In the spirit of this year’s World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development (WED), one of the most exciting advancements in the world of engineering worthy of highlighting is the evolution of cloud solutions and how they enable engineers to deliver projects faster, more securely, cost effectively and even more sustainably.
As organisations continue to face ever-growing data management challenges – such as poor data governance policies and lack of in-house expertise – leaders have been able to look to Cloud to provide solutions that can help engineers overcome these challenges.
However, as project complexity increases, data growth spirals and with ever increasing competition, an evolution of hybrid cloud services is needed to help address the issues. Organisations need capabilities, services and tools which give them a common set of data management features across on-premises and cloud resources, thereby simplifying operations so IT can enable engineers to deliver on strategic business priorities rather than becoming a burden.
It is vital for organisations wanting seamless engineering operations across on-premises and cloud environments that common hybrid cloud operational services are built to deliver better security, sustainability and are designed to improve time to market whilst reducing the cost to deliver this.
Building and securing a hybrid multi-cloud data estate
Due to the rapid acceleration of digital transformation over the past few years, most organisations are now evolving towards more data-driven business models.
Underpinning this transformation is the need to maximise the use of the data. As a result, data accessibility, storage locality, cost, security, and protection capabilities have become critical for day-to-day engineering operations. Because of this, decisions on IT infrastructure no longer only concern IT Managers, but also have an impact on engineering application and design specialists also. Engineering and DevOps are colliding!
So, to build and secure a hybrid multi-cloud data estate in this new era, a service that’s both flexible, automated, and cost efficient is required to ensure outcomes are predictable and consistent – automation, orchestration and self-service are key attributes that must be included!
This is where having a consistent hybrid multi-cloud enterprise data management solution is essential, it helps accelerate business outcomes, protect against outages, and enables rapid recovery even if these do occur.
The solution must also defend company intellectual property with hybrid multi-cloud built-in data security and automatic ransomware protection. We also today can’t forget sustainability; a top engineering focus and one which uniquely a hybrid multi-cloud enterprise data management solution can also help address.
Advanced hybrid cloud solves IT complexity
Advanced hybrid cloud services can be built with a strong foundation that facilitates the adoption of business enabling data management in whichever way each organisation sees fit.
On top of this, organisations should look for data management capabilities which enable greater flexibility by supporting multiple protocols and data types, whilst also giving managers the ability to scale up or down their data storage needs without disrupting engineering operations.
Investing in the right data management solutions gives organisations the capability to drive efficient and seamless integrations with public and private clouds – enabling easy flow of data between on-premises and cloud environments.
Data’s role in modern engineering operations
In our digital world, huge amounts of data are being created, captured, copied, and consumed. As it stands, global data creation is estimated to rise to more than 180 zettabytes by 2025.
It’s unsurprising then that the increasing amount of data being generated by businesses is becoming more challenging than ever before to manage and protect.
But for engineers to work efficiently, the data management process must be simplified. Providing a comprehensive data management solution that’s optimised for modern hybrid multi-cloud environments will enable large-scale engineering projects to proceed seamlessly.
With hybrid multi-cloud data management solutions ensuring data is available where needed, it gives leaders the ability to make and act on insights in real-time, positively impacting business outcomes. Ultimately enabling engineers to focus on innovation and achieving business objectives.
About the author
Grant Caley, CTO at NetApp
Grant Caley is an experienced Chief Technologist with a proven history of working with all levels of customers and partners across all sectors. With 20 years’ background in the industry, he helps clients understand, define and implement data management and data services across a hybrid cloud landscape with a particular focus on enabling business agility, cost efficiency and operational consistency, governance and risk control. He also supports organisations developing strategic outcomes for new and developing technologies such as artificial intelligence, DevOps and cloud.
Prior to his current role, Grant has led the technical account management of a number of large global finance customers as well as previous roles for IBM and other UK organisations.
