Cloud services and computing are rapidly becoming a major part of how organizations operate, manage data, and perform digital transactions. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Software) provides broad opportunities for small companies and mid-size enterprises to take advantage of capabilities that would normally be unavailable or too costly within an integrated backend system.
The benefit of moving to a cloud includes a significant reduction in costs by utilizing shared resources, greater efficiencies with on-demand usage, and a wider pool of services for auto-scaling.
The greatest challenge is understanding the range of cloud services in order to select the best framework for both your current state and future state.
Key considerations are:
- What is the business case for modifying the current infrastructure by partially or entirely moving to the cloud?
- What are the critical requirements that must be met based on the company’s business model, technology stack, data composition, system complexity, budget, resources, etc.?
To fully define needs and essential services, start with an audit and evaluation of the following:
- Storage and Usage Patterns
- Interface
- Applications and Computing Needs
- Databases
- Operations
- Systems and Processors
- CPU, Physical RAM and Virtual Memory
- Network and APIs
- Users and Accesses
- Governance and Security
Continue reading “Head in the Clouds? Insights & Tips for Cloud Services.”