Since the early days of the Internet of Things (IoT), the movement has come a long way, with the focus shifting from simple internet connectivity to full-scale digital ecosystems. Now, ensuring the interconnectivity of devices—especially in mobile environments—is a must, and IT professionals are challenged to make their solutions efficient, available, and secure.
Along with these requirements, it’s important for these leaders to adapt to the always-evolving needs of a secure digital ecosystem. For many, the key to successfully managing their cloud solutions is a dynamic infrastructure that allows for faster and even more reliable communication between devices. They need a smarter path that provides scalability—and perhaps no better path exists than that of a purpose-built, cloud-based system.
The key to a successfully-managed cloud solution is a dynamic infrastructure.
Making the IoT Accessible for More Organizations
Understandably, the primary word on most C-level professionals' and board members' minds is usually money. Cash flow and ROI underline most conversations, even if the words aren’t uttered aloud. Fortunately, cloud solutions can help make keeping up with the IoT more affordable, and offer a number of other benefits, including:
- High availability
- On-demand access
- Manageability
- Built-in security
- Capacity management
- Geo-location services
- Redundancy
These features would usually be extremely expensive to integrate and maintain, but in a cloud environment, they become somewhat standard.
How to Break the Mold
Even though building a digital ecosystem is becoming more affordable, there’s often a disconnect between what CIOs believe they should spend and the reality of the costs associated with secure, transformative technologies like cloud computing and IoT.
For those trying to sway decision makers into exploring these technologies, one approach that seems to work is to audit risk. It is well-accepted that most digital businesses are in danger of suffering major failures because of an inability to manage digital risk.1 For proof, look no further than a standard corporate insurance policy. But, risk can be mitigated and minimized, and when you’re integrating IoT, the way to do that is with a strong cloud effort.
Protecting Your Investment
No matter what you spend to get your digital ecosystem up and running, it’s important to choose solutions that are stacked with security features, such as:
- Continuous monitoring
- Routine maintenance and updating
- Real-time network visibility
- Modern firewalls and intrusion detection systems
- Privilege alerts
When integrated into a risk strategy, these features help to reinforce security throughout your organization, and allow for a faster time to market and better efficiencies. This cultural shift won’t just be felt internally—it will also reflect in the service provided to clients, giving your organization a better reputation overall.
Avoiding Lock-In
According to Gartner, worldwide spending on public cloud services will grow 21.4% in 2018,2 but they warn that companies should guard themselves against lock-in—a phenomenon where an organization moves their applications and data onto one cloud platform and then experiences issues when they try to move away again.
It’s important to consider this as you begin building your digital ecosystem. Starting with a hybrid cloud architecture is a popular way to mitigate the risk of lock-in. This service allows you to bridge to the public cloud while also taking advantage of an on-premises or dedicated hosted infrastructure, essentially protecting you from the dangers of an irreversible migration.
Finding the Right Partner
When it comes to technology, a single degree of change can disrupt an entire market. The same can be said for changes within an enterprise. By making even incremental changes to your digital ecosystem, you can create a positive disruption that leads to better business opportunities—especially when you start with the right cloud approach and the right cloud partner.
Find a hosting partner you can trust to help design, build, secure, and operate your infrastructures. At Hostway, we have the in-depth expertise needed to create or improve a customized and affordable digital ecosystem—all while helping to mitigate risk and keep your organization secure.
To learn how Hostway can help you tap into the IoT through a cloud-based digital ecosystem, or to receive a free security assessment, talk to one of our Security Experts today.
1. Gartner, 2016.
2. Gartner, 2018.