CIO100: How To Be Cloud Smart

Managing and maintaining cloud infrastructure comes with its own set of challenges, such as misconfigurations, security vulnerabilities, or difficulties in monitoring and optimizing resources. An organization dealing with these challenges can be said to be experiencing cloud chaos. Successfully navigating cloud chaos requires a combination of technical expertise, effective policies, and continuous monitoring and adaptation. It’s a dynamic landscape, but with the right approach, the benefits of cloud computing can far outweigh the challenges.

At the 15th edition of the CIO100 Symposium & Awards, Nawaz Bagha, Territory Lead at VMware, advised organizations on how to accelerate digital transformation in a multicloud environment by following the below strategies to avoid cloud chaos:

Accelerating cloud-native applications: Cloud-native applications refer to applications specifically designed and built to run in cloud environments, capitalizing on the cloud’s scalability, flexibility, and other native features. The goal of cloud-native development is to leverage the benefits of cloud computing to deliver applications that are agile, scalable, and resilient in dynamic and rapidly changing environments. Moreover, cloud-native applications are a key enabler for organizations looking to leverage the advantages of a multicloud strategy. They provide the agility, flexibility, and resilience needed to thrive in a dynamic and diverse cloud computing landscape.

Modernize your cloud infrastructure: Bagha advised organizations to modernize their cloud infrastructure to take advantage of modern technology. He urged CIOs to embrace a mindset of continuous improvement and stay informed about emerging technologies and best practices in cloud infrastructure management. Part of modernizing cloud infrastructure includes implementing new technological tools, such as integrating with AI, ensuring security best practices, and implementing auditing and reporting mechanisms to track and enforce compliance.

Deliver autonomous workplaces: Bagha advised organizations to combine cloud technologies with automation and collaboration tools. To accelerate digital transformation, he asked organizations to create autonomous workplaces that empower employees to work effectively, regardless of their location or device. This approach, he says, promotes agility, flexibility, and efficiency in the modern work environment.

Strive for software-defined edge: A software-defined edge (SDE) is defined as a distributed digital infrastructure that runs workloads across several locations, close to endpoints that are producing and consuming data. In a multicloud environment, SDE plays a critical role in optimizing the deployment and management of edge computing resources across multiple cloud providers.

Consider AI and Machine Learning integration: To accelerate digital transformation in a multicloud environment, organizations ought to explore opportunities to integrate AI and ML into their applications. Cloud providers offer services for machine learning, making it easier to incorporate intelligent features.