A day rarely goes by when I am not asked about the infamous “Cloud” by a customer, colleague or manufacturer. Many companies have latched on to the term “cloud” as a way to benefit from the market popularity. But not everything that is called a “cloud” actually meets the true definition.
This has created a well of confusion. So many leaders cannot understand what the cloud is, let alone what parts of their business could benefit from being in the cloud. Then there’s the off shoot of the cloud, like fog computing and the intercloud, to further complicate the matter.
Not One Size
While I know I’ve said it before, it’s important to repeat: Not everything should be in the cloud. A move to the cloud could hamper or even halt performance, increase costs and hurt the end-user experience, when it’s not used properly.
Only a very small number of businesses can operate solely in the cloud. The majority of businesses need a combination of the cloud and on-premise or off-premise solutions. We typically use the term “Hybrid Cloud.”
Purchasing rack space somewhere off site, for an example, is not a cloud solution. Taking your own equipment and information to a data center is known as co-locating. That’s different than cloud computing like Saleforce.com, where you pay for the computing you use and scale it up and down as needed.
An Evaluation Process
The confusion actually led Marco to recently develop a detailed pre-qualification process and engage our dedicated cloud specialist early in the sales process. We ask a series of detailed questions to help our customers determine what works best for their environments.
Here are six of the key considerations to achieve proof of concept before you make the move:
- Bandwidth: What are your bandwidth requirements?
Most are surprised by this. We often take bandwidth for granted. Cloud computing bandwidth requirements are a function of the Internet or the organization’s connectivity to the data center. Some applications and tasks demand more bandwidth than others. Understanding your organization’s bandwidth needs to function well every day will help determine if you can maintain performance in the cloud.
- Users: What is the average and peak number of users on the network?
This has a direct impact on performance and the end user experience. Peak volumes, future projections for growth, types of users and user behaviors all need to be understood. Can your cloud provider scale down as well as up to meet the business demands?
- Operability: Will your application, specifically lines of business software, work in the cloud?
Lines of business software pose the most challenge in the cloud because not all of them have been developed to work in a cloud environment. It’s important to ask vendors if the software can function properly in a cloud.
- Software Support: Will the vendor for your line of business software support it in the cloud?
The answer is often no. So, it’s important to ask vendors up front.
- Integration: What applications need to talk to each other?
One line of business software may operate fine in the cloud and even get the support from the vendor. But it needs to share information with another application that does not work in the cloud. The result: A communication breakdown.
- Switches Servers & Security: What switches and servers do you have in place and what is your current WAN environment?
This is where it really starts getting technical. All the pieces need to work together and it does not all happen naturally – unfortunately. So much of what we do in business today is technology dependent. Often we do not even realize it. Understanding these technicalities is essential to mapping out the best environment – inside and outside of the cloud.
The Right Move
Is the cloud right for my business? It’s not a one-sized, cut and dry answer. Like any technology solution, there are a series of variables that need to be considered to determine if the cloud is the right choice.
