Embracing cloud migration at scale

The words ‘Enabling cloud migration at scale’ overlaid on a lightly blurred image of a blue tunnel formed from slanted ovals. Decorative: the words ‘cloud migration’ are in yellow, while other words are in white. The ITPro podcast logo is in the bottom right corner.
(Image credit: Future)

To fully embrace the benefits of the cloud, businesses have to distribute existing workloads across hybrid and/or multi-cloud environments. While the benefits of this digital transformation are undeniable, it’s not a process without its challenges.

This can be particularly true for firms with sprawling environments, perhaps as the result of mergers and acquisitions over the years, or those looking to get data in the right shape to be used for machine learning or AI.

How can businesses reconcile these problems at scale? And what are the specific steps to success when it comes to cloud consolidation?

In this episode, Rory speaks to Rajesh Naidu, SVP, chief architect, and Head of Data Platform & Data Management at Expedia, to discuss the challenges of cloud migration.

Highlights

“We have over 70 petabytes of data at Expedia group, and one of the things we learned early on is we need to bring all this data together. So we actually consolidated and built a data lake, where we brought all of the data together from our brands.”

“The key thing with AI that we've seen at least, is going back to the data and having the quality of the data and other things. And I think that naturally leads to some of this consolidation and bringing things together. Because it can get expensive if you're running these bespoke spokes of data and these separate hubs.”

“I think a key requirement over here is to have the right top-down executive sponsorship, a prioritization within the company to understand what the priority is. Sometimes you may have to put a little bit of a pause on some of the growth aspirations to bring this stack together, but as soon as you bring it together you need to be prepared to turn on the growth faucet again because that is the expectation from a business perspective.”

Footnotes

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Rory Bathgate
Features and Multimedia Editor

Rory Bathgate is Features and Multimedia Editor at ITPro, overseeing all in-depth content and case studies. He can also be found co-hosting the ITPro Podcast with Jane McCallion, swapping a keyboard for a microphone to discuss the latest learnings with thought leaders from across the tech sector.

In his free time, Rory enjoys photography, video editing, and good science fiction. After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA in English and American Literature, Rory undertook an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King’s College London. He joined ITPro in 2022 as a graduate, following four years in student journalism. You can contact Rory at rory.bathgate@futurenet.com or on LinkedIn.