There is a lot of hype out there about Cloud. Businesses today realize that transforming IT to agile and efficient cloud services is a strategic priority – it is no longer a matter of if, but when, and how. Cloud Computing has many potential benefits for businesses. It allows organizations to significantly reduce their physical dependency on servers, increase their network’s capabilities and create a more scalable infrastructure.
And when you are planning to switch over parts of your business to cloud computing, there are several things you need to take into consideration. Knowing what to do and what not do is very important before moving to Cloud. Below is a comprehensive list of guidelines to help you make the transition better.
Things you should DO…
- Do strategize before you dive in:
Start building an integrated cloud strategy, and an associated roadmap. The only way to tell whether the cloud will be a solid solution to your needs by assessing its essence beforehand. Keep in mind all the pain points you would like to solve by migrating to the cloud and analyze the possibilities of their satisfaction once you employ the cloud.
- Do utilize trusted, reliable cloud service providers
Do thoroughly research your cloud provider before signing up. Find out where your data will be stored, what level of encryption will be used, who will have access to it, and how you can retrieve your data. Pick a platform that offers a flexibility. A key benefit of a cloud is the ability to abstract and make changes to the underlying infrastructure without impacting the apps that run on it.
See Also: 36 Fascinating Facts about Cloud Computing
- Do get yourself and your employees trained
Cloud Computing is meant to make things easier, but it might just get things more complicated along the way. It might take unexpectedly long for users to get used to it if left to learn by themselves. Get proper training from trusted source for yourself and your employees.
- Do review the costs before migrating
Do a detailed comparison of how much goes to your data consumption, hardware acquisition, maintenance and power consumption and employing IT Staff – versus the costs of shifting to the cloud and its maintenance.
- Do employ chief IT officers
In a business with a lot of connection points and usage requirements, it need specially qualified people for its management like Chief Technical Officer, a Chief Information Officer or both. Experienced IT experts are needed who work directly with management to ensure that the best decisions are being made for your firm’s IT Strategy.
- Do remember that change management matters
Cloud is not just a technology replacement activity. It will impact how you use resources in your organization, your processes, and how technology is deployed. Be sure you take into account the impact to your organization of moving to a service delivery model for technology.
Read Also: Terms and Technologies of Cloud Computing
- Do map certain services
Do look for some quick wins to create a momentum and get hands-on experience with the cloud. For e.g. look at DR, email, image archiving, application testing for easy wins, and to create the next cloud opportunity.
- Do assess your environment and capabilities
Do assess your environment. Know your business’ needs. Know your capabilities like the speed of internet, enough devices to make a financially sound transition to the cloud etc.
- Do learn about cloud technologies
Do educate yourself about the cloud. Do your research, and learn everything you can about the Cloud and how it works. All clouds are not created equal, and there are important distinctions, consumer-oriented versus enterprise-grade.
- Do take your finances into account
Considering your finances into account is very important before moving to the cloud technology. Compare carefully what you spend presently in your current working plan and what will be your expenditure when you will move to the cloud technology.
- Do remember risk and compliance
Just because someone else is hosting your data doesn’t mean you’re no longer responsible for mitigating risk or staying in compliance with governmental regulations. Forgetting about either of just because your data moves off-site would be a huge mistake.
- Do make security the centerpiece of your strategy
It’s easy to get caught up in the mix-and-match euphoria of the cloud and forget about the nitty-gritty issues. Pay close attention to the security. You still need a well-planned security strategy.
- Do think about your architecture
Moving the data to the cloud doesn’t mean we do not need to have the architecture as you had in the traditional systems. The architecture is equally important when storing the data on the cloud. Especially deciding which data needs to be stored in the private cloud and which in the public cloud. Create an environment that is well planned and conforms to your company’s service level agreement and performance requirements.
That was a long list of Dos. To know about the things you Shouldn’t Do, click here.