Which data and applications you should outsource to the cloud

Immediate availability, better accessibility of applications, less resource and administration effort, best scalability and no investment in new hardware: these are the advantages the cloud promises. In return, companies that want to relocate central and important services have to face an elaborate migration project. A look at the practice shows: "The own data centre is by no means obsolete. Only a few customers actually replace their data centres. They usually supplement their IT with public cloud services," says Maxim Kushnir, Head of Technology Concepts & Networking, Bechtle Systemhaus Stuttgart.

The right mix is crucial.

It is important that companies approach the path to the public cloud strategically and thus find the hybrid architecture that suits them best. Sensitive data should be specially protected - if only for compliance reasons. "For personal and other sensitive data, a private cloud and an end-to-end IT security architecture are recommended. For data that may be accessed from different locations, a public cloud is recommended," explains Maxim Kushnir.

"Migrating applications that are running well to the public cloud simply by lift & shift rarely makes sense," says Alexander Freudenberg, Business Manager Datacenter, Bechtle Systemhaus Holding AG. "Running an unadapted workload does not benefit from the added values of the public cloud and is also more expensive to run in the medium term."

Benefiting from ready-made frameworks.

Popular workloads to start with are backup scenarios with non-critical company data or "database-as-a-service". Among other things, users benefit from lower administration costs, higher elasticity and automated lifecycle management. "We recommend that our customers implement modern scenarios, e.g. in the area of analytics and artificial intelligence/machine learning, in a cloud environment. In this environment, there are ready-made frameworks that medium-sized companies can only build locally with a lot of effort," says Alexander Freudenberg. "It also makes sense to think about a solution from the cloud for every new application to be rolled out - that is the 'cloud first thought'. Is an application suitable for operation in the cloud and what advantages does it bring in terms of procurement, payment model, flexibility, costs, lifecycle, availability and security?"

Companies must therefore find the right mix of public cloud services and on-premise infrastructure and at the same time modernise the on-premise infrastructure that has grown over decades. But IT can only be standardised and automated with a modern set-up. This is also because the IT environment is becoming increasingly complex with the addition of new platforms and services.

As a result, companies achieve strategic advantages for their business with a unified and digital infrastructure. Hardware expenses can be reduced and internal IT resources can be conserved. Instead of worrying about operating the infrastructure, employees can use the freed-up potential to accelerate strategic projects. As a consequence, companies and public administration benefit from the distinct flexibility and agility of the cloud. "For us, the focus is always on the overall view: we not only advise our customers, but also implement these recommendations and are ultimately responsible for the concrete result," explains Bechtle Manager Alexander Freudenberg.