Warning when taking to the clouds

In an economy making a slow and patchy recovery from recession, Cloud computing is sometimes marketed by some vendors as being a low cost computing resource, a simple “subscription” model for corporate users.

Many company board members, operating in demanding and volatile markets, could be desperate for opportunities to drive complexity out of operations. This understandably cost-led thinking ignores the point that most Cloud providers’ model comprises three fundamental elements - the on-premises infrastructure, Internet or private connection via carrier, and the intelligent core in the data centre - all of which need to be integrated and risk managed to deliver on the Cloud promise. Correctly handled, these building blocks may well provide opportunities for driving down costs, streamlining operations but this is only possible if these three foundations are suited to your operations. 

Things that CIOS need to consider before taking to the clouds! 

• Does their service provider guarantee that current overheads and complexity of on-site IT resources will be reduced? 

Many organisations may be so attracted by the apparent simplicity of Cloud that they may not adequately examine the resources needed to manage the office infrastructure under the new cloud provider’s agreement. The new model needs to free the IT department’s team resource for innovation, otherwise the lower service cost may represent a false economy with team resources drained towards maintenance of existing systems. 

• Will a move to Cloud improve connectivity and reduce net connection costs? 

With C-level executives pushing for IT cost reductions, CIOs need to be sure that a new connection for the business means a better, more resilient service. Will the contract and billing aspects be more advantageous but also simpler and less time-consuming to deal with? Are there adequate SLAs in place covering the Cloud service that genuinely reduce the risk to the business’ daily operations? 

• Does the company gain access to a more agile and responsive data centre by using Cloud? 

Businesses that are devoting their efforts to meeting customers’ daily needs may assume Cloud equals agility, but CIOs should look closely to see if the new cloud provider’s service genuinely adds value in meeting commercial objectives and secures their company reputation for reliability. For a UK business planning system expansion after the recession, are there adequate performance guarantees when moving to this new service model? 

• Will any elements of the Cloud solution – such as security – be federated out to partners? 

There is always potential for risk surrounding cloud migration in relation to aspects like corporate and customer data. If the cloud vendor intends to federate some aspects of the Cloud to third parties, will the security risk actually be worsened rather than contained? As well as gaining assurances over likely costs, the CIO will need end-to-end SLAs in line with their particular industry’s compliance needs. For risk to be contained, the cloud provider should deliver a plan of phased implementation with its implications for the business, together with detailed migration phases and technical support. 

Excerpt from an article featured in, and published courtesy of, IMIS Journal – a publication for IT management professionals.