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6 steps for planning a cloud strategy.
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March 21, 2022
Contributor: Christy Pettey
How organizations can advance the use of cloud across the business.
- Design a cloud strategy that optimizes for business outcomes, including speed, resilience and agility.
- Embrace distributed cloud to enable hybrid cloud architectures.
- Grow public cloud skills internally and consider creative recruiting strategies to bridge the talent gap.
Today, nearly every IT organization uses public cloud, because businesses need the flexibility and scalability of cloud services to respond to rapidly shifting and unpredictable economic conditions. Rarely is that public cloud use optimized to deliver business outcomes, however.
“Cloud adoption accelerated rapidly during the pandemic, and will accelerate still further in the years to come,” says Paul Delory , Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. “Cloud services let smart business leaders respond quickly to opportunities — or threats. Businesses that successfully exploit cloud computing will have a competitive advantage, and it might even determine whether they survive.”
Download now: Build a Strategy to Maximize the Benefits of Cloud Computing
In 2022, new advancements make it possible to improve cloud deployments and extend them to previously unsuitable use cases. IT organizations should consider these six steps when building, implementing and maturing cloud computing strategies .
Step 1: Design cloud strategies for speed and business value
In today’s uncertain business environment, organizations must be able to move quickly to seize opportunities ahead of the competition. Cloud services have an important role to play in making the business they serve more agile and, therefore, more likely to succeed.
Infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals often focus on perfecting technical architectures at the expense of the more important consideration: delivering maximum business value in the minimum time. Start by mapping cloud strategies to three key CIO priorities :
- Strategy and innovation: Consider how cloud can solve business problems and enable new innovations.
- Governance and security: Focus on adaptable governance frameworks that have the flexibility to handle different implementation demands and risk profiles.
- Mobilization and migration: Organize for cloud success and to support the transformation of the organization as a whole.
Read more: The Cloud Strategy Cookbook
Step 2: Prioritize a primary provider in multicloud architectures
Most organizations have fully operationalized at least one major public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) or platform as a service (PaaS) provider. Now, many will look to add a second cloud provider for additional application use cases. Multicloud strategies improve flexibility, but they also increase complexity and cost.
Manage multicloud costs and complexity by defining a strategy for cloud workload placement. Choose a primary, preferred provider, and then when the organization has business requirements that the provider cannot meet, add additional providers in an orderly fashion driven by specific business needs. Develop a cloud workload placement framework that matches needs with the right-fit cloud provider.
Step 3: Build resilience into application architecture
The spotlight on IT resilience is only growing brighter given the increasing frequency of cybersecurity threats, especially ransomware ; the continuing organizational disruptions of the pandemic; and other natural disasters and catastrophes. Resilience is a business differentiator. If your competitors suffer through delays and downtimes, while your business carries on, then your IT services have created an opportunity to showcase the superiority of your product.
Reliability has historically been the responsibility of operators, who ensured it by building disaster recovery capabilities into the infrastructure. However, reliability is increasingly a feature of the application code itself. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2025, 30% of enterprises will establish new roles focused on IT resilience and boost end-to-end reliability, tolerability and recoverability by at least 45%. Embrace modern IT resilience by shifting the focus to resilient application architectures, rather than individual service continuity.
Step 4: Enable hybrid architectures with distributed cloud
IT organizations build private and/or hybrid clouds for many reasons: regulatory requirements, data gravity, the momentum of legacy infrastructure, limitations of staff skill sets or even project deadlines. However, complexity and unmanageability often doom private cloud projects. Organizations expect hybrid and private clouds to have the same ease of use, service consumption and integration opportunities as public cloud, but they rarely meet these expectations.
Distributed cloud is an answer to this mismatch. The solutions extend the same native public cloud services to local infrastructure, while remaining under the same management schema. These cloud services are distributed to locations able to meet hybrid and private cloud needs while retaining the advantages of classic public cloud consumption.
Step 5: Optimize for cloud-native with containers and serverless
In the beginning, public cloud IaaS was delivered exclusively via virtual machines. But today, new virtualization methods are taking hold, including containers and serverless computing . As cloud computing principles become more embedded in application development and infrastructure operations, containers and serverless will become increasingly attractive deployment vehicles for code.
Applications designed with cloud-native architecture require a higher degree of service discovery, programmability, automation, observability, robust network communications and security. Containers and serverless computing permit resource consumption to be better tailored to the actual requirements of applications. This improves infrastructure agility, automation, efficiency and cost optimization .
Step 6: Grow public cloud skills internally to bridge the talent gap
Although public cloud infrastructure is hardly new, I&O technical professionals have not acquired cloud skills fast enough to satisfy the growing demand for cloud services. A lack of skills can delay or curtail a cloud project, inhibiting innovation. As it grows more difficult to hire skilled personnel, IT organizations will need to grow public cloud skills internally.
Read more: I&O Professionals: Develop Emerging Technology Skills in 6 Key Areas
Consider building a talent enablement program (TEP), designed to promote and develop the necessary skills and to cultivate the necessary roles within the IT organization. A TEP can help define skills the organization needs, improve recruiting efforts and direct technical professionals to the most critical skills they need to improve on or attain.
Additionally, look for creative ways to bridge the cloud skills gap. For example, organizations can look to their existing cloud community of practice to recruit internal candidates for cloud roles. Employees who wish to enter a cloud role can enroll in cloud provider training courses and eventually earn the opportunity to train on the job on a project basis. Pairing is also an effective way to grow cloud skills. Set up a skilled external cloud architect with an employee who does not yet have cloud skills but has solid general architecture skills, with the goal of developing the internal employee into a full-fledged cloud architect.
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Cloud Computing Planning
Before deploying applications to cloud, it is necessary to consider your business requirements. Following are the issues one must consider:
- Data Security and Privacy Requirement
- Budget Requirements
- Type of cloud - public, private or hybrid
- Data backup requirements
- Training requirements
- Dashboard and reporting requirements
- Client access requirements
- Data export requirements
To meet all of these requirements, it is necessary to have well-compiled planning. In this tutorial, we will discuss the various planning phases that must be practised by an enterprise before migrating the entire business to cloud. Each of these planning phases are described in the following diagram:
Strategy Phase
In this phase, we analyze the strategy problems that customer might face. There are two steps to perform this analysis:
Cloud Computing Value Proposition
Cloud computing strategy planning.
In this, we analyze the factors influencing the customers when applying cloud computing mode and target the key problems they wish to solve. These key factors are:
- IT management simplification
- operation and maintenance cost reduction
- business mode innovation
- low cost outsourcing hosting
- high service quality outsourcing hosting.
All of the above analysis helps in decision making for future development.
The strategy establishment is based on the analysis result of the above step. In this step, a strategy document is prepared according to the conditions a customer might face when applying cloud computing mode.
Planning Phase
This step performs analysis of problems and risks in the cloud application to ensure the customers that the cloud computing is successfully meeting their business goals. This phase involves the following planning steps:
Business Architecture Development
- IT Architecture development
Requirements on Quality of Service Development
- Transformation Plan development
In this step, we recognize the risks that might be caused by cloud computing application from a business perspective.
IT Architecture Development
In this step, we identify the applications that support the business processes and the technologies required to support enterprise applications and data systems.
Quality of service refers to the non-functional requirements such as reliability, security, disaster recovery, etc. The success of applying cloud computing mode depends on these non-functional factors.
Transformation Plan Development
In this step, we formulate all kinds of plans that are required to transform current business to cloud computing modes.
Deployment Phase
This phase focuses on both of the above two phases. It involves the following two steps:
Selecting Cloud Computing Provider
Maintenance and technical service.
This step includes selecting a cloud provider on basis of Service Level Agreement (SLA), which defines the level of service the provider will meet.
Maintenance and Technical services are provided by the cloud provider. They need to ensure the quality of services.
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Planning Your Cloud Computing Strategy
Cloud computing for dummies.
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Remember that cloud computing can offer a dramatic change in the pace and style of computing as well as business strategy. Therefore, although costs will, of course, be imperative, you also need to think about the benefits that may help transform the customer experience. Your overall strategy will include a hybrid of different types and models of computing, so planning will be integral to your path forward.
Here, we give you an idea about what to expect as you begin your journey to the cloud, along with the important issues you need to consider.
