A Strategy for Multicloud Success

Organizations universally agree that cloud solutions provide compelling benefits in speed, flexibility, cost model and architecture. Trade publications regularly document the latest cloud news. Vendors rush to incorporate cloud into their solutions. Industry analysts capture the latest cloud trends and predict the direction of the cloud market. However, while organizations increasingly invest in cloud to drive digital transformation, only a small percentage have been able to maximize the business benefits of cloud when it comes to growth, cost reductions and time-to-market. Recent research from IDC indicates that it’s a multicloud world, with 85 percent of respondents currently evaluating or using the public cloud. But IDC research also reveals that 56 percent of organizations do not have mature cloud strategies in place, and only 11 percent have optimized their cloud strategy. Gartner tells a similar story, asserting that “cloud initiatives fail at a rate of 95%”.

Even though it takes little effort to start with cloud solutions, IDC and Gartner research shows that true success with cloud remains elusive. Most cloud journeys are mired in an ad-hoc or opportunistic approach and fail to reach optimal efficiency, operations and benefits.

Overcoming these hurdles requires a clear, robust and actionable cloud strategy. Cisco helps organizations reach cloud maturity by building custom-fit cloud strategies through Cloud Advisory, a packaged professional services offering delivered by Cisco or Cisco partners. Cloud Advisory services accelerate and de-risk your multicloud journey by providing a roadmap to optimized cloud adoption. Cloud Advisory projects include the following scope:

Capturing cloud-related business objectives

Documenting key business processes or requirements driven by these objectives

Identifying and prioritizing key use cases associated with these business requirements

Assessing existing technical infrastructure and processes related to the project scope

Developing a high-level solution design to automate these use cases

Creating an actionable, multiphase implementation plan to build out the solution, taking into consideration the current technical environment

Cloud Advisory comes in four different offers, as depicted below.

The four Cloud Advisory easy-to-understand and easy-to-deliver packaged offerings cover the following scope:

Cloud Advisory for Strategy: Review the high-level business infrastructure (processes, key use cases, policies, governance and organizational elements), develop conceptual solutions, map dependencies of select applications, and build multi-phase plans to achieve the desired cloud objectives.

Cloud Advisory for Cloud Consume: Architect solutions that provide model-based provisioning and de-provisioning of applications across multicloud environments, while also ensuring appropriate application performance.

Cloud Advisory for Cloud Protect: Provide solutions to codify and implement policies that enforce the desired security posture across cloud environments.

Cloud Advisory for Cloud Connect: Design solutions to create one seamless multicloud across an organization’s locations and public cloud providers.

Cloud Advisory combines a proven methodology with expertise and know-how to produce a multi-phase strategic plan to an optimized cloud journey.

Find out more about Cloud Advisory and these exciting Cisco multicloud solutions at: www.cisco.com/go/multicloud. Learn more by contacting your Cisco account manager or your preferred Cisco partner. Accelerate and de-risk your multicloud journey by following the strategic plans delivered by Cloud Advisory offers.