According to Gartner, 70% of all workloads will run in a cloud environment by 2028. Organisations in every industry and sector are constantly on the lookout for ways to maximise and accelerate their cloud migration – but the expense and complexity of doing so can often get in the way.

For example, on-premise infrastructure can be expensive to move away from, but also expensive to maintain as hardware ages over time. WAN connectivity often needs to be overhauled in order to handle increased traffic between on-premise data centres and various cloud environments. And the rise of AI has increased the pressure on networks to deal with large workloads efficiently, and account for traffic to and from the network edge.

All this has to be balanced against tight budgets, especially when it comes to capital investment, and a lack of clear direction in how to proceed with new cloud and networking solutions. That’s why a new approach is needed, one that allows organisations to manage resources flexibly across on-premise and cloud environments, while simultaneously keeping costs under control.

What holds organisations back from maximising their cloud potential?

End-of-life infrastructure

Many organisations have been putting off expensive upgrades and infrastructure refreshes for kit like servers, storage and networking components. These kinds of refresh projects can come with hefty costs and no clear business benefits, but if overlooked, they prevent the adoption of new innovations like cloud and AI.

Cloud migration and disparate tooling

When IT teams are burdened with many different tools and solutions to manage, maintain and monitor, it can be difficult to understand how to simplify and rationalise the estate. The need to move workloads from on-premise towards the cloud can make this even more complicated.

Transition to hybrid cloud

Even for organisations that have started their wider cloud migration, understanding how to move the right on-premise workloads can be challenging given the complexity of existing environments. Additionally, the advent of AI has reshaped the decision process around where and how data is held, processed and transferred.

Lack of network team engagement

Network teams are often left out of cloud strategy decision-making, which can lead to convoluted journeys for network traffic that impact user experience. Moving to the cloud often requires redesigning the WAN, something that is regularly overlooked or simply not considered.

Cloud streamlining

Ideally, moving to the cloud will connect everything together, simplify experiences and enable better data processes and AI enablement at the edge. Achieving all those goals simultaneously can be complicated and stall cloud migration projects.

Cost balancing

In strained financial times, finding the CapEx budget for a WAN overhaul, along with the monthly recurring fees involved, can be difficult. Then there is the challenge of balancing infrastructure costs with the ever-rising expense and demand of cloud data management.

AI enablement

In order to make the most of AI technology, data pathways need to be correctly configured, but this is challenging when large data volumes go back into the public cloud across the WAN. Instead, organisations need to allow data to be processed at the edge, and moved quickly to the cloud to enable actions like data analytics.

An end-to-end approach to hybrid cloud with SCC

SCC provides comprehensive support and solutions to make for an efficient, cost-effective, flexible hybrid cloud that enables innovations like AI.

Our approach is based around Microsoft Azure Stack HCI, which brings all software together into one hyper-converged infrastructure, including local computers and online services through Azure. This is accompanied by an SD-WAN deployment that optimises network connections and cloud access for the HCI system through intelligent routing, traffic prioritisation, and easier connection management. The full suite of services and solutions includes:

Azure Stack HCI assessment

We can explore different hybrid cloud solutions and compare a range of platforms to determine the scale of the benefits Azure Stack HCI can deliver for your specific use cases. Check out our server re-platforming calculator to get a first glimpse of your potential savings.

Azure Stack HCI planning and design

We can work closely with you to understand your business objectives, and establish a roadmap so that you can get the most out of your Azure Stack HCI investment. Our design and deployment of Azure Stack HCI solutions, frameworks and policies are then developed with that roadmap in mind.

SCC Vision

Our one-stop solution for managing and optimising your hybrid cloud environment is simple, secure and enables the value of cloud to be maximised with control, visibility and transparency. This in-house platform enables new levels of cloud spending management, real-time reporting and insights, and an accessible way to strip away the complexity of Azure pricing.

Flexible WAN payments

We can remove the pressure from funding a WAN deployment or refresh, through amortisation services that enable monthly, quarterly or annual payments as required. Delivered through subscription payments or with our trusted financial partners, these help mitigate budget limitations while enabling you to move away from obsolete technology.

WAN as-a-service

We can provide an SD-WAN solution that meets modern connectivity requirements, and allows you to optimise your cloud performance and user experience. Our service is independent of the circuit underlay, enables a range of SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) technologies, and supports better end-user experience by prioritising traffic. Available through monthly payments, you can reduce technical debt and realise the residual value of your kit post-term.

Better networking, better bottom line, better business

Reduced power and cooling consumption

A more efficient networking infrastructure reduces power and cooling consumption, especially as on-premise hardware can be scaled back. This not only saves money, in fact one of our customers saved around £400,000 a year in energy costs alone, but also boosts your sustainability credentials.

Lower support costs

Enabling a move away from legacy systems like Windows Server 2012 will eliminate the increasing costs of extended support updates (ESU) for ageing equipment and infrastructure, which can offset the cost of your infrastructure project.

Reduced data centre requirements

Being able to consolidate the on-premise estate can enable some facilities to be closed, with knock-on space, cost and energy benefits.

Lower licensing costs

We can deliver more competitive licensing costs than other hypervisor solutions, especially when using existing Windows Server Data Centre licences with Software Assurance.

Better resource utilisation

Workload consolidation and simplified operations can ensure that the efficiency of every resource is maximised, such as combining routing and firewalling into a single piece of kit. This reduces management and maintenance costs in the long term by slimming down equipment numbers.

Easy scaling

Azure Stack HCI enables the simple addition of nodes to the cluster, so that performance can be scaled incrementally without the expense and complexity of major overhauls.

Consolidated workloads

A more integrated approach to networking and cloud means all types of workloads can be consolidated, even those that have to remain on-premise for legal or security reasons.

Leveraging of existing IT skills

Being able to retain traditional vendor hardware and tooling, alongside the software-defined storage, network and compute functions of Azure, means the network team can be productive without the need for expensive training or upskilling right away.

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