How can cloud computing boost productivity and contribute to strong, sustainable economic growth for businesses?

How can cloud computing boost productivity and contribute to strong, sustainable economic growth for businesses?

We have now moved on from the furore that was the “cloud first” movement from a number of years ago. If cloud is the answer, what’s the question? hype has now subsided and an age of maturity has descended. Not without its casualties however, in the gold rush or ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ (FOMO), the earlier adopters found out to their expense that being at the cutting edge of a technology hypercycle has a price to pay! They are now looking to repatriate their applications and data back to more sustainable platforms.  With some very big and bold stats coming to the forefront of realisation of cloud impact (source: clouded.tv)

-  90% of data is irrelevant 3 months post-creation.

-  Only 15% of data is deemed business critical.

-  On average, 50% of data stored is ROT (redundant, obsolete, or trivial).

As we move out of the Gartner Trough of Disillusionment in to the Slope of Enlightenment we now hear the change from “Cloud First” to “Cloud Considered” as we have learned that not all workloads are suitable for cloud deployments. Also, that transitioning monolithic applications to cloud native apps to exploit the true value of cloud can be a costly adventure and that data storage can carry a hefty price tag.

Fig 1 Gartner Hype Cycle 

• https://www.gartner.co.uk/en

Armed with this knowledge, the public sector today is better equipped to utilise the value of cloud services, from Software (SaaS) through to Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS). Understanding that typically static (but still growing) environments are not the ideal place to be run on a Public Cloud environment. Those environments that demand rapid scalability, both up and down, or development of cloud native applications that can take full advantage of ‘Public Cloud Tooling’ are.

Additionally, with data sovereignty now an important factor for a countries development and that this data should remain within the geo-constraints of its boarders.  You do need to consider what controls are in place and understanding where the data is and who has the rights to access this. Interesting though with the recent backtracking of EU lawmakers dropping the sovereignty requirements for the proposed cybersecurity labelling scheme, which would have forced non-EU cloud vendors to establish joint ventures with EU providers. Instead, vendors will now only need to disclose information about their data structures, including storage locations and customer data processing practices.

The fight continues with Amazon joining the list of Big Tech companies to introduce a dedicated independent cloud for Europe, with news that it's working on the "AWS European Sovereign Cloud" for governments and highly regulated industries across Europe. AWS's cloud rival Google partnered with Deutsche Telekom’s IT services and consulting subsidiary T-Systems more than two years ago to offer a sovereign cloud for German organisations, while Microsoft launched its "cloud for sovereignty" last year. And Oracle followed suit earlier this year.

Interesting to see if innovation is the driving force or as often is the case the greed for greater wealth.

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