New profit centers, new service lines, new capabilities for your business – that’s what digital transformation is all about, and it’s where hybrid cloud excels. By now, most companies are aware of the tremendous gains that the cloud can bring by supporting development agility without requiring wholesale modernization of infrastructure, and by reducing the TCO for their entire IT estate. And for many, the best is definitely yet to come. There are all kinds of opportunities out there that they may not even have investigated yet.
As Ana points out in the article, finding the right mix of public/private cloud and on-prem infrastructure enables organizations to “accelerate business outcomes by driving new business models, creating new customer and employee experiences, and improving operational performance.” That’s exactly what we’ve been doing at RedPixie since we launched in 2010. We’ve helped customers successfully complete projects across the entire hybrid cloud spectrum, from designing secure architectures, to migrating data, to monitoring and managing their solutions. We see a wide range of opportunities out there that are ripe for exploitation by companies looking for new ways to leverage the cloud, including some truly innovative options that you may not have thought of – I’d pick out three:
Cloud-Powered Internet of Things.
Cloud-only and hybrid cloud platforms are a natural fit for hyperscale IoT projects. They can provide the on-demand data storage, analytics capabilities and built-in security that these projects demand.
A great example is Project WellWatch. RedPixie is working with a large U.K.-based health services provider to build an IoT system that tracks users’ wellness by monitoring biometric data from smartwatches. The data is ingested into a hybrid cloud platform; as with any personal information, the sovereignty and residency of the data are crucial considerations, so the system includes both cloud and on-premises resources. Machine learning and algorithms are applied to understand the well-being of the smartwatch user. If the input data breaches a tolerance – an increase in heart rate, a decrease in skin temperature, or sensors indicate that the user has fallen – the system can trigger actions such as alerting a family member or physicians.
WellWatch is a well-being device that provides an invaluable active telepresence – and peace of mind – to the user’s family, caregivers, and doctors.
Cognitive technologies.
AI in any form is hot right now, but many companies are held back by the limited capabilities of their internal IT infrastructure. The barriers are high; investing in any cognitive services initiative is a big commitment. The big advantage of the cloud is that it enables companies to “try fast and fail fast” – or succeed fast! – at very low cost. You can develop proof of value very quickly and decide whether it’s worth exploring further.
Add to that the expandability you get from cloud – the fact that you can scale your AI program pretty much on demand. A European company, for example, could take on the whole of their U.S. data overnight, and not even have to worry about backup. That’s a luxury you don’t get when you’re limited to on-premises equipment.
For a great overview of some types of predictive modeling algorithms and why they’re a perfect fit for the cloud, see our infographic 4 Predictive Modeling Techniques.
Cloud workspaces.
The PC is still a mainstay of enterprise IT, and a must-have for many users, but it’s under pressure in today’s mobile, multiple-device environments. As my colleague Neil Allgood, RedPixie’s Head of Workspace, pointed out in a recent blog: “End-users are now far more likely to opt for tablets, smartphones, or thin clients as their chosen work device, calling for a new method of desktop delivery.”
For many organizations, that new method will likely be some form of cloud-hosted virtual desktop infrastructure. Adoption of VDI as a service has been growing steadily, and it’s now used by more than 40 percent of businesses worldwide. Cloud workspaces make managing, troubleshooting and upgrading desktops a lot easier, and they can deliver big improvements in security. If your organization is among the majority that hasn’t yet made the leap to client virtualization in the cloud, it’s time to check out the possibilities.
We at RedPixie are looking forward to working alongside our new HPE Pointnext colleagues to bring initiatives like these, and a lot more, to businesses that want to get more value from hybrid cloud. You can learn more about RedPixie’s core areas of expertise and experience here.
HPE Pointnext provides a full spectrum of advisory, integration, migration and operational consulting services to help our customers deploy and manage workloads across their entire IT estate. Learn more about HPE Pointnext here.
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MitchellFeldman
Marketing Manager, Cloud Advisory, HPE Pointnext Services
