On 24 November, Telindus Luxembourg organized the 4th edition of its conference dedicated to the cloud, on the theme: “Cloudification in cloudy times -Turn crisis into opportunities for cloud”.
On 24 November the company, which operates converged ICT and telecom services, organized the 4th edition of its conference dedicated to the cloud on the theme: “Cloudification in cloudy times -Turn crisis into opportunities for cloud”.
“From climate to geopolitics, we are currently living in troubled times amid political, energy and health crises,” noted Jacques Ruckert, Telindus’ Chief Solutions & Innovation Officer.
According to the CSIO, this global instability has opened the door to an increase in cyberattacks, which leads to a need for increased control over data protection and governance.
“Data sovereignty is one of the main concerns. And the development of a sovereign cloud is key,” he explained. “Organizations need to start adapting their strategies for the future of the public cloud, in order to tackle issues such as economic independence, competitiveness, data protection and IT security”.
He however added that “crises can provide opportunities for the cloud, and cloudification is a solution.”.
Cloudification is the conversion and/or migration of data and application programs in order to make use of cloud computing.
Industry cloud platforms
“Executive leaders are currently facing three critical sources of pressure that require action,” Gregor Petri (VP Analyst, Gartner) continued: ”high inflation; scarce and expensive talent, and global supply constraints”.
In order to navigate these issues, he recommended organizations manage resources and spend strategically, be agile in securing digital talent, and accelerate key digital and technology initiatives.
He also suggested that “IT leaders should approach industry cloud platforms as a way to add value to their existing portfolio, rather than as a replacement”.
Industry cloud platforms combine traditional cloud services with tailored, industry-specific functionality to address historically hard-to-tackle vertical challenges.
“These industry solutions are mostly based on public cloud services but offer industry players a more agile way to manage workloads and accelerate change against the particular business, data, compliance or other needs of their segment,” Petri detailed. “Industry cloud platforms are a notable emerging trend because they create value for companies by offering adaptable and relevant industry solutions”.
“Cloud is a model, not just a place”
But how to innovate with cloud technology and fulfil a growing need for more sovereignty?
“Government and regulated industries want data to remain within geographic boundaries and with access controls,” answered Jean-Benoit van Bunnen, Microsoft Luxembourg’s Ad Interim Country Manager. “They also expect that systems, processes, and personnel should be uninterrupted and that countries can confidently audit source code, operator access, and data movement”.
“Cloud is a model, not just a place,” said Ron Pooters, Business Strategy Manager at Microsoft Belux.
He then recalled Microsoft’s principles for a sovereign cloud: “Built on public cloud technology by leveraging the resiliency, security, and scale of the cloud; Implement trusted security and compliance, by enabling greater control and operational transparency to ensure that legal, security and policy requirements are met; Meet government needs, by working with local partners to create customized environments that adhere to government standard”.
Furthermore, in order to reach an even higher standard for our EU customers, “Microsoft will store and compute customers’ personal data in the EU Data Boundary by the end of 2022-early 2023,” van Bunnen and Pooters, explained. “This applies to all commercial and public-sector customers located in our new EU Data Boundary and includes most customer data, support data, and other personal data in the EU.”
“Cloud – An integral part of the company”
How to accelerate the organization’s transition to the cloud? “Organizations should ask what their cloud drivers are,” suggests Eva Gram, Head of Codit Luxembourg.
Codit specializes in areas such as migration to the cloud and holds a privileged partnership with Microsoft.
“Cloud can among others enable new business opportunities, provide software or hardware refresh, help deliver applications and features faster, support capacity needs, help tackle compliance requirements and security threats,” Gram detailed.
“Companies should also get an understanding of today and the future,” said Christophe Zingg, General Manager, Codit: “In other words and before turning to the cloud, they should ask themselves: ‘What their applications work with, what they do, what they run in order to migrate and Innovate’.”
Among the advantages of modern cloud-based applications, Gram and Zingg see that these can run without internet, the scale up and out can be done for all layers and functions of the application, they break data silos and make data available for all current and future application, and they are optimized for increased speed of business need changes. However, some challenges remain: “IT services and operations are often not ready, nor capable of running modern application,” they noticed. “A cloud-based application is not just a ‘tool’ anymore – it is an integral part of the company”.
