Not Three-tier but also not cloud first: so what then?

While still quite popular, none of the experts at the round table on data centers and IT infrastructure organized by ITdaily truly support a Three-tier model for IT infrastructure today. This model symbolizes the old IT landscape: network, storage, and computing power are purchased for a period of three years or more and overprovisioned to ensure there is always enough. These rigid environments run legacy applications, which are difficult to move.

 

From one cell to another

With the rise of hyperscalers, the solution for some parties was clear. “We’re all going cloud first,” IT experts exclaimed, recalls Tom Van der Hulst, Business Unit Manager Intelligent Infrastructure at NTT. The cloud-first strategy sometimes led to a massive migration to the cloud, often without thoughtful motivation, let alone workload optimization. A lift and shift, just to be in the cloud, was not uncommon.

“The public cloud initially seemed like a simpler and cheaper solution,” remembers Luc Costers, Regional Leader Nutanix BeLux, CIS, and Eastern Europe. “Until the bills started piling up. Then it turned out the cloud wasn’t always so cheap.” Something else also became evident. Frank De Campenaere, Senior Solution Sales Executive at Lenovo: “Migrating to the cloud is always easy. Getting something out of the cloud is another story.” Those who didn’t take care found themselves just as stuck in their cloud as in their Three-tier environment.

 

Locally Anchored

Moreover, there are many other reasons to avoid putting data in the cloud. "Many customers are now opting for local anchoring," notes Xavier Warnier, CCO at Datacenter United. "This way, they can respond quickly with their infrastructure and find a partner who speaks in their language. Regulation is also an important aspect that impacts the market."

In reality, there are arguments for both local workloads and workloads with hyperscalers. "Today, the question is no longer which one you choose," says Warnier. "Edge data centers, colocation, and cloud all have their role."

 

Keep It Hybrid

Rather than a cloud-first approach, a hybrid multi-cloud model is the norm. "You should always start an analysis from the workloads," advises Van der Hulst. Costers confirms: "Many workloads run better on your own infrastructure, especially when they are very predictable." By this, he does not mean that the workloads must remain completely static. It is perfectly possible to grow steadily in an on-premises environment, but not with a Three-tier model.

In a modern IT environment, HCI (Hyper-Converged Infrastructure) is essential. A hyper-converged environment, which consists of a large building block with components for storage, compute, and network, can glue these components together ad-hoc through a software layer tailored to a workload. "And if you need more storage or computing power, you can just add it when needed."

"Moreover, we can predict when an upgrade is needed," adds De Campenaere. With TruScale, Lenovo positions itself as a kind of on-premises cloud provider, installing and maintaining hardware for customers in (colocation) data centers. Customers pay for what they use, just like in the cloud. "We measure that consumption based on power," he adds.

With monitoring tools from Lenovo, but also other parties like Nutanix, a customer can see when storage is about to fill up or the computing capacity of a server is becoming insufficient. In that case, an organization can order the necessary components, which are then immediately available in the HCI environment. The model does not work à la minute as in the cloud, but that is usually not necessary.

 

Still Flexible

The abstraction of HCI also lends itself to an overarching platform that integrates the environment across edge, data center, and cloud. "And then you can move your workloads to where they run most efficiently," says Costers. This is more important than ever in a changed IT landscape, where regulations and sustainability goals have a direct relationship with IT vision.

HCI in a hybrid multicloud environment thus appears to be the nuanced answer to the question of what to choose if Three-tier local and cloud-first are not the solutions. Still, there is work to be done, and not because everyone has already migrated entirely to the cloud. On the contrary, says Warnier, "Two-thirds of the full load of IT still runs in private spaces, in broom closets, so to speak."

 

SaaS First?

The leap may seem too big for the generally more conservative Belgian IT landscape. "The environment is indeed more complex," admits Van der Hulst. "A platform that offers uniformity across different environments helps with that. You can, of course, also outsource certain tasks."

Outsourcing probably sounds appealing to many. "Organizations actually want to focus on their core business, not necessarily on managing their IT," observes Warnier. This has an interesting consequence. Van der Hulst sees how for some customers, Cloud First is being replaced by SaaS First. "Organizations want the functionality but not the complexity behind it. The first question when evaluating a new solution is increasingly whether it is available as a service."

However, no First approach is necessarily the right option. You always need to look at what you want to achieve, why, and what people and resources you have available for that. An own IT component is an important pillar of any strategy, and that component should be as flexible as possible.