Still, we have this long-standing trend where certain vendors and analysts push the “Pure Cloud or nothing” narrative, which can be paraphrased: “If you’re not placing all your bets in someone else’s data center, the problem isn’t the cloud. It’s you.”
Of course, that’s ridiculous. Based on our internal data, I estimate that about 50% of our network security customers operate a hybrid network security environment. So you might be surprised to hear that we generally don’t lean into the hybrid story for marketing reasons. In fact, I’ve instructed account directors at Symantec for years not to lead with a hybrid sales motion for enterprise customers. Not because I didn’t believe that it’s a good idea; it’s a really good idea. I gave this instruction simply because the market didn’t want to hear it. From my real-world experience working with hundreds of the world’s largest enterprises, this point isn’t debatable. What should be discussed is whether or not the market is ready to hear a more balanced and realistic message.
Says Timothy E. Bates, former CTO for Lenovo and General Motors, in a recent ZDNet article:
“I remember talking to CIOs and DevOps personnel in 2017—several of them had been assigned, to their dismay, to do whatever was needed to move their technology into the cloud. Most felt overwhelmed with the assignment and pushed back. That was during the cloud rush, when having apps hosted in the cloud was a status symbol and a marketing flex.”
The “pure cloud or nothing” narrative is tech monoculture at its worst. We re-learned the dangers of monoculture about a year ago when another vendor’s glitchy software update infamously triggered the IT version of “The Blip.” The reasons for retaining on-premises infrastructure, even with a strong cloud strategy, are entirely reasonable. And I’m not the only one reading the tea leaves. Hybrid architectures have begun to creep back into the cyber zeitgeist as a desirable end state.
Bates continues:
“Large enterprises are increasingly reevaluating the risks and limitations of relying solely on the cloud for critical workloads and intellectual property.”