In an effort to capitalise on the benefits of cloud computing, early adopters turned to multiple cloud vendors to satisfy their various infrastructure needs. For instance, you may have been working with a customer relationship manager (CRM) specialist for hosting your customer insights, and a private cloud expert for financial data.

This approach delivered initial gains as IT leaders found their way in the cloud, but it is not conducive to long-term success. Working with a variety of vendors can create complex environments that are hard to control, manage and integrate, while it can also lead to organisational silos, preventing collaboration and the easy transfer of data, limiting performance and the services delivered.

> See also: How to build the best hybrid cloud for your business

Encouragingly, recent Telstra research, which surveyed 675 IT decision makers from across the globe around the cloud services being used by their organisation, suggests businesses are increasingly realising this, with three-quarters of global businesses wanting to procure services from a single provider, compared to using three concurrently.

With cloud fast becoming a critical component of IT environments the world over, what steps can today’s businesses take to help ensure you build a platform that is designed for success today and in the years to come, without compromising on individual needs?

Outsourcing cloud management

The first step could be to adopt an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud model. By leaving your provider with the more routine tasks, such as hardware, data and server management, businesses can become empowered to focus on innovating and add value to the organisation.

What’s more, the benefits of IaaS – including improved security and efficiency, reduced costs, and optimised insights – closely align with IT departments’ modern IT objectives. Although most businesses have a clear understanding of IaaS’ advantages, research revealed that over half are yet to implement it due to concerns around relinquishing control of IT environments.

As such, vendors in this space should work to alleviate and overcome such concerns across the business, while guiding you through any difficulties and reducing the impact of the initial implementation.

Going hybrid

As the cloud market settles, cloud vendors increasingly look to offer a portfolio of hybrid-services covering most, if not all, businesses’ cloud requirements. Remove the complexities of dealing with multiple vendors by working with a single provider capable of combining internal and external IT infrastructures, across a combination of private and public clouds, to help support your business outcomes. This hybrid IT approach is one we expect to see gather momentum in the months and years ahead.

Making your cloud customer-centric

We are living in a buyers’ market – consumers expect to do what they want, when they want, how they want. And if this isn’t on offer, then they are likely to take their business elsewhere. IT is at the centre of this enablement, but with new services – from mobility through to social media – being created every year you need a cloud platform allowing you to quickly and easily take advantage of these innovations.

Adopting an approach to help ensure you can rapidly launch the services and tools demanded by your customers and employees is critical to remaining competitive.

Thinking global

Across all industries, competition is fierce and increasingly not restricted by international waters. As businesses look to expand their offerings and grow international footprints, they should also accelerate innovation, provide the latest features and functions across geographical boundaries and time-zones, as well as host data offshore to support business growth.

> See also: Three’s a crowd: are UK businesses suffering from ‘cloud sprawl’?

If this aligns with your future business plans, then there is much value to be had from working with a single global cloud provider that understands and is familiar with a number of markets. Working with vendors with either a global reach or a global strategy for addressing market demand helps to ensure you can deliver a consistent and compliant experience, regardless of how many markets you are serving.

Sourced from Tom Homer, Head of EMEA and the Americas, Telstra Global Enterprises and Service