In a previous post, I presented the challenge of calculating the value of corporate data spread across multiple clouds:
A trust is defined as a collection of assets managed by an owner for the benefit of another. In the context of data valuation, which vendor(s) can create and manage the internet-scale digital trust depicted below? How can the enterprise of the future extract maximum business value out of the entirety of their distributed data portfolio?
I used the diagram below to highlight that most corporations (depicted by the building icon in the center of the diagram) spread their application and data assets across multiple clouds.
In order to implement a digital trust, an architecture must first be defined. An internet-scale digital trust architecture will be characterized by the following architectural elements:
- Digital banks: cloud infrastructure offering data valuation capabilities (e.g. catalogs and annotation capabilities).
- ATMs: an analogy comparing bank ATMs with IT hardware that enables data transactions (data deposits and withdrawals). These ATMs would include...
- Infrastructure deployed within a digital bank
- Edge servers
- Employee devices
- Consumer devices
- Gateway devices
- Applications: the initiators of data deposits and withdrawals
- Digital trust services: the “glue” that unites digital banks into a secure and singular internet-scale digital trust, including:
- Data protection services
- Data security services
- Data integration services
- Data pipeline services
- Data valuation services
- Data analytic services
Figure 3 depicts an expanded digital trust that highlights the variety of hardware touchpoints (ATMs) that move data in and out of the trust.
How can a corporation consistently deploy applications across this decentralized infrastructure? Remember that we've architecturally defined applications as "initiators" of data deposits and withdrawals. A corporation must be able to deploy and manage these applications with fluidity.
In my next post, I will look at traditional forms of consistent application deployment as part of a multi-cloud digital trust.
Steve
Fellow, Dell Technologies