It is undoubtedly true that the cloud is essential for today’s businesses, especially those that require dynamic compute and storage resources, as well as high performance for data-intensive applications like AI and advanced analytics. Cloud migration helps businesses achieve key goals, including innovation, business performance, speed to market, and maintaining competitiveness.

Similarly, in Asia-Pacific, many companies have strengthened their determination to migrate to the cloud in recent years. An IDC report predicts that by 2025, the cloud will surpass on-premises infrastructure as the primary location for storing, managing, and analysing operational data for 65% of organisations based in the Asia-Pacific region.

However, this finding not only demonstrates the growing significance of the cloud among enterprises; it also highlights the fundamental, even dominant role that on-premises infrastructure still plays in driving data storage and analytics for organisations in this region.

Flexibility at the core of future-proofed IT infrastructure investments 

Most organisations today are aware of the benefits of cloud computing, but some may not be ready to transition from on-prem to cloud environments due to factors such as compliance requirements surrounding data privacy or security. Furthermore, smaller organisations typically have on-premises storage equipment that would be costly to eliminate immediately.

However, the current operating environment demands resilience and adaptability due to constant disruption. Budgets are tightening as economic uncertainty looms. Energy prices are increasing rapidly, reinforcing the need for sustainability and reduced carbon footprints. In short, the phrase “do more with less” resonates with everyone. 

Consequently, organisations face a growing dilemma: they must ensure their IT infrastructure can keep up with evolving customer and stakeholder requirements while navigating constraints and disruptions in today’s uncertain economic climate. 

Clearly, organisations need to look beyond products that only meet their present needs. The most effective strategy for organisations would be to optimise their next technology refresh cycle and acquire on-premises storage devices that have built-in capabilities to scale workloads and facilitate seamless migration when they are ready to transition to the cloud. 

Ultimately, in a world filled with constant demand and market changes, businesses can’t afford to keep making investments that leave them behind. No one wants to (or has the option to) repeatedly approach their CFO, hat in hand, asking for more capital expenditures.. 

What organisations really need is a solution that gives them the freedom and flexibility to choose on-premises or cloud storage options while future-proofing their environments to scale securely, seamlessly, and non-disruptively as they grow.​

Best practices for future-proofing IT infrastructure

Even if the organisation is not quite ready to move to the cloud now, that may change in the future. The hypercompetitive nature of today’s digital economy demands that businesses adapt at warp speed. 

To ensure their infrastructure investments are not holding them back from making the transition to hybrid cloud, here are five strategies organisations need to consider as they look at their next technology refresh cycle: 

• Plan for investment protection: It’s hard to predict our future budget. As such, it is critical for organisations to carefully plan for both short-term and long-term scalability needs as their business demands evolve.

• Leverage automation: Automation can help simplify the management and deployment of organisations’ hybrid cloud infrastructure. They should look for tools and platforms that can automate the provisioning, configuration, and management of their IT resources, whether on-prem or in the cloud.

• Embrace a multi-cloud approach: Rather than relying on a single cloud provider, organisations should consider leveraging multiple cloud providers to create a more resilient and flexible infrastructure. Adopting a unified control plane can help organisations easily and consistently manage the different on-prem and cloud environments and providers, securely and cost effectively, while reducing carbon footprint.

• Ensure data security: Cyber resilience has become a top concern, and the hybrid cloud infrastructure, with a larger attack surface, requires even more attention. To protect critical data and applications, organisations need to implement robust security measures such as zero-trust architecture, encryption, access controls, ransomware protection and monitoring.

• Work with experienced partners: Building and managing a hybrid cloud infrastructure can be complex. Partners who have deep expertise in cloud technologies and strong partnerships with the global hyperscalers will be valuable in helping organisations navigate the process.

To succeed in the hypercompetitive digital economy, enterprises will need to safeguard current storage investments while cost effectively future-proofing their on-premises infrastructure. This not only means selecting the latest, innovative solutions with the best price and performance metric for their on-premises environments but also having the capability to transition to cloud storage to meet future business demands.