The Goldilocks Guide to going cloud native: How to find the perfect fit

Cloud native isn’t a destination. It’s a journey – just like many of the fables and fairy tales we were told as children. And just like these stories where the hero faces challenges and dark paths, uncertainty and danger, modernizing can appear daunting.

The hero in these stories succeeds when they learn the right lessons and make the right choices. Unfortunately, when it comes to cloud native and containerization, it can feel like there are only less bad choices, not right ones.

In fact, for IT leaders, it feels a bit like you’re the main character in the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears – the most obvious solutions aren’t a good fit. With a little digging, though, your journey can lead you to a solution that is “just right” for your organization, saving you money, time, and freeing your resources for more meaningful work and projects.

Goldilocks Guide: compared to Public Cloud or DIY, Platform9 is "just right"

Goldilocks and the three cloud native options

While a few companies were “born in the cloud,” many more are trying to find their way to the benefits of cloud-native adoption. These organizations have a myriad of reasons for wanting to go cloud native, and a host of considerations to take into account when modernizing and planning a cloud strategy.

There are mountains of challenges to overcome, too. Plus, if you’re just embarking on this journey now or even updating your strategy, you could be under the impression that there are really only two options available to you: public cloud and DIY.

Public Cloud

Public cloud seems like the logical choice in a lot of situations. The tools and solutions are already built and ready to use, and you’ll get up and running quickly with containers and cloud deployments.

Unfortunately, this “easy path” can be expensive and complicated to cost-manage – something to keep in mind as IT budgets shrink in the current economic climate. Many companies find they are only using a fraction of what’s allocated, not to mention the reliance on a cloud provider’s tools locks you into their infrastructure and services. Importantly, if you have a need for an on-prem solution, are running on air gapped equipment, or need edge-based services, public cloud isn’t the answer.

DIY or Self-Managed

When flexibility, autonomy, security, or location are priorities, creating your own container solution gives you ultimate control, allowing you to leverage and customize the solutions you need for your unique requirements and ecosystem. Private clouds and iPaaS are both options – your infrastructure can sit wherever you need it to.

Of course, that flexibility comes with a different kind of cost – opportunity cost. You need teams with specialized skills in cloud computing and container management to implement and maintain these solutions. Those skills can be hard to find and expensive to acquire if you don’t already have them in-house. It’s a hit to your OpEx, and while the team is working on your infrastructure they aren’t working on other key projects and initiatives.

Cloud native’s third option is “just right”

Like Goldilocks, you’re faced with two options that simply aren’t a good fit. Public cloud is too expensive. DIY is too complicated. But Goldilocks had a third option available to her – one that was “just right”.

When it comes to cloud-native, you, too, have a choice that is just right – Platform9.

We offer a third choice to the traditional cloud native journey. As a managed service, Platform9 brings clients the simplicity of public cloud offerings with the control and flexibility of DIY Kubernetes. Put simply, Platform9 is the only container management and orchestration solution that supports the complete lifecycle of the cloud native journey on infrastructure anywhere.

With Platform9:

You aren’t paying for allocated resource you aren’t using
You aren’t locked into a vendor’s infrastructures and tools
You’ll leverage best-of-breed open-source solutions and components
You’ll save OpEx while keeping your teams focused on business priorities
You’ll have our Always-on Assurance™, including remote monitoring, auto-healing, and auto-help-desk ticket generation to maximize uptime with guaranteed SLAs

You’ll get a single plane of glass to simplify infrastructure management – Platform9 gives you the option to shift to cloud native at your own pace with a unified platform for VMs, monolithic apps, and containers. Combined with the other benefits of our container management and orchestration solution, Platform9 becomes the perfect choice for cloud-native journeys – especially those just getting started on their path, those with on-prem and VM infrastructure, and those with plans for edge computing. It’s not too expensive, it’s not too complex – it’s the third option that is just right.

Interested in finding out more about Platform9 and how it can support your cloud strategy? Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation – no selling, just a meeting with an expert to see if Platform9 could help you reach your cloud-native goals. Not ready for a meeting? Just have a question? Contact us – we’d be happy to help!

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Platform9

Platform9’s comprehensive private cloud platform offers built-in automation and ease of use with the flexibility to bring your own compute, storage, and network—delivering a public cloud-like experience. Founded by a team of cloud pioneers from VMware, Platform9’s private cloud platform has powered over 20,000 nodes in production across some of the world’s largest enterprises like Cloudera, EBSCO, Juniper Networks, and Rackspace. With a comprehensive SaaS-based control plane, Always-On Assurance™, and decades of experience, Platform9 helps businesses embrace the future of private cloud with ease and confidence.