The cloud is a critical aspect of modern life; in fact, 94 per cent of enterprises use the cloud in some capacity. More specifically, 48 per cent of businesses store their more sensitive data on the cloud, 50 per cent of businesses run their workloads on the cloud, and 92 per cent of businesses use more than one cloud system.
According to recent research, there is over one exabyte of data stored in the cloud. This is the equivalent of 1,073,741,824 gigabytes or over 67 million iPhones worth of data.
The challenges of limited cloud visibility
Unfortunately, 79 per cent of organisations report widening visibility gaps in their cloud infrastructure, as well as a lack of visibility across cloud operations. There are several reasons for this limited visibility. For one, modern cloud tools do not provide an end-to-end picture; apps stand in the middle of centralised tools, preventing information from moving directly from the source to the recipient.
Additionally, most cloud monitoring tools focus on a singular service. This forces data teams to gather and analyse data across several different siloes. Similarly, developing a holistic picture is difficult when it has to be done across a larger network. It is hard to track internal users, remote users, VPN users, and more.
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Another cause of the lack of visibility is that basic tools cannot adapt to the constant evolution of the cloud. To make matters more complicated, more than nine in ten larger organisations use multiple cloud providers. Because there are no universal tools for all cloud platforms, organisations need to use separate monitoring tools for each cloud.
There are problems with these monitoring tools as well; they often focus on security more than the big picture. To deal with this, companies need to purchase more tools to piece together a big-picture image of the cloud, which adds excessive and unnecessary complexity.
Other factors that limit visibility include small retrieval windows that make it hard to determine what is happening on cloud-based platforms and the fact that native cloud tools are more focused on developers and cloud engineers rather than network engineers. The latter factor makes it difficult for network engineers to understand problems and effectively solve them.
Limited visibility leads to limited functionality. This is a huge problem for many organisations, with nearly half of all companies witnessing performance issues as a result of cloud visibility problems.
An example of limited functionality as a result of visibility problems is a lack of support for remote workers. Another example is poor migration support; in fact, 74 per cent of companies fail to migrate successfully, which forces them to move certain tools back to on-premise solutions.
Limited visibility leads to tech stack inflation and limited cost or consumption visibility. Finally, it causes greater security risks; in fact, organisations report 3.3 times more incidents caused by a lack of visibility.
Functionality problems result in blind spots. For example, companies struggle with delays in troubleshooting application performance, inability to monitor performance workflows, delays in solving security issues, and much more.
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It is no surprise that with all of these problems, 80 per cent of organisations are looking to increase their investments in cloud monitoring and visibility. One way to achieve this is through cloud monitoring. Advanced monitoring solutions address many of the problems that currently exist.
For example, they provide end-to-end visibility, whether it be on-premises, hybrid, or multi-cloud. Cloud monitoring also reduces security risks, produces a lower mean time to resolution, increases business value, and reduces overspending.
The role of cloud monitoring in enhancing visibility and functionality
Organisations tend to be on the same page when it comes to the importance of cloud monitoring. In fact, 90 per cent of organisations say that automating visibility could improve security. There are several companies that can help set up systems to improve visibility and security.
Cloud monitoring systems eliminate the need to use new tools for troubleshooting and include interactive workflows, alerts, reports, and more. They improve cloud data flow to provide a better picture of overall traffic flows and can also provide performance metrics. Cloud monitoring systems hold a vast amount of solutions and tools within one platform, making them a good investment.
As technology continues to develop, it is important to adapt alongside it. Keeping up with the cloud requires careful attention and innovation, as problems such as limited visibility can end up harming businesses that are trying to use the cloud. Luckily, tools like cloud monitoring systems can make a big difference in keeping up with a changing cloud.
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