FINAL WORD
Martin Davies , Principal Consultant , Sungard Availability Services programme . One that de-risks or mitigates the risk to ongoing business-as-usual . They must also understand what they currently have and how existing applications are run . For example , which applications are critical and what are all the dependencies that make them work ?
They should also evaluate and understand what options are available to them . This can include working with a trusted partner who can ask the key questions that will help improve outcomes and reduce risk in your choice of platform ( s ). Once they know these factors , they can architect their new structure and journey accordingly .
Companies must take time to find the approach and cloud platform that suits them best . strong level of governance and control – heading off problems like shadow IT .
Another barrier is this idea of ‘ bill shock ’, the difference between owning the platform and its costs and leasing space , bandwidth and a ‘ pay for what you use ’ model . Bill shock can be particularly painful when an application or service has been moved to an incorrect platform . This can be for all the right reasons , but the platform does not properly meet the way a particular application works . For example , take an application that a business decides to move to a public cloud and is dependent on moving a lot of data in and out of the cloud . It is free to put data into the cloud , but there is a cost to take data out . When the company owned the infrastructure , there was no cost outside of the initial hardware and network cost and some maintenance . The cloud model is different , meaning the business ends up with a cost that it was not expecting for something that works pretty much as it did before .
It may need to be addressed in stages . Moving an application that has predictable workloads to a private cloud , for example , may provide a useful stepping stone for a longer term move to a public platform such as AWS or Azure a couple of years down the line . The main thing to remember is there are many ways to get to the cloud and the journey need not be daunting with a pragmatic and informed approach .
How to overcome the barriers
The solution to many of these challenges often comes down to culture and people . The alignment between business and technology certainly benefits from having a strong technology presence at board level . This sees off a lot of issues . Not only does it help bring IT closer to the business as a primary enabler of key business objectives , but it also ensures that there is a
This can be averted by understanding your existing application , how it works , what its dependencies are and its constructs so you can ask if it is suitable a ) for the cloud and b ) for which type of cloud configuration .
Don ’ t be left behind
Changing crucial elements of how a business is run is daunting and moving to the cloud can very much fall into this category . However , the far greater fear should be the danger of being left behind as cloud investments continue to accelerate . Companies must take time to find the approach and cloud platform that suits them best . This can help make those perceived barriers feel a little smaller . By having a strong technology presence at board level and with the company decision-makers , key business objectives can be met by making the move . p
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