Beyond Application Migration: Adopting a Supercloud

Cloud computing is an established trend in India, with the public cloud services market expected to reach $13 billion by 2026, according to an IDC report. Enterprises are also increasingly using multi-cloud service providers and storing critical data on private clouds.

Getting all your enterprise needs fulfilled by one cloud provider is difficult. For instance, Microsoft Azure may be good with authorization services, Oracle Cloud may be the best at securing your database, or Amazon Web Services could offer maximum developer flexibility. You want to capitalize on the strengths of different cloud providers. This also prevents vendor lock-in.

Managing hybrid and multi-cloud environments is a challenge as it involves dealing with disparate cloud platforms and addressing issues related to scalability, security, and governance. This is where supercloud comes in. It's an abstraction layer that acts as a single management interface atop the multiple public, private and edge cloud. Supercloud gives a unified interface to manage and automate operations, reduce complexity, increase observability, and avoid vendor lock-in across multiple cloud vendors. It can be implemented using a Cloud Management Platform (CMP) or services that offer "management layer-as-a-service." Depending on how an enterprise wants to implement it, the supercloud can be deployed on-premise or even in the public cloud.

The rise in cloud-native development helps in taking the supercloud concept a step further, as these development practices are ideally suited for distributed, multi-cloud environments. It includes practices such as using containers, microservices, and serverless computing to build and deploy applications that are scalable and flexible.

Supercloud offers several advantages

Greater flexibility

As multi-cloud environments can be used seamlessly with supercloud, an enterprise can really take advantage of the best of services offered by each cloud provider based on its needs. The single management layer also means a single point of control for allocating resources and optimizing performance. This reduces complexity and helps free up resources to enable enterprises to focus on strategic initiatives.

Increased scalability

Supercloud also gives enterprises the ability to scale up or down the cloud computing resources as the need arises without upfront investments in infrastructure. The resource scaling could happen automatically or manually, depending on how the supercloud is configured. This helps enterprises with handling spikes in demands during peak workloads or surges in traffic and adjusting computing capacity accordingly.

Deeper operational insights

Using observability tools and cloud-native development practices can help enterprises to quickly identify and reduce performance issues in a multi-cloud environment. An overview of the entire cloud environment can also aid more informed decisions, optimal use of infrastructure and the ability to rectify issues before they have an impact on users.

Cost optimization

Superclouds allow enterprises to reduce their capital and operational expenditures by leveraging economies of scale and shared infrastructure provided by the cloud provider.

Increased security

When using multi-cloud setup, the security protocols of each of these providers can increase operational complexity. With a supercloud abstraction layer, a uniform security layer that operates seamlessly over compute, network and storage layers can be configured.

Things to keep in mind when implementing supercloud

When it comes to using supercloud, there is no one-size-fits-all approach, as every organization's needs are different, and the technology is still evolving. Many companies are building their own orchestration layers for supercloud based on their unique requirements. The key is to identify specific needs and choose solutions that are compatible with the existing infrastructure. Integrating supercloud with existing tools and platforms is also important. It is best to start small and scale up as needed.

Kubernetes, a popular open-source platform for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized workloads, could play a key role in enabling the orchestration and management across different clouds, data centers, and edge devices. Kubernetes would provide a standard way of deploying and scaling applications, while the supercloud infrastructure would provide the necessary resources and connectivity to support them.

Implementing supercloud can help reduce the gap between on-premise and cloud environments. Each enterprise should create its own supercloud strategy and evaluate it based on their unique requirements. Even if an enterprise does not see an immediate need for supercloud implementation, they should still adopt software and cloud technologies to remain competitive in the digital economy.

Author:

Sreekumar Sreedharan, Vice President and Service Offering Head, Oracle Practice, Infosys

Sreekumar Sreedharan is a vice president and service offering head of the Oracle practice at Infosys. He has close to three decades of experience in accelerating business growth and customer success by driving large scale and transformative global implementations. Over his many years at Infosys, Sreekumar has held a variety of leadership roles driving client delivery engagement strategy and design by leveraging the partner and industry ecosystems at play. His experience spans across multiple industries including Hitech, Manufacturing, Retail, IT Services and Communications. He has worked with Global 2000 companies in US, Europe, and APAC regions.