IT organizations that are running a data center have a set of challenges on their hands given that the teams are working from home (WFH). Data centers are like your automobile that requires hands-on scheduled and unplanned maintenance. Well-run data centers are a fine oiled piece of machinery that is constantly worked on to meet and deliver business demand. IT organizations are masters at this, but what happens when the team is mandated to WFH?
Managing and maintaining consumption from the cloud is very different. IT ops teams manage cloud services remotely because it is the only way they can be managed. While businesses have embraced cloud services, the level of maturity varies greatly from one organization to the next. Due to employees having to WFH, including IT organizations, they have a new appreciation for the investment in cloud that they have already made and will likely put cloud on the fast track for these reasons:
- Remote Access: The cloud was designed for IT to securely access, manage, monitor and maintain cloud services remotely. IT operations teams and developers can all maintain the continuity of access while WFH continues.
- Unplanned scale: Simple break/fix tasks in the data center are going to be difficult enough with a reduced onsite staff in place. During times like these, businesses are not going to truck racks of IT gear into their data centers, but still may need more capacity. The answer…cloud.
- Threat detection: As unfortunate and wrong as it is, times like this leave companies vulnerable. The major cloud providers all have threat intelligence that can be used to help protect a business that is operating in the cloud and help reduce the overall risk from multiple threat vectors.
The advantages of cloud will shine as IT organizations continue to WFH and businesses will further accelerate cloud consumption initiatives. During this time, business will likely prioritize cloud over on-prem and not look back.