At the beginning: the move to the cloud
Because no planning occurred, financial managers began to see the cost of computing skyrocket. While an individual developer wasn’t paying much to build an application in the cloud, when all those bills were aggregated together, the costs began to spiral out of control. In addition, there was little control over security and governance. Business units began to use SaaS applications at an ever-increasing pace.
IT initially ignored the cloud and assumed that its use would not last. Managers viewed the use of this third-party service as a threat to the role of IT in the business. In addition, many business leaders were concerned that security in the public cloud was flawed and would put the business at risk. Some managers tried to sabotage the acceptability of cloud services. This approach was typical of any new technology that threatened to change the status quo.
What changed? In simple terms, the pace of business. Well established businesses began to notice the emergence of a new generation of companies that relied on the cloud and would therefore create new business models without having to requiring the lead time to create a new physical infrastructure. In many competitive markets, there was only one option: Move to the cloud.
Many companies have either begun their move to the cloud or in the planning stages. It can be overwhelming to come up with a strategy that enables the organization to select the right services, the clouds that are best suited for the workloads, and create an environment where change is the norm.
It is not easy to determine what to do first. Do you pick a single product and select a cloud platform? Do you get rid of your data center and move all of your existing services to a public or private cloud? Do you select a single public cloud vendor to support all of your workloads? Do you hire a staff of experienced IT professionals to build a private cloud, or do you hire a consulting firm to make all the decisions for you?
There isn’t simply one option that will handle all of your business situations and all of your workloads. Therefore, there best approach is to come up with a staged plan that will help you achieve your business and technical objectives.
Stage 1: Assess your current IT strategy
You might think of them as being like a typical two-car garage. In the beginning, the garage held two cars and a few necessities such as yard tools. Over the years, the homeowner began to store lots of different paraphernalia in the garage, ranging from unused pots and pans to an array of old furniture. Suddenly, that well-planned, purpose-built space became crammed with so much stuff that it’s hard to use the garage for its initial intent — storing cars!
Today, is your IT infrastructure like that garage, or is it a well-planned and well-orchestrated environment? Does it provide the type of flexibility and manageability that supports new initiatives and business change? Or is it an assortment of different servers, different software products, and a variety of disconnected tools? Do you have many different departments that are taking advantage of a variety of public cloud services from different vendors? Do you already use third party cloud services for specialized needs? Most likely your business has a combination of all of these environments.
Your first step is taking an honest assessment of where you are today. What is working well and what is holding you back? You can’t undertake this process in isolation; you need to create a task force that brings together business and IT leaders along with those who will develop and deploy services across the business.
You should look at what systems are critical to the operations of the business and which applications no longer support changing business needs. You need to consider the flexibility of your existing infrastructure. What happens when the business requires a change in processes? How does the IT organization support partnership initiatives? Take a look at the cloud services including SaaS applications as well as cloud applications built in different divisions. In addition, you need to assess the data that is critical to managing your business. Where does the data reside? Is it tied to a specific application? Do you store your data across various parts of the environment? Does some of your data reside in public or private clouds? You need to understand your data and the process that you use today to control that data.
Stage 2: Imagine the future
This process, which is imperative to planning for a hybrid and multicloud strategy. You will most likely have workloads that live in your data center or in the private cloud. You will need to prepare for your hybrid cloud strategy so that you are ready for †he unanticipated changes in your business. Through the planning process, both the business and IT organization will have a deeper understanding of both the changes to the business and the technologies that will help manage that change in a predictable manner. This process of imaging the future and tying that future to innovative technologies isn’t a one time effort. Rather you should assume that you will continue to update your plan as new competitors enter your market and as new innovative technologies emerge.
Stage 3: Explore what’s out there
Spend time with your peers and see what type of cloud strategy they have adopted and the type of dividends it’s paying. What are the best practices that have worked well for companies in your industry or of your size? What are the new innovations coming to market from young companies? How can you offer a new approach to business that will allow you to effectively compete with much larger companies in your market?
The wonderful thing about cloud computing capabilities and offerings is that you are free to experiment. Almost every company in the cloud market offers free trials of their technology. There are many open source offerings as well that will give you the opportunity to test out whether different options will serve your business now or in the long run. This education process is critical so that you know what questions to ask. Even if and when you turn to a service provider for help, you will be able to make better decisions about how you approach your cloud strategy.
Stage 4: Create a hybrid cloud strategy plan
You won’t be building monolithic applications. Rather, you will be building microservices that will be building blocks to create new creative services that will keep you ahead of the competition.
Always leverage the knowledge and expertise inside your company as a starting point. It’s also a good idea to get your most strategic partners involved in the process. Your best partners, suppliers, and customers will help you better understand how they want to collaborate with you in the future. Use all this as the foundation for your hybrid cloud strategy. We use the term hybrid because more than likely you will not leverage a single deployment model for your workloads. You will have some public clouds, some private clouds and a data center. Your strategy needs to take into account where you want to run your workloads.
Stage 5: Plan for implementation
If your company is new to the cloud you may want to begin by selecting a few key projects that are well suited to the cloud. For example, select a SaaS application that is useful across various departments that has visibility. Begin experimenting with creating microservices and managing them within containers. You can also select a software development project that has a short deadline and build and deploy it in the public cloud.
Whatever you do, think of your hybrid cloud strategy as a multi-year effort that will include everything from a set of private cloud services to support emerging internal development and deployment needs to a way to leverage public services in conjunction with your data center.
About This Article
This article is from the book:.
- Cloud Computing For Dummies ,
About the book authors:
Daniel Kirsch, Managing Director of Hurwitz & Associates, is a thought leader, researcher, author, and consultant in cloud, AI, and security. Judith Hurwitz, President of Hurwitz & Associates, is a consultant, thought leader, and coauthor of 10 books including Augmented Intelligence, Cognitive Computing and Big Data Analytics, and Hybrid Cloud for Dummies
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The Simple 3-Step Process To Creating A Cloud Strategy
Want to develop an effective cloud strategy to ensure successful cloud operations for your business? Here’s how.
Businesses move to the cloud for several reasons. For some, moving to the cloud means gaining access to the best enterprise-level technology without the associated costs of handling, maintaining, and managing the underlying infrastructure. For others (like startups), the ability to scale quickly and respond faster to market demands are top of the list.
Whatever the reasons, every business that decides to make the move needs a cloud implementation strategy to operate successfully and profitably in this environment.
In this article, we’ll cover the steps and key considerations when building a cloud strategy.
Table Of Contents
What Is A Cloud Strategy?
- Benefits Of A Cloud Strategy
- How To Develop A Cloud Strategy For A Startup
- How To Develop A Cloud Strategy For Traditional/On-Premise Business
- Cloud Strategy Planning: An Example In Action
A cloud strategy is an action plan for achieving success in the cloud. Your strategy will define the role of cloud within your organization — and should exist in a living document that you update and share with the rest of your team.
Your strategy will differ depending on the stage of your business and your reasons for moving to the cloud. If you’re a new business, for example, your goal might be to move fast and grow your customer base as quickly as possible. A more established business might have different expectations.
What Are The Benefits Of Developing A Cloud Strategy?
A cloud strategy helps you to:
- Clearly define how you intend to use cloud services and the reason for a specific approach
- Communicate your cloud approach to your teams
- Ensure that cloud-related actions are aligned with organizational goals
- Increase productivity and find ways to reduce costs while working in the cloud
Now that we’ve covered the definition and benefits of a cloud strategy, let’s look at the paths for a new company adopting the cloud versus a traditional business that already has a considerable technological footprint on-premise.
Developing A Cloud Strategy For A Startup
If you’re a startup, you’re focused on building your product and improving the value you deliver to your customers. The faster you do that, the faster you’ll find success in the market.
Therefore, your strategy should be to move fast, avoid undifferentiated heavy lifting — work that brings no value to your business — and adopt as many managed cloud services as possible. This will save you a lot of costs.
For instance, instead of maintaining servers, use serverless services ; instead of creating and managing custom/bespoke systems, think about containers and Kubernetes ; instead of managing your own database, use managed database systems like RDS Aurora from AWS or a Snowflake data warehouse product that can increase your customer growth. These are generally better, easier, and faster alternatives.
