Luciano Cunha
Determine when a cloud strategy is the best fit for your applications and workloads
In the previous blog post, we explained how and why cloud benefits may include cost control, but it would be a shortsighted move to focus your cloud planning exclusively on that aspect. Today, let’s discuss why and how you should move data and applications into the cloud.
Cloud legend #2: The cloud should be used for everything, and we need a single cloud strategy and vendor.
It’s almost always desirable to simplify and standardize. However, this may not serve you well in the cloud. When you consider the variety of workloads and applications you could move to the cloud, there will be some for which this makes sense. Maybe there are clear savings, and the cloud flexibility can be highly beneficial for highly variable or unpredictable workloads. When user self-provisioning and re-provisioning are important functions, that, too, would recommend deploying applications in the cloud.
It’s best if you analyze applications one by one to see how well a cloud deployment would work for them. You may achieve the best efficiencies and savings with a hybrid model that combines cloud and on-premise technologies.
When you design your cloud strategy, review the benefits potential of the available options and note how well they align with your business goals. Syncing cloud and on-premise applications and databases with your objectives will yield better results than simply standardizing on one or the other. Also bear in mind:
- A greater variety of cloud services is available than ever. They span multiple levels, such as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) or software-as-a-service (SaaS). They follow different models, including cloud-native and lift-and-shift. Their scope may be internal, external, and rarely encompass both. It usually pays off to weigh all these options and their advantages with great care.
- Interoperability standards for cloud applications are more consistent and effective than they used to be. Leading cloud service providers such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services have greatly advanced the state of the art when it comes to databases and applications working together in the cloud. Connecting cloud services can be as effective, and less costly and complex, than on-premise systems integrations. This is another reason to keep your options flexible.
- You may also want to evaluate cloud services vendors and their respective strengths. Much like choosing to implement just one type of cloud or on-premise model for all your applications, limiting yourself to a single vendor may be impractical, expensive, and involve trade-offs and compromises that can reduce the overall quality of what that vendor needs to deliver.
Blog posts in the cloud series:
- State, directions, and legends of the cloud
- Cloud goes beyond cost control
- To benefit from the cloud, a nuanced, inclusive strategy is your best option
- Cloud security and your continuing data center operation
- Understanding cloud benefits and how virtualization comes into play
- Cloud directions: Hybrid is here to stay
- Cloud directions: Containerization is coming
- Cloud directions: Cloud-native solutions are on the increase
- Cloud directions: Everything turns into cloud services
If you would like to talk, or have questions and feedback, please get in touch. Get in touch with me or contact STAEDEAN.
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Luciano Cunha