For established businesses, the debate is clear: a hybrid cloud approach is the right strategic choice.
However, while hybrid cloud adoption may be intrinsic, customers are continually looking to derive business value and a higher return on investment (ROI) from their investments. According to a study conducted by HFS Research in partnership with IBM Consulting®, only 25% of companies surveyed reported strong ROI on business outcomes from their cloud transformation efforts.
The lack of progress in ROI can be attributed to several factors, including slow adoption, unrealized use cases, and unaddressed cloud proliferation. This situation is exacerbated by growing challenges related to platform scaling, skills, cybersecurity and exploding data volumes.
Companies that want to leverage business outcomes through their cloud investments and harness the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) must take an intentional approach.
At IBM, we provide clear guidance to address these challenges and achieve better business outcomes. Adopting a hybrid strategy by design allows organizations to align architectural choices with business priorities across technology, platforms, processes and people, resulting in significantly improved outcomes and return on higher investment.
IBM’s latest article, titled “Maximize the value of hybrid cloud in the era of generative AI“, provides clarity for businesses looking to optimize their hybrid cloud architecture and amplify the impact of generative AI (gen AI).
What does a Hybrid by design approach consist of?
Many organizations have adopted the cloud in isolated areas, seeking immediate benefits but applying the technology inconsistently across their operations. This complexity and inconsistency increases costs and prevents companies from meeting demands, objectives and results. We view this as a default approach that characterizes most businesses today.
Companies must recalibrate their transformation programs to align more closely with their business imperatives and outcomes. They must also recognize how generation AI can amplify the value of hybrid cloud and accelerate digital transformation.
A hybrid by design approach intentionally structures your hybrid and multi-cloud IT estate to achieve key business priorities and maximize ROI. Organizations can move from technology that dictates their business boundaries to purpose-built architectures ready to adapt to changing technology landscapes, new business and customer demands, and emerging processes and skills. Guided by an organization’s key business objectives, intentional and consistent architectural decisions enable organizations to fully utilize hybrid cloud and AI generation to drive business outcomes.
IBM has built a codified framework to help clients strategically focus on the decisions that drive the most results for their business, promoting a hybrid approach by design. This framework makes it easier to translate business priorities into key architectural decisions.
We implement this framework by aligning business objectives across a set of decision points across 3 areas: native product by design, technology by design, and integration by design. These areas also encompass various design points. Each business situation requires different levels of capabilities to approach and achieve its business objectives. This values framework helps capture these decision points.
In an AI-centric world, why is it important for businesses?
Generation AI plays a critical role in shaping the digital enterprise, helping to maximize the return on enterprise IT investment. However, large-scale adoption and deployment of AI generation presents challenges. Businesses need to manage vast volumes of data, significant computing power, advanced security architecture in distributed environments and ensure rapid scalability.
Intentional and consistent hybrid architecture design helps businesses overcome these challenges, facilitating the successful adoption and scalability of AI generation capabilities to meet business needs.
Current pilots and deployments prove that a hybrid by design approach is necessary to scale AI generation adoption to meet business needs. Gen AI accelerates hybrid cloud execution and value by delivering enhanced automation with observability, improved cost optimization through automated insights, and increased security with compliance across the entire hybrid platform.
Applying intentional architectural decisions based on business needs amplifies the value of hybrid cloud and AI, which drives business outcomes.
You want to know more ? Connect with IBM’s hybrid cloud and AI team.
Download the ebook and learn how to empower your organization
Was this article helpful?
YesNo
