Applications are on the move – and IT is terrified

Applications and workloads are on the move. This is exciting for users who crave flexibility but is also absolutely terrifying for IT managers who understand that application and data portability are no walk in the park. 

According to a study published by Nutanix, 95% of respondents say their businesses have moved their apps over the last year. The reason? Security, modernisation, and innovation.

What we already know is that data is in itself difficult to control as it can be found everywhere – due to the many places the applications that collect and collate this data reside. Knowing where your data is, can be a treasure hunt as enterprise workloads and applications and data can be on-premises, in the cloud, on an edge device, on user devices, or a mix of all the above.

Data and Application Portability Challenge

Taking the numbers from our ECI study into consideration, 85% of respondents said that they absolutely see workload and app migration as a challenge. This is largely attributed to the makeup of their current infrastructure. Organisations are notably nervous about undertaking complex application migrations, and 35% of them said that migrations are a challenge, while 89% believe moving workloads between clouds will take time and put them out of pocket.

Challenges aside, businesses are still moving workloads and data into and out of different environments – because it makes sense to do so as they modernise their business. The result is a distributed data model. While “distributed” may have had negative management connotations in the past because we know the risks of centralising data and we have to consider the fact that AI, IoT, and the edge are distributing data even further. Hence, a distributed data model isn’t just a likelihood but a necessity.

It’s a case of resistance is futile. 

Instead, as IT leaders we need to make our peace with distributed data models and rather start to look at how we can put processes and systems in place that help better manage data across multiple environments. It is a big step to take considering that on-premises data centres and clouds are still viewed as separate silos of data.

  ^{Alex RusselL, Nutanix regional sales manager for SADC.}

The imperative for data and application portability

The reason data and application portability are necessary is that the environments where they live are changing. Many IT leaders already have a hybrid cloud where they have their local on-premises data centre connected to a single cloud. While many are talking about moving data and applications across a mix of hyperscalers and multiple clouds, in a multi-cloud model, most aren’t there yet.

For those who aren’t quite ready for the multi-cloud, there is still time to get the design of their IT environments right. And by that, I mean ensuring their infrastructure is designed with flexibility and visibility in mind. Why? Because the movement of applications and data is growing and that growth isn’t slowing. What is concerning is that 51% of our respondents said they lack interoperability between their various infrastructure environments.

Building a Multicloud-Ready IT Infrastructure

To effectively support application and data portability in the impending multicloud era, clients should begin by adopting a hybrid multicloud infrastructure that enables seamless operations across private, public, and edge clouds. In short, a unified management approach that standardises operations and automates processes, ensuring consistent performance and security for applications and data. Tools that simplify application lifecycle management help a business to deploy, manage, and scale applications across different cloud environments and network security measures ensure that security policies are consistently applied.

Another area for consideration is deploying data protection and disaster recovery solutions to safeguard data when transitioning between clouds. These should offer scalable and high-performance storage that supports data mobility without compromising accessibility or security. To prevent vendor lock-in and optimise costs, it’s important to use technologies that facilitate seamless workload mobility across different cloud platforms.

Taking the Next Step Toward Seamless Data Mobility

So where does one start? Create IT infrastructures that prioritise the portability of both data and applications, ensuring they can move freely between different platforms. As the shift towards hybrid multicloud accelerates, the time to act is now. By prioritising data and application portability, you are putting your business on a winning wicket.