Achieving Digital Transformation Using Hybrid Cloud: Design standardized next-generation applications for any infrastructure

Packt Publishing's book on Achieving Digital Transformation using Hybrid Cloud by Vikas Grover, Ishu Verma, Praveen Rajagopalan provides a guide for any company that is attempting to initiate a digital transformation to becoming a cloud native company. Companies have identified that lack of skills is a primary barrier to undertaking a digital transformation. This book assists in providing the knowledge to break down the barriers.

What I really liked about this book is that it covers all the modern concepts and building blocks of digital transformation and hybrid cloud - strategies and design patterns, virtualization and containers/container orchestrators, IaC, as well as security and best practices. Another great thing about it is that it is not too long or too deep, providing just enough depth for further thinking about the topics covered.

We all know the goal for today’s software companies is to be able to add the buzzword “cloud-native.” “Achieving Digital Transformation using Hybrid Cloud” (Packt, 2023) by Vikas Grover, Ishu Verma, Praveen Rajagopalan addresses some of the basic concerns for companies considering cloud options. The use cases and examples are heavily focused on the telecommunications sector, but the background material can be applied across the board. It is a short read with two sections, one focused on Kubernetes and containers and the second on telecommunication implementations. Recommend as background for those with cloud-native installations and as a good guide for those still contemplating the journey. The first chapter summarizes the basic strategy for moving to the cloud and those critical 6Rs (retire, retain, rehost, relocate, replatform, refactor, repurchase). This then changes to a discussion about managing VMS and containers. The authors carefully include all the major players in each section for comparative analysis. This then extends into orchestration whether one uses Amazon, Azure, Google or even strictly Hashicorp interpretations. The final two first-section chapters discuss establishing infrastructure-as-code and inter-pod communication. Again, the old-school techniques are mentioned with Linkerd and Istio, while newer methods such as Submariner and Scupper are also included. The entire cloud-native landscape changes so quickly that it is always beneficial to get a comparative analysis between what was, what is, and what I plan on using. Several different designs and architectural models are also included. The last section, comprising three chapters, focuses almost exclusively on the challenges faced by telecommunications in the cloud environment. Technical limitations are examined for 5G and Radio Access Networks(RAN), showing how and where different technologies can limit successful cloud implementation. These challenges are largely based on access and upgrades between the various sites. After all, no matter how good the pod, if it can not communicate with orchestration, then the ability to use quick upgrades to the edge can be degraded. When securing the cloud, the book offers some best practices. As a security professional, many of the security practices are generic and common-sense approaches. The key to security is always doing the basic tasks well and repeatedly and it is no different for a telecommunications cloud. Finally, the practices suggest considering there are some downsides to hybrid cloud and one must address complexity, implementation, connectivity, security certifications, observability, and cost. Luckily, ways to conquer those challenges have occurred throughout the book. One common complaint with many books of this type is while the comparative is narratively strong, I always like to see charts that directly compare one item to the other. For example, Istio is covered in detail with positives and negatives but no direct comparison occurs between Istio and LinkerD or Istio and Submariner. These type of charts can rapidly upgrade the value of any reference work. Overall, “Achieving Digital Transformation using Hybrid Cloud” offers an effective reference for cloud considerations. If you are working in the telecommunications sector, the last several chapters should be a must-read. Recommend for telecommunications IT and generic cloud professionals.

i would recommend every cloud engineer to read out this book as this will assist you in upgrading your skills.i am devops engineer and this book helped me to learn more things other than my day to day work

A very comprehensive one-stop look into hybrid cloud. It’s timely because it not only considers the technology but also the processes and best practices which have become clearer recently in the DevOps, security and GitOps space. While details may change the overall approach of this book will continue to be useful for some time. A worthy treatment of the subject.