A modern technology infrastructure is the core enabler to the next generation of the business. Today’s chief information officers, chief technology officers, and chief operation officers are taking a new approach by running their technology infrastructure as if it were a standalone business, a supportive, governing agency.

They provide their organization with access in a secure, simple, and reliable manner so that business units can consume whatever technology services they need at the time they need them, and only pay for services that they use, when they use them. Helping organizations achieve a cloud infrastructure that’s architected for the future—be it public, hybrid, or multi-cloud—is where Deloitte leads. Build it or buy it? We help engineer your possible by advising organizations on the right approach, implementing next-gen architectures and operating IT in the cloud.

Consequently, an organization can scale up or down to meet demand, harness greater computing power, improve reliability and performance, and stand up to cyber threats and regulatory scrutiny. IT is in every aspect of the business. Effective infrastructure operations are key to avoiding unnecessary risk and reducing cost.

Many enterprises are not considering the implications to their networks when moving to the cloud. It seems to be an afterthought and that leads to missed opportunities. Working with network carriers alone isn’t enough. Transitioning from a legacy network to a cloud-enabled infrastructure often means there’s opportunity for consolidation.

WAN and data center-centric network architectures typically require more assets and licenses than a cloud/mobile-centric architecture. We advise organizations on a hybrid WAN strategy, SD-WAN vendor selection, and evaluation of cloud connectivity solutions. Then we create a dynamic architecture that enables connectivity of server, storage, mainframe, and network with reduced cost in mind, confirming it enables and supports mobile users and IoT devices in a secure fashion—reason enough to upgrade a network.

Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud platforms can also be managed from one location, turning legacy management and monitoring solutions into a modern, predictive, and highly automated system. We can also assess whether cloud managed services and cloud brokerage solutions are right for organizational needs.

Edge computing and the integration of it between private and public cloud from a network and security perspective is mission-critical if organizations are going to take advantage of insights that sensor data can provide to the business. Better agility is just one of the key reasons for pushing some processing closer to the devices that are the source of the data and that’s where edge processing and computing come into a play.

Several years ago, it was generally considered that much IoT functionality would be centralized in the cloud. Today, however, some analysts, such as IDC and Gartner, estimate that up to 40 or 55 percent of IoT data will soon be processed near the source of that data, either on the device or at the edge.² Scale plays a big role in this thinking.

We help design an edge computing infrastructure that considers data aggregation from multiple endpoints, machine learning (ML) model training, global-scale device management, and back-office system integration. Data for IoT is present in almost every organization; it must be served up in a way that drives the business, while not burdening a data center or network because of the sheer size of it.

² Michael Kanellos. “Edge or Cloud? The five factors that determine where to put workloads.” CloudTech. June 20, 2018. https://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2018/jun/20/edge-or-cloud-five-factors-determine-where-put-workloads/

Protecting an organization and its customers from a cyberattack is top of mind for every executive, but inside threats such as compliance breaches or policy missteps can be equally damaging. The business’ infrastructure needs to be resilient and secure to effectively manage the internal and external risks that are both known and unknown.

Our cyber professionals can help organizations connect the dots by identifying anomalies to anticipate potential cyber-attacks and help enable seamless, uninterrupted access. Directory services are often central to the security design of a network. We’ll help advance an always-on enterprise by aligning organizational elements to a zero-downtime expectation. We’ll cultivate resiliency while helping to reduce costs through rapidly provisioned solutions. Finally, we’ll help your organization improve return on risk management investments that align spend to actual disruptive events.

Mitigating risk is part of Deloitte’s heritage. Research firm Gartner positioned Deloitte first globally in Security Consulting Services, based on revenue.³ We address regulatory and business risks as well as cybersecurity—all to help achieve a business’ security goals.

³ Gartner. “Market Share: Security Consulting Services, Worldwide, 2017.” July 2018.

To support IT operations in cloud, we design and build architecture and engineering solutions that help manage and monitor private, public, and hybrid cloud environments. Creating a cloud center of excellence helps minimize infrastructure costs with centralized vendor contracts and allows for standardization and governance for the organization that lessens friction.

Workloads can become more efficient with a new cloud operating model that uses DevOps and microservices to scale efforts up and down effectively. And security, a mission-critical effort, is closely held by experts within the IT department. Business units get the tools, infrastructure, and foundational services they need to be able to succeed in implementing new cloud-based applications and that helps accelerate time to value.

If IT wants to accelerate cloud adoption across an organization, people-centered operations will be at the heart of cloud strategy. It’s not just about the technology. Deloitte thinks of transformation holistically. In the end, we can turn operations over, or manage them via cloud managed services.