Equinix Inc.

12/01/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 12/01/2022 18:02

What is ClickOps, and How Can You Prevent It?

What is ClickOps, and How Can You Prevent It?

API integration offers a better way to manage and deploy infrastructure across clouds

Herbert J. Preuss

Principal Solutions Architect at Equinix, MBA

Published: December 1, 20224 min read
Global (EN)
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The potential benefits of hybrid multicloud are undeniable. The 2023 Global Interconnection Index (GXI), an annual market study conducted by Equinix, predicts that 85% of global companies will expand multicloud access across several regions by 2025. These companies are choosing multicloud because it helps maximize flexibility, lower costs and ensure access to best-of-breed services.

If the benefits of hybrid multicloud are undeniable, then so too is the complexity it often creates. The proliferation of self-service and on-demand portals offered by cloud providers to help customers deploy and manage automated infrastructure can further exacerbate that complexity.

These portals supposedly exist to make life easier by removing the need for cloud providers to update infrastructure on the customer's behalf. However, they've also given rise to an entirely new challenge. IT infrastructure teams now find themselves forced to manage multicloud deployments by clicking through the menu options for different providers until they find the particular capabilities they're looking for. Some people have begun to refer to this process as "ClickOps."

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Why is ClickOps a problem for digital businesses?

The irony that automated cloud infrastructure is now frequently managed via highly manual ClickOps should not be lost on anyone. ClickOps exists for the simple reason that different cloud providers organize their menu options differently, which requires users to figure out the inconsistencies for themselves.

In ClickOps, the user is left to their own devices to configure and deploy the automated infrastructure they need across multiple clouds, and they will have to sift through phonebooks worth of the cloud providers' manuals. As portal features and their documentation change frequently, they'll sometimes have to learn how to perform specific tasks via time-consuming trial and error. In addition, this hard-won knowledge doesn't always transfer easily from one individual to another; when an experienced employee leaves for any reason, they'll take their knowledge and experience with them, leaving the organization right back where it started.

What makes ClickOps so problematic?

To put it simply, ClickOps is wholly incompatible with an effective hybrid multicloud strategy. The lack of a single consistent method for managing infrastructure across clouds can create a number of different issues.

For one thing, ClickOps is slow. As an organization's cloud needs change over time, they won't always be able to adjust their infrastructure quickly enough to keep up. This makes the cloud architecture less flexible and scalable, thus chipping away at some of the key benefits the organization hoped to gain from moving to hybrid multicloud in the first place.

In addition, ClickOps is error prone. The fact that it relies entirely on the individual doing the clicking means that there's a high potential for human mistakes. Even the most knowledgeable and experienced cloud engineer has been known to slip up and click the wrong thing from time to time. In the case of ClickOps, this could manifest itself in a cloud architecture that fails to put the right workloads in the right places. As a result, the organization may not get the performance benefits they were hoping for. Resiliency may also suffer, as the organization won't be able to redeploy infrastructure consistently to support disaster recovery efforts.

85%

The 2023 Global Interconnection Index from Equinix predicts that 85% of global companies will expand multicloud access across several regions by 2025.

What can you do to avoid ClickOps?

APIs can play a transformational role for many businesses looking to thrive in the modern digital economy. When you break them down, they're nothing more than a basic software interface that enables interactions between systems, applications and networks. Bypassing ClickOps to accentuate the inherent flexibility of a hybrid multicloud architecture is just one use case out of many supported by API integration.

API-enabled digital services provide a layer of separation between your applications and the cloud infrastructure on which they run. This means that each application can easily move to its "best fit" location, with the API helping abstract away the complexity of the underlying infrastructure.

In addition, for enterprises that are already using an Infrastructure as Code tool such as Terraform to support a repeatable, programmable approach to digital infrastructure, expanding that approach to include API integration with cloud providers would be a natural fit.

Make the most of API integration to optimize your digital infrastructure

The Equinix API Strategy is all about accelerating our customers' digital transformations, no matter what their specific goals might be. Access to APIs on Platform Equinix® makes it easier for developers to simplify and optimize all aspects for their organization's digital infrastructure, including but not limited to multicloud enablement.

Equinix customers can take advantage of support for API integration across our portfolio of digital services. This support can help them provision and manage cloud infrastructure without ever having to directly interact with the menus of the individual cloud providers. Instead, the Equinix APIs interface with the cloud providers on their behalf. In a sense, API integration is the missing piece of the puzzle that finally makes automated infrastructure live up to the promise of its name.

ClickOps is wholly incompatible with an effective hybrid multicloud strategy."

With Equinix API integration, you can:

  • Interconnect your cloud infrastructure via Equinix Fabric™, using both virtual connections and physical cross connects.
  • Stand up virtual network services quickly, including multicloud edge routers, via Network Edge.
  • Implement dedicated compute and storage capacity via Equinix Metal® to enable a holistic edge-to-cloud approach.

To learn more about how you can get started using Equinix API integration to bypass ClickOps and create a more agile, resilient hybrid multicloud architecture, read the guide to APIs on Platform Equinix today.

In addition, check out the Equinix Developer Platform to browse our API Catalog, get answers in our Knowledge Center and start test-driving in our mock API Playground environment.

API-enabled digital services provide a layer of separation between your applications and the cloud infrastructure on which they run."
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