As enterprises build their reliance on cloud technology, the strategic choices they make around where to place and execute workloads are becoming more important.

These ‘best execution venues’ can determine the impact and effectiveness of key cloud technologies, but as each organisation has its own priorities and experience of allocating workloads, success isn’t a given.

Allocating workloads to platforms where performance, reliability, security and cost are not afforded the right emphasis has the potential to store up problems for the future.

Given the rapid emergence and adoption of cloud technologies, drawing on the experience of an integrator can help organisations quickly bridge the gap between execution and ‘best execution’.

>See also: How to do hybrid cloud integration securely

Cloud integrators are ideally placed to deliver a ‘best of all worlds’ approach to workload placement, offering managed service skills and experience across a broad range of clouds and SaaS products.

For customers, one of the most fundamental deliverables is access to a single point of contact – a feature that can become an important component of an efficient ‘best execution venue’ strategy.

Cloud integrators should be structured to provide this ’one call’ support regardless of where workloads are sitting, taking full and formal responsibility for service levels across all platforms.

Their role is also key to liberating customers from their reliance on limited internal resources to design, test and implement new projects.

An agile integrator can help to achieve strategic objectives more quickly, breaking away from linear project planning to deliver flexible resources on demand – a sort of ‘talent virtualisation’.

It’s an approach that can help drive innovation and provide greater scope to roll out new services quickly and effectively.

Workload decisions that are usually made by internal IT teams can lack the objectivity and efficiency offered by a cloud integrator.

By definition, internal workload allocation choices are IT-led, but key issues such as performance and security need to be given the appropriate levels of priority.  Integrators have the experience and objectivity to apply ‘business rules’ to workload placement.

Cloud integrators who can provide an outcome-based service are essentially doing the worrying on behalf of the customer. It’s an approach that enables them to specify underlying technology priorities without the need to implement and manage them in-house.

>See also: Why organisations must approach integration and security in the cloud differently

This can deliver something very important: simplicity. It can also free up valuable internal resources to focus on projects that have a much more direct, tangible business impact.

A similar approach can be applied to security, where arguably integrators are better placed to deliver an objective view of security around all cloud services in use, with both broad and niche experience to draw upon.

For many businesses, the skills and experience of a cloud integrator who can identify opportunities and priorities can become the ‘silver bullet’ they need.

Sourced from Rob Selby, product manager, hyperscaler services, Adapt