How can you measure hybrid cloud success?

One needs to reflect on why they chose Hybrid cloud in the first place and set the success parameters accordingly. Some of them include 1) Meeting Regulations - For some industries, complying with industry/geography regulations is mandatory. So your goal could be to ensure 100% adherence to all compliance. 2) Innovation in public cloud by improving agility in product releases, improved cyber security posture and improved resiliency. So improvement in these parameters would be the success criteria 3) Interoperability - How effectively you can interoperate between a private and public cloud setup in terms of management and operations is a crucial measure. You do not want to end up creating two different worlds further complicating

These are all great ways to move a business and are common KPIs that apply too all aspects of a businesses or Govt's IT environment. A much simpler way to look at this and measure is if a hybrid architecture is meeting the intended goals for mission or business. Hybrid may be necessary to meet specific regulations, support DR/CoOP, response times, etc. Soo,does it meet those intended needs? And can it be continual evolved to be more efficient and support ongoing innovation, changing business/ mission needs?

Measuring the success of a hybrid cloud strategy begins with aligning it with specific business goals and objectives. It's essential to define the intended outcomes, whether they are focused on improving customer satisfaction, increasing revenue, reducing costs, or fostering innovation. Once the objectives are clear, identifying relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is crucial. These KPIs should directly reflect business outcomes and can include metrics like customer retention, sales growth, profit margins, or time to market. Tracking these KPIs provides a means to assess the progress and impact of your hybrid cloud strategy in a way that is directly tied to the organization's overarching business goals.

Measuring hybrid cloud success requires the establishment of a robust cloud governance framework. This framework ensures compliance, security, and quality in your hybrid cloud environment. To achieve this, define policies and standards for managing cloud resources, covering aspects like access control, encryption, backup, monitoring, and auditing. Assign roles and responsibilities to various cloud stakeholders, including architects, engineers, users, and auditors. These governance elements enable control and accountability, aligning your hybrid cloud operations with organisational goals and regulatory requirements, thereby assessing and assuring the strategy's success.

Measuring hybrid cloud success requires optimising cloud performance and efficiency. To achieve this: 1. Monitor and Analyse: Continuously monitor and analyze cloud usage and costs, including CPU, memory, storage, network, and billing. 2. Optimise Configuration and Deployment: Refine cloud configuration and deployment practices, encompassing scaling, load balancing, automation, and orchestration. These optimisation measures enhance cloud service quality, reliability, and cost-efficiency, ultimately contributing to the success of your hybrid cloud strategy. By optimising cloud resources and operations, you can reduce waste and expenses while improving overall performance.

To measure hybrid cloud success, seamless integration is crucial. Ensure cloud services and data seamlessly communicate with existing systems and applications. Leverage cloud-native tools like containers, microservices, serverless, and DevOps to enhance flexibility and functionality. Effective integration methods create a unified hybrid cloud experience, contributing to strategy success. This ensures consistent, efficient operations for customers and employees, bridging cloud and on-premises environments securely.

To gauge hybrid cloud success, leverage cloud capabilities for innovation. Explore how your hybrid cloud can address challenges and opportunities like AI, machine learning, big data, or blockchain. Encourage experimentation and testing of new ideas, products, services, and business models enabled by the hybrid cloud. These innovation activities empower your organization to gain a competitive edge, generate value, and assess the success of your hybrid cloud initiative by embracing new technologies and applications.