Nine Best Practices for Cloud Implementation
Establish Firm Governance
Cloud adoption benefits from governance and management structures that thoroughly cover processes, workflