BW Communities

Break Through Cloud Barriers

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[So, has cloud computing piqued your interest? I would think so, as it is considered an IT delivery model having significant business and financial benefits. Businesses are weighing the pros and cons of moving to the cloud. In one of our surveys, the Virtualization and Evolution to the Cloud survey, we found that approximately 1/3 rd of Indian organizations surveyed, were in the discussion/planning stage for private and hybrid cloud deployments. While benefits accruing from this model are high, there are inherent concerns that organizations are grappling with , on trying to understand what this emerging delivery model is, what some of the potential barriers are, and how best to realize its benefits. Barriers confronting cloud adoption include, concerns pertaining to security, control, reliability and compliance. Businesses are worried about losing control and risking more downtime, once mission-critical data and applications move to the cloud. Our survey did highlight this, with 43 percent of the CEO, CFO and CIOs  are cautious about moving mission-critical applications even to hybrid or private cloud environments, citing security, disaster recovery and lack of control, reliability, performance and a fear that meeting SLAs will be difficult or impossible as the main concerns. Its only when these mainstream applications get onto a cloud, will the benefits be maximized. Overcoming these challenges is possible by adequate preparation. Having few important criteria to evaluate, before adoption will ensure that the move is successful and effective. Also, it will help enterprises to seamlessly make the transition and not be worried about the aforementioned barriers. Whatever be the cloud model, under consideration, be it private, hybrid or public, our following suggestions will help you form a basic criteria that you need to follow while evaluating a provider or a model. •    Why Are We Going To The Cloud ?: Organizations should be clear about the rationale behind moving to the cloud. Whether, it is reduced costs, more storage or more flexibility, complete clarity should be there on the key objectives for moving to the cloud.  •    Gauge Your Needs: Know the real costs of delivering services from your end  instead of via a cloud service provider. You need to consider computing costs, storage, network, application and security.  Not all services make business sense to move to the cloud all the time. •    What To Move To The Cloud ?: Downtime has serious consequences.  In any business, certain systems are vital to the success of the business; hence, protecting them and making certain they're always available is a big factor. Organizations should consider RTO (recovery time objective, or how long they can go without that app being available) and RPO (recovery point objective, or the amount of data they could afford to lose). The lower the RTO and RPO are, the more mission-critical that system is. •    Understand The Technology: Organizations shouldn't be afraid to ask cloud providers about the technology behind the service.  They should be aware of where your data resides, and what recovery and backup options are available.  Reliability checks are essential and building trust in the cloud service provider is built by asking the right questions. •    Trial Run: Basic principle, try and tested methods work best. For e.g.: If you're looking at a public cloud solution, one of the key advantages of SaaS is that it makes it easy to deploy a free trial, and most vendors offer this to those considering their services. Before putting mission-critical applications onto the cloud, its important that you test it to see the results. •    Put A Maintenance Plan In Place: In case there is a failure, be ready. One of the best ways to maximize uptime is by testing the disaster recovery system in advance, to find any configuration problems that leave you vulnerable. Non-disruptive DR testing can enable enterprises to identify issues in the system, without interrupting the availability of services for to clients and employees. Implementing a disaster recovery assessment tool is one of the best ways to ensure minimal loss of data and service. This technology is expected to mature as more organizations adopt it. One will need to follow some pre-defined criteria to ensure that the barriers are overcome smoothly and this is possible by planning in advance ,evaluating  all possible scenarios and checks in place. (The author is Director, Technology (India & SAARC), Symantec)