Strategies for adopting cloud solutions

The topic of Cloud Computing comes up daily in our business. Either a client is asking about it or we are working on it. There are a lot of different pieces involved when organizations begin exploring Cloud solutions, so I thought I would provide a primer on some of the terms and strategies.

A cloud computing solution is in substance a move from a traditional premise-based IT infrastructure to computing services that are delivered as a utility from a remote datacenter. These services include hardware, software and other pieces of the IT infrastructure. When these services are moved to the cloud the business costs for IT shift from capital expenditure to operating expenditure and pricing is based upon demand, similar to consumption-based pricing from a traditional utility company.

The benefits of a cloud computing model include cost savings, increased capability and improved reliability. Deriving these benefits will require a change in the way that organizations implement, manage and utilize IT.

» Cost savings: Traditional IT departments expend the majority of their efforts on maintaining the IT infrastructure. In a cloud-centric environment the IT department focuses the majority of its time on core business processes like application support, business intelligence and collaboration. When organizations move their IT management to cloud providers, the possibility costs shift to services that have the potential to drive more business value. Moreover, cloud providers bring economies of scale to reduce IT maintenance costs on their end.

» Capability: The nature of cloud computing enables enhanced mobility, scalability and disaster recovery solutions. During these capabilities can be built in a traditional premise based solution, they are expensive and difficult to maintain. Additionally, cloud-based infrastructures are more regularly updated and enhanced with high speed designs that are typically beyond the budgets of organization that deploy premise based designs.

» Reliability: The uptime and availability of services is one area of concern when businesses consider a move to the Cloud. The reality is that IT infrastructure is getting more complex for organizations to manage in-house. This complexity, and a shortage of network engineering resources, makes premise based infrastructure more vulnerable to failure, especially when you consider the resources that cloud providers can bring to the table.

Move to the cloud can be a competitive advantage

A move to the cloud can be a competitive advantage. By leveraging this utility based approach to IT your business can focus on core business issues and react faster to changing business conditions.