Whether data is best moved to the cloud or remains on-prem is a matter of preference. A hybrid infrastructure seems to be the golden mean for many organizations today.
Companies have large amounts of data and it needs to be stored somewhere. On paper, the choice seems simple: either you bring it to the cloud, or you keep it under your own management. In practice, it turns out not to be so black and white.
The question of where data should be located even causes a moment of disagreement during a round table discussion organized by ITdaily. Even among experts from the IT industry, there are different opinions. Steven Nuyts, Head of BTP Solution Advisory SAP BeNeLux, Yannic De Bleeckere, Head of Pre-Sales at SAS, Adriaan van Geyt, Datacenter Sales Manager for Dell Technologies, Fen Lasseel Managing Director of Datashift, Brecht Vanhee, Principal Analyst Architect & Delivery Lead at element61 and Caroline Van Cleemput, Regional Director Snowflake BeLux, are looking together for the ideal destination for your company data.
Cloud not always first
Van Geyt is the first to take up the gauntlet. His employer Dell advocates a hybrid approach. “We don’t shy away from the discussion. Cloud-only is not possible for us. There are good use cases for cloud, but also for on-prem applications. It is a matter of matching your technical requirements to needs around sovereignty and simplicity.”
There are good use cases for cloud, but also for on-prem applications.
Adriaan van Geyt, Datacenter Sales Manager, Dell Technologies
“70 to 75 percent of data will be generated by edge devices. Does it make sense to bring it all to the cloud? Cloud is not necessarily the solution,” he continues.
Nuyts keeps the ball in the middle. “The choice between fully on-prem, cloud or hybrid depends on what the customer needs. Cloud offers flexibility, especially for AI applications, but hybrid is currently the most dominant model in Belgium as an intermediate step to the public cloud. At companies that have modernized to S4/HANA, you often see a
The choice between fully on-prem, cloud or hybrid depends on what the customer needs.
Steven Nuyts, Head of BTP Solution Advisory SAP BeNeLux
Van Cleemput thinks differently. Snowflake resolutely swears by the public cloud. “I understand the choice for hybrid from a sovereignty perspective; on-prem gives a false sense of control. It requires serious investments to copy the security of hyperscalers on-prem. There is no company that is attacked more than Microsoft. The cloud is still future-proof.”
Sovereignty changes perception
The inevitable word has been spoken. If ‘AI agent’ is not the IT word of the year, then ‘sovereignty’ is a good contender. Sovereignty is shifting from the political to the economic agenda because companies are also thinking about their dependence on non-European suppliers.
Van Cleemput. “Hyperscalers understand that they must address this problem now and are investing heavily in sovereign solutions for Europe. Where do you draw the line? Can’t you use devices with American chips anymore then?”
“It’s not that it’s the highest point on the agenda for every company now,” Vanhee chimes in. “But what the architecture looks like is more important today than ever. Nobody used to worry about where data was exactly.”
But what the architecture looks like is more important today than ever.
Brecht Vanhee, Principal Analyst Architect & Delivery Lead, element61
Hybrid reality
In uncertain times, companies want to regain a little more control over their data. A hybrid infrastructure suddenly sounds attractive, De Bleeckere also sees. “The hybrid model is the standard today. That is the reality and will not change quickly. We are vendor agnostic in that, also in the data layer. It is important to give the flexibility to return from and to the cloud.”
Nuyts sees a hybrid model as just an intermediate step to the cloud. “You can’t force customers to bring everything to the cloud. In most cases, part of the customer data runs on private infrastructure and another part on the public cloud. For large companies in Belgium, approximately 60 percent of their data is private. It is a gradual transition to the public cloud.”
That transition is not completed in one day. Legacy often puts on the brakes. De Bleeckere: “First look at what works well and you don’t need to change. Keep what is good. Then a lift and shift can take place, with a bit of re-engineering to fully utilize the added value of the cloud. You can rely on the cloud for extra elasticity.”
First look at what works well and you don’t need to change.
Yannic De Bleeckere, Head of Pre-Sales, SAS
“We rarely get the question to go ‘all-in’. First, we start with a preliminary process to see if it makes sense to change. That often also depends on the economic reality. It is easier to make investments one year than another. The customer does not get excited about use cases that only deliver value in ten years,” says Lasseel.
Data sharing
Data is a valuable asset. The data from one company can also be interesting for another. Companies do not simply give away their data, but initiatives such as
The round table mainly sees practical implications. Van Cleemput: “The idea may be interesting, but who will supply that data? In certain industries, it seems difficult to apply, also because competitors are involved. It may be possible within the government.”
Lasseel agrees: “If companies are already working on it, it is only exploratory. It does not seem easy to get companies involved in this and certainly not to make them see this as a priority.” “It is already challenging enough to apply this at the company level. Start by making data accessible between different local departments,” adds De Bleeckere.
Golden mean
The hybrid strategy seems to be the golden mean for most Belgian companies today. Flexibility, control and scalability are important considerations in the choice of where data should be located. ‘Cloud-first’ may be losing importance, but with the rise of AI and other technologies, the cloud will continue to play a fundamental role in data strategies.
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The market seems to be moving towards a hybrid future, where companies gradually modernize their legacy systems and take advantage of the cloud without turning everything upside down at once. However, the challenge for the coming years remains to maintain the balance between flexibility, sovereignty and technological needs.
“The power lies in the ecosystem. We believe in cloud as an operational model, but not as the final destination for all data. You have to bring applications to data, not the other way around,” concludes Van Geyt.
This is the third article in a series of three following our round table on data. Click here to visit the theme page with the other articles, the video and our partners.