The CIO Show: Is ‘hybrid cloud’ now passe?

In this episode we talk to two CIOs who’ve been right at the coalface of helping organisations manage large scale transitions to the cloud as to why we’re still talking about ‘hybrid cloud’.

Has it become something of a euphemism for ‘digital laggard’, given so many organisations, including many of the biggest and with arguably the most to lose from losing control and or losing face, have resolved to go 100 per cent public cloud?

Elizabeth Wilson, CIO at the Victorian Department of Education and Training, and former tech chief at Edith Cowan University, is quite sceptical of any established organisation retaining data and applications on-premise, given how advanced the top cloud providers are today.

Wilson and her team are close to finishing a platform that will harvest data on children from across all Victorian government agencies. They are confident about running fully in the cloud despite the highly sensitive nature of this type of information.

Andrew Lawrence, founder of cyber consultancy, Secureroo, and former CIO of challenger telco Superloop, is also surprised at organisations that still have hybrid environments today, although he explained there are still many valid reasons for doing do, from regulatory requirements, to latency and a desire for control.

However, he predicts that the move towards edge computing and 5G will drive construction of larger numbers of smaller data centres across Australia. This will bring the cloud closer, especially to companies operating outside of major cities, potentially obviating the need for hybrid cloud in the future for many.

And David Kissane, managing director, APAC lead for enterprise cloud at tech business consultancy, Protiviti, feels the debate about hybrid cloud simply reflects the reality of today’s cloud marketplace, in that it’s just not as simple and straight forward as many think or hope that it should be.