Why cloud computing strategy is important?
According to Gartner, only two-thirds of enterprises sport a documented cloud strategy, because, for a good many of them, the idea of cloud is still so perplexing.
However, cloud strategy will become the dominant choice for many enterprises in the next decade, and they will move on to refactoring many of their existing applications.
With a cloud strategy, you can be definitive about the outcome of your business goals, but you need to understand the differences faces of cloud computing. Enterprises are slowly migrating from on-premise data centers to the public cloud.
Enterprises have put in a good amount of their total IT spending in public cloud. Public cloud spending today is 5 percent of total IT spending, but it will grow much faster than internal IT spending through 2020, due to new initiatives as well as the migration of existing legacy systems.
A broad range of enterprises is attracted by the benefits extended by cloud computing because when employed in the right manner, the benefits to be reaped are aplenty. Business groups have enjoyed faster time to market, decreased capital expenditure and operational expenditure, better speed and agility and incredible IT deliverance.
Cloud services provide massive transformation and there is a complete paradigm shift from the existing infrastructure and IT strategy to resources provided by the cloud provider.
Organizations often try hard to maximize their already existing infrastructure as they have made significant investments in their datacenter. The idea of buying more hardware to enjoy the benefits of the cloud can be emotionally and physically debilitating for them.
However, the good news is that enterprises can make use of the existing hardware and rebuild their own cloud infrastructure successfully. Even after the migration to the cloud is completed, it is possible for the enterprises to leverage existing computing, storage, networking and virtualization resources
So what should cloud service enterprise CEOs and VPs be aware of when they plan a transition?
Attractive as it may sound, migration to the cloud It is a massive transformation. In certain cases, the IT team may need to develop additional skills that need to think of “pooled resources” and not just “individual resources”.
1. The percentage of IT budget they can save
The budget is probably the first thing that concerns the stakeholders and the VP of a company. According to a study by Microsoft, only about 11% of a company’s budget is used for developing new applications and much of the budget is allocated for maintaining and updating the infrastructure.
This leaves the enterprise with very little resources for employees, the devices they use, the documents they maintain and so on.
2. Increasing the productivity to an all-time high
For certain jobs, professionals have to work outside their office, on their job sites. They might need instant access to blueprints, documents, files, cost estimates, photos, videos, and similar content.
It is imperative to have cloud-based content management and system, so they can easily access whatever they need through applications on their mobile devices. As long as the employee has access to an internet-connected device, they have access to the files as well.
3. The answer to processing big data
VPs rely on cloud computing to process huge data streams, both structured and unstructured. Using legacy infrastructure wouldn’t be feasible here because that would take up a lot of computing power and storage.
If you are looking to manage large spikes in traffic, this is the only way to do it. The cloud’s scalable environment makes it possible to manipulate petabytes, and quite soon exabytes and zettabytes of data.
There are better levels of connectivity and collaboration among the employees within the enterprise, making it possible for them to perform data sharing and analytics.
4. Need for modern technology can be realized
Most of the components in a company’s software would be cloud-based. These interconnected arrays of modular components, open-source tools, and SaaS providers have allowed them to make a huge leap from traditional software stacks.
Enterprises have shifted to the cloud, opting for streamlined API-driven data exchange and build scalable applications. They have also begun to rely on a diverse array of technologies that made enterprises nimble and give up on big stack architectures.
The need for continuous deployment, automatic integration with emails and databases, affordable scalability can be fulfilled easily by moving to the cloud.
How to strategize migration
Once you plan your migration to the cloud, there are some tricks by which you can strategize your transition.
1. keeping scaling possibilities in mind
CEOs must remember not to get flatfooted by thinking short term. This could hamper innovation and growth, with costs incurred beyond belief.
2. Advantages in leveraging big data technology
Cloud innovations happen so quickly, and CEOs need to take an approach that leverages big data and agility. The growing business needs must be aligned so the cloud environment can relate to it. Examples of this could be Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
3. Strategy for the data science team
It is the duty of the CEOs to consider having a sandbox environment for the data scientists. This way they can run the tests in a controlled environment, and use the time and cloud resources wisely.
4. Resource and maintenance cost
It is important to examine the developer’s skills to check whether they would be able to manage your cloud environment on a long term scale. Take an approach that considers scaling as well, and opt for a cloud environment that would be easier to manage.
Conclusion
Organizations obviously have to make crucial decisions that will bring them to the forefront of the game, and choosing a good cloud computing strategy is one.
Consider the above-mentioned options when you choose a cloud service An important Point to remember is that Just moving to the cloud isn’t enough. It is the strategy that you use to make the best of cloud services that matter.
Improper planning can lead to technical debts and architectural mishaps that you cannot reverse. Therefore, you need to optimize the cloud services to suit your application requirements in order to enjoy the best while delivering the best.
