It seems like a lifetime ago that Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) emerged and sparked the mass IT exodus to cloud computing. Over the last 12 years, pay-per-use, as a service, and on-demand resources have become the norm — and for good reason. Consumption-based IT promises to support the agility and flexibility necessary to thrive in a digital economy.
Regardless of industry or company size, the shift to consumption-based IT is clear. In fact, IDC research indicates that by 2020, consumption-based procurement will account for 40% of enterprise IT infrastructure spending, eclipsing traditional procurement in the process.1
But for business and IT leaders considering an update to their traditional models, the question remains — is consumption-based IT worth the investment?
What Makes Consumption-Based IT the Better Option?
Consumption-based IT is the perfect match for hybrid IT. In a world where mixtures of on-premises, public cloud, and private cloud systems and applications make up the IT infrastructure, traditional operating models can’t deliver the proper balance of agility, control, and scalability.
To maintain a competitive advantage, you need an IT model that helps you adapt rapidly to the changing tech landscape. That’s where consumption-based IT thrives:
All of these benefits contribute to greater alignment between business and IT leaders. And when both sides of an organization are aligned, you’re in a better position to deliver innovative products and services to your customers.
How HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity Delivers Tangible Value
HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity is an infrastructure solution that applies a consumption-based IT model across hybrid IT environments. It’s a solution that helps organizations balance the best of both worlds—the economics of on-demand cloud services with the control and data security of on-premises infrastructure.
A Forrester Total Economic Impact™ report has identified the tangible benefits of adopting consumption-based IT through HPE GreenLake:2
Unlocking all of these financial and organizational benefits requires customized deployment of HPE GreenLake. Every IT environment is unique, which means you need a partner with the experience to help you get the most out of consumption-based IT.
As an HPE Platinum Partner, American Digital is uniquely capable of helping you maximize the value of HPE GreenLake. Contact us today to learn how we can help you implement a modern, consumption-based IT model.
1 IDC, “’As a Service’ IT Consumption Model for Digital Business Innovation,” Jan 2018.
2 Forrester Research, “The Total Economic Impact™ Of HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity,” 2018.
It doesn’t matter which industry you’re in — cloud-native companies are disrupting the status quo and putting pressure on incumbent IT teams to do more with less. The IT operating models that have gotten you this far are no longer capable of keeping pace with competitors.
Unfortunately, adopting an agile approach to IT is easier said than done when you’re working with a complicated mix of legacy systems.
In a perfect world, you might be able to migrate all of your systems and applications to cloud-based infrastructure and take advantage of flexibility and cost-efficiency. However, sacrificing the security and control of on-premises infrastructure is a non-starter for many mission-critical services.
As three key challenges weigh heavily on the IT department, increasing agility means going beyond a “cloud or bust” mindset. Instead, it’s time to focus on applying a consumption-based IT model to your infrastructure.
The 3 Challenges Legacy IT Teams Must Eliminate
Especially for incumbent businesses, the future of your infrastructure lies in hybrid IT. Finding the right balance of on-premises, public cloud, and private cloud infrastructure will help IT leaders maximize agility despite the presence of legacy systems.
However, your hybrid IT infrastructure won’t survive with a traditional operating model because of three all-too-common challenges:
Upfront Costs: Traditional operating models require large CapEx investments upfront when you’re deploying the latest technologies. When that happened once every few years, it wasn’t such a problem. Now, technology changes so rapidly that these upfront expenses are almost impossible to afford.
The answer to these challenges is an infrastructure solution that creates a consumption-based IT model that functions across your whole business — not just in the cloud.
Turn Legacy IT into a Consumption-Based Model
IT leaders are constantly pulled in two different directions. They’re asked to maintain an increasingly complex infrastructure while also being tasked with facilitating their organizations’ agile futures. With on-premises infrastructure and consumption-based IT at odds, it’s impossible to do both.
That’s why a solution like HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity is so valuable to an evolving organization. With this infrastructure solution, you can balance cost-efficiency with security, control, and agility. It’s changing IT operating models, enabling scalability and speed in the face of new business initiatives.
And as an HPE Platinum Partner, American Digital has the experience and technical knowledge to make sure you’re getting the most out of a move to consumption-based IT. If you want to learn more, contact us today for a free consultation.
1451 Research, “Best of Both Worlds: Can Enterprises Achieve Both Scalability and Control When It Comes to Cloud?” November 2016.