As more and more companies begin to deploy cloud services, proper technology, software and a well-rounded strategy are paramount to successful implementation.
Continual monitoring of cloud computing trends, with regular updates to the enterprise’s cloud strategy, are essential to avoid costly mistakes or miss market opportunities over the next few years, according to IT research firm Gartner (News - Alert).
Many companies today are working with third-party vendors, and surrendering control over their IT, creating a potentially problematic situation. In fact, about 90 percent of companies are using cloud but only half of them are aware of it, a recent IDC (News - Alert) European survey found.
As with any transition, migrating to the cloud requires advanced planning, especially for small businesses that don’t have an in-house IT department to begin with. No matter the size of your business, many need flexibility, and sometimes that means implementing a cloud strategy that is truly hybrid.
Mette Ahorlu, European services research director at IDC, recently outlined four steps to building a cloud strategy:
Step 1: Assess Your IT: The assessment needs to examine the suitability of each app for each solution and any possible restrictions.
“Business requirements are of course very key to this: security, compliance, performance availability,” Ahorlu told Tech Republic.
Step 2: Design Your Cloud: Businesses need to create a sensible architecture. Cloud is not just buying into ready-made solutions, but you still need to think about the orchestration, the service provisioning, how you manage performance and how it can be optimized.
Step 3: Implementation: This stage consists of the real practical work, which requires expert help from a service provider with the right tools.
“…They can do it quickly, they can do it more efficiently than you can and you’ll mitigate your risk because they’ve done it a ton of times before and it will be faster and you’ll get a better design,” she added.
Step 4: Management: A cloud environment can be complicated and needs to be properly managed.
“Each of [the systems] is much simpler than before so in that sense cloud contributes to simplification but take it all together, it’s not very simple,” Ahorlu said.
In short, getting started on a cloud strategy will help your organization quickly cut through the hype and see which providers can deliver value.
Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli