Demystifying the Relationship Between On-Premises Storage and Public Cloud

Transitioning to cloud is often depicted as a transition toward simplicity. We are inundated with promises of extreme flexibility, unlimited scale, incremental agility, the ability to leverage a wide range of next-gen applications, and “pay by the drip” consumption. However, many organizations transitioning data and workloads to the cloud are coming to terms with the unpleasant reality of access and egress fees, data gravity, latency, vendor lock-in, and even compliance and control issues. In a recent survey conducted by ESG, 55 percent of storage decision-makers reported moving at least one workload back from public cloud to an on-premises data center. While it has become clear that cloud might not be as simple as it seems, it still does provide significant value – and simplicity – when utilized to support certain workloads.

Another factor to consider when developing a cloud strategy is the proliferation of DevOps and containers. Container-based workloads are growing in popularity, with 21 percent of organizations surveyed by ESG stating that one of their most significant investment areas is increasing infrastructure capacity to support application development, and 17 percent identifying increasing use of containers as a significant application development investment.

We’ve established that cloud is not a one-size-fits-all destination, it’s actually an operating model that requires a thoughtful approach to balancing workload requirements across on-premises and cloud. Rarely is one single public cloud provider going to satisfy all the requirements of current workloads, let alone the workloads of the future. Workload diversity is only going to expand, making hybrid cloud the new reality. Our customers tell us they are looking for a single cloud experience that includes a simplified view of resources and a consistent experience. Sounds great, but how do you make this happen with so much variation and complexity across data and workloads? And where does Dell EMC Storage fit in?

Dell Technologies Cloud Validated Designs enable you to build hybrid cloud environments using Dell EMC storage, compute and networking that has been validated with VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). This is essentially a customized approach to building your unique Dell Technologies Cloud by selecting the infrastructure components that align with your requirements, providing a single-pane management view and enabling you to deliver cloud capabilities across a wide range of workloads.

This approach also allows you to meet the varied demands of these workloads – including greater performance, capacity and application flexibility – by scaling storage independently from compute. Additionally, you have the option to utilize unique enterprise data services such as inline data reduction capabilities, synchronous replication and more. Dell EMC storage options include PowerMax – ideal for mission critical workloads and massive consolidation to lower TCO, and Unity XT – simple, unified, flexible, all-inclusive midrange storage.

If you are looking for an alternative to building a comprehensive Dell Technologies Cloud solution in your data center, Dell EMC Cloud Storage Services provides the flexibility to directly connect Dell EMC storage consumed as a service to the public cloud provider of choice – including AWS, VMware Cloud on AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

Cloud Storage Services uses a high-speed, low latency connection while keeping data independent of the cloud. This allows you to leverage compute and services from multiple clouds simultaneously or switch between them based on application needs without having to move data, keeping you in control and eliminating cloud vendor lock-in. The service utilizes native array-based replication to move data to the cloud with the ability to connect a single storage volume to multiple clouds and switch between them as needed. Cloud Storage Services also provide the option to use cloud as a low-cost disaster recovery option where you don’t need to set up and manage secondary site. Similar to Dell Technologies Cloud Validated Designs, this service is available for Dell EMC PowerMax and Unity XT.

Source: dellemc.com