Even since this series began less than 6 months ago, the "cloudscape" has changed dramatically. One of the biggest changes is the partnership between Oracle and Microsoft to establish high-speed connectivity between Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Azure. That connectivity, as well as expanded availability of Amazon's Direct Connect and other high-speed network options, will allow us minimize the time it takes to move data from source to consumer. This leads to our first recommendation,
Place data where it's needed
When deciding how to architect your cloud environment; the locaton of your data should be one of your prime considerations. If your data is subejct to regulation, it may need to be kept in a secure location, or within a specific political jursidiction. Beyond this, the speed of access, or movement, should be paramount. As an example, if you have a call center in New York and need sub-second access to customer data, it probably doesn't make sense to locate that data in a cloud data center in Asia.