Cloud

Adaptive cloud: Why companies with widely distributed IT will benefit first

Article 03-Jul-2025 Read time: min
By Edgar Haren

Organizations continue to experience challenges migrating complex, highly integrated workloads like enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to the public cloud.

Complexity in migrations can lead to performance setbacks, control gaps and increased costs.

In particular, the complexity of edge computing and custom applications has prompted some businesses to repatriate workloads back to on-premises environments. Indeed, complexity was discussed in the Kyndryl Readiness Report as the number one challenge to technology modernization.

We recently worked with a large financial services provider in the U.K. that needed better visibility into its IT estate, compliance with data privacy regulations and lower operational costs. The company wanted to move most workloads to Microsoft Azure, while keeping some in another public cloud and on premises.

It was a complex scenario, for which we deployed an adaptive cloud. The company now has better visibility through a single control plane, more accurate chargebacks to internal business units and stakeholders, better regulatory transparency, reduced costs, and enhanced control over on-premises environments.

The adaptive cloud approach — which Kyndryl and Microsoft are partnering in — may not suit every company staring down decisions about what and how to migrate. Organizations rightfully will hesitate to significantly overhaul their operating models. But it’s now a viable option to cut through the prioritization paralysis that often lives just downstream from IT complexity.

An adaptive cloud strategy can help address limitations of public cloud.
An adaptive cloud strategy can help address limitations of public cloud.

The benefits of an adaptive cloud strategy

Whether the concern is vendor lock-in, data security or the complexity of multicloud environments, what’s clear is that forcing all workloads into the public cloud comes with limitations.

An adaptive cloud strategy is built on an understanding that not every cloud use case is the same, and companies will need purpose-built cloud solutions that provide specific capabilities, tools and a consistent user experience to simplify and optimize business outcomes.

1. Connecting purpose-built solutions

Companies are looking for cloud solutions that are built for a specific purpose, such as high-performance computing, enterprise workloads and edge deployments. An adaptive cloud strategy allows solutions to be deployed on premises, at the edge and in the cloud without compromising on performance or functions.

2. Seamless integration

Companies need cloud solutions that can integrate seamlessly across multicloud environments. An adaptive cloud strategy can provide a consistent user experience and the ability to manage workloads across different cloud providers and on-premises environments without added complexity.

3. A unifying data fabric

Companies want the ability to get data from multiple sites, including data centers, clinics, factories or retail stores, and process it locally or in the cloud. An adaptive cloud strategy aims to tear down data silos, allowing companies to seamlessly analyze their data to stay competitive in the market.

We worked with a large telecommunications company in Asia that wanted to expand into financial services, content delivery and shopping by creating a “super app” with multiple services. The application needed on-premises support for strict data laws but also required Azure connectivity for analytics.

To ensure high availability and business continuity, we deployed an adaptive cloud environment across two locations for redundancy and failover. This setup included a data fabric spanning both the on-premises environment and Azure Cloud. The company now has centralized management for all its federated environments, cost reductions through as-a-service infrastructure and database resources and a performant data pipeline for real-time insights.

An adaptive cloud strategy has notable benefits for companies with many locations.
An adaptive cloud strategy has notable benefits for companies with many locations.

Industry use cases for an adaptive cloud strategy

In sectors where IT is widely distributed, companies can use an adaptive cloud approach to deploy cloud-enabled solutions for digital technologies at the edge with a data pipeline to the main data management hub — whether it’s on premises or in a public cloud.

Many geographically dispersed businesses keep certain workloads on premises to mitigate data privacy penalties. As a result, they often use multiple public clouds, on-premises workloads and edge locations. An adaptive cloud strategy helps them extract value from the various environments without increasing costs, complexity, time to value and human error, or creating data silos. The advantages can be particularly evident in retail, manufacturing and healthcare:

Adaptive cloud strategy for retail

By integrating data from various sources, retailers can offer personalized promotions and improve customer engagement. To further enhance customer experience and security, retailers can use digital signage, electronic shelf labels and AI for video systems.

Adaptive cloud strategy for manufacturing

An adaptive cloud can enhance operational efficiency through predictive maintenance and anomaly detection. It streamlines operations by offering a unified platform for managing data and workloads, reducing complexity and accelerating time to value. Additionally, factory data can be used to prevent machine downtime and improve product quality.

Adaptive cloud strategy for healthcare

An adaptive cloud strategy promotes data democratization, allowing organizations to access and use information from any location. This access facilitates better decision-making and enhances operational outcomes, allowing healthcare providers to concentrate on improving patient experience.

Considerations for an adaptive cloud strategy

Over the last several decades, we have seen ebbs and flows of centralization and decentralization of IT environments. Promises of a unifying agent have mostly come up short. So, it’s not surprising that some will hesitate to make the operating model changes that an adaptive cloud approach requires.

By now, however, cloud providers have introduced solutions that extend their cloud services on premises to any customer location. Advances in application programming interface (API) and container technologies have also increased the ability of management engines to integrate more broadly, including into other public clouds, while accelerating the deployment of workloads.

The emergence of data fabric technologies also demands attention due to the manual effort, error-proneness and lack of scalability involved in managing data pipelines across a federated IT estate. An adaptive cloud approach can help minimize this complexity by centralizing the tasks of integrating and managing all the systems.

How to get started with an adaptive cloud strategy

For organizations looking to test if an adaptive cloud strategy will suit their business, here are three considerations to help drive a successful adaptive cloud strategy:

1. Choose a strategic starting point

Always start with areas of modernization that are lighter lifts to gain executive buy-in and continued support. Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) can be a quick win. Migrating legacy VDI deployments onto a modern desktop-as-a-service environment, whether across cloud or on-premises deployments, can significantly reduce total cost of ownership and serve as a gateway to more critical platform services.

Once you have preliminary proof of concept, quickly move to deployments that can directly impact revenue or cost reductions, as CFOs will likely prioritize IT investments that directly impact profitability.

2. Assess team skills

You’ll need experience in API creation and management, deep data integration, and expertise in building environment resiliency and continuity. An adaptive cloud operating model allows customers to keep a consistent and integrated experience as they expand beyond a hybrid cloud environment to include multicloud, edge and distributed cloud deployments. Said Dion Ubert, Global Sales Director for Azure Local and AI at Microsoft: "Having experience in these varying operating models is critical to capture the full value of an adaptive cloud.”

3. Conduct a technology assessment

Consolidating where possible offers performance, usability and cost benefits.

  • Do you use more than one cloud service provider for integrated or independent critical workloads?  
  • Do you have an on-premises environment that includes multiple data centers or hosted environments?
  • Do you have distributed locations?
  • Do you have a software vendor sprawl that is creating increased complexity, total cost of ownership and data silos?


Answering these questions will help your organization understand the complexity of your current technology environment and determine where you can consolidate before moving to an adaptive cloud model.

Edgar Haren is the Associate Director for Kyndryl Public Cloud Services.

1. Cloud revenues poised to reach $2 trillion by 2030 amid AI rollout, Goldman Sachs, September 2024

 

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