Companies across the world are again facing the next phase of digitisation. Steady growth is becoming harder to achieve, and organisations are refocusing on productivity. According to the Gartner Research Board, The next phase of digitalisation is “putting the new digital technology to work.”
Ask any member of the C-Suite about their business challenges and objectives, and it’s likely that data, the volume of it and how best to leverage it will appear high on the list. And they would be right – data is the lifeblood of an organisation. But, beyond the intrinsic value of data itself, it’s the multicloud environment that can really help drive actionable business outcomes. Much like a cardiovascular system provides nutrients to the rest of the body, a multicloud environment gets data where it needs to be, at the right time, in the right volumes, and in a state ready to be used. So, being cloud-smart really matters. And it matters across the C-Suite.
Before Christmas, I discussed this with Futurist Andrew Grill on his Actionable Futurist Podcast. We spoke about the importance of C-Suite executives becoming more cloud-smart and taking a ‘multicloud-by-design’ approach to running applications and workloads. Here are five key takeaways from that discussion.
Default vs design
Organisations have embraced the cloud operating model and its agility alongside efficient service delivery. As such, many companies now operate in a multicloud world, with almost nine out of 10 IT environments today including a mix of public and private clouds.
Taking a multicloud-by-design approach and being cloud-smart means more efficient and effective IT operations.
However, many organisations restrict the benefits of this model by not building it strategically. When an organisation adopts hybrid or public cloud offerings “by default” as opposed to “by design”, it risks allowing each cloud environment to become a silo (or island) with its own ecosystem of proprietary tools. Such a scenario leads to inconsistent security policies, skills gaps between teams, and conflicting perspectives on where applications should live. All this slows decision-making, limits the agility sought in the first place, and can even introduce security gaps, poor performance, and unforeseen costs.
Instead, a ‘multicloud-by-design’ approach optimises public cloud operations. It brings the agility of the cloud operating model to any IT environment while offering greater control over applications and data.
Being cloud-smart improves business agility
For the CEO, embracing multicloud is not merely a technical decision but a strategic move for innovation and resilience. Challenges around one’s data strategy can impede investment and innovation and ultimately affect the success of the business, including the bottom line.
The opportunity for CEOs lies in adopting a multicloud-by-design strategy, promoting cloud-smart practices that enhance business agility. The rise of disruptive technologies, exemplified by GenAI, underscores the importance of business agility. Through this approach, CEOs can encourage their businesses to leverage the best-in-breed services, unrestricted by compromise, and be ready to embrace new opportunities.
Being cloud-smart improves IT operations efficiency
CIOs are often challenged with managing a siloed environment caused by the tactical adoption of multicloud environments, leading to disparate platforms and operational silos. In fact, according to the Dell Technologies Innovation Index, siloed cloud management and experience across disparate vendors are among the top five multicloud challenges impeding innovation in the UK today.
Ensuring CEOs and the rest of the C-Suite understand the full potential of multicloud as a growth driver is essential for success.
Taking a multicloud-by-design approach and being cloud-smart means more efficient and effective IT operations. It allows organisations to leverage existing skillsets as much as possible and adopt new capabilities sustainably. This frees IT resources to focus on higher-value work, such as finding new ways to drive innovation and competitive differentiation.
Being cloud-smart reduces cost
CFOs face the challenge of navigating the economics of the cloud, as moving data and workloads between clouds can be costly. Additionally, rearchitecting applications for specific public clouds poses its own significant effort and cost.
Being cloud-smart presents an opportunity for CFOs to optimise costs and maximise ROI. As applications become more portable, organisations can dynamically adjust workload placements to capitalise on changing economic profiles among different clouds. This flexibility optimises costs, whether due to price cuts by public cloud providers or technology refreshes that reduce on-premises operational expenses.
Being cloud-smart reduces security risks
The primary challenge for CISOs lies in cybersecurity within a multicloud environment. A strategy to consider is Zero Trust, based on the principle of “never trust, always verify”, assuming that no user, application, or device should be automatically trusted, even within the organisational network.
A multicloud by design strategy allows the infrastructure to scale as business needs evolve, enabling a consistent set of cyber resilience capabilities across major public cloud ecosystems and private cloud and edge environments. This approach ensures that defences remain as dynamic as the evolving threats organisations face.
Ensuring CEOs and the rest of the C-Suite understand the full potential of multicloud as a growth driver is essential for success. As I’ve just outlined, being cloud-smart creates the path for multicloud to deliver positive outcomes against various business objectives. But the whole organisation – technical teams and business leaders alike – must come together to drive a multicloud-by-design approach. Only by doing so can they achieve the freedom to consume the technologies that address their business needs, whether in public cloud environments, on-premises or at the edge.
