-based IT solutions that deliver desired outcomes with hardware, software, and expertise on-premises or in the cloud.
Related articles:
- Hybrid IT with All of the Benefits and Fewer Headaches: Introducing HPE GreenLake Hybrid Cloud by expert Don Randall
- Cloud Success: How to Measure It, to Maximize It by Cloud Technology Partners SVP
John Treadway
SVP Strategy and Portfolio for Cloud Technology Partners
a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company
John_Treadway
SVP Strategy and Portfolio for Cloud Technology Partners, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company
