Industry Insights: The State of Cloud Computing

By Mark Pandy, Managed Services Business Unit Head, Fujitsu Philippines, Inc.
Makati City, September 26, 2019— With the rise of disruptive digital technologies, businesses
are constantly finding ways to thrive in the ever-changing digital world. As we are now on the cusp
of these momentous changes, organizations are now seeing that the cloud transforms into a
dominant enterprise environment.
The cloud is now fully ready for mission-critical and, the old-style tech used to power their systems
and apps are now being referred to as legacy systems, which can still be useful for organizations
with processes that have been tailor-made to become critical and fundamental for the business
performance. Global organizations, and even local players, are also seeing the endpoint of their
roadmaps and support for old propriety system. They are also starting to develop a serious plan
to move major applications into the cloud at an unprecedented scale, especially that these
platforms are now available for various workload and application.
The rise of cloud natives
Cloud-native computing takes advantage of many modern techniques to optimize resources for
overall agility and maintenance of applications. It would be an efficient mainstream process for
creating and deploying applications in the cloud by placing them in handy containers for easier
management. This process enables the business models of start-up or leading-edge enterprise
to deliver extreme scalability.
Companies that are currently not in the cloud should migrate by following three different ways.
The first two actions are simple enough; either go into the cloud as is or adapt existing processes
as you enter the cloud, adding changes to the former design.
The third state would require a complete transformation of the current architectural process. This
path means moving forward and develop another blueprint for building applications that are “born
in the cloud,” which offers a competitive and practical advantage.
Understanding Hybrid IT and the poly-cloud
Businesses would, of course, leverage this migration to technology. However, the shift in terrain
would bring a realization that not all clouds are equal, and that different types of clouds are
suitable for different projects. For example, common public clouds are computing services made
by third parties and are often freely available on the internet, while private clouds keep specific
data in an organization secure and isolated from the public.
Companies, therefore, need to recognize their individual needs and choose the solution that reaps
the maximum benefits. They must determine whether it is adequate to stick with either a public or
private cloud, or a combination of their services.
For Fujitsu, it has seemed obvious that a hybrid IT, which is an optimal mix of public and private
cloud, along with a sprinkling of on-premise IT, is the logical future of enterprise environments.
In spite of this, doubts have momentarily appeared in certain quarters. However, these doubts
are disappearing due to the optimal construction of hybrid IT, as well as the growing offers of
private cloud performance, regulatory compliance, security, and proximity to other services. Public
cloud alone isn’t the solution.
A single organization may use two types of cloud infrastructure for separate tasks—this is called
a multi or “poly-cloud.” Meanwhile, a hybrid cloud is a strategy that intermingles data with access
to multiple public and private clouds’ benefits and functions.
The large overlap between this new concept changes the way each cloud in a poly-cloud supports
the differentiation of business by disrupting the impact of its commercial model. We should
consider that the massive consolidation of the hyper-scale platform market means that individual
businesses are responsible for configuring and integrating which model would drive them to stand
out.
Getting ready for AI everywhere
The migration and implementation of cloud computing services offer countless possibilities in this
new technological age. The integration of Artificial Intelligence, for instance, could potentially
improve existing cloud solutions.
Some forms of AI have arrived and we are badly mistaken to think that it is a technology still lying
somewhere in the distant future. Advanced technological trends, such as blockchain, IoT, data
analytics, and the Robotic Process Automation prove that everything will be driven by AI and, the
speed of public adoption would be at least equal to former technology.
Companies are also seen as rising as everything becomes smart and enabled. Take the Robotic
Process Automation as an example. AI is now boosting daily business operations by contributing
impacts on simplicity and automation, all while lowering cost.
Cases of sudden outages is a no problem in an enabled AI-operated world. The system would
just flip users to another hyper-scaler while their preferred cloud is down, and switch them back
again on that major cloud platform once it is online, without involving another human being. These
situations are the reality of our new world. We control the specifications of AI and allow them to
propel us forward.
Having said all these, there are some human-centric issues that Fujitsu needs to address this
year. Among these key concerns is the protection of intellectual properties in a transparent world,
as well as ownership and accountability for AI.
We should shoulder some responsibility when providing customers with uninterrupted service.
This is based on our “Human Centric Innovation” ethos, where we believe that AI isn’t a magical
incantation to fix all business transactions. Like many disruptive technologies, it needs to be fed
correct data to assist people. We should create a technology that recognizes accountability when
making decisions.
Co-creation of a trusted business
As a complement to our ethos, our Fujitsu Technology and Service Vision 2019 also describes a
concept called “co-creating a trusted business.”
Nowadays, businesses are faced with the complexity of a more connected and globally integrated
world. This complexity is proving that many of the traditional structures and institutions we relied
upon are inadequate and breaking down. And, everyone is keeping up with data that grows faster
than it can ever be.
All organizations should, therefore, cultivate a culture of co-creating a trusted business. This
mindset enables businesses to contribute to co-creating a more sustainable world with their
customers and ecosystem partners.
To achieve it, organizations should take three steps: architect a purpose-driven organization to
define what they can contribute to society, customers, and even for the future; build a humancentric organization to ensure that they can empower people to collaborate; and, drive the
business with digital to turn their available data into valuable insights while maintaining and
empowering its trustworthiness.
The digital world presents multiple opportunities for organizations to thrive. At Fujitsu, we await a
brighter tomorrow for all businesses, especially in the Philippines, as they grasp the many
advantages and benefits that the cloud has to offer.