We have all seen numerous articles that describe why cloud computing is relevant today and detailing the benefits of cloud. The emphasis of most of them is on why cloud is relevant and how it works, but it’s also important to consider where to really get started and how to approach your cloud computing journey. This article is from the perspective of the implementation of a cloud-based solution — the aspects to consider during the planning, design, and implementation phases.
There are different types of cloud offerings, and there are multiple vendors in the market offering various competitive solutions. You should consider all the options to choose the right fit, which could even involve engaging multiple cloud offerings.
The first step toward cloud implementation, obviously, is deciding whether cloud implementation is suitable for your solution. If the answer is yes, then then you’ll need to determine an appropriate cloud offering.
For many of the applications, the primary driving force for cloud implementation would be to reduce the infrastructure cost, but that should not be the only factor that you consider — cloud provides many benefits that should be leveraged. You should also try to avoid a “big-bang approach,” instead endeavouring to achieve the implementation in stages.
There are various tools available in the market to assess the cloud readiness of your application (for example, this is a tool from IBM). Based on the application workloads, non-functional-requirements (NFR), the technologies currently being used, and the existing hardware/software stack, these tools can help in evaluating your application for the target deployment environment, the cloud readiness, and the cloud benefits that can be achieved. It is worthwhile exercise to use one of these tools at the very beginning of the cloud journey.
Ask yourself the following questions to help decide on a suitable option:
Once the appropriate target cloud environment has been identified, the next step is to design the cloud solution. The following are the critical aspects to be consider during design:
Implementing a cloud solution does not just mean hosting an existing legacy application onto new shared infrastructure. This may be a good first step to help reduce infrastructure costs, but cloud offers various services for achieving flexibility and efficiency, in a cost-effective way. The full potential of the cloud lies in using appropriate services.
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