By Naresh Purohit, Director-Systems Engineering, Nutanix
Over the past five years, there has been a significant shift in the way companies and executives perceive cloud infrastructure. In 2018, most IT leaders anticipated a future where their applications and data would be exclusively in either a private or a public cloud. However, business requirements have since then undergone a dramatic transformation. In fact, a recent finding from the fifth annual Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) research report paints a different picture, revealing that most enterprises now recognize the benefits of having their applications and data across multiple public clouds, on-premises, and at the edge. According to the professionals surveyed in the ECI report, 48 percent of enterprises in India already use multiple IT environments, and this number is expected to grow to 87 percent by 2026.
This shift towards a hybrid multi-cloud infrastructure is driven by various factors including data security, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. However, with the exponential growth of data generation, these new complex IT environments have also presented challenges for IT professionals. Data visibility has become one of the most critical issues for companies, and this year’s ECI research shows that only 31 percent of executives in India have visibility into where their company’s data resides.
This is concerning as the absence of data visibility poses significant risks for organizations. It leaves them, susceptible to security breaches, delays incident response, hampers, information recovery, and hinders, compliance with regulations. Without adequate knowledge of data location, businesses may fail to implement proper security measures such as access controls, encryption, and monitoring, leaving them, exposed to potential threats. Incident response coordination may suffer resulting in severe damage and, prolonged recovery. Addressing this visibility gap is crucial for organisations to mitigate risks and ensure effective data management.
Partial loss of data visibility presents difficulties in implementing effective data redundancy and backup strategies for businesses. Regardless of the cause, such as cyber-attacks, system failures, or natural disasters, data loss becomes more likely. Moreover, compliance with diverse data protection regulations and data sovereignty laws across countries becomes challenging. Lack of awareness regarding data storage locations can unintentionally lead to regulatory violations, potentially resulting in fines, legal repercussions, and reputational harm.
Most executives in India (95 percent) understand these problems and agree that a unified platform to manage applications and data across their diverse environments would be beneficial, according to the ECI report. Many are now seeking a cloud operating model that helps them build, operate, use, and govern their hybrid multi-cloud environments with diverse applications and data.
Enterprises can achieve this by combining technologies, software-defined infrastructure, and automation tools. Complete data visibility empowers organizations to enhance decision-making, optimize operations, and unlock growth opportunities in a competitive landscape, leading to increased efficiency, productivity, and profitability.