Are You Cloud Ready? Time To Build A Roadmap

Can you tell me how does it feel like being on the cloud? Not so long ago, the cloud universe underwent a bifurcation, driven, namely by the public and private cloud. As a result, businesses from all across the globe started making the most of it. However, the concept of cloud computing is not a cookie-cutter solution; there are businesses considering other approaches as well. Again your success or failure entirely depends on how well prepared are you for the adoption of cloud computing.

The following post emphasizes on how to build a roadmap to cloud computing successfully. But where to start?

First of all, it is very important for you to know that developing a roadmap for your cloud strategy probably doesn't have to be daunting. All you have to do is a bit of planning, homework, and collaborate well. But the question is, why cloud as a platform? Being a successful business model, the cloud has the ability to meet any  company’s needs. Down below, I would like to mention certain benefits for businesses turning to the cloud.

Imagine a situation where the budgets are tight. Businesses often prefer spending from fungible budgets rather than committing to capital investment in the long run.     
               

From days to hours to minutes, cloud applications can be deployed in no time. So, unlike those weeks and months, businesses now are able to respond more to market changes.
           

Another interesting benefit of using cloud solutions is they do accommodate fluctuations in usage without any kind of degradation in performance due to which businesses no longer have to over-engineer for peak usage.                        

It may also interest you to know that those applications that are built, tested, and deployed on robust cloud platforms tend to have fewer errors making things way easier for developers.                  

Lastly, cloud computing also assists businesses when it comes to ensuring compliance with regulations and best practices for data availability.
       

First, Know Thyself

Are you cloud-ready at the moment? What I mean is, does your business stands concerning several crucial aspects such as web application architecture has to be relevant, self-management of compute and storage services, standard platforms, and application stacks. Each one of these are important enough; however, it’s not necessary to have all three in place right from the beginning, but eventually, they do delve in.

Web Application Architecture- Here, applications are designed using a variety of design principles or application architectures that varies based on the level of centralization, the coupling of components, accessibility of components, ability to execute multiple instances, and so forth.   
           

Self?Management of Compute and Storage Resources- This stage includes an efficient allocation  of compute and storage resources featuring a rare ability to start and stop services on demand (mainly in regards to changing conditions). When evaluating this stage, make sure you consider ease of use, management reporting of cloud customers, integrating with billing systems, adequate authentication, and authorization, etc.      
          

Standard Platforms and Application Stacks- Standardizing on a limited number of operating system platforms can ease the management of a compute       cloud. Here, you require conducting more like a balancing act where regardless of the combination of application components and OSs, some services and policies should be standardized across platforms in the cloud.

Further below, I would like to mention specific guidelines to take into account while creating a cloud roadmap.

#1 Communicate

The benefits of cloud adoption cannot be ignored at any rate; besides, they aren’t limited to just IT departments. So what you can do is, try communicating your plans at an early stage and often among upper management. Talk upon how incorporating an IT strategy based on the cloud can foster innovation and increase market responsiveness. Simultaneously, it will decrease capital investment. Also, you can showcase how cloud:

-Speed up the application requests
-Reduce time to market
-Enhance collaboration

On and all, cloud computing adoption either can propel you to the front of the line for the budget that might be required to sustain the project, or it might ensure cooperation from the line of business managers suggesting on which applications must be moved to the cloud.

#2 Inventory your workloads                          

Of course, moving everything to the cloud might be more harm than good. But that doesn’t mean you have to ignore it on the entire basis. Think hard upon which workloads should be migrated and when. Start with an inventory; this depends on how you take it I mean it can be as big or as small job as you choose. There is no denying in the fact that IT comprises of a list of applications, but inventory is something that can be expanded to include workloads that might not be automated at present. So it's the perfect time to safeguard oneself from becoming cumbersome or performing poorly.

#3 Assessing

This point features cloud scalability comprising of multiple subjective and objective criteria, especially in regards to security, availability, accessibility, and how the application interfaces with other workloads. So what can be done is to try assessing how critical and how strategic the workload is to your business.

#4 Go for Migration

Here considering a hybrid cloud can turn out to be the best option as the model offers several solution environments with tradeoffs in regards with cost, performance, and functionality. In case if you are developing an app, choosing a platform as a service could be a suitable option. All you require doing is choose a provider who has the broadest, most flexible portfolio, and don't forget to go through all performance service level agreements- do they meet your needs or not.

#5 Manage your cloud for the long run

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If you think the cloud is a set-it-and-forget-it venture, then you are so wrong? Having a better understanding of how you are using the cloud is extremely important. Better you select a cloud provider that extends into your traditional IT environment as well. This can either be directly or indirectly by supporting standards that allow the cloud tools to snap into your current console. Moreover, this is how you will be able to manage your entire environment consistently, thus streamlining administrative functions and maximizing the value to the business.