Avoiding the “Frankencloud” as you accelerate transformation

We’re all now well aware that COVID-19 disrupted operations across industries and forced many companies to put a long list of projects on hold. But today it’s clear that digital transformation initiatives were often not on that list. 

In fact, a new Harvard Business Review study revealed that ninety percent of survey respondents say COVID-19 has accelerated the timing of their organization’s modernization efforts. But just because digital efforts are growing in importance and executives are feeling more confident that their strategies are working, it’s not all smooth sailing. In fact, nearly 30% report the complexity of the current IT environment as the biggest technology challenge to transformation.

Companies moving to the cloud encounter a range of challenges, from the need to integrate applications and deal with legacy data to establishing new IT processes and finding a way to smoothly transition away from critical legacy systems that are still running the business The important thing while finding your way into the cloud is to avoid creating a hybrid monster that runs amok with spend, inconsistent practices and even more technical debt than you already have.

Beware of the Frankencloud

One key challenge enterprises face is launching into cloud adoption without first establishing an overarching cloud strategy. Too often companies move systems to the cloud across multiple initiatives, with separate departments and functions putting their applications and data on different cloud platforms. These platforms typically have different tools for managing workflow, customization and reporting, and even their own separate databases. 

This leads to the so-called Frankencloud–a patchwork of platforms that is hard to manage and increases the difficulty of bringing information together to get a broad view of the business and customers. This leads to disconnected, overly complex systems that can cause greater security risks and limit innovation. 

To avoid these types of problems, companies should develop clear, comprehensive plans for their cloud initiatives. Each of those plans should support the organization’s umbrella cloud strategy, which in turn aligns with the overarching innovation, management and growth goals. Creating cloud initiative plans and executing them successfully requires a broad range of skills and capabilities, as well as the ability to make changes to the organizational culture. 

Gathering the right resources

With that in mind, Red Hat collaborates with select global systems integrators (GSIs) to provide open source solutions at scale. By working together, Red Hat and its GSI partners help companies:

• Take advantage of a growing range of open source container and microservices-based tools for building, deploying, and managing applications.

• Utilize a full suite of technologies, skills, and knowledge to ensure modernization efforts more consistently lead to greater efficiency, quality, and improved security in cloud operations.

• Keep cloud strategies focused on delivering the needed business results.

• Steer clear of the Frankencloud by avoiding the proliferation of different cloud platforms and the complexity, inefficiency, and costs that it brings.

These partners offer industry knowledge, focused solutions and delivery expertise to help organizations take full advantage of the Red Hat open source portfolio to deliver business results across the many cloud platforms available today.     

Learn more about Red Hat’s partner ecosystem and how we work with our GSI partners to help organizations build effective cloud environments.