Even before the exceptional circumstances of 2020, the adoption of hybrid cloud has been systematically growing and gaining traction. However, fuelled by the global pandemic, cloud computing has been pushed to the front of decision makers’ minds.

In the fourth episode of the Dell Technologies’ Work from Anywhere Tech Talk Series (watch it above), Jonathan Ryall, client solutions field product manager at Dell Technologies South Africa, engages with Greg McDonald, director of systems engineering at Dell Technologies South Africa, on the subject of “hybrid cloud for a hybrid workforce”.

McDonald initially defines cloud, client computing and hybrid cloud and then conveys how Dell Technologies is able to offer cloud agility to customers by allowing customers to conquer multi-cloud complexity and optimise workload placement with one seamless solution. He delves into how it is possible to standardise services like infrastructure and operations across cloud vendors.

The reality now is that decision makers have to manage multi-cloud environments. While this results in many advantages, it can also lead to complexity. Ryall and McDonald then broach the subject of how Dell Technologies can assist to simplify hybrid cloud management. The pair discuss how a hybrid cloud solution could be seen as the best operating model to manage or reduce the complexity of a multi-cloud environment. McDonald explains that this is basically about infrastructure standardisation and this impacts how customers use servers, storage and networks with a consistent code which is better across multiple cloud engines.

‘In a box’

However, organisations might still question how they could bring their multi-cloud strategy to life. After organisations quickly moved to put their digital transformation into hyper-speed, they began to realise that cloud environments are chaotic and complex, with unpredictable cost, inconsistent performance, and multiple management tools and platforms. McDonald explains how Dell Technologies, with partners like Intel and VMware, can allow customers to purchase what he terms a “hybrid cloud in a box” solution, which can be scaled based on budget or demand and can be sold according to consumption models of the organisation. Also, as this involves deep integration between the software and the hardware, it makes the solutions much easier to support from a single vendor.

The need for consistent operations and infrastructure across cloud platforms is paramount. So many organisations are quickly finding that hybrid cloud models are the right strategy when it comes to longer-term costs, scalability and security. The strengths of a hybrid cloud are its flexibility and openness, allowing changes to be made when a new direction is needed. With a hybrid cloud, data applications, services and workloads can be managed and moved across private and public clouds using the same consistent infrastructure and operating environment.

Prior to the majority of an organisation’s workforce having to work from home, the major threat for any organisations has been the endpoint. This threat has now increased exponentially with fewer office-bound employees behind the firewall. Ryall explores the security features embedded in Dell Technologies’ Latitude devices. He discusses biometrics and the incorporation of the fingerprint reader into the keyboard, smart-card reader, near-field communications, safe shutter as well as control vault. You do not want to miss this demonstration – watch it in full above!