The cloud revolution, that started almost a decade and a half back, not only took the business ecosystem by storm but is here to stay. It may not be an exaggeration to say that it is evolving at an astounding rate with each passing day. Cloud adoption has been the biggest game-changer promising immense benefits, no matter where you belong to in the organization. Cloud computing has become ubiquitous for enterprises of all sizes because of its high availability, limitless scalability, and rapid upgrades.
By 2025, 51% of IT spending in application software, infrastructure software, business process services, and system infrastructure will have shifted from traditional solutions to the public cloud, according to Gartner.
It is therefore a given that there is no escape from the cloud.
While there may be multiple great reasons to transition from a traditional set up to cloud; this transition may not be as easy or simple as it sounds. Just having your business on cloud may not be good enough. The real effort should be at making cloud robust, scalable, secure, and compliant.
The benefits of moving to the cloud are very obvious for all to see but there are also some pitfalls – not in the wisdom of moving to cloud but perhaps in the process or drivers or the journey towards migration.
It is therefore important to ask the following fundamental questions which we believe will help pave way for a sound cloud strategy. Do we understand the risks and opportunities that the transition to cloud present? How do we ensure that we do not fall behind, but also tread with caution and good judgement? How do we take care that we don’t make costly mistakes? Finally, how do we ensure that WE GET IT RIGHT!
This blog, the first in our series on cloud, offers quick insights into the significant considerations that need to be evaluated while making that critical decision: To cloud or not to cloud!
Things to consider while integrating cloud
Business objectives
Having a pre-defined business objective helps you understand what your business wants to gain by moving to the cloud. Developing a cloud strategy that is closely aligned to target business goals requires a strategic approach.
From a business perspective, moving to the cloud should aim at delivering solutions to challenges the business is facing. Additionally, it should also focus on outcomes like,
- Operational excellence
- Competitive edge
- Survival business model
- Improved decision making
Identification of Benefits and Risks
Cloud technologies without any doubt offer real benefits to businesses. Even though this is true, decision makers need to evaluate benefits and risks to put in place a promising cloud strategy. To do so, it is essential to get answers to the following questions:
- How will the business benefit from moving to the cloud?
- What are the underlying challenges of moving data to cloud?
- How is the transition impacting the cost factor?
- How will cloud go with enterprise architecture?
- What is my vendor strategy?
Parallel Investments
While you brainstorm to evaluate the above, you might need to make parallel investments to:
- Research: Find out about the cloud technology as much as possible, account for considerations such as security, resources, support, privacy, migration, management, and so on.
- Strategize: How are you going to plot the journey? Where would you want to begin and how far would you want to travel?
- Scalability: Choosing the right technology is crucial for a business. With more businesses moving to cloud, scalability is an element to factor in without fail while developing a robust cloud strategy. Because, a good cloud strategy is the one that enables businesses to add or reduce IT resources based on demand.
- Factoring time for adoption: Cloud projects are complex and do not become perfect overnight. It is a time taking process and demands organizations to continuously improve their processes in order to progress in the path to maturity. However, organizations can plan out a multiyear effort to enhance cloud adoption, by focusing on several phases of maturity.
Takeaway
Majority of organizations think cloud for reasons like security, expertise, reduced burden on internal IT teams, faster development, improved collaboration, reduced cost and many more. However, getting your cloud right the first time needs expert intervention.
Harbinger just released the first episode of its “Getting your cloud right” webinar series, in which cloud experts Umesh Kanade and Abhijit Gokhale shared valuable insights on how to get the cloud right the first time.
Watch the complete episode on-demand by clicking on the link below.