Developing A Cloud Strategy For Traditional/On-Premise Business
If you’re part of a more traditional/on-premise company that has not yet migrated to the cloud, first consider if your product is profitable, functioning, doesn’t require a lot of changes, and is already delivering a profit back to your business.
In this case, your strategy might be to leave everything the way it is and only consider the cloud for new initiatives. However, if you already feel the burden of operating your own systems because you have to continuously innovate and iterate on your solutions or you're under a lot of competitive pressure, then it probably makes a lot of sense to migrate to the cloud.
Note, you should not expect that things will initially be cheaper or less expensive in the cloud. In fact, you should expect things to be a little bit more expensive before they improve.
For a traditional business moving to the cloud, the three-step process below applies.
Step 1: Lift and shift/rehost
Most traditional businesses start their journey to the cloud by taking what they have in their data center and lifting and rehosting it in the cloud. Lift and shift is the most expensive way of migrating your data to the cloud, but it’s also one of the fastest.
One note of caution: Avoid trying to maintain a product by having one leg in your data center and the other leg in the cloud. Operating in two worlds could cause a lot of stress, instability, and challenges. Therefore, choose a cloud service provider and commit to the cloud for the long run.
Step 2: Iterate rapidly
Once you have moved your applications to the cloud, focus on iteration. Look at the costs associated with operating your system and identify which features, products, or unit costs are most expensive for the operation of your system.
Why? Because what was cheap in the data center might not be cheap in the cloud, although there may be cheaper alternatives. There may be managed services from your cloud provider that you can use. However, you should base your iteration and your development work on what it costs to deliver your products and features to the market.
Adopt tools that will give you full insight into your cloud costs in a context that is relevant to your business. For example, CloudZero’s cloud cost intelligence platform allows you to map costs to product features, teams, and customer segments. This helps you to quickly calculate your margins and understand your most profitable products/features.
Step 3: Adopt a philosophy of elasticity and flexibility
As you become cloud-native, your team will automatically start to think of managed services and cloud services they can leverage/use to go faster than they could ever go when the company was on-premise.
The next step is to adopt a philosophy of elasticity and flexibility for rapid change. At this stage, your systems and the costs associated with those systems should scale dynamically up and down based on customer load.
The closer you get to a curve where your customer activity is aligned with your system activity, which is aligned with your costs, the better you can see a real indication of how efficiently your systems are running.
Cloud Computing Strategy Planning: An Example Of Moving A Legacy Application To The Cloud
Say you have a legacy application that processes digital photos that you would like to move to the cloud. Once you've made the commitment to move, your strategy should be as follows:
- Lift and shift/rehost the application in the cloud
- Adopt a culture of rapid iteration and development/improvement
- Integrate the development and operations functions so they are indistinguishable from one another
- Prepare for new services and capabilities as you become more cloud-native
It's important to set aside time to consider using those new services because if you don't, your competitors certainly will. In particular, you should consider how to:
- Increase your gross margins
- Deliver features and functions faster to market
- Leverage the services of your cloud provider so you can deliver more value than your competitors can in the same amount of time
For example, if you can process a photo for 20 cents a photo, that’s your unit cost. If your competitors can process a photo for 5 cents, they have a real advantage over you.
Your strategy should be about bridging that gap and increasing profitability.
Summing It Up: 2 Key Things To Keep in Mind When Developing Cloud Strategy
1. identify your goals for moving to the cloud.
For companies that haven't yet moved to the cloud, first consider if you need to make the move. Do not adopt cloud services because they are trendy.
You may not need to move to the cloud if you’re not in an industry or business where your products or services need to rapidly change, or if your system scales well and doesn't need to operate in the cloud, or if your customer growth deals with delivering a service that doesn't change.
Unfortunately, these use cases are fast disappearing.
2. Keep cost in mind
Make cost management a key part of your strategy. Avoid thinking about your cloud computing bill from a total-dollar point of view. Instead, think of cost in terms of per feature or cost per product, or what it costs to deliver the value to your customers.
Ultimately, consider that in terms of your gross margins to the business, if you’re successful, your costs will go up over time. However, if you're tracking your cost per feature or product, you will see that those costs match your customer growth. Then you should align that with key metrics for your business. This is called unit cost tracking.
Adopting this philosophy of tracking unit costs early on as part of your strategy versus focusing on your overall cloud bill will enable you to better focus on delivering profitable innovation to your market.
CloudZero is built to deliver just the right insight you need. With CloudZero’s cloud cost intelligence platform, you can operate confidently while keeping track of your costs.
Erik Peterson
Co-Founder & CTO @CloudzeroInc
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Cloud Computing Planning
- Last Updated : 31 Mar, 2021
Prerequisite : Cloud Computing
Cloud is considered the most cheapest, easy-to-use technology and suitable option for almost every business today. It fixes the constant need to upgrade physical data storage solutions which is not only hectic but also expensive. So, starting from small size organizations to large size organizations now planning to go for the implementation of cloud computing system in their organization. But before going for cloud computing, it needs a clear planning regarding the pre stage requirements and post stage impacts on the organization. But there present some factors which needs to be considered by every individual organization before investing in cloud technology. Those are
- Availability – Check for easy availability of the organization’s data and resources which is stored or needs to be accessed.
- Compliance – Check for any legality issues, discrimination or restriction for a particular type of data to be stored.
- Compatibility – Check for own organization’s infrastructure compatibility before investing in cloud technology.
- Monitoring – Check for proper monitoring of data is possible or not after investing in cloud technology.
Factors To Be Considered Before Planning :
- Data Security & Privacy Requirements
- Public, private or hybrid cloud type
- Data Backup Requirements
- Data Export Requirement
- Finance requirement
- Dashboard and Reporting Requirements
- Client access requirements/facility
- Training Requirement
- Dashboard and reporting requirements
Phases of cloud computing planning : Cloud computing planning majorly comprises three phases i.e.
1. Strategy Phase : In this phase we try to find out the kind of experience the customer would have and the problems that might be faced by them. This analysis is done in two steps-
(1) Cloud Computing Value Proposition – In this step we analyze the requirements and the problems they want to be solved. These mostly comprise of
- Simplifying IT management
- Minimizing maintenance expense
- Low-priced outsourcing for hosting
- Innovation of business model
- High Quality of Service (QOS)
(2) Cloud Computing Strategy Planning – After analyzing the Value Proposition, a strategy document is designed that includes the problems that a customer might face while applying cloud computing.
2. Planning Phase : In the planning phase the problems and risks encountered on deploying cloud computing are analyzed to give them an optimal and hassle-free experience and whether it meets their expectations. It involves the following steps i.e.
- Development of Business Plan
- Development of IT architectures
- QOS development requirements
- Designing the Transformation Plan
3. Deployment Phase : Deployment phase is the final phase, and it consists of two steps i.e.
- Picking a cloud computing provider – This selection is done based on the SLA or Service Level Agreement which consists of the service provider will provide.
- Maintenance and technical service – The provider must ensure proper maintenance of the services by providing best QOS.
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How to Plan a Cloud Strategy: A Complete Roadmap
Updated on January 18, 2023
How can your company reap the benefits of cloud computing to the fullest? Read on as we discuss cloud strategy and outline a 5-step cloud strategy roadmap for developing a complete cloud adoption plan.
Having a robust cloud strategy is really important in today’s cloud-first world, where according to Right Scale’s report, 94% of enterprises are running on the cloud.
The cloud is a dynamic place that changes almost as often as the weather. So it’s difficult to keep up with all the new features and product updates, let alone figure out which ones are right for your business.
For companies wishing to accelerate their digital transformation or for businesses needing the flexibility and scalability of cloud services and for others like startups, the need to scale quickly and respond faster to market demands.
In other words, before adopting any new technology, you need to focus on “what” and “why” issues and its alignment to business goals.
Therefore, developing an effective cloud strategy is essential to avoid getting caught up in a whirlwind of technological distractions (and a hefty monthly bill).
In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the basics of cloud strategy and dive into ways to get started with a cloud strategy roadmap so you can easily design one for your business.
What is a cloud strategy?
A cloud strategy is a plan that outlines the best practices, tools, and services to use when implementing a cloud solution. It’s a vital tool for businesses looking to optimize their cloud adoption, implementation, and operations. A cloud strategy can be applied to most, if not all, types of cloud deployments. This includes public, private, hybrid, and multi cloud strategies .
