What Smart DDI Means for Hybrid Clouds in Asia Pacific

This week’s blog comes to us from our very own Nick Itta, VP Sales APAC.

The growth of Asia’s digital economy is happening at breakneck speed, boosted by a high level of interconnected networks comprised of organisations and consumers. With a massive amount of IT infrastructure supporting the backend, organisations are striking a balance between managing data on private IT infrastructure or in public/private clouds, finding a middle ground referred to as the Hybrid Cloud. As business needs evolve given competitive pressures, integrated DDI (DNS-DHCP-IP Address Management) solutions are critical in achieving the automation of policy-based life-cycle management of resources. A smart DDI solution that enables organisations to seamlessly navigate network complexities and provide faster rollout of services across numerous infrastructures can be a critical success factor for organisations. IDC predicts a growing trend in Asia Pacific to reduce dependence on traditional infrastructure, while dramatically increasing Hybrid Cloud adoption. The upsurge in worldwide spending on public cloud services is set to reach $210 billion this year. Meanwhile, leading research and advisory firm Gartner forecasts that close to 90 percent of organisations will adopt hybrid infrastructure management capabilities by 2020, with the traditional DCO model market shrinking by the day. The growing preference for Hybrid Cloud is redefining technology interdependencies.

Despite the widespread adoption of the Hybrid Cloud, ensuring a successful and timely implementation is no mean feat. As network infrastructure evolves in the multi-cloud and Hybrid Cloud environment, cloud orchestration and end-to-end automation becomes critical. While compute and storage processes are high on the task list, provisioning of DNS and IP addresses lags well behind, despite the fact they are essential for rollout of new services. Integrating them into the orchestration process using a smart DDI solution is key for fast time to market, ensuring error-free configurations and giving IT managers global visibility of IP resources across their entire network.

DDI is a strategic lever for businesses wanting to manage multi-cloud infrastructures, while taking into consideration the needs for stringent compliance – to protect sensitive data from modern-day network security threats – and for quicker turnarounds. Investing in a unified DDI management solution is imperative in effectively managing DNS, DHCP, and IPAM, and to strengthen the network layer in the Hybrid Cloud space.

Some key competitive advantages offered by automated DDI in driving business performance are:

• Simplifying Network Management: As network infrastructure spans across multiple environments, having a central, dynamic repository of “IP Golden Records” becomes extremely beneficial, bringing together the single source of truth for IP resources. If IP addresses, DNS and DHCP are not assigned and managed efficiently within the limited timeframe, the repository quickly becomes out-of-date, leading to configuration errors and impacting application performance. Given the fact that organisations usually have several thousand IP addresses that demand constant provisioning and deprovisioning, integrating a smart DDI solution within a Hybrid Cloud infrastructure can meet scalability demands and ensure faster roll-outs.
• Increased Productivity: The agility to define mundane tasks on different network services (DNS-DHCP-IPAM) from a single pane of glass enhances efficiency. Deploying a DDI Solution that adapts to the organisation’s structure and processes can, in turn, improve operational efficiencies. The implementation of EfficientIP’s DDI solution has showcased a productivity surge of 80 percent on average, owing to significant time savings and single task optimization.
• Advanced Automation: With DNS, DHCP and IPAM fully integrated, an automated DDI solution can provide the control and security needed for organisations to rapidly deploy services in multi-cloud environments and derive the most value out of their current and future cloud investments.

The role of DDI is integral for the successful deployment of a Hybrid Cloud strategy, which is driving digital transformations at a rapid pace. Organisations can benefit by maximizing their potential and enhancing operational efficiencies and productivity.

As the Hybrid Cloud market is set to surge drastically in years to come, DDI will assume a paramount role in driving business agility. The role of smart DDI will continue to evolve and be instrumental in paving a brighter future for Hybrid cloud infrastructure – not just in the Asia Pacific context, but globally.