WORKLOAD PLACEMENT STRATEGY – GETTING IT RIGHT!

Authored by Manish Gupta, Senior Director and General Manager, Infrastructure Solutions Group, India, Dell Technologies

To drive growth and deliver on the promises of digital transformation, enterprises must first become agile and know how to manage the diverse workloads. For an IT leader, determining whether to run the workload on-premises, in the public cloud, in private cloud, or in a hybrid mix of the above is one of the most daunting challenges. This decision requires a thorough understanding of the applications implemented, as every application has specific requirements.

It is also important to realize that there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Owing to the evolving business demands, competitive landscape changes and requirement for cost-savings, organizations are constantly moving their workload to different clouds. Hence, it is tricky to determine how to optimize a cloud solution and establish an effective workload placement strategy that meets the changing business demands.

So, what is the key aspect that an IT leader must consider, while structuring a workload placement strategy for the organization?

The answer lies in – Customization!

Even within an industry, different organizations have different workload needs, application requirements and preferences – which also keeps evolving as the business grows. To run 100% of the workload on-premises or in the cloud could be a good option for only a few; whereas, for other enterprises, a right mix of on-prem and cloud infrastructure does the right trick. A customized mix of on-prem and cloud infrastructure also helps in structuring the right workload placement strategy.

To know which workload runs where and to realize when to shift or migrate to another location – is not easy! But, with a hybrid infrastructure, enterprises can tactically choose where to run their workloads. This gives IT the power to adapt, react and respond to new workloads, applications and deployment methods. For instance, when it comes to mission-critical and core workloads, establishing the best placement strategy is crucial; but when it comes to performance, security and compliance, running certain workloads on-premises is a wiser decision.

Workload / Application Lifecycle - The key determinant of workload placement strategy

With the change in workload/application lifecycle, the priorities of an organization also shift. This further leads to a shift in the workload placement strategy too. For example, speed and flexibility tops the list during the development phase; where public Cloud IaaS could be the best option. In the ramp up phase, focus is laid upon scalability and agility. At the optimization phase, security and cost savings become top priorities. And finally, to scale and manage the data burst, data protection and disaster recovery, a hybrid IT infrastructure makes the most sense.

Source: Developing an Effective Workload Placement Strategy

The hybrid approach to workload placement

IT organizations are still exploring the science of workload placement. An objective assessment is very critical in order to determine the appropriate location of a workload. According to an IDC report, workloads that require reliability and security are better serviced on-premises, and workloads that require infrastructure elasticity and on-demand scalability can benefit from an on-premises footprint that can be extended off-premises on demand¹.

Many organizations have already figured out the right balance between on-premises and off-premises deployments and have a hybrid approach. This hybrid model helps them evaluate optimal placement options for each workload.

Dell EMC - Meet the most demanding workloads with confidence

Dell EMC PowerEdge servers are a smart choice for organizations looking to fully embrace a hybrid IT model. With enhanced performance, security, and management toolkit, the PowerEdge portfolio is a pragmatic approach to server design and development, which brings forth a scalable business architecture that meets variety of workload needs. A recent instance where Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers laid the foundation for a scalable and reliable multi clouds service platform of an organization is Cybera, an application network company. They were able to meet the high performance demands and add new services with the help of Dell EMC PowerEdge servers.

Getting the right Workload Placement Strategy

Right now, it is crucial for organizations to realize their workload requirements, before structuring or committing to a specific strategy. The factors that help in deciding are - security, compliance, resources, financial investment and more. And once the right strategy is in place, driving long-term benefits out of it becomes easy.

An effective Workload Placement Strategy is a true differentiator for a thriving organization. And at Dell Technologies, we enable organizations to move to an agile, flexible, and scalable infrastructure while empowering them to structure an effective Workload Placement Strategy.

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¹ https://m.softchoice.com/web/newsite/documents/partners/dell/hci/idc-workload_placement_separates_the_winners_from_the_losers_in_it.pdf