Dave Funnell

While the public cloud was once seen as a nirvana for IT cost saving and efficiencies, organisations are now finding that a hybrid model is the most appropriate for managing services and costs. 

“You might call it the pragmatic cloud,” says Dave Funnell, Cloud Provider manager at VMware, Sub-Saharan Africa.

Speaking ahead of a VMware virtual round table to be held in partnership with ITWeb, Funnell said global research indicated that 35% of workloads that had been put into the public cloud were being repatriated to private clouds, with 85% of organisations having repatriated some workloads. 

 “Many organisations misjudged what the costs of public cloud would be, and have found that their private clouds are significantly cheaper than the public cloud offerings. On the other hand, there are clear benefits to using the hyperscale clouds for certain workloads and projects, so the optimal architecture lies somewhere between on-premise, private cloud and public cloud,” he says.

Funnell notes that IDC research last year found that in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, public cloud spending grew and was expected to top $6.5 billion in 2024. IDC said that the shift to cloud based enterprises would accelerate in 2021 and beyond, but also stated that the vast majority of organisations would deploy combinations of on-premises, off-premises, public and hybrid clouds as their default environments. 

“It is expected that around 45% of workloads will reside primarily in private clouds, around 43% in hybrid environments, and only around 9% primarily in the public cloud,” Funnell says.

Many organisations misjudged what the costs of public cloud would be, and have found that their private clouds are significantly cheaper than the public cloud offerings.

Dave Funnell, VMware.

Funnell says organisations around the world are maturing and starting to realise that the cloud is not an end destination but rather an enabling operating model. 

“In the past, people tended to think the cloud would make IT simpler and more cost effective. On the surface, the cloud does make it very simple to consume services and expand infrastructure as quickly as you like. But in reality, you’re seeing a more complex environment emerging. IT has spent the last 20 years trying to consolidate everything and simplify operations, and what they are doing with cloud is inherently building more complexity. There is a maturing understanding that it will be a hybrid multicloud world in which IT must support and manage traditional legacy systems, private cloud and public cloud environments.”

IT has spent the last 20 years trying to consolidate everything and simplify operations, and what they are doing with cloud is inherently building more complexity.

Dave Funnell, VMware.

Funnell says managing this complex environment successfully demands a carefully planned cloud operating model that addresses key issues such as visibility across the environment, cost and financial management, automation and integration into the broader business, and security and compliance.

VMware will host a virtual round table on 12 March to discuss the realities of the cloud environment, and the implementation of successful cloud operating models. During the one-hour discussion hosted by Aki Anastasiou, Funnell will dispel cloud myths and outline how to avoid the pitfalls and set a strategy for the consumption of cloud services. 

To register for this event, go to https://www.itweb.co.za/event/vmware-cloud-provider-open-forum/index.html