Cloud to edge: NTT multicloud platform fuels digital transformation

Is the move to cloud a modern gold rush?

This seems to be the case for many organizations as they embark on a cloud strategy to support their business goals. But there are pitfalls along the way: the cloud is, after all, simply an enabling technology and not a solution in itself.

Organizations are increasingly taking a considered approach to the adoption of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform.

They want to innovate to create new applications, get things to market faster and be more competitive. Yet security demands, skills shortages and cost challenges, along with high levels of application complexity, tend to hold them back.

When multiple applications are deployed on one or more cloud platforms, it’s difficult to keep track of the volume of resources and frequency of change within the organization’s environment securely and cost-effectively.

How do they keep track to avoid rogue spending? Who’s got their hand on the switch to turn off the services they don’t need at specific times?

Another common challenge is maintaining the specialist skills needed to manage multiple cloud technologies along with legacy corporate data centers and traditional applications.

In a 451 Research report on enterprise transformation, 30% of respondent organizations agreed that they lacked the expertise needed to manage cloud platforms.

A new platform for charting the way forward

At NTT, we advise our clients on bringing together and managing all the components – cloud platforms, infrastructure and software – that they need to deliver their desired outcomes.

But we also support the optimal execution of their strategy with our Adaptive Cloud to Edge Platform. In short, we help our clients to choose the best execution venue for their workload and then deploy, operate and optimize their applications in the cloud.

The platform brings together our 20 years of cloud-management experience and ambition to innovate without compromise.

By enabling AIOps, it delivers real-time analytics, automation, observability, security and service-delivery integration across the multicloud environment. It allows us to orchestrate and automate activities that drive business outcomes.

Built to control costs and meet compliance requirements

The platform makes our services more efficient, cost-effective, automated and secure across disparate cloud technologies, which in turn enables us to better meet our clients’ compliance and cost-control needs.

It also comes with built-in guardrails, allowing our clients a level of flexibility or self-service without introducing risk into what they’re doing or bypassing their governance and security requirements.

Efficient delivery using infrastructure as code

Our clients want a more streamlined, automated and reliable approach to delivering their solutions using infrastructure as code, and our platform supports that.

It’s not simply adding a layer of abstraction; it’s designed to let clients access their resources as efficiently as possible.

They can release their code using our platform, to be deployed through a managed process.

This means they can free up valuable resources to focus on development while increasing their velocity of software delivery.

Visibility, control and governance across the board

The platform is the heart of our Multicloud as a Service offering because it provides visibility, control and governance across all clouds and for all workloads.

It enhances the cloud providers’ native control planes with AI-backed insights for anomaly detection, correlation forecasting, automated operations, agile deployments and more, without limiting direct access to the cloud.

These elements give organizations more comfort in consuming these services in a way that is closely aligned with their needs.

The value of a managed service

Essentially, we enable our clients to innovate by deploying, operating and monitoring applications with speed and efficiency across their choice of cloud technologies.

This can be difficult for many clients to do themselves because most have managed their technology in a particular way for years and now have to make a step change into the cloud paradigm. But NTT has operated cloud platforms and delivered managed services across multiple industries and technologies for more than two decades, so we’re perfectly placed to help them make the leap.

Some of the components of our platform may be familiar, but how we bring them together is unique. Our many years of operating experience have been baked into this platform to make it a true differentiator.

That’s the value of a platform-enabled managed service: you’ll get things done quicker with high proficiency – and at a lower cost – because you’re getting access to a robust product driven by proven expertise and tailored to accelerate your organization’s digital transformation.

Read more about our Adaptive Cloud to Edge Platform.

George Rigby is Vice President of Go-to-Market: Managed Cloud and Infrastructure Services at NTT