Six Cloud Data Management

Success Strategies that Drive

Digital Transformation
CLOUD DATA MANAGEMENT PRACTICES THAT OPTIMIZE DATA USE FOR
BUSINESS VALUE

CEOs, CIOs, boards and shareholders are demanding digital transformation. They want
their organizations to be more customer-focused, competitive and strategic. Data drives
all of those aspects. For many organizations, moving data to the cloud supports digital
transformation strategies for more accessible, efficient and flexible data access. Here are
six aspects of a cloud data management strategy that can help your organization more fully
move, manage and use valuable data to successfully support digital transformation.
 Data is vital to a successful digital transformation strategy. But, without
the ability to move data to the cloud, then manage and use this data
with efficiency, organizations may be unable to realize their digital
transformation goals.

Merging digital transformation goals with a sound cloud data management

strategy is imperative. By 2020, 92 percent of workloads will be processed
by cloud data centers; 8 percent will be processed by traditional data
centers.1

It’s essential to understand how to effectively manage cloud data in order

to use that data to drive business value. Without a comprehensive view of
data, your organization may be unable to meet evolving business needs,
resulting in a lack of responsiveness, reduced customer satisfaction, and
a more limited ability to remain competitive in fast-moving markets.
“By 2020, anything other
One example: all the buzz around big data still hasn’t fully paid off. Only than a cloud-only strategy
23 percent of CIOs report that their employees are using at least ¾ of
for new IT initiatives will
their big data to make business decisions. In addition, 37 percent of CIOs
say it takes at least a day to access big data resources for analysts.2 This require justification at more
means that much of an organization’s’ critical business data may not than 30 percent of large
be adequately accessible, even while digital transformation is already enterprise organizations.”
underway.
“Predicts 2017: Cloud Computing Enters its
Second Decade.”
SIX STEPS TO ADVANCE DIGITAL GARTNER, DECEMBER 2, 2016

TRANSFORMATION THROUGH CLOUD DATA

MANAGEMENT
A cloud data management strategy can help you overcome the barriers
that may be impeding the success of your digital transformation initiatives.
Think of the IT team as a strategic partner in adding business value
to the organization. Work with them to secure alignment on the data
management strategy. Then examine these six aspects and plan for
solutions that will both accelerate digital transformation and improve your
cloud data management for the long term.

1 Simplify Data Access. Companies say the cloud has greatly enhanced
agility. That means accessing data in the cloud in minutes, rather than
hours. Automated self-service access can accelerate delivery of data
– whether stored on-premises or in the cloud -- to line of business
users. Workers can access their important data via search that can be
run once across multiple managed locations, saving time and effort.
This also helps IT be more efficient. With self-service, workers get the
information they need and IT becomes less of a help center and more of
a strategic business partner. Faster data access enables more efficient
business outcomes, a direct tie-in to the goals of digital transformation
and more responsive customer service.

1 Cisco, “Cisco Global Cloud Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2015-2020.” 2016
2 2 CIO Insight, “Big Data’s Biggest Challenges.” May 2016
2 Move Quickly Away from Expensive Legacy Storage Solutions. Many
digital business projects are synonymous with IT refresh initiatives.
Companies choose to retire old hardware at the same time that they
are adopting fast and flexible new technologies involved in the digital
transformation project. A prime target is complicated and expensive
tape operations. Replacing tape storage with cloud-based data backup
is one of the quickest and easiest ways to start a data driven, digital
transformation. Organizations replacing tape can rapidly realize the
speed and flexibility of cloud data management, seamlessly extending
the data center while reducing security risks, service outages and cost.

