In 2023 we will continue to witness the ongoing mass adoption of cloud computing across all industries. The developing future of work practices offer solutions such as permanent adoption of hybrid working mechanisms or even fully remote working across widespread workforces. This has created a paradigm shift towards a need for cloud tools to be utilised and deployed across businesses. Organisations will continue to leverage cloud tools and services to access innovative technologies which drive operational efficiencies.
Our cloud tooling panorama offers a comprehensive view of the Cloud and Infrastructure tooling ecosystem. Our selection includes a range of different size companies. Five employ less than 50 people, 30 employ up to 500 people, and 25 employ over 500 people.
The panorama includes over 70 companies which offer cloud tooling solutions across 8 different categories. The companies were evaluated categorically based on the nature of their offering and how it fits into the cloud lifecycle. Website reviews were conducted to explore more closely into the use cases and delivery options of each tool. Services offered span across the entire cloud lifecycle from the initial adoption, service management, infrastructure transformation and cloud exit.
The 8 categories evaluated are as follows:
Cloud Adoption
Cloud Exit
Infrastructure Transformation
Operational Excellence
Tech Debt
FinOps
AIOps
Data Centre Optimisation
We have identified 2 start-ups to highlight based on the automation and optimisation capability that they offer.
- Infracost is an Open Source FinOps tool that shows the impact on cloud cost of each infrastructure change in CI/CD. The tool scans for Terraform code changes and checks over 3 million processes to create an understandable, and simple cost estimate before any resource is launched.
- Next Matter optimises the running of operations through automation and orchestration technology. An all-in-one platform built to carry out operations, coordinating workflows, automating tasks, and tracking of performance.
Cloud Adoption
These tools can assess organisations cloud migration readiness and prepare the migration of files, and administration content onto the cloud by consolidating older tenants and software. Cloud adoption is a popular option for organisations looking to streamline efficiency, improve security and is a modernisation solution to having on premise files.
There is a development of ‘Continuum Competitor’ businesses who use the cloud as a future operating model instead of a static destination and they are changing the dynamic of cloud adoption. This transforms the customer experience, work reorganisation and automation space. Agile practices are implemented which harness the continual improvements and expansion of cloud capabilities.
Cloud Exit
Cloud exit offers a migration solution which allows data to be moved from cloud locations back to on premise storage. Whilst there is a limited need for these tools as the migration to cloud is a more cost effective and resilient approach for businesses, there remain solutions to reverse cloud adoption.
A carefully designed and regularly updated exit strategy document for IaaS, PaaS and SaaS provides a framework for addressing risks that might lead to an exit. Additionally, hybrid cloud solutions which utilise both digital and on-premises data storage is becoming a popular option for businesses due to its agility when making decisions for adapting or changing business direction.
Infrastructure Transformation
Tools under this category aim to implement efficient solutions in allocating budget and resources to new projects and markets which reduce the costs of managing day-to-day business infrastructure.
The latest developments we see are that companies will introduce a multi–cloud strategy which allows for use of more than one clouding platform and provider. This allows for optimal service to be used in each scenario and increases the specificity of actions meeting business needs.
Operational Excellence
Tools in this area focus on infrastructure and service management responsibilities, which are ever-changing and require constant tweaks and changes to operating models for efficiency and improvement.
To improve the quality of cloud–based services, organisations will enable implementation of more varied technologies, including virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) and the metaverse as solutions to business demands.
Tech Debt
Tools that fall under this area allow for an understanding of technology obsolescence risks of applications and provide instant insights for prompt risk remediation. These tools offer complete visibility across business processes, IT assets and data in one platform thus increasing efficiency in prompt risk identification and management.
We strongly advise our clients to equip themselves with tools that address tech debt in the IT estate, as monitoring obsolescence risk is often afforded too little attention despite the risks imposed by EOL (end-of-life) technologies to the current and future business abilities.
FinOps
Software solutions in this area allow for reporting on cloud consumption and for optimisation of the multi–cloud environment. All the costs are visible and controllable and optimisation opportunities are identified so that FinOps and DevOps teams can collaborate efficiently.
We strongly advise our clients to equip themselves with FinOps tools that enable automated tagging, reporting and forecasting in order to reap the benefits of smarter budget allocation, build customised reports tailored to the needs of specific divisions, roles and cloud applications, as well as plan future demand based on past cloud usage data.
AIOps
New levels of efficiency into IT operations are introduced with the use of machine learning and AI. Automation in enterprise IT operation processes including performance monitoring, event correlation, anomaly detection and causality determination are key differentiators for these tools which will give your DevOps and IT Ops teams the speed and agility they need to detect incidents early on.
Software solutions in this area will enable your organisation’s developers to spend less time in troubleshooting processes by decreasing the MTR (mean time to resolution) while allowing them to innovate. These tools have the ability to analyse IT data and logs to predict incidents before they impact operations and the customers.
Data Centre Optimisation
These tools enable you to monitor all mission-critical infrastructure components and network devices that are connected to IP addresses (routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers etc). In case of a fault, these tools enable you to easily drill down to the root cause and eliminate the issue before operations are affected.
The latest developments we see in this area are around successful monitoring of the data centre assets. Tools come with an auto-discovery capability which maintains an updated list of all equipment and automates processes such as the discovery of nodes, asset management, workflows and reporting.
To conclude, our research demonstrates that the Cloud and Infrastructure tooling market is rapidly evolving and is supporting our clients address key areas that impact their daily business. The benefits of utilising the Cloud are constantly increasing, but the key is effectively and efficiently harnessing this. There are ample tools on the market that support companies in achieving their cloud adoption goals and Wavestone can support clients in selecting the most appropriate tools tailored to their needs and environment.
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