What are the current trends and challenges in cloud computing and IT outsourcing?

Think carefully before you consider a multi-cloud strategy. Public cloud is complex, and adopting multiple providers drastically increases that complexity. I'd recommend starting your cloud journey with a single cloud provider and learning how to manage that effectively before even considering multi-cloud. If you do decide to use more than one public cloud provider, ensure that the reasons make good business sense - for example if your organization makes a technology product, it may need to integrate with your customer's existing cloud tech, whichever provider they are on.

Most cloud adoption business cases are based on the cost savings, which means transformation or application modernization is last on the priority list. Coupled with this technology constraints imposed to meet the business case objective have resulted in the multi cloud adoption. Organisation has always shown a least appetite for as modernisation for the cloud is a longer path to deliver cost saving immediately.

Cloud computing is not for everyone, nor every business. It requires extensive knowledge of how one is using their current infrastructure and how they anticipate on expanding their infrastructure in the future to accommodate growth. Additionally, it requires one knowing how much data they will consume and figuring in the unknown, or more unspoken, fees associated with cloud computing including egress fees.

Don't fall into the trap of simply comparing costs between on-premises and cloud computing to make decisions. Cloud computing is more aligned with investment, and to invest costs money. Look at where the public cloud could increase business agility or provide a competitive edge to your business (for example delivering new features faster than the competition). Then look at whether that increased value is worth the cost.

Cloud providers excel at rapid access, enabling quick deployments and time-to-value. While technical prerequisites exist, most organizations don't struggle in getting started. It's when the bills come in, when more projects are looking for resources, when visibility and understanding deteriorates, when duplicative services or challenges arise, and various other challenges hamper organizations on their journey. Seek the appropriate balance to encourage innovation and ensure governance... the management overhead of your cloud estate will grow, but if you prevent your costs, security, and other management concerns from getting out of hand, there are solutions in place to allow you to scale with your adoption--plan for these investments!

Over the last 30 years, IT Outsourcing models have matured toward a more effective “one team” delivery model. With the more recent move to remote workers, the model has become even more fluid, and collaboration technologies have helped dispersed teams communicate and work more effectively, while still garnering the comparative cost advantage of outsourcing.

As a long time pragmatic IT leader, the fundamentals of IT practice still apply when your organization considers cloud. Practicality: is this really a proper cloud solution, Resources: do I have, or does the cloud provider have the RIGHT and ADEQUATE resources for a solution with longevity. Finally do you understand all the direct, indirect, capital, and opex costs; both short and long term of the decision. As a parting note, it's imperative IT leadership realizes that a majority of "Cloud" solutions are not cloud at all. It's a different flavor of hosting/outsourcing, that is not CLOUD. Scalable, fault tolerant, and geoaware applications are certainly legitimate, but all IT leaders need to understand their business for proper cloud usage.

I have found IT Outsourcing works best when: • You treat your outsource provider as a partner, a member of the team, rather than a vendor. • You decide upfront if time zone is important. If so look for a partner that is 1-3 hours within your primary time zone. • It is made very clear to your provider what proficiency in native language each team member will need. Some do, others may not. • The team gets to “know” each other. This builds respect, avoids misunderstandings, and creates fun! • You lock down what needs to be locked down but avoid adding stress by denying access unnecessarily. • The team adds a Risk Abatement Plan to their project plan. This increases success and reduces the need for contingencies. (Msg me for the full version)

The challenges associated with IT outsourcing and cloud computing revolve around issues of quality and cost, with each model presenting its own set of cost-related obstacles. IT outsourcing offers access to technical skills at a more affordable rate, but the quality of service often raises concerns, prompting outsourcers to switch vendors periodically. Cloud computing appears to be a straightforward solution for infrastructure setup; however, it introduces various hidden costs, which are not typically accounted for in on-premises setups, including expenses related to data transfer and data storage. In conclusion, when choosing an outsourcing partner or cloud service provider, it's essential to exercise caution to ensure long-term success.

Cloud computing is here to stay and as large government and commercial enterprise move their data to third-party cloud infrastructure, they inevitably loose some control and release large amounts of data that ends up in the dark web as we have seen with numerous organizations from healthcare to givernment to banking. A critical aspect of the continuing movement to the cloud is going to be tighter controls. My view is that cloud orchestration technologies like Kubernetes can provide the scaling and security management that is failing in many deployments. Solutions like Kubernetes AICF can help address that concern if implemented with scaling and security management at the front-end and investing in the time & money upfront to do it right.

Cloud computing can be a wonderful way to tap into the operational expense side of the business. Some businesses do not want to deal with variables such as aging infrastructure, depreciating assets, or paying for the costs of running their own data center (i.e. cooling, space, etc.) to name a few.

One major area that the article neglects is the growing appetite for SaaS applications, where the software application is provided on a cloud platform. This may be viewed, as a variant of Cloud computing, or a variant of outsourcing, but has its own unique characteristics. Studies have shown that large organizations have hundreds of SaaS applications, and they can make up a significant portion of the IT spend. Governing cloud and SaaS applications for efficiency is a major challenge to avoid unused and underused servers (cloud) and licenses (SaaS) ands sure all use is authorized.

Cloud computing and outsourcing IT infrastructure is important for SMEs. As the world of managing security and infrastructure increases SMEs will not have the breadth of IT skills in house to manage their environment properly. This will lead to a significant security risk. Finding a outsource partner who can manage the cloud environment and provide the skill sets necessary will reduce the risk and cost to the SME