I have worked at Virtana for nearly 9 years. During that time, I have had the pleasure to interact with customers, prospects, and partners around the world. The types of conversations I have participated in have dramatically shifted during that time. Back in September 2011, the dialogues were largely focused on Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure, and how Virtana could provide performance assurances targeted at this environment.
Over time, the conversations have broadened dramatically. Today, dialogues I engage in span a dizzying array of topics. However, one topic remains a constant: the cloud. Hence, the image that headlines this article – for those of you unfamiliar, this image shows the fabled “Cloud City” from the Star Wars saga.
The types of involvement that customers/prospects/partners have vis-a-vis the cloud runs the gamut – from organizations that are “all-in” on the cloud, to those that have adopted a “cloud-first” model, to those that see the cloud as the “Wild West” with some rudimentary controls, to those that choose to keep their data on-premises for the most part. Everyone has their reasons for their decisions, which of course are continually evolving based on market conditions.
With all the flux, the one constant has been the sets of dialogues I have had around the cloud. Broadly speaking, all dialogues I have today fall into one (or more) of the following three buckets:
- Visibility – as organizations plan/move to the cloud, that doesn’t mean that they no longer want to know what’s occurring with their data – in fact, the requirement only increases. As a result, having as broad a view as possible – to both on-premises assets as well as the cloud (the famous “hybrid cloud” scenario) is a primary need I have seen articulated by all.
- Cost – the cloud, like all new technologies, has been touted for its dramatic cost savings vs on-premises environments. Like all new technology implementations, the cost savings are a function of people and process, as well as technology. I have seen organizations garner dramatic savings, organizations that have not, and some that are trying to determine how to best measure this.
- Dashboards – with the democratization of IT, and the notion (that I have shared in prior LinkedIn articles of “software eating the world“), everybody wants access to information, in order to come to their own conclusions. Just like we all access all manner of data on our phones (financial, health, etc.), the enterprise wants dashboards that are customized for them. Meaning, tailored for their role, their application, their infrastructure, or some combination of all of the above.
This is just my perspective. That these three buckets – visibility, cost, and dashboards – form the basis for any type of real conversation around the cloud. Is this what you’re seeing as well? I’d love to hear from you.
And if you’re interested in learning more about Virtana’s hybrid cloud migration and optimization solutions, get in touch or read our latest case study with Forrester.
Ravi Gopal