The six guiding cloud strategy principles of adopting and using the cloud are trust, enablement, enterprise risk, capability, cost-benefit and accountability.
Having a cloud strategy in place guides your cloud journey. This is especially important given that businesses of all sizes have varying requirements when it comes to cloud solutions. A cloud strategy gives you a clear path to leverage the benefits of cloud computing while helping you avoid costly mistakes and pitfalls along the way.
Companies like Deloitte, and Mc Kinsey offers to help clients navigate the end-to-end journey from on-premises to cloud and see the transformational capabilities of the cloud for business enablement and competitive advantage.
Why do you need a cloud strategy?
With increasing cloud adoption, organizations are now looking for a cloud strategy to maximize their benefits. It’s a critical component of any organization’s IT strategy today. And with the increasing adoption of AI, data science, and machine learning, organizations are extending native technologies to their clouds to create and deploy scalable applications in modern hybrid and multi-cloud environments .
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Cloud native strategy has many benefits for organizations. It’s a comprehensive plan that ensures successful cloud adoption and operation at scale. A well-thought-out cloud native strategy saves costs , meets critical business milestones, and achieves your digital transformation objectives in a diverse cloud setup.
Organizations that don’t consider the best practices, tools, and services required to build a cloud native strategy risk driving up their costs and negatively impacting their customers. Here are a few reasons why you need a cloud native strategy
1. Become agile and save costs
Cloud-based solutions enable companies to scale resources up or down as needed, which is essential for ensuring that organizations can keep pace with their workloads and customers’ ever-increasing expectations. But it’s not just about speed – it’s also about cost.
Cloud solutions often reduce IT budgets while freeing internal resources to focus on high-value activities. This, in turn, leads to higher employee productivity, happier customers, and a lower rate of attrition among experienced IT professionals.
2. Align your vision and objectives
A cloud native strategy supports your goals and objectives – what you aim to achieve through your cloud adoption journey. It also aligns with your culture and overall vision. This helps you understand how you see yourself in the future and how different cloud environments can play a role in helping you reach your desired future state.
3. Select the right cloud platform(s)
One of the first considerations to make as part of your cloud native strategy is choosing the right cloud platform. Understanding business needs and goals help you find the best cloud solution.
With a clear strategy, you can easily estimate:
- Cloud costs , including acquisition costs and ongoing operational costs
- The security features you expect from a solution
- Scalability your cloud solution should offer
- Compliance and regulatory requirements it should meet
- Specific customer needs based on the industries you serve
4. Identify your cloud implementation plan
A cloud strategy roadmap is a plan that outlines the key steps and activities you’ll follow when implementing a cloud solution. It helps you understand the various activities involved in the cloud implementation process and provides a path to help you reach your desired outcomes.
Your cloud strategy includes this implementation roadmap and provides more information on:
- The current state of operations: What is your current state of operations? What challenges or bottlenecks do you face? What resources are currently being used?
- Cloud adoption strategy: How should your cloud adoption strategy align with the current state of operations? What should your cloud adoption strategy look like based on your goals and objectives?
- Cloud implementation roadmap: How should your cloud implementation roadmap align with the existing state of operations? What should your cloud implementation roadmap look like based on your cloud adoption strategy?
A cloud strategy plays a vital role in cloud adoption and migration, enabling organizations across industries to streamline processes, increase collaboration, and cut costs.
How to get started with a cloud strategy roadmap
Getting started with a cloud strategy roadmap can be a bit complex. Here’s a simple five-step checklist to ease some of the complexities and challenges involved in creating a roadmap.
1. Determine your company’s core needs
You can’t select the right service until you understand your company’s needs. The following questions can help guide you as you put together a shortlist of services that match your requirements:
- What are our core values and purpose?
- How will we use the service?
- What are our key metrics and KPIs?
- What are our customer expectations?
Suppose you’re in healthcare and need robust data-security protocols to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations. In that case, you might rule out most public cloud providers. A private cloud infrastructure (or a hybrid cloud approach) is a more appropriate solution.
2. Assess the tools at your disposal
Assessing the tools you currently use in the cloud is just as important as determining your core needs. This is because your current services will either help or hinder your efforts to reach new goals.
You can use cloud inventory tools to get a holistic view of your current cloud services. With these tools, you can take a snapshot of your existing cloud services and compare it with a shortlist of new services you’re considering.
What’s more?
You get a side-by-side analysis of what each service can do and its associated cost. Furthermore, a clear picture of your current services’ use helps determine if they’re compatible with new cloud offerings.
3. Define a roadmap with specific goals
Before shopping for new services, you should have a roadmap with specific goals. Let’s say you want to expand your global reach but are unsure where to start. You might decide to adopt an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution like Amazon Web Services (AWS).
With AWS, you can quickly scale up your infrastructure in the regions where your customers are located. You can also use the AWS Marketplace to find third-party services that provide localization, compliance, and cybersecurity services to meet your regulatory requirements.
4. Put together a proposal
Okay, so you’ve identified your needs, assessed the existing tools at your disposal, and have a roadmap with specific goals in mind. Now it’s time to put together a proposal for new services. We recommend using a spreadsheet to create a table comparing your current services with the new ones you’d like to adopt.
The table should have five columns.
- The current services
- The new services
- Reason for the change
- What changes the way we use the services
- Stakeholders responsible for each service
Let’s say you’re considering a managed file transfer service to replace a manual process that’s currently bogging down your operations team. Include how long the process takes, how many people it impacts, and what changes about the process if you adopt the new service. You should also include who’s responsible for implementing and maintaining the current and new processes.
5. Execute your business strategy and think ahead
Now that you’ve completed the five essential components of a cloud-computing strategy, it’s time to put your plan into action. It’s important to keep in mind that this is a fluid process. When you adopt a new cloud architecture, you should start thinking about the next business outcomes. The cloud is a dynamic landscape; to stay ahead in the game, you need to be nimble and open to change.
What are the benefits of a cloud strategy?
A cloud strategy allows a company to take advantage of cloud-based services without sacrificing security or control. It gives you a clear roadmap for how and when to adopt different services, helps keep pace with changing cloud technology, and minimizes risks.
If you’re struggling to decide whether the cloud is right for you, here are some benefits of using a cloud-first approach as part of an overall cloud adoption or migration plan.
1. The first step in a cloud adoption plan
Cloud adoption is not one-size-fits-all. Understanding how different parts of your business can benefit from specific cloud services is essential. A cloud strategy lays the foundation for how you can take advantage of specific cloud services based on your use cases. It also guides you on how to prioritize cloud investments and whether to invest in a managed service provider (MSP) for extra support.
A clear strategy can also help you understand if you need an internal IT staff dedicated to running cloud-based infrastructure, which cloud services you can use right now, and services you can implement in the future as you grow.
2. Helps you stay safe and secure
To take advantage of the benefits of the cloud, you need a safe and secure environment while using new technology. A cloud strategy can help you identify ways to mitigate the most common risks associated with cloud computing.
The biggest risk associated with cloud adoption is the loss of control of data. An organization’s data is often distributed across the cloud. This can raise the question of who has access to the data. Because the cloud has inherent security risks, organizations must be diligent about protecting their data. You can take many initiatives to minimize these risks and maintain a high level of security.
3. Provides a clear roadmap for future tech investments
As your organization grows, you need to invest more in different technologies to keep up with the demand. A cloud strategy can help you forecast these tech investments in infrastructure, security, and operations.
You can also forecast how much your infrastructure, security, and operations costs will increase over time. Cloud service providers charge for services like storage , computing power, and bandwidth. To forecast your future costs, you can determine how much you need to spend on these services.
4. Enables you to take advantage of changing technology
A cloud strategy allows you to adopt specific cloud services based on your company’s needs. You also have the flexibility to change services as your business evolves. A well-designed cloud strategy lets you understand which services to implement now and save for the future. Modernization in your tech stack and application development initiatives enables your DevOps to make use of the right tools and automation to deliver even more business value.
How does a cloud strategy roadmap work?
Building a cloud strategy roadmap is a great way to visualize the process you’ll follow to build your cloud solution. The roadmap can include key milestones, like when you plan to start interviewing potential vendors and information about each stage in the process.