3 Ease into Cloud with a ‘Hybrid IT’ Approach. Not every organization
will be cloud-first. Many are transitioning to cloud in stages.
Hybrid IT approaches that manage both on-premises and cloud
storage will continue for some time. For hybrid IT, you need a cloud
data management strategy that includes business policy control,
management, and operational oversight for data across on-premises,
private and public cloud locations. It’s important to be able to deliver
the same - or better - service level agreements (SLA) for data in a new
hybrid environment. Accomplishing this requires a single-pane-of-
glass view, one that manages data protection and data management
needs across the infrastructure and application stack, whether it is
on-premises, in the cloud or a hybrid model. Also, look for ways to
apply consistent management policies across the hybrid environment. 5 Steps to Develop
Consider how to automatically apply data management policies when Your Cloud Data
new data enters the environment, such as SaaS applications creating Management Strategy
data in disparate clouds, or new applications entering the business. Learn key insights
Your IT teams also need to consider providing efficient replication and to prevent costly
source side deduplication that covers both on-premises and cloud failures in your cloud
storage – further saving costs, bandwidth and effort. Another objective execution plan and
should be streamlining e-discovery across hybrid locations with the questions you
dynamic data indexing across on-premises and cloud storage. should be asking
your IT team and the
Efficient management in this hybrid IT environment is necessary to business.
manage growing workloads. Overall data center workloads will more
than double (2.6-fold) from 2015 to 2020; however, cloud workloads will
more than triple (3.2-fold) over the same period.3
bit.ly/2tJWLQn
4 Realize On-Demand Disaster Recovery. Even with the advancements
of digital transformation, disruptive events occur. You will need cloud
data recovery that enables you to continue to keep the organization
running. Data downtime may cripple the business, damage reputation,
and upset customers. A data availability solution must be employed
to meet recovery time objectives. That means you and your IT staff
should be thinking about a cloud data recovery solution that can deliver
on-demand data access. The solution should support disaster recovery
in place, out of place, on-premises and in the cloud. It is important to

3 Cisco, “Cisco Global Cloud Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2015-2020.” 2016
3
 be able to manage recovery across locations from a single interface
to clearly understand what data is affected and what data is restored.
Teams must be able to consistently apply the right policies, backup
locations and restore points for different levels of data in multiple
storage locations.

5 Maintain Consistent SLA Delivery for Diverse Workloads. High speed

recovery, instant accessibility, portability to different infrastructures
and a platform to provide governance and insight – all of these are
required to meet today’s business SLA demands. You’ll need to
explore a data management platform solution that can integrate the
functionality necessary to maintain consistent SLAs, regardless of
where data is retained. Today data lives in multiple locations: SaaS
applications, virtual machines, endpoints and databases. Data backup
to the cloud can include all of those sources, but can you recover
workloads within your stated SLAs? You need the flexibility to define
different recovery point and recovery time objectives for diverse
workloads across these diverse locations. With every line of business
being unique, you need a standardized approach to making sure each
area of the business and data type has the required approach to
recovery objectives.
Look for a solution that
Look for a solution that provides comprehensive backup and recovery, provides comprehensive
with consistent SLA delivery, across infrastructure resources, private backup and recovery, with
or public cloud, hybrid, or on-premises. consistent SLA delivery,
across infrastructure
6 Support Compliance with Business Policy Control. Regardless of data
location – on-premises, private or public cloud – IT needs to execute
resources, private or
consistent policies to better manage access and address compliance public cloud, hybrid, or
requirements. The most efficient approach is one centralized solution on-premises.
that is capable of driving consistency across locations. IT staff wants
to avoid managing several different point solutions, each with their
own policies and administrative procedures. Security concerns are a
key driver here. Some 56 percent of CIOs are concerned about cloud
security, which is slowing down cloud adoption.4 Being able to provide
effective enforcement of security measures across diverse data types
is essential to moving to the cloud, and managing data growth across
more repositories over time.

A solution that can securely move data from on-premises to cloud,

across clouds, and cloud to on-premises with encryption above and
beyond native tools is a wise choice. This should include encrypting
data at rest, before it moves through any pipe, and encrypting inflight,
thereby avoiding data theft as data moves to the cloud.

4 Frenkel, Karen. “Concerns About Data Security Slow Cloud Adoption.” CIO Insight, February 13, 2017
4
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND CLOUD DATA
MANAGEMENT: ALIGNED FOR SUCCESS
Moving to the cloud adds business value through agility, cost savings,
improved data access and better customer service. To get the most out
of your move to the cloud, develop a cloud management strategy that will
deliver on your organization’s digital transformation objectives. Develop
this strategy using collaborative teamwork between business leaders and
IT. As part of this teamwork, execute these six steps to help move your
organization forward through your digital transformation.

Securely move, manage and use your data across on-premises and cloud locations.
Visit commvault.com/cloud.

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