EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
Back in yesteryear , we often referred to the concept of ‘ shadow IT ’ but what did it really mean ? As organizations began to leverage third party managed services to deliver their ICT services and historically what they saw as ‘ non-core ’ services , we soon started to see the behavior and concept of shadow IT start to form .
Businesses needed and wanted more visibility into the ‘ what ’ and ‘ how ’ their IT services were running . Why ? Because they quickly established that they were still very much tied to the ‘ risk ’ and ‘ impact ’ of these services being key to the core business .
As we usher in the cloud and digital eras , organizations are now operating their business-critical systems , applications and datasets across a disparate , distributed set of environments and platforms . They are running a mix of on-prem , business critical data and business platforms , just as they are consuming ‘ Software-As-a-Service ’ platforms where required . And then add to that consumption of analytics cloud services , consumption of storage , network and compute within public cloud and there lies hybrid / multi-cloud . And it created a whole new set of challenges into visibility .
As organizations move into ‘ services oriented ’, ‘ ondemand ’ consumption of IT services that are driven and aligned to customer experience , they need to ensure complete visibility over these services . This is not only crucial in applying the fiscal prudence of services being consumed , ensuring an alwayson , services-oriented availability of the platforms operationally , but even more so around managing risk when it comes to cybersecurity exposure .
So , if there were two things leaders could do to ensure better visibility over cloud access as the starting point within their organizations , they would be :
1 . Harness APIs : There is no such thing as a ‘ Single Pane of Glass ’. Drive and lead with an ‘ API ’ driven approach that allows for the integration of your key and strategic ‘ visibility ’ platforms . You will have platforms managing your large-scale virtualization , platforms managing your cloudnative , DevOps driven applications , platforms providing vulnerability and security services , as well as identity , provisioning , orchestration and automation . The way to integrate for consolidated visibility is via ‘ APIs ’.
2 . Follow the framework : Hybrid / multi-cloud ecosystems are complex and multi-faceted . The goal is to ensure the consumer , citizen and customer experience is seamless . Look at visibility across the said ecosystem in the same way . Break down your hybrid / multi-cloud ecosystem into discrete subsets . Start off with a ‘ services oriented ’ view that is completely business aligned . What makes up these services in terms of the technology stack ? They can only exist across the following : On-prem , managed , public and SaaS . Your storage , network , compute , apps and data will exist within all four . Apply visibility from an enterprise architecture perspective .
The key takeaway here is that there must be a servicesoriented approach to ‘ visibility ’. Why ? Because the services will be underpinned by elements that exist across an entire hybrid / multi-cloud ecosystem . The ‘ application to bare metal ’ approach of visibility will exist across all four .
It ’ s the consolidation of visibility by service that will ensure you have the required visibility coverage to manage risk and impact and ensure continuity of customer , citizen and consumer experience . p
NATHAN STEINER , HEAD OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING ANZ AT
VEEAM SOFTWARE
www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO APAC 35