Be sure to include the total cost of ownership and other relevant information like your team’s skill set and your current IT budget size. Your roadmap can help you stay on track and communicate your progress to senior leadership. Finally, make sure you share your roadmap with your team. Not only will this help keep everyone informed, but it will also give your team a sense of ownership over the project.
What are the challenges of a cloud strategy?
Cloud is not just a trend; it’s an ongoing and inevitable shift in how enterprises adopt and deploy technology to meet their business goals. Cloud services have become the de facto standard for nearly all businesses, from startups to established enterprises looking to optimize their IT infrastructure, lower operational costs, and increase agility. But for most organizations, moving to the cloud is not as simple as adopting a standard or private cloud deployment model.
Every organization must consider various factors and challenges with cloud migration .
1. Data security and compliance
Any move to the cloud will be a compliance risk, no matter how careful you are. More than just the risk of data being hacked, the risk is more around what happens if the company hosting your data goes out of business or gets acquired by another business with different data security standards.
For example, if you store your data with Amazon or another commercial cloud vendor, you need to set a different set of security and compliance controls compared to what you’re used to if you’re hosting that data on-premises. This necessitates having controls such as Hardware Security Module (HSM) based key management, encryption, and policies that follow strict government standards such as SOC 2, PCI, and HIPAA.
2. Managing change in culture and process
One of the biggest challenges with moving to the cloud is changing the culture around IT. As part of this change, you need to be agile, and shift and pivot on demand as business needs change. The days of mapping out every project to the finest detail and defining project timelines that extend over months or even years are over.
In the cloud, changes to project timelines are the norm. For example, when building out your new application in a public cloud environment, you can’t assume you will have the same number of servers simultaneously each day. Quickly responding to demand changes and adapting your application to these changes is a must. You should be able to spin up new resources and shut them down just as quickly.
3. Knowing which services to move to the cloud and keep on-premise
Not all services and applications should be hosted in the cloud. When migrating applications to the cloud, it’s important to ask yourself questions to help you make the right decision for each application.
- Do you have a consistent or unpredictable demand for the application? Hosting the app in the cloud makes sense if the app demand is unpredictable. If predictable, it may be best to keep it on-premises.
- Does the application need to be accessed when the business hours are? If your app needs consistent access, hosting it in the cloud may not be the best option.
- Do you have the data that must be on-premises to support the application? When you have the right data, you can offload that data to the cloud and keep the application on-premises.
4. IT staffing and talent shortage
If you’re struggling to attract and retain top IT talent, moving your IT operations to the cloud may not be the best decision. Moving to the cloud requires your IT team to learn new skills and have a different level of expertise.
If your team is already stretched thin and doesn’t have the bandwidth to take on the challenge of moving to the cloud, you may want to consider waiting until it has more capacity to take on the additional work. By waiting until your team can transition to the cloud, you can take advantage of the economies of scale that come with hosted services and products.
5. Network infrastructure challenges
Depending on how you architect your network, transitioning to the cloud may require you to make significant changes. You may need to upgrade your network hardware and software to support the additional demand that comes with supporting cloud services.
If you have old network architecture, it may not support the new demands of cloud services. In these cases, you may invest significantly in new hardware, software, and other resources to accommodate new cloud services. If you don’t make these changes before moving your services to the cloud, your new hosted services may run into capacity issues.
Summing up: 2 key things to remember for cloud strategy framework
If you want to transition to the cloud, you’re not alone. In fact, it’s become a common challenge for organizations of all sizes.
Monitor your cloud to identify performance bottlenecks
First consider if you need to make a move, and second, keep cost in mind.
Middleware is built to deliver just the right insight you need. With Middleware’s observability platform, you can operate confidently while keeping track of your costs.
To learn more about how Middleware can help you measure, monitor, and optimize your cloud spend — Request a demo today.
What is a Cloud strategy framework?
The phrase “cloud computing Framework” is a broad term. It lists all the tools and technical expertise needed to design, manage, and maintain cloud applications.
Explain Cloud strategy with an example?
It took 7 years for Netflix to transform its application and adopt microservices to move to AWS. End result was that compared to on-premise resource management, the restructured application structure increased service availability and decreased IT expenses.
What are Cloud Deployment models?
There are three main types of cloud deployment models: public, private, and hybrid.
- Public Cloud: Owned and operated by a third-party provider and made available to the public over the internet. You only pay for the resources you use.
- Private Cloud: Owned and operated by the company, and only authorized users within the organization to have access to them.
- Hybrid Cloud: Combines elements of both public and private clouds, allowing organizations to take advantage of the cost savings and scalability of public clouds.
What are 3 main cloud Delivery models?
- Host: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Example: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
It delivers computing infrastructure as on-demand services. User purchases servers, network equipment, software data center space, and rent those resources
- Build: Platform as a Service (PaaS) Example: SAP Cloud
It allows developers to build applications and services on the internet and the deployment models include public, private and hybrid.
- Consume: Software as a Service (SaaS) Example: Hubspot
It is a software delivery model where cloud provider
What is a cloud-first strategy?
It means you take advantage of the economies of scale offered by cloud hosting providers like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, etc. Your developers build, deploy, and can more readily scale to meet the ever-growing demand placed on your company.
A Cloud-First Strategy ensures:
- Observability
- Configurability
- Lower costs
- Scalability
- Reproducibility
- Reliability
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Cloud Computing Strategy
Cloud computing tutorial index.
There is no inadequacy of Cloud Computing technology-based services of users are financially ready. Also we all love the free stuffs which cloud provide users are often useful than paid ones. Cloud is considered as the most cheapest, faster and easy-to-use technology and is undoubtedly considered as the rescuer for almost every business these days. With the constantly increasing cost of data storage solutions, it's getting tough for the business holders of small as well as large-scale enterprises to invest. In cases like this, the cloud technology seems to be the most feasible solution.
Strategic Planning
Before investing the money for Cloud computing & deploying cloud applications users must necessarily consider the requirements, strategically plan them for business needs.
Strategic Phase
Planning phase.
Here the problem analysis & risk analysis for switching to cloud technology is checked to ensure whether the customer is satisfied in meeting their business goals or not.
Deployment Phase
Factors to be consider before investing in cloud.
Many IT firms and companies want to revolutionize their infrastructure & technology; Cloud computing became a boon for them. It is undeniable that cloud technology changed the modern scenario of technology, but it is also a truth that there are certain concerns (such as: security, fast internet connection etc) that shows its drawbacks. So as users who will invest their money on cloud technology, they have to consider every aspect thoroughly.
Strategy Life Cycle
- Cloud Services and Solutions We are cloud agnostic. We’ll recommend the cloud solution that best meets workload requirements – and manage each platform.
- Managed Public Cloud Multicloud and hybrid solutions Azure Managed Services AWS Managed Services
- Hosted Private Cloud Hyperconverged (HCI) and dedicated, single-tenant cloud resources
- Multitenant Cloud Secure, enterprise-level solution on shared infrastructure
- Cloud Connectivity / On Ramps High-performance on ramps between our data centers and public clouds
- Applications Managed application services can improve efficiency and reduce OpEx with highly experienced experts and up-to-date technology solutions.
- SAP Managed Services Design, implementation, management, security, and private cloud services
- Virtual Desktops Consistent and high-performance desktop environments – from anywhere
- Microsoft 365 Secure, optimized applications for productivity and collaboration across your unique workforce
- Security Customize your security solution for a multilayered approach to safeguarding your environment.
- CleanIP NGFW (Next-Generation Firewall) Secure your business with less complexity and more visibility
- CleanIP XDR (Extended Detection and Response) Real-time, holistic view of your IT environment with response options
- CleanIP MMFA Managed multi-factor authentication for secure and streamlined logins
- CleanIP AV Endpoint anti-virus keeps your organization up and running
- WAF & DDoS Web Application Firewall and DDoS Defense defend against next-gen threats
- Compliance Helping ensure regulatory compliance across multiple industries
- Advisory & Consulting Our experts are in your corner, ready to help your team address evolving needs with consulting, solution design, and migration services.
- Hybrid Cloud Consulting Identify the right mix of cloud solutions to fit your workloads
- Security Consulting Identify vulnerabilities and optimize your security posture while meeting compliance requirements
- BC/DR Consulting Build an implementation plan for business continuity and disaster recovery
- Application Modernization Lower costs and gain advantages for your business with advanced technologies
- Data & Analytics Capture the intelligence in your data
- DevOps Select the right strategy, tools, and platforms to accelerate time-to-market
- Disaster Recovery Avoid unexpected interruptions to operations and protect your data from cyber threats.
- Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) Ensure resiliency for your applications, data, and infrastructure Zerto Nutanix Leap vCloud Director Availability RecoverPoint for VMs
- Backup as a Service (BaaS) Enterprise-grade backup protection powered by Commvault
- Veeam Cloud Connect Extend your Veeam backup infrastructure with hosted offsite backups
- Managed Services You don’t have to delay those strategic projects. TierPoint managed services take day-to-day management tasks off your team’s plate.
- Database Management High availability, data protection, and performance management for MySQL and SQL databases
- Help Desk Services Best-in-class, U.S.-based technical professionals provide 24×7 multi-tiered support
- OS Management Keep your servers up to date, patched, optimized and available – to ensure optimal performance, security and uptime
- Colo & Data Center Services TierPoint data center services enable uptime and availability, compliance, and various connectivity options to reach your business goals.
- Colocation Maximize availability, minimize risk and realize cost savings when you deploy hardware in our state-of-the-art facilities
- Remote Hands Offload routine tasks and easily manage and monitor them from afar
- Network Services Access a spectrum of redundant, carrier-diverse connections and hyperscale cloud providers
- Business Continuity Workspace Secondary workspace to keep employees productive during a disaster or disruption
- IBM Managed Services Our world-class team of IBM-certified solutions experts deliver comprehensive 24/7/365 management for your mainframe and IBM Power Systems workloads.
- IBM Power Systems Management, maintenance, and SLAs for IBM Power Operating Systems (IBM i and AIX) production and recovery environments
- IBM Mainframe (z) Monitoring and infrastructure management ensure consistent performance for production and recovery workloads
- Little Rock Data Center
- Waterbury Data Center
- Jacksonville Data Center
- Chicago - Polk Data Center
- Chicago – West Data Center
- Kansas City - Lenexa Data Center
- Baltimore Data Center
- Baltimore - BWI Data Center
- Boston - Andover Data Center
- Boston - Marlborough Data Center
- Kansas City Data Center
- St. Louis - Millpark Data Center
- St. Louis - Olive Data Center
- Omaha - Bellevue Data Center
- Omaha - Midlands Data Center
- New York – Hawthorne Data Centers
- Charlotte - North Myers Data Center
- Charlotte - Center Park Data Center
- Raleigh Data Center
- Raleigh - RTP Data Center
- Oklahoma City Data Centers
- Tulsa - Archer Data Center
- Tulsa - State Farm Data Center
- Allentown - TekPark Data Center
- Bethlehem Data Center
- Lehigh Valley Data Center
- Philadelphia Data Center
- Valley Forge Data Center
- Sioux Falls - East Data Center
- Sioux Falls - West Data Center
- Nashville Data Center
- Dallas Data Center
- Dallas-Allen Data Center
- Seattle Data Center
- Spokane Data Centers
- Milwaukee Data Center
- Pricing Guidance
- Why Tierpoint
Guides / The Strategic Guide to Cloud Computing
The Strategic Guide to Cloud Computing
Cloud fundamentals, what is cloud computing, the benefits of cloud computing, types of cloud platforms.
- What is multicloud?
How a cloud computing strategy enables digital transformation
Cloud computing service models, is the cloud secure, getting started.
- Cloud Adoption Strategy: An Approach To IT Modernization
How to migrate to the cloud
5 things to look for in a cloud service provider, finding cloud expertise and solutions.
Cloud data centers processed 94% of workloads in 2021.
Businesses embarking on digital transformation and modernization projects need to make big decisions about their infrastructure, data, and applications. This is where cloud computing comes in.
With all types of clouds options out there, many businesses get overwhelmed and struggle to find what they need. Do they need a single cloud environment for data and applications? What about multicloud and hybrid clouds? Will the public cloud serve their needs?
Our guide will help you learn everything you need to know about the cloud, how to choose the right cloud services for your business, and what to look for in a best-in-class cloud provider.
Cloud computing, often referred to as “the cloud”, allows users to access computing services and resources (including servers, storage, databases, and applications) over the Internet instead of on a personal computer or local server.
Fast Facts About the Surge of Cloud Adoption
$1.3 trillion.
IT spending affected by shift to the cloud by 2022.
$623.3 Billion
Global Cloud Market by 2023
$266 Billion
Global public cloud market size in 2020
of businesses use hybrid cloud
Cloud computing supports innovation and business agility. Leveraging cloud computing can help your business gain the competitive advantage.
9 benefits of cloud computing
Cost Effectiveness
You may have applications and workloads that aren’t compatible with cloud computing. Migrating legacy workloads into a colocation facility is a big step in the right direction toward achieving greater resilience, availability and security for legacy applications and their sensitive data.
Data and Application Security
Cloud computing providers have the scale to hire high-demand cloud security professionals, and the expertise and resources to implement best-practice controls, policies, and technologies for cloud security.
Speed to Market
A virtual machine creates a cloud server with any operating system. Ready-made software development platforms let software engineers provision an environment and deploy applications quickly.
Availability
Redundant infrastructure, cloud security, and 99.99% uptime service level agreements deliver high-availability cloud environments.
Scalability
Cloud computing lets you right-size your compute, cloud storage, and network bandwidth – up, down, or off – whenever your business needs change and wherever you may need the resources geographically.
Resiliency and disaster recovery
Cloud-based Disaster Recovery solutions enable replication and failover to an alternate location to bypass local disruptions.
Increased Productivity
Cloud resources and managed cloud service providers let your business achieve more with fewer in-house resources. Your IT staff can focus on the goals of your business, instead of maintaining IT infrastructure.
Cloud providers innovate rapidly, enabling access to the latest technology. And using the cloud lets your internal IT team be strategic and focused on innovation, instead of tending your infrastructure.
Improved Performance
High-performance computing, fast communication networks, and local edge computing are among the many ways cloud computing reduces latency and improves performance.
Public clouds, private clouds, and hybrid clouds are the three main types of cloud platforms. When choosing the right cloud – or clouds – you must consider the unique needs of your organization and workloads. It is important to understand the value provided by each type of cloud, as well as how each platform can meet the needs of different applications.
Public cloud and hyperscale cloud
Public clouds provide a pool of virtual resources that are owned and managed by a third-party provider and shared by customers in a multitenant environment. The world’s largest public cloud services offer hyperscale clouds that deliver the highest scalability. Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Google Cloud platforms are well-known hyperscale public cloud vendors.
Public clouds are cost-effective for companies that want to avoid purchasing, managing, and maintaining on-premises hardware. All management and maintenance of infrastructure and services are the responsibility of the cloud service provider.
Public clouds are ideal for organizations that have needs related to big data, media and collaboration, e-commerce, and specialty workloads, or that have highly variable workloads that need to scale .
Some managed service providers have relationships with public cloud providers, giving their clients access to a public cloud without the effort of setting it up and managing it.
Private cloud
Sometimes businesses don’t want to share. With a private cloud, your organization can accelerate digital transformation with dedicated resources, security, application control, and regulatory compliance. Private clouds can be managed by internal resources or by a third-party provider.
Additionally, they can be hosted internally (on-premises) or in a third-party data center. Depending on your provider, your hosted private cloud can be located near your offices in a local cloud data center or closer to your customers.
Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) Many organizations are opting to leverage hyper converged infrastructure (HCI) platforms with their private clouds to accelerate implementation, scale rapidly, and simplify operations. A hyperconverged infrastructure is a software-defined solution that combines compute, network, and storage together into a single system.
You may also like: Hyperconvergence vs. Convergence: Benefits, Differences and Use Cases
Deploying a hyperconverged infrastructure gives a private cloud the elasticity of a public cloud. Because it is software-enabled, users can spin up new resources quickly and easily.
Research firm Gartner predicts that as much as 20% of business-critical applications currently deployed on three-tier IT infrastructure will transition to hyperconverged infrastructure by 2020.
When deploying a private cloud, look to vendors such as Nutanix, VMware, and Dell EMC for industry-leading HCI platforms, or to a cloud service provider that can deploy and support these technologies. Learn how Hyperconverged Infrastructure works with a Hosted Private Cloud .
Which Cloud Is Right for You?
