Keys To Identifying Cloud Deployment Initiatives With The Best Chance For Success
By Shivesh Vishwanathan, Product Marketing, Accelerite
The decision between cloud and on-premises models for enterprise solutions is not an easy one for most organizations. The gradual mainstreaming of cloud puts pressure on IT to consider alternatives from many perspectives, and on IT leaders to evaluate what model best suits their needs, while also being affordable.
Considerations for adoption of a disruptive cloud deployment of solutions spans technical and business considerations, corporate and business readiness, security and regulations, and the solution’s fit within existing IT infrastructure. There are many moving parts and numerous considerations that can quickly get overwhelming in the absence of a framework to evaluate and make decisions. With all the various factors playing a key role in driving many individual opinions, how can IT navigate the landscape and meaningfully drive decisions?
The factors that play into the decision can be classified into the following four categories:
- Business Strategy And Processes. Organizations are often advised to look at cloud investments through the lens of capital expenditure (CAPEX) versus operational expenses (OPEX). However, business evaluations should go beyond these to include business necessities, including competitive pressures, industry considerations, regulatory restrictions, and organizational readiness to embrace a new technology delivery model. These considerations are critical to the evaluation process and in the selection of cloud-based or on-premises solutions.
- Data Flow And Control. As the information revolution and the proliferation of endpoint devices continues, IT has the role of controlling, monitoring and managing data and information on all properties of the organization through its entire lifecycle.
The information flow is quite distinct in cloud-hosted and on-premises solutions, and IT needs to think through all the implications of their decision on its flow and control. The implications of the two hosting models include cost and overheads of storage and bandwidth usage, costs related to backup and recovery, use of infrastructure components, and security and privacy implications of information storage and movement. There will be pockets within the enterprise IT implementation which will be suited for cloud and on-premises deployment based on the information control needs, and IT has a key role to play in identifying them accurately.
- IT Architecture. The solutions under evaluation need to fit into the current enterprise IT architecture without causing any disruptions or unwarranted additions to infrastructure, resources, and training overhead. The key questions to ask in this area are:
- How does the new solution impact the current IT architecture in either forms of hosting?
- Are the technology integrations and the authentication and identity management mechanisms able to leverage my client’s current tools and processes?
Avoiding these questions can lead to wasted efforts, inefficient operations, and spiraling costs in the months and years to come.
- Applications Portfolio. Lastly, applications portfolio plays a major role in any cloud or on-premises discussion. It’s important to choose the right deployment model for applications or category of applications as some applications are better suited for cloud deployment than on-premises, while other applications might need hybrid support for performance, security, operational or usage reasons. For example, an application requiring a significant amount of customizations, or one that acts as a core infrastructural component for your client, might need to be kept on-premises, whereas one that can be adequately decoupled from the environment can go into the cloud. Force-fitting an application into a hosting model that doesn’t naturally fit could backfire and cause business disruption and increased costs.
Rather than waiting for the ideal conditions under which cloud can be adopted, or adopting cloud across the organization/thinking of cloud deployment as a singular decision point for large parts of the organization, a better approach is to identify pockets within your client’s organization where these considerations are most conducive for cloud or hybrid adoption.
The best cloud initiatives for your client are ones that fit into each one of the above criteria. Use these as a framework to identify pockets of opportunity for cloud usage or to evaluate proposals and current initiatives that will provide the best results. Failing to meet any one of these criteria can result in a cloud solution with the odds for success working against it. Conversely, initiatives that clear the bar set by the criteria will align naturally with your actions and goals, and ultimately have the best chance of success.