Six Steps to Building a Successful Hybrid Cloud
By PK Saji, Vice President, Global Data Center & CDN Services-Delivery & Operations, Tata Communications
PK Saji, Vice President, Global Data Center & CDN Services-Delivery & Operations, Tata Communications
One of the big challenges facing IT teams today is building the right cloud migration strategy and avoiding the risks of it going wrong, which can result in technical difficulties, downtime, reputational damage, security threats and data protection issues. Not only do IT teams need to choose the right tools – they must make the right plans and decisions to succeed— be aware of the factors that can derail a migration project and know how to avoid them.
So, how do you minimize these risks and making sure it’s a successful transition?
Start with the big picture
Look at the business strategy, the present and future workloads. You will typically find that legacy infrastructures don’t have very good application zoning. This requires analysis of existing workloads and, more importantly, anticipating business expansion needs to ensure the right choices are made.
Consider all the platform technology options
When it comes to platform selection, you have lots of options.
For example, some workloads fare better on VMware; some are better suited to Hyper-V and some to KVM. We believe it’s important that service personnel work closely with the application team to suggest multiple options and help the customer make the optimal choice.
The right tools for the job
The biggest challenge you need to consider next is a business disruption. Regardless of what platform you’re moving to, the data conversion and migration will always be a challenge. You can use various tools to ensure a seamless transition and the tool you select will depend very much on the application. This decision shouldn’t be made lightly and needs to be informed. Explore all the available options to find the best choice that avoids downtime and any data conversion issues.
Connecting with end-user needs
Cloud deployments can fail because little or no consideration is given to how end-users interact with it. Thought needs to be put into how you provide a ‘uniform and easily updated business-facing tool,’ and this starts by understanding the needs of the business units that will be using it.
Continuous refinement
It is important that the build teams with a detailed understanding of your platform continue to manage it. Then if you encounter live service problems, they can transition their knowledge into the new environment. This should be supported by continuous service improvement. For example, if there is an incident or problem, then the management of these issues, by default, will result in improvements being made.
Supporting the enterprise beyond the initial journey
Once your hybrid cloud platform is in place you need to extract management information that works across the whole organization. For example, when considering IT, one might include current initiatives being worked on as well as innovations that are happening in the industry. Business leaders want to see that they are getting a return on investment (ROI) and have the optimal solution for the business. So again, we share different management information.
To summarize: for a successful transition to the cloud, you need to have the right technology, processes and people in place as well as a ‘do whatever it takes’ attitude.
Regardless of what platform you’re moving to, the data conversion and migration will always be a challenge
The biggest challenge you need to consider next is a business disruption. Regardless of what platform you’re moving to, the data conversion and migration will always be a challenge. You can use various tools to ensure a seamless transition and the tool you select will depend very much on the application. This decision shouldn’t be made lightly and needs to be informed. Explore all the available options to find the best choice that avoids downtime and any data conversion issues.
Connecting with end-user needs
Cloud deployments can fail because little or no consideration is given to how end-users interact with it. Thought needs to be put into how you provide a ‘uniform and easily updated business-facing tool,’ and this starts by understanding the needs of the business units that will be using it.
Continuous refinement
It is important that the build teams with a detailed understanding of your platform continue to manage it. Then if you encounter live service problems, they can transition their knowledge into the new environment. This should be supported by continuous service improvement. For example, if there is an incident or problem, then the management of these issues, by default, will result in improvements being made.
Supporting the enterprise beyond the initial journey
Once your hybrid cloud platform is in place you need to extract management information that works across the whole organization. For example, when considering IT, one might include current initiatives being worked on as well as innovations that are happening in the industry. Business leaders want to see that they are getting a return on investment (ROI) and have the optimal solution for the business. So again, we share different management information.
To summarize: for a successful transition to the cloud, you need to have the right technology, processes and people in place as well as a ‘do whatever it takes’ attitude.
Read Also
Experimenting with People, Process, and Product
Tom Watson, Co-Founder & CTO , Hubble
A Place to Live: An Online Process
Mateusz Chachulski, CTO, Cenatorium Sp. z o.o
It's Time for Landlords to Get Smart
Matthew Marson, Head of Smart Places, WSP
Envisioning your SAP Landscape for the Future
Matt Hayes, VP-SAP Business, Attunity
