CLOUD COMPUTING: A FITTING PROJECT FOR THE CLOUD?

Cloud computing is becoming so widely known that executives and employees who don’t even work in IT are starting to ask for it by name. How do you know if its right for your company?

 

CEOs, CFOs and tech-savvy employees all have heard the advantages: it can reduce the amount of hardware running in the data center, it can slash costs associated with new IT projects, and it’s cool.

Although industry analysts do not expect to see mainstream adoption---when at least 50% of corporations have embraced cloud computing—until 2012, it tops Gartner Groups’ 2010 list of Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2010. Gartner goes on to recommend that companies factor these technologies into their strategic planning process by asking key questions and making deliberate decisions about them during the next two years.

Those IT shops who drag their feet might find overeager users are beating them to the cloud and gaining the competitive advantage of early adoption.

In a report published in September, Forrester Research outlined the following best practices for cloud computing:

• Conduct functional and scalability testing and development work.
• Deploy short-lived and highly volatile Web applications.
• Run quick, grid-type high-performance computing analysis.

So where do you start and what is the best way to determine if a project is suitable for the cloud?

According to The Corporate Executive Board study on Cloud Computing, pick a project that supports a business opportunity and could move into the clouds to save costs and resources. Make sure you select a project that, in moving it offsite, shouldn’t create a security risk. Good cloud candidates should not be mission-critical or time-sensitive, involve highly confidential information, or need to be integrated with systems running in the internal data center.

Functions that make good candidates for cloud computing include modular data crunching, where companies outsource the computation of data that can be sent to a cloud provider for processing but can't be identified out of context, thus satisfying security concerns.
Another common use of cloud computing is to deploy Web applications that are temporary or experience erratic traffic patterns. If a site will only be up for six months or will be prone to high traffic volume spikes, the reasoning goes, why spend the money and resources to sustain the site indefinitely or at maximum capacity?

When reviewing their IT portfolios to find good cloud candidates, IT managers need to consider how well the function or service would fit into the greater corporate environment, if it was outsourced. For example, if a company is in a heavily regulated industry, it should choose a cloud service provider that adheres to the same regulations it does. The cloud provider should be able to prove its compliance and detail how audits will be conducted so customers don't put themselves at risk of unknowingly violating the law by, say, shipping HIPAA-protected data to a service provider that isn't in compliance with HIPAA's data privacy rules.

When examining cloud options, businesses also need to consider what their tolerance is for latency, and determine how one slow application could affect the entire environment. Beyond just setting a minimum acceptable response time for cloud-based applications, companies should test applications in the cloud and get a feel for what typical usage will be like, so users will know what will be considered "normal" once an application is moved to the cloud, recommends The Corporate Executive Board.

Cloud computing is worth doing right. Embarking on a cloud computing project may take extensive research and preparation, but the payoff can be significant when everything is done correctly. In order to realize the promised reductions in cost, complexity and time to launch, companies need to make sure they pick the right projects to send to the cloud.

Contact Software Consortium or call 1-877-850-9393 if you would like to explore how to leverage our top-level talent to empower your business.

 

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