You May Be Ready for the Cloud, But is Your Network?

Cloud migrations don’t have to be all or nothing ventures. After all, one of the great benefits of moving to the cloud is its flexibility. Businesses are free to determine everything from the workloads they wish to commit to the cloud, to their path to that destination, be it through a public, private, or hybrid option. Regardless of what they do in the cloud or how they get there, businesses must prepare for the move accordingly – or risk having their efforts fall short of the intended impact.

The versatility of the cloud is reflected in recent research into the make-up of modern cloud environments conducted by Forbes and Cisco. The report, called “When Clouds Connect,” concluded that we are indeed living in a hybrid world when it comes to the cloud. In fact, it found 77% of executives confirmed that their business currently leverages both public and private cloud architectures. Roughly two-thirds (62%) of executives also described having a hybrid cloud strategy as “very important” to the success of their business.

What are some other insights into the modern cloud environment turned up by Forbes and Cisco’s research? The report also found:

  • Of those businesses utilizing a hybrid cloud architecture, 57% have the majority of their assets on-premises
  • More than half (54%) believe they will increase their reliance on public cloud architecture over the next two years
  • Public cloud adoptions have consistently met or exceeded SLA expectations in a number of areas, including: cost reduction (87%), increasing application performance (89%), and increasing storage capacity (92%)

Potential networking headaches presented by the cloud

Outcomes such as greater flexibility, better performance, and streamlined budgets have driven countless businesses to clouds of all types. However, if the proper network architecture isn’t in place to support that transition, it could lead to major headaches for those assigned to manage it. Potential problems include:

  • Bottlenecks on the network edge – Moving applications and workloads to the cloud shifts the burden off of internal data center infrastructure – and onto edge access points. All of this additional traffic can cause productivity and availability issues if left unaddressed.
  • Plodding application migrations – Mission-critical applications carry a lot of baggage in terms of data requirements. This once again presents a challenge for corporate infrastructure. If this gets overwhelmed, critical line of business apps struggling to make the move from on-prem to the cloud may be unavailable to workers.
  • Poor application performance – Depending on their build, certain apps may get tangled in security nets placed by cloud vendors to protect businesses and data. While additional security is always a good thing, in this case it could lead to less-than-optimal app performance if not accounted for early.

Build a network that is ready for the cloud

Are you preparing for a move to the cloud? Join us at the 3rd Annual Arraya Solutions Tech Summit to learn more about how to design your network so that the above potential problems never translate into actual headaches. The Arraya Tech Summit is a free, day-long event consisting of multiple sessions exploring the latest IT solutions as well as the challenges faced by modern IT pros. Each of these will be led by a member of our award-winning team of engineers, ensuring a day that is truly “by techs, for techs.” One such session is “Architecting Your Network for Cloud Adoption.” During this class, attendees will be guided through the steps that must be taken to prepare business networks for successful cloud adoption and migrations.

The Arraya Tech Summit takes place on June 8th at the Sheraton Valley Forge in King of Prussia, PA. The event is free, but registration is required. To sign-up for this unique learning opportunity, please visit: https://events.arrayasolutions.com/.

Arraya Insights