IT Revolution: Multi-cloud to Omni-cloud

The future will be all about embracing the cloud and all of its advantages and possibilities to drive value and achieve business goals. The faster organisations recognise and accept this reality, the faster they can lay a solid foundation to grow their business

Gone is the era of large capital-intensive server rooms and their scalability issues. Today, cloud computing is the future of SaaS (Subscription-based software models), to build a strong foundation for organisations, which is forward-looking and will stand the test of time. In 2021, the global cloud computing market was valued at US$368.97 billion and is predicted to increase at a CAGR of 15.7 percent between 2022 and 2030. Therefore, the future will be all about embracing the cloud and all of its advantages and possibilities to drive value and achieve business goals. The faster organisations recognise and accept this reality, the faster they can lay a solid foundation to grow their business.

More importantly, rather than focussing on which cloud operating model to opt for, it is essential for companies to undergo a holistic transformation to reimagine their IT infrastructure from ground zero. Organisations need to choose a service provider that can deliver a unified solution with end-to-end expertise in all models, who has dealt with an extensive portfolio and can lead partnerships to enable future strategies for building the cloud environments. It is all about migrating, transforming, and building applications across cloud platforms for a secure, well-managed, and optimised distributed cloudscape.

The Journey of the Cloud

For the uninitiated, cloud computing has been around for several years, despite the fact that a vast majority of people assume it to be a new concept. It was conceived in the early 1960s by Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider, an American computer scientist, and psychologist, although the term itself was coined later. In simple terms, it is a set of services delivered over the internet, or the cloud, that rely on remote servers to store and retrieve data instead of using local hard drives and private data centers.

With the introduction of virtual machines and technology in the 1970s, cloud computing began to grow and evolve in leaps and bounds. Technology industry players invested in virtual operating systems, and eventually, a new face of the cloud began to emerge — one that was open to all.

it is a set of services delivered over the internet, or the cloud, that rely on remote servers to store and retrieve data instead of using local hard drives and private data centres.

Emergence of Omni-Cloud

Cloud computing services are now available to everybody, whether an individual or a business. However, organisations chose to move towards multiple cloud platforms as opposed to a single one, to avoid vendor lock-in and loss of negotiation power on the pricing of services. Considering multi-cloud was affordable, scalable, and adaptable, multi-cloud adoption appeared to be the best option. But as business needs evolved, cross-cloud interaction also grew. However, coordination was fragmented when multiple cloud architectures were joined, due to geographical and latency issues. This is when corporations were compelled to decrease their dependence on multi-cloud and as a result, the Omni-cloud was born, allowing all platforms to streamline and unify their data.

What is Omni-Cloud?

The Omni-cloud, also known as hybrid-cloud, is a combination of outstanding data integration and world-class connectivity to travel back and forth between applications across various clouds. It is an interoperable cloud solution that is scalable because of its ability to break large ERP apps down into smaller microservices while maintaining security and portability by not being locked into a single programming language. This results in businesses being able to manage, install, and run apps from anywhere and everywhere, providing more coverage, flexibility, and latency reduction to better serve critical markets and end-users around the world.

Benefits of Omni-Cloud

Economical – Compared to other integrations, Omni-cloud presents a seamless convenience, unlike any other. It makes scalability cost-effective and the operating costs are comparatively minimal. Some consumers choose to use their own hardware and software, while others prefer to pay for services provided by the cloud service provider, which allows organisations to allocate more resources towards engineering new capabilities, and fewer resources towards operations.

Management Solutions – To effectively coordinate application traffic and automate the life cycles of the resources that enable it, companies use application traffic management solutions. The Omni-cloud computing model can rapidly and easily add capacity and manage mobility for these solutions. It is not entirely relevant what kind of infrastructure is running beneath the abstraction layer because the focus is on the most efficient distribution of application workloads.

Connectivity & Interoperability – Another roadblock faced by legacy organisations is the management of application and service traffic along with the application stack, from the cloud to the user, in order to maximise performance and resource usage. In complex, distributed environments, DNS is a critical leverage point for connectivity. Consider a corporation that has an application that runs on many nodes, and is used by thousands of people around the world on a variety of devices and platforms. The value of Omni-cloud is unlocked by the ability to abstract that complexity away by automated traffic direction using DNS. Based on intelligence about the developing application footprint and data availability, it makes it possible to link that device for that user with the relevant node to serve the application when it is needed.

Expanding Server Demand – The Omni cloud is the most adaptable and scalable solution as an organisation grows and the requirement for greater data storage grows. It can readily meet demands and eliminate the need to invest considerably in additional servers and databases. In a nutshell, Omni-cloud solutions are an effective remedy for growing server demand. Adding more processing power and storage space is as easy as clicking a few buttons.

Centralised Data Analysis – Data analysis is a critical component of success for most companies. When your data is distributed over multiple clouds, analysing it can prove challenging. Omni-cloud pulls together all of the data that was previously stored individually, making analyses easier and faster. Omni-cloud provides centralised data capabilities regardless of where your data is kept, which makes it possible to perform time-sensitive analyses and acquire useful information.

Challenges of Omni-Cloud

Moving Data: Transferring data from one cloud to another is challenging and expensive. For start-up organisations, moving the data might be easier but enterprises with massive databases, or code that runs in numerous locations, rely on data mobility. Such organisations don’t want their data to be in transit all the time, but they do need to move database items to the correct places at the right time to reduce latency. A major difficulty with Omni-cloud is determining an optimum way to move existing data to the right place, at the right time.

Compute Orchestration: A common sister challenge to data mobility is to identify how to compute orchestration and workloads across different clouds and resources. There can be a substantial barrier to Omni-cloud adoption for businesses, demanding specialised technical knowledge and assistance.

Final Takeaway

Fast-moving, resilient, and portable apps are in high demand in today’s competitive commercial world. They also aim to combine data to acquire a holistic view of the entire supply chain. Omni-cloud accomplishes this by combining the benefits of many cloud architectures into a single, cohesive whole. While each separate cloud may not be as powerful on its own, when joined, the greater capacity will allow for better procedures and resource optimization.

Omni-cloud excels at this by allowing seamless data integration by making apps portable and data mobile, it provides ‘Network Management’ a whole new meaning, enabling firms  to make the most of their existing infrastructure.

Simplifying things and making informed decisions are the keys to successful businesses. Omni-cloud excels at this by allowing seamless data integration by making apps portable and data mobile, it provides ‘Network Management’ a whole new meaning, enabling firms to make the most of their existing infrastructure.

To summarise, Omni-cloud is the way forward. It is here to stay and revolutionise the IT industry. Evolution may still occur, but it will only be for the better. Joining the bandwagon will provide you with the necessary experience and expertise to maximise its benefits.

By Hiroshi Tahata

Hiroshi Tahata, JDU Head,

Fujitsu Limited

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in