Cloud adoption is growing at an even faster rate from one year to the next. There are many compelling advantages for moving to the cloud, but it’s important to have a strategic approach to reap the full benefits of digital transformation. A well-developed cloud implementation plan that considers industry-wide best practices will ensure success during the transition and in the long term.
Also read: Creating a Cloud Strategy: Tips for Success
Best practices for cloud implemetation
Cloud implementation is no easy feat, but these best practices help:
- Establish Firm Governance: Cloud adoption benefits from governance and management structures that thoroughly cover processes, workflows, security standards, etc. when evaluating service selection.
- Know Your Inventory Needs: Get a good sense of how cloud migration must support day-to-day operations. Find out what your stakeholders and users require in terms of access, availability, support, functionality, and mobility.
- Look for the Five Essentials for Cloud: For the cloud, these five essentials are on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured services.
- Promote Automation: Influencers will lend support if they’re made aware of how many tedious, time-consuming manual tasks can be automated in the cloud.
- Think About Your Service Level Management: IT has to stay on top of the provider so specific needs on granularity, scope, availability, and more are documented and enforced.
- Timing Is Everything: Be methodical in your approach. If you migrate functions too quickly without evaluating immediate performance impact, stakeholder pushback could thwart your good intentions.
- Stick With Enterprise Cloud Services: Keep in mind that some cloud services are best suited for consumers. An enterprise may require performance capabilities like agility, redundancy, and managed or monitored services.
- Hire Top Cloud Talent: Your cloud provider should have certified engineers running the operation center, ones who understand the big picture and can provide helpful, forward-looking IT recommendations.
- Don’t Overcommit to One Cloud Category: In terms of private versus public cloud, many organizations practice “cloud bursting” by initially using a private cloud until internal demand increases to the point where a public cloud is needed. Hybrid cloud is also emerging as the dominant cloud adoption framework.
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