Planning For The Cloud
Am I ready for the cloud?
As cloud computing continues to grow in popularity, it is evident that there are some early adopters leading the field, demonstrating that they have already seen some very tangible benefits from adopting a cloud computing strategy.
That said there are many public sector organisations that are still in the evaluation stage of ‘the cloud’. What services are available and will the impact of such a huge change really benefit my organisation?
Whilst there is still a lot of confusion surrounding the cloud, the Government’s G-Cloud Programme is at the forefront of a step change in public ICT provisioning, driving forward an ambitious programme to ensure the UK Public Sector buys commoditised services on a utility basis, through shared infrastructure.
There are some very simple questions you can ask yourself before deciding if it is the right time for you to engage in a conversation about cloud:
- Are you being forced to reduce your IT spend?
- Are capital purchases a barrier to starting new IT projects?
- Would switching from a capital expenditure to operational expenditure be an advantage?
- Would you rather pay for your IT in small, easy to manage, predictable chunks?
- Are you looking for a more agile delivery method for your infrastructure?
- Are you buying services which could be commoditised and shared?
- Are you looking to improve your security?
- Do you need to upgrade any part of your infrastructure to benefit from new capabilities or remain compliant?
- Do you need to improve the resilience of your infrastructure?
- Are you trying to reduce the carbon footprint of your infrastructure?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then now is definitely a good time to engage in the cloud conversation.
Assess your existing services
Every organisation needs to decide if the risk of cloud computing will outweigh its potential for addressing business needs. In order to do that, you need to consider the challenges and risks you may face by moving certain applications off-premise:
- Do you currently manage any high-risk data that could trigger security concerns if moved to the cloud?
- Could a cloud migration actually cost you more than the current system that is in place?
- Do you have the appropriate infrastructure to handle a shift to the cloud?
- Do I need to upgrade my existing system?