Learn about your cloud options and how to choose the right one.
What is Multicloud and Hybrid cloud computing?
What is hybrid cloud computing.
Hybrid cloud is the use of cloud with other technologies, cloud or non-cloud. It refers to a broader strategy. A hybrid cloud strategy may include multiple clouds, but a multicloud strategy isn’t necessarily hybrid. Hybrid cloud includes multicloud and non-cloud technologies. Specifically, the phrase non-cloud in the hybrid cloud definitions includes on-premises or colocated infrastructure and hardware not used in conjunction with a cloud platform.
Hybrid clouds are common, as are hybrid IT strategies. The majority (58%) of companies use or plan to adopt a hybrid mix of cloud and non-cloud infrastructure, while 12% use or plan to use a mix of clouds.
Four common uses of hybrid cloud are:
Replication and failover for disaster recovery and business continuity
Archiving and data storage for storage tiering, backup retention, and data lakes
Managing spikes in demand on bursting workloads
Spinning up new software development environments
What is multicloud computing?
Sometimes one cloud won’t serve all of your data and application needs. There is no “one size fits all.” Many businesses are looking to multicloud deployments to support their diverse workloads.
Multicloud (the use of multiple clouds) is now the norm, because one cloud typically isn’t the best for all workloads . With multicloud you can pick and choose the best execution venue (BEV) for each workload and application.
Increased cloud options (59%) and easier and faster disaster recovery (40%) are two big benefits of multicloud, according to IDG .
Multicloud environments are usually interoperable, as shown in these multicloud trends :
25% of organizations will deliver a single business function across multiple clouds – that is, hybrid cloud computing, which requires interoperability.
35% of organizations expect to migrate workloads or data among multiple clouds, which also requires interoperability.
40% of multicloud implementations will have no or minimal interoperability.
Four common uses of multicloud are:
To support specific business needs, such as edge computing
To use hyperscale resources for disaster recovery, storage, bursting workloads, and dev-test
As a by-product of a merger or acquisition, when each organization depends upon applications hosted in different clouds
As a result of subscribing to SaaS cloud applications hosted in different clouds
Multiple clouds can multiply complexity . A multicloud strategy often requires additional IT skill sets such as cloud security and cloud connectivity.
Hiring all the IT skills you need for multicloud can be problematic, because it’s a full-time job to maintain knowledge of a single hyperscale cloud. Many multicloud adopters will choose an experienced 3rd party cloud provider to handle management for them.
Where Are You on the Path to a Modernized Data Center?
Learn how to achieve IT flexibility.
Cloud computing is the foundation of digital transformation strategy for 62% of mid-market companies.
Digital transformation refers to the investment in and development of new technologies, mindsets, and business models to deliver new and relevant value for customers and employees in an ever-evolving digital economy.
Depending on where a company is on its IT journey, transformation can mean different things. But if you aren’t looking at ways to use technology to better serve customers, you can be sure your competitors are. One constant is that digital transformation is supported by cloud computing.
Organizations choose their cloud services and cloud providers based on the needs of each application and workload, making multicloud and hybrid cloud computing the new normal. Often, one cloud isn’t the best for all workloads: Placement depends on a range of factors, including lifecycle stages, usage patterns, application behavior characteristics, data criticality, and data sovereignty.
Learn more about digital transformation:
Enterprise IT Shifts Off-Premises, Fueled by Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation Options with Microsoft Azure
Cloud Services and Healthcare’s Digital Transformation
At a glance: Digital transformation is driving cloud adoption
Companies with a digital transformation strategy
Technology spending used for digital transformation
Organizations where cloud adoption is driven by digital transformation
Organizations that say their cloud strategy is essential for competitiveness
IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS are the three main models of cloud computing services. Each model represents a different part of the cloud computing stack and each has its own benefits and use cases.
It’s necessary to understand the differences among the three in order to select the right model for your workloads and organization. Cloud computing services differ depending on the level of abstraction. Which of these statements best matches your needs?
I want virtual machines and storage resources that I’ll set up and manage (IaaS)
I want a ready-to-use development platform for creating, testing, and delivering applications (PaaS)
I want to use a ready-made cloud-based application (SaaS)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS delivers the most basic elements of a cloud: servers and VMs, operating systems, storage, and networking.
You can manage IaaS resources as you would your own hardware, or you can engage a managed cloud services provider.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS provides a convenient software development environment to develop, test, deliver, and manage applications.
The PaaS provider delivers middleware, development tools, database management systems, and analytics for your use.
You develop and manage your applications and data.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
With SaaS, you rent a ready-made application. The SaaS vendor delivers cost-effective standardized functionality to large groups of geographically distributed users.
Popular Uses
Popular uses for IaaS
Cloud servers for websites and media
Creating a virtual data center
Compute-intensive applications
Popular uses for PaaS
Software development
Analytics or business intelligence (BI)
Popular uses for SaaS
Collaborative platforms
Sales and field support
AWS Microsoft Azure
PaaS examples
AWS Elastic Beanstalk Azure App Service or Dev Ops
SaaS examples
Office 365 Salesforce
Software + Services is a related application delivery model.
Data security is a major concern for every organization. As you plan your cloud strategy, ensure robust security solutions are built into every facet of your deployment.
Despite eagerness to adopt cloud services, security remains a top concern for many organizations, particularly when they’re considering a multicloud strategy. But cloud computing can be secure when companies move thoughtfully and carefully with a formal cloud policy.
Cloud security requires vigilance on the part of both your organization and your cloud service provider . Sometimes, however, in their rush to multicloud deployments, businesses do not fully embed security into their plans. In other cases, in-house IT professionals may not have the time or expertise to stay on top of security monitoring.
Working with a partner that has cloud security expertise can improve protection, lower costs, and speed implementation and deployment. In addition to offering managed security as a service, cloud service providers should ensure cloud security by design through technologies and techniques such as:
Logical isolation
Role-based access control
Encryption for data at rest and in transit
System hardening and DDoS protection
24x7x365 monitoring
Physical data center security
Know the top cloud security threats
Learn how to protect your business from viruses, DDoS attacks, and cyberthieves.
Migrating to the cloud is often considered an essential step in digitally transforming a business. The cloud can enable future business opportunities, increased productivity in both your internal and customer systems, and has many other benefits. But which cloud (or clouds) is right for your workloads, applications and data?
A cloud readiness assessment is a critical first step to help you identify the right cloud migration strategy for your business. Is your organization preparing to move one or more workloads to a cloud or to a different cloud? Like any IT and business investment, cloud migration requires analysis and planning to reduce risk. Just as no IT department would buy network hardware without considering the rest of the network, a cloud readiness assessment evaluates cloud services as interdependent investments.
What is a cloud readiness assessment?
Start planning your cloud migration with a cloud readiness assessment , which involves an analysis of your organization’s current and future cloud needs.
Out of the assessment, you should receive a customized cloud road map, a right-sized cloud design with estimated cost of ownership (TCO) and ROI, and a cloud migration plan based on IT dependencies. A cloud readiness assessment should consider and evaluate:
- Existing IT applications and infrastructure
- Security and compliance requirements
Current and projected computing workloads
- Business processes
- Internal IT human resources
- Future business goals
- Estimated costs
You may also like: 4 Elements of an Effective Cloud Migration Strategy
We can help you plan for the cloud
Learn how a cloud readiness assessment can reduce risk.
Many organizations find digital transformation and cloud migration challenging due to a shortage of cloud expertise skills. In a recent 451 Research survey, 57% of respondents are feeling the pain of this skills gap, with 30% struggling to find and recruit the right talent to support their cloud initiatives. Many providers out there can help, but how do you know if you’re getting the right expertise? Consider these five areas when choosing a cloud provider.
1. The multicloud and hybrid cloud expertise you (will) need
Even if you don’t need a multicloud or a hybrid cloud yet, it’s likely you will, and probably sooner than you might expect.
Look for a cloud provider with the right partners and expertise with multiple clouds, cloud security, and managed services; they can design and manage all your clouds, from a single-cloud deployment to a multi-vendor multicloud.
2. Disaster recovery and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)
Cloud computing can deliver improved disaster recovery and business continuity by lowering recovery times and reducing data loss.
