This is the fifth part of a 7-part series on the salient features that IT professionals should look for in high-performing IT infrastructure orchestration platforms for enterprise use cases.
As digital transformation continues to reshape the business landscape, organizations increasingly rely on sophisticated IT infrastructure solutions to remain competitive. A key solution is the IT orchestration platform, a powerful tool that streamlines operations, converts business logic to actionable workflows, reduces complexity, and optimizes resource utilization. In this blog post, part of our series on essential features of IT orchestration platforms, we will examine the importance of a strong on-prem and hybrid cloud focus in today’s enterprise IT environments.
With the growing adoption of public cloud services, organizations are now faced with the challenge of effectively managing resources across both on-premise and cloud infrastructures. To address this challenge, many are turning to hybrid cloud strategies with the goal of seamlessly integrating on-prem and cloud environments, offering the best of both worlds. This approach, when supported by a robust IT orchestration platform, is feasible. After all, IT orchestration platforms are what run behind the scenes of cloud providers. Leveraging these systems enables enterprises to provide numerous benefits, including increased control, cost optimization, enhanced developer agility, and seamless on-prem integrations.
Key Benefits of On-Prem and Hybrid Cloud Focus for IT Orchestration Platforms:
As data privacy and security concerns continue to be a top priority for organizations, maintaining control over cloud resources is essential. A compelling example of this is in the financial sector, where institutions must adhere to strict regulatory requirements while still leveraging the scalability and power of the public cloud for non-sensitive workloads. By adopting an on-prem and hybrid cloud-focused IT orchestration platform, organizations can ensure that sensitive data remains on-premises, while still benefiting from the cost and performance advantages of a cloud approach.
Cost efficiency is a crucial factor in driving IT decision-making, particularly in an era of economic uncertainty. By implementing an IT orchestration platform that supports on-prem and hybrid cloud environments, organizations can achieve greater cost optimization. For instance, a large retailer might employ a hybrid cloud strategy to handle seasonal fluctuations in demand, using on-premise infrastructure during periods of low demand, and scaling up public cloud resources during peak times. This approach enables the retailer to minimize costs by only paying for the cloud resources they need when they need them and not being locked into long-term cloud resource contracts to try to reduce costs.
A hybrid cloud strategy, supported by an IT orchestration platform, can significantly enhance developer agility. For example, a software development company might use a centralized platform that facilitates seamless interaction between on-premise and cloud environments; enabling developers to build, test, and deploy applications across multiple platforms quickly and efficiently. This approach not only reduces time-to-market but also fosters a culture of innovation and collaboration within the organization.
Despite the growing popularity of the public cloud, many organizations still rely on on-premise infrastructure for various reasons. A prime example is a healthcare organization that must meet stringent regulatory requirements for patient data storage and security. In this case, an IT orchestration platform that supports seamless integration with existing on-premise systems allows the organization to maximize its investment in on-premise infrastructure while still benefiting from the flexibility and scalability of the cloud.
Orchestration platforms with strong on-prem integrations and capabilities can effectively transform traditional infrastructure into a cloud-like environment, providing the agility and efficiency benefits of the cloud without necessitating a complete migration. This approach allows organizations to strike a balance between maintaining control over their data and infrastructure and harnessing the power of cloud computing.
While the benefits of implementing a hybrid cloud strategy are numerous, organizations may face challenges in its adoption. These challenges may include data sovereignty issues, security concerns, and complex management of multi-cloud environments. To overcome these obstacles, enterprises can leverage IT orchestration platforms that offer features such as data encryption, robust access controls, and centralized management. By proactively addressing these challenges, organizations can successfully navigate the complexities of hybrid cloud environments and reap the benefits of a seamlessly integrated IT infrastructure.
Platform engineering is a vital component in the effectiveness of IT orchestration platforms, particularly when managing on-prem and hybrid cloud environments. Excelling in platform engineering involves creating robust, efficient platforms that facilitate seamless integration, automation, and orchestration of services, infrastructure, and applications across diverse environments. To accomplish this goal, the enterprise’s IT orchestration platform needs to integrate with all manner of tools and services.
A well-engineered IT orchestration platform guarantees scalable, resilient, and secure architecture, delivering a unified experience for developers and IT operations teams. An open IT orchestration platform that can act as the “glue” which binds together IT resources and services enables platform engineers to concentrate on integrating disparate systems and automating tasks via standardized APIs, streamlining management and enhancing interoperability.
Incorporating platform engineering showcases its critical role in managing on-prem and hybrid cloud environments, emphasizing the importance of selecting an expertly engineered IT orchestration platform for seamless automation and orchestration in the hybrid cloud landscape.
The adoption of a hybrid cloud strategy supported by an IT orchestration platform with a strong focus on on-prem and hybrid cloud environments is essential for organizations navigating the complex world of enterprise IT infrastructure. By embracing this approach, enterprises can maintain control over their data and infrastructure, optimize costs, increase developer agility, and leverage the full potential of both on-premise and cloud resources. While platform engineering continues to grow, IT leaders must empower their platform teams with proven orchestration platforms that can adapt and integrate seamlessly with any required infrastructure.
As the demand for hybrid cloud solutions continues to grow, selecting the right IT orchestration platform with comprehensive integrations for on-prem systems and cloud services will be crucial in unlocking the true potential of the hybrid cloud model. By doing so, organizations can gain a competitive advantage in the digital era and confidently navigate the ever-evolving world of enterprise IT infrastructure.
In Part VI of this series, we will look into the Importance of Event-Driven Automation for Orchestration Platforms, and how automatically reacting to events empowers teams across IT.