Let’s Face Cloud Together is an interview series with Tech Data’s cloud coaches and subject matter experts discussing cloud strategy, training & enablement, marketing, sales and services and how to reach them so you don’t have to face cloud alone. Each series segment highlights a different coach discussing their specific area of expertise along with some best practices.

There’s an incredible amount of advice available when it comes to cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions. The advice not only spans an incredible breadth of topics, but also builds in volume with seemingly ever-changing best practices associated with each.

Today’s business runs on modern applications, and these applications need the most up-to-date infrastructure and platforms to function. But how does an enterprise choose and consolidate all the infrastructure and platform options available to them, as well as choose a best-of-breed portfolio that both addresses their needs and is cost-effective? There may not be a single correct answer to this, but a hybrid cloud setup can get them a step closer to their desired state. Hybrid, in this case, means an environment that has multiple vendor software and hardware products, as well as an on-premises and public cloud presence for infrastructure resources.

The lifeblood of a successful Managed Service Provider (MSP) practice is automation. To deliver automation, an MSP has to arrive at points of standardization across key processes and jobs. Why?

A successful MSP can have an incredible volume of tasks, large and small, across various functional areas to complete every day, including ticket management, services scheduling and pipeline management. If not managed properly, these tasks become gaping holes that lead profit out of the business because of inefficiency. But fear not, there are plenty of tools out there to help an MSP solve for these inefficiencies via standardization around industry best practices and automation platforms.

Have you felt overwhelmed at the thought of migrating your existing on-premise workloads to the cloud? Have you felt anxious and fearful of the consequences if things go wrong during the migration process, or if your business-critical application has elongated downtimes? Although there is no magic pill that can alleviate those concerns, much of the risk can be minimized by detailed planning and accounting for the various parts that can lead the migration project to fruition. Let us look at what some of these components are.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

A mother and daughter were preparing a chicken dinner together. The mother cut the legs off of the chicken before roasting it and when the daughter asked why, the mother replies, “That’s the way my mother always did it.”

Before we answer the question of where to start, let’s consider why an end user should opt for cloud first:

Connecting with our friends, coworkers or better yet, our customers has never been easier thanks to the new collaboration tools we have today.  As we gain more connections, the need to connect faster and communicate in real time increases.

There is a lot of confusion around, “hybrid cloud.” The term “hybrid cloud” is used broadly and often misused. Wouldn’t IT be hybrid by nature? Doesn’t cloud involve different systems, personnel, technologies and processes, all merged under the same umbrella, and therefore innately classified as hybrid? Probably, yes. But there must be a specific meaning in every context when we see the term in use.  

It’s no secret that government agencies need help modernizing their IT systems. Feds have entered a data-driven era, and modern mission demands are pushing them to rethink their operational approaches.  As several Federal IT modernization mandates move full steam ahead, the pressure is on.  Agencies can no longer afford to sink money into life support for geriatric IT systems. Feds are getting closer and closer to enjoying the benefits of universal cloud adoption, but is it a long haul? What’s holding them back?