We hear this question a lot.
What you really need to ask yourself is, “What do I want from my computing environment?”
It’s important to understand what you want out of your computing environment before you answer the question of whether or not transitioning to cloud will provide a benefit to your organization. To determine what your computing environment should provide, you must understand what the business needs.
Many are attracted to the perceived lower costs and quick deployment times touted by public cloud providers. While cost and time to deployment
are attributes of
cloud computing, understanding your business’ requirements in these areas will allow you to make better decisions regarding the selection of your cloud computing environment.
For example:
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Does the amount of your business data grow or shrink rapidly, or is it fairly predictable?
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Do your business units or business services require fast turnaround?
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Are your infrastructure growth requirements linear, or do they expand and contract throughout the year?
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How predictable is your growth capacity?
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Do you build for peak capacity resulting in excess capacity sitting idle for extended periods of time?
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Do you need to conduct proof-of-concepts or test environments for short periods of time?
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Do you have regular events, like trade shows, that require a frequent build and dismantle?
Once you identify your business requirements, you can begin to analyze whether cloud is the right environment to meet those requirements. Knowing your business requirements and services will also help size the cloud environment.
By fully understanding your business processes and how IT supports them, you will be able to better determine if you should move to the cloud. Choosing a cloud deployment model – public, private, or hybrid – is the next step. More on this topic in my next blog.
John O'Shaughnessy
Senior Consultant
Datalink