You as an organization have heard a lot about the benefits of cloud and want to move on cloud. This would certainly be a major change and lot of thinking should go into it. We would help you with a 10 point approach on the points to ponder before moving to cloud.
1. Ask do I need to be on cloud? Moving on to cloud is a huge change an organization would go through. So before deciding to be on the cloud to keep up with the Jones, you should check whether you really need to be on the cloud. Look at your existing systems and understand the modus operandi. Try to think and analyze how and where the cloud implementation would help in your nature of work
2. Work out the cost of operating cost in the traditional way: Determine the cost of operating in the current way. While calculating this, it’s best to go do it project by project and then include the other costs which may be common to all the projects.
3. Determine the cost of moving to cloud: Moving to cloud entails certain costs like educating the employee, expenses involved in moving every application on to the cloud among others.
4. Calculate how much it would cost of operations on the cloud: You need to compute the cost of moving all their applications on to the cloud. At this point, they should consider whether all their applications need to be moved or certain aspects need to be moved and work out the cost and differences accordingly.
5. Decide on the level of virtualization required: Once you decide on the quantum of work that is going to be done through, you have to decide about the virtualisation. You have choose what sought of virtualisation will work best for you and amount that is required.
6. Freeze the requirements: Before deciding on the cloud vendor, you should also determine the performance parameters that will help you to narrow down on the vendors. Some of these could be like Service Levels Performance Levels (Applications, Networks and others) Cloud Performance Levels
7. Call on the vendors for quote: You select a few vendors who offer the level of services as per your need. Then invite quote by giving your requirements. Give special emphasis on Cost involved in moving in a phased manner and at one go. Also, check on the running expenses in the coming years. The quotes should also include rates based on the combinations of usage/ applications and storage and number of users.
8. Review the cost vs. benefit: From the quotes the actual costs from the vendor, it’s possible to determine the actual cost of cloud computing for your organization. Once this figure is available, compare it against figure drawn up by you. Check if it’s actually beneficial to be on the cloud. A quick analysis of vendors available in the market to meet your requirements You should also be able to determine the current usage, number of applications you run, storage used, storage buffer you maintain, CPU memory usage and DR costs you incur Current resource levels, costs and others Cost all above requirements if you were to implement everything in house
9. Vendor selection and setting up process: Select the vendor who best suits your requirements. Also decide on the cloud type best suited for you whether it’s Public cloud, private cloud or hybrid. We would suggest that you go hybrid and then choose to go public or private as it’s required. Also, set up all the guidelines required to monitor the work done through cloud.
10. Implementing cloud: Job done through experts would always come out better than an amateur. Therefore, we recommend that you use cloud implementation experts to move on to cloud. Before commencing implementation, draw up a plan with timelines to moving on cloud.
This is the plan that should be followed while migrating to cloud. The move to cloud and jobs done through cloud should be monitored by the preset guidelines. Following these steps would make the transition on to the cloud a very smooth one. To conclude, we want you to be sure that need to be on cloud so that you can make the best use of cloud computing benefits.
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