A cloud service provider (CSP) with DRaaS expertise can design a cloud infrastructure that meets your recovery point objectives and recovery time objectives, and manage and test your DR processes so you know your disaster recovery plan will work when you need it.
3. Highest levels of availability, performance, security, and connectivity
Your business will depend on the quality of your cloud. The best cloud service providers offer robust and redundant communications networks, resiliency and guaranteed uptime, scalable infrastructure , physical and operational security, and certifications of compliance.
In addition, a provider that can provide on-ramps to the major public cloud providers is critical as multicloud and hybrid infrastructures become more prevalent.
4. Location, location, location
Your business has a geographical component. To minimize latency, you may want a cloud near your headquarters or near your customers. A cloud data center located in another region can improve resilience in disaster recovery, or you can physically visit a locally hosted private cloud service.
5. Breadth of managed services and variety of IT cloud solutions
If you’d like to acquire cloud expertise or offload routine management tasks, look for a provider that offers a variety of cloud environments and the services you need.
A CSP can provide services from cloud architecture design to security as a service, from database administration to patch management and systems monitoring, and more. One with experience in your industry could provide additional value.
Getting started on your journey to the right cloud solution for your business doesn’t need to be difficult. TierPoint’s team of cloud advisors can help you to work through your cloud strategy and consider your options. We help in three ways:
Enabling digital transformation.
Enabling digital transformation initiatives for our customers is a key focus at TierPoint. We provide managed cloud solutions built on best-in-class technology and backed by a dedicated team of cloud experts.
Customizing cloud solutions for you
Our hosted private cloud, multitenant cloud, hybrid cloud, and public cloud solutions can help your organization improve performance, manage costs, maintain compliance, and enable disaster recovery.
Providing responsive partnership
With a customer-first mindset, TierPoint is a responsive partner that will be involved in the entire planning, implementation, and maintenance of your cloud solution. You’ll get 24×7 support from our available and responsive cloud experts.
Managed cloud solutions designed for your business
Hosted Private Cloud
Move to the cloud and maintain control.
Multitenant Cloud
Scale your IT infrastructure quickly and cost-effectively.
Hybrid Cloud
Get the cloud configuration that’s right for you.
Managed Azure
We’ll work with you to make the transition easy.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Accelerate business transformation with AWS.
Deploy your hardware in our state-of-the-art data centers.
Take The Next Step
Let TierPoint help you create the high-availability, high-performing cloud strategy that is right for your business objectives and budget.
Steps to Plan a Cloud Strategy
Sunny Samanta
Cloud computing is the technology that enables users to store and access their data and programs over the internet instead of relying on computers or external hard drives. Today, cloud computing has gained significant importance. It provides extensive flexibility and cost management to its users who otherwise may have to stay limited or spend more money for storing extra data. Furthermore, the cloud infrastructure improves energy efficiency and supports environmental needs effectively by reducing paper waste, physical products, and hardware. Besides, it provides high-end security as well. The economics of cloud computing permits its users to store much data at a low-cost people. It has successfully convinced many people to take up a cloud service provider. However, while people can comfortably use cloud computing services , not many are aware of the importance of planning a cloud strategy.
Importance of Planning a Cloud Strategy
Currently, there are several cloud services available over the internet. However, data analysts and researchers have shown that only a few have witnessed significant growth through cloud services. One of the critical findings contributing to various cloud service providers' success and failure was a cloud strategy. Most cloud service providers have focused primarily on delivering a straightforward "Cloud-First Approach." While the process did provide them with initial impetus, it lacked sustainability and retention capabilities in the long run as others have had better cloud services. The better cloud services come directly with a better cloud strategy. Hence, a cloud strategy is essential, but what is a cloud strategy?
Cloud Strategy
Cloud strategy is essentially a method or guide that allows an organization to balance the essentials of cloud services while maintaining risk exposure and usability. Furthermore, it increases the visibility and branding of a cloud service. However, the process of managing the internal and external services in cloud computing can become overwhelming. But the lack of it can leave any cloud service provider with less guidance, more maintenance cost, and a poorly configured environment that eventually pushes away the cloud service users. Therefore it is also essential to plan a suitable economics of cloud computing strategy to reap more benefits from it.
Cloud strategies have become instrumental in providing a competitive edge to an enterprise providing cloud services. However, enterprises must not rely on a blue-printed cloud strategy cause there is none. Different cloud service providers may have additional requirements and can further help to address poor cloud computing behaviors too. However, all of them can follow these six steps to plan a cloud strategy that can work for them effectively.
Decide the Business Objectives
The first and foremost step involved in planning a cloud strategy is to define your business objectives. Once the business objectives get set, it can define realistic goals from it and decide business capabilities. Furthermore, it can even help align future cloud strategies through targets and measures it needs to meet in an organization or enterprise.
Assess the IT Architecture
While focusing on the technical aspects of setting up a cloud strategy is critically important, one must ignore the architecture. A cloud computing system will not deliver on the planned business objectives without taking the business architecture into the technical implementation roadmap. So, please focus on the analysis part of business IT architecture is essential to help improvise and rework the existing roadmap towards a flawless cloud implementation.
Future State Analysis
One of the reasons cloud strategy is important is its ability to provide long-term benefits and growth to a cloud business. It is why a future state analysis is essential as it helps to develop a vision that positively impacts the business processes of the cloud deployment. Future state analysis must include cloud security, account authentication, and confidentiality of the user identification.
Fit-Gap Analysis
The fit-gap analysis allows cloud services to identify any gaps or issues that can affect the cloud services. It requires an in-depth assessment of the cloud investment and architectural planning to evaluate and streamline the planned cloud strategy's secure and dependable implementation.
Risk Assessment
Once the business objectives are defined, and all the fit-gap analyses and future state analyses are considered, the organization must assess the risk involved in the cloud strategy implementation. A risk-aware cloud strategy can potentially be the difference-maker in finalizing the success and failure of the cloud business. A business risk assessment critically involves two types of risk which are:
Delivery Risk involves failing to deliver the required capabilities because of poor project management, lack of clarity, and unreliable vendors.
Benefit-Risk: It involves mainly the lack of awareness of the business depth that can bring immense benefits. It occurs due to the improper alignment of the business with the IT department, undefined metrics, and improper technical standards.
Implementation Plan
It is the final step in planning a cloud strategy to deliver viable quality and high-end cloud computing services to the users and gain benefits and an edge in the cloud market. A proper cloud implementation requires establishing a management framework that can effectively arrange and distribute the cloud functionalities to deploy an integrated cloud strategy.
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Cloud Computing Strategy & Planning
Cloud computing planning and strategy services.
Your technology decisions today will impact your business for years to come.
Changing technologies cost money, takes time, and disrupts operations. Having a long term vision and plan helps you make tactical decisions that you won’t need to undue later.
Phases of Cloud Computing Planning
Before deploying cloud applications, it is critical to first consider your business requirements through a thorough cloud computing planning and strategy phase. In this phase, we examine the factors that influence customers when cloud computing solutions are applied to the key problems you want to solve. We can then assist you in developing a long-term strategy to meet your business objectives. Finally, we act and begin a focused transition from current business functions to managed cloud computing solutions.
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IMAGES
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COMMENTS
6 Steps for Planning a Cloud Strategy · Step 1: Design cloud strategies for speed and business value · Step 2: Prioritize a primary provider in
Cloud Computing Strategy Planning ... The strategy establishment is based on the analysis result of the above step. In this step, a strategy document is prepared
The right planning strategy is imperative to getting your plan to be operational. So, you need to look at the technical components, the business strategy, and
Cloud Computing Strategy Planning: An Example Of Moving A Legacy Application To The Cloud · Lift and shift/rehost the application in the cloud · Adopt a culture
Factors To Be Considered Before Planning : ... Phases of cloud computing planning : Cloud computing planning majorly comprises three phases i.e..
A cloud strategy is a plan that outlines the best practices, tools, and services to use when implementing a cloud solution. It's a vital tool
Strategy planning of Cloud technology: Based on analysis of value proposition, the strategy is established; and the strategy documentation is made according to
Start planning your cloud migration with a cloud readiness assessment, which involves an analysis of your organization's current and future cloud needs. Out of
The first and foremost step involved in planning a cloud strategy is to define your business objectives. Once the business objectives get set
Before deploying cloud applications, it is critical to first consider your business requirements through a thorough cloud computing planning and strategy