Hybrid cloud predictions: Two trends to expect in 2023

What was the impact of equipping millions of newly remote workers with technology so they could work from anywhere effectively and securely? The birth of multiple public clouds. Hybrid public and private clouds. And an enormous increase in technology complexity.

Organizations that rapidly accelerated their digital transformation during the pandemic by adopting hybrid cloud did so one of two ways: migrate or modernize. A simple migration, or “lift and shift,” moves legacy applications to the cloud as is – without modernization. This may be the best choice if you have technical debt or don’t want to refresh your physical infrastructure.

Another option is application modernization, which involves redoing the code of legacy apps so they’re cloud-compatible. While this approach allows you to more fully reap the rewards of cloud computing – a potential pitfall here is if your coders focus on the specialization of a single type of platform and don’t address any cross-platform issues.

Regardless of the approach, organizations can better prepare for the future by considering emerging hybrid cloud trends. To that end, Dan Chalk, cloud transformation services executive at Unisys, sat down with eWeek Editor-in-Chief James Maguire to share insights on the future of hybrid cloud migration as part of the online magazine’s eSpeaks expert series.

This blog post distills two hybrid cloud predictions for 2023 that evolved from that conversation. First, it offers a recommendation for the best mindset to adopt when tackling these challenges and some tips for your migration.

Adopting a hybrid cloud mindset

Before embarking on a hybrid cloud strategy, ask yourself – What’s your motivation? How do you measure the success of hybrid cloud migration? Answering these questions will help you determine the best strategies for your organization.

If you’re considering a simple migration, recognize that it’s just one step on the digital transformation journey. Analyze your applications and priorities and determine what fits best where before choosing a cloud provider.

When application modernization strategies involve a hybrid and/or multi-cloud environment, address cross-platform issues like integration, security and disaster recovery.

With either a migration or a modernization approach, ensure that you’re benefitting from how digitalization can enhance the employee experience. And while a cloud-native approach is an exciting innovation, respect all the legacy components that must be addressed for your solution to succeed. Consider moving to containers and microservices, which add an extraction layer without locking you into a single platform.

Need help setting your success metrics? While everyone’s answer will vary, if your answer is a set number of servers you want to migrate, your business leaders may not consider that high value because it’s an expected objective. Instead, consider a metric like 100% on-time delivery.

Now, onto the hybrid cloud predictions for 2023.

Prediction #1 – The promise of AI and machine learning will grow

As we move into 2023, more organizations will apply artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to tasks that speed processing time. In much the same way that AI and machine learning can affect performance statistics, they can also guide business forecasting. If you use AI and machine learning to offer business intelligence on business transactions, you start to see a correlation between business volume and processing power and gain elasticity.

AI and machine learning are producing incredible results in a variety of application areas, including banking, law enforcement, air cargo and public transportation systems. For example, when a cyclone hits Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology in the province of Victoria can use AI and machine learning to better understand the potential impact of the storm on their extensive transportation grid to keep citizens safer.

As more organizations migrate workloads to cloud platforms, the question will turn to how to optimize those platforms to react faster to business realities. That’s where AI and machine learning can assist. Consider how the global supply chain has been severely challenged during the pandemic, with companies having to double or even triple their procurement staff because of sourcing more vendors to find availability. AI and machine learning can be used to recognize standard supply chain patterns and identify potential issues.

Prediction #2 – The biggest metric will be business value delivered

In past blog posts, we’ve shared strategies to move fast and bring new value to customers and the business. When organizations measure success in 2023, business value will increasingly rise to the top as the most critical metric. That shift could mean valuing a high-impact business metric like 100% on-time delivery over a granular metric like 3/9ths improvement of uptime . While both are important, a business metric can be more accessible for non-technical team members to get behind.

The promise of increased business value is robust. At a hospital, for instance, executives care about the ability of nurses, doctors and clinicians to treat more patients and the ability of surgery centers to operate more reliably because the machines are efficient and easy to use. When there’s a device downtime, executives want to know that there’s a seamless shift to new devices. These are the sorts of things that make business work faster and easier.

Prepare for a hybrid cloud future

One of the most significant ways to prepare for a hybrid cloud future and differentiate your organization is to shift your focus from workloads to workflows. In the past six to nine months, more organizations are recognizing that digital transformation isn’t merely about moving workloads. It’s about optimizing business workflows. If you want help accelerating that switch so you can better respond to trends in 2023, Unisys would be happy to help. Reach out to learn how our technology solutions can support your hybrid cloud efforts.