SPONSORED FEATURE Organizations in Asia Pacific are achieving new levels of cloud maturity within their core infrastructure in tandem with growing use of AI and GenAI. However, even as cloud computing forms a foundation upon which enterprises build operating models and AI-driven services, they have to confront cybersecurity risks as well as data residency and sovereignty regulatory compliance.

These strategic imperatives for regulatory readiness, AI adoption initiatives and long-term business viability have led CIOs to reevaluate budgets and shift their all-in cloud approach toward hybrid models. In helping enterprises to make this shift, Australia-based Interactive is also bridging the gap between legacy infrastructure and modern environments.

Interactive's cloud-smart focus

Specifically, Interactive's focus on IT/OT convergence and intelligent orchestration is enabling businesses to move away from a cloud-first strategy to a hybrid approach. Instead of prioritizing cloud solutions for all new applications, workloads, and IT investments, they balance performance, security, compliance and cost to ensure the best IT infrastructure mix.

Adopting a tailored, business-driven approach gives organizations greater control over their IT environments. "The shift isn't about deserting public cloud; it is about making smarter, more intentional cloud decisions," said David Leen, head of product for cloud at Interactive. "The cloud is no longer just a technology shift. It's a business strategy. Staying ahead requires a proactive approach."

This approach entails aligning cloud strategies with business goals. It's about assessing how cloud investments support long-term vision for IT infrastructure. Enterprises must implement cloud governance and compliance frameworks that ensure data security, compliance and accountability across public, private or hybrid clouds. To achieve this, IT teams must maintain control without adding complexity by using AI-driven tools to optimize costs, automate performance, and predict infrastructure needs.

Many businesses have realized that not all workloads belong in the cloud. The need for greater control over data to address critical security and compliance requirements has driven the repatriation of data from public cloud.

Key data repatriation considerations

A growing number of enterprises have brought select workloads back to private or on-premises environments from the public cloud due to unpredictable public cloud costs and expected savings that fail to materialize. Certain privately hosted workloads deliver better results with fewer performance and availability concerns, as well as fewer regulatory pressures.

Enterprises have also begun assessing and bridging skills gaps between managing cloud and on-premises environments. These include responsibility for data compliance audit and certification (which enterprises previously inherited from cloud service providers) and specific security policies for private network parameters. Enterprises must also set physical and environmental controls for repatriated data.

Nonetheless, wherever practical enterprises should choose cloud services (whether public, private, or hybrid) over on-premises or traditional IT infrastructure to maintain the agility, scalability, and cost efficiencies of cloud.

Right environment for every workload

The focus on selecting the right environment for each workload rather than defaulting to public cloud for everything ensures the best IT infrastructure mix using public cloud, private cloud, hybrid models, or even on-premises solutions. Faced with the scale, resource intensity, and integration of AI workloads into mission-critical business processes, enterprises need to tailor IT environments to specific workloads and compliance needs.

Instead of defaulting to cloud for every workload, a balanced approach ensures that organizations maintain greater control over data while still benefiting from cloud agility. Refining cloud strategies positions enterprises to resolve regulatory and security concerns.

To this end, enterprises have deployed Interactive's solutions and capabilities to manage legacy systems while migrating workloads to secure private or public clouds; adhere to strict local data residency and compliance; and gain greater AI-readiness and mission-critical reliability through high-performance, low-latency infrastructure. Additionally, Interactive's integration of managed services covering multi-cloud, cybersecurity, and physical business continuity minimizes risks from today's evolving threat landscape.

Aligning with business outcomes

Interactive has enabled medium-to-large enterprises that are deploying private clouds or bridging the gap between legacy infrastructure and modern cloud environments to aim for better cost predictability and control. Its customers also seek to address sovereignty concerns and the risks and complications of inflexible platforms through better workload placement and architecture aligned to business outcomes.

Interactive's AI-ready private cloud and high-touch customer service have also enabled enterprises to manage complex, high-density digital environments. For instance, enterprises balancing public cloud agility with private cloud security and compliance have to maintain a single unified view to track data flows, identify vulnerabilities, or respond to threats consistently. Enterprises must manage fragmented visibility and control, and maintain uniform security policies to avoid inconsistent enforcement and configuration drift. Compliance with strict data residency and sovereignty requirements also gets complicated when enterprises integrate private clouds with public cloud services.

Control and performance with Interactive Private Cloud

Interactive has introduced an AI-ready solution that combines the agility of public cloud with the predictability of private infrastructure. The Interactive Private Cloud reduces cloud costs and sovereignty concerns for organizations seeking cost predictability and compliance through hybrid models, or repatriating workloads from public cloud for better control.

Leen said the new platform responds directly to customer demand for more adaptable, cost-effective infrastructure. "Traditional workloads are increasingly strained by data demands, and organizations are increasingly scrutinizing where and how their data is stored from both performance and compliance standpoints," he says.

"At the same time, they're trying to extract greater value from existing technology investments while balancing competing priorities across their businesses," he adds. "If customers can receive an AI-enabled cloud experience that can be deployed on premises, for 30 percent cheaper than a hyper-scaler, that is game-changing in today's market conditions."

Interactive Private Cloud provides the compute, control and transparency that enterprises need to scale AI responsibly while optimizing costs. "Hybrid and multi-cloud complexity is increasing, and this reinforces the need for better workload placement and architecture aligned to business outcomes," added Leen.

Meeting unique enterprise needs

Interactive Private Cloud is part of Interactive's broader Unite28 strategy that focuses on purpose-driven collaboration with customers and partners. The platform's support for sovereign capability, skills development and sustainable infrastructure complements Interactive's managed cloud services tailored to meet unique business needs in public, private and hybrid environments.

Being cloud agnostic and offering a high-touch customer experience, Interactive focuses on industries requiring strict local data residency and compliance such as financial services, insurance and critical infrastructure. It has helped customers to prepare their data estates for high-performance, low-latency infrastructure that supports AI adoption. Key capabilities include modernizing infrastructure; managing the long tail of legacy systems; and migrating workloads to secure private or public clouds.

As multi-cloud experts with certifications in AWS and Microsoft Azure, Interactive provides advice on the best platform for specific workloads and allows businesses to extend the life of existing hardware while modernizing at a sustainable pace.

Interactive is also a long-standing partner of VMware. As an Authorized VMware Cloud Service Provider, it offers licensing, support and migration services that also enable enterprises to manage a VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure.

Amid the proliferation of AI and GenAI implementations, Interactive has the essential know-how and experience to deliver infrastructure where resources scale automatically to changing workload demands and systems adapt to meet varying business needs.

Sponsored by Interactive.