Whether the Cloud?

Having been working with cloud technologies for some time, I sometimes take it for granted the reasons companies should leverage the cloud and how to go about “figuring it out”. More and more we are asked by our clients to help them with a strategy around cloud. What does it really mean? How do I know if I’m ready? How do I figure out which applications would be good for the cloud?

There are a few ways companies define “Cloud”, but most of the descriptions boil down to technology, more or less, run as one of three service models – Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and one of three deployment models – Public, Private, and Hybrid. (I’ll address these definitions in more detail in a future post.)

“How do I know if I’m ready?”

From an organizational readiness perspective, there are three areas to explore – Business, Technology, and Operations.

From a business standpoint, do you have business goals defined? Are your core processes defined and have they been considered in context with cloud computing? Have you considered the compliance/security/privacy issues with moving things to the cloud?
From a technology standpoint, are you familiar with the different cloud models and applications that are available and the differentiating factors? Have you rolled out anything on the cloud – even if at a small department level? Do you have the right skills in house to develop on the leading platforms?
And finally from an operations standpoint – have you assessed the financial implications for cloud solutions? Do you have the right governance model in place?

The answers to these questions do not necessarily tell you if you’re ready, but rather where you need to spend some time as you move forward because quite frankly – everyone’s ready.

“So since I’m ready, and I now have a plan of attack to make myself more organizationally ready, how do I determine which of my applications are ‘Cloud Ready’ – i.e. which would be good candidates for the cloud?”

Since core applications will vary based on the business you’re in, so too will the answer to the question. In general, a good place to start is with non-core applications or “commodity” applications like email or CRM. Other categories you’ll want to use in your assessment are:

Technology – is an application on an old/unsupported version or is it difficult to maintain/update?
Centralization – is the same function supported by too many separate applications across the organization? Could you benefit by using this opportunity to centralize onto one platform in the cloud?
Usage – Does the total amount of hardware far outweigh the total usage of the application either because of seasonal utilization swings or an over-planning of highest possible case utilization?
Security/Compliance – does the data need to reside within the company’s four walls or within the country of origin or has compliance approved sending data outside the firewall?

These are just a few, but hopefully they give you an idea of how to get started.

So whether you’re just trying to figure out what it means to be in the cloud or whether you’ve had success deploying cloud-based services and are looking to gain further advantages with the platforms you have, hopefully this gives you some ideas about how to move forward.

What applications have you had the most success deploying to the cloud?