Everything-as-a-Service: Is your organisation ready? // Technology Untangled, Episode 2

[Michael_Bird]

"You can't be thinking about how I can do something better than my competitors today with an industrial age mindset." - Tony Clement

What do organisations and IT departments really need in order to digitally transform and be competitive?

In the IT world, everyone's talking about as a Service. From software to platforms, infrastructure to... everything? Buzzwords and benefits are bandied around - agility, cloud-native, rapid elasticity, on-demand flexibility, consumption models, utility billing - but aaS is suffering from a serious lack of clarity!

With the help of today's guests, Michael Bird untangles the radical aaS revolution. A journey that starts with Salesforce, makes a few stops on the hybrid cloud highway, and culminates on the precipice of the digital age.

Everything as a service: revolutionary consumption model or just rental?

Most organizations are familiar with Software as a Service (SaaS), but what about PaaS, IaaS and XaaS? There have been a slew of innovations since Salesforce flipped the switch, but many organisations have been left confused rather than enlightened.

We look at the new consumption model up close with Scott Thomson and Reuben Melville, from agility to utility billing. Do we really need Everything as a Service? Isn't IaaS the same as rental? And why should organisations bother to change models when they've invested so much into kit?

Head in the clouds: how can we simplify cloud architectures?

Cloud computing has led almost every organisation on some kind of cloud journey. There's just one snag, the destination is still unknown. Architectures have become messy, with some apps and workloads in the public cloud, others tied to a private network housed in a secure bunker, and everything in between.

We tackle public, private, and hybrid clouds, and hosted and on-premises infrastructure with Paul Kennedy, to explore how organisations can get the best of both worlds and achieve the perfect trifecta: scalability, simplicity, and speed.

Innovate or die: why organisations should get rid of that VCR

We're living in the digital age, so why are some organisations trailing behind? Digital transformation seems like a no-brainer, yet putting a strategy into action takes more than just changing where your workloads sit.

Tony Clement discusses the challenges organisations are facing to stay innovative and competitive, and explains why real transformation comes from within.

Key takeaways:

• XaaS is redefining organisations. The as a service consumption model has opened doors for small organisations. When cost barriers are removed, start-ups can thrive, and markets have become more competitive as a result. However, organisations of any size can benefit from the speed, simplicity, and scalability that aaS offers. In fact, it's arguably a pre-requisite for being a contender now, and in the future.
• Hybrid is now... but we'll soon be getting rid of that terminology altogether. Over the next few years, organisations' public and private clouds will need to interoperate seamlessly. In fact, hybrid cloud architectures will become so prevalent that soon we'll just be calling them computing.
• CIOs and CTOs will drive change. Gone are the days of the IT crowd in the basement! Digital transformation is about a change of mindset, much more than just increased agility and adaptability and organisations that want to be future-facing need to give IT professionals a seat at the table.

Links and Resources:

SP 800-145, The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing | CSRC

IT Consumption Models as a Service: Pay As You Go | HPE United Kingdom

HPE Greenlake | HPE United Kingdom

What is Digital Transformation? - Enterprise IT Definitions | HPE

White paper: "Why you need everything as a service" | HPE EUROPE

[Martin Visser]

The link under "What is Digital Transformation? - Enterprise IT Definitions | HPE" above incorrectly goes to the Cloud Computing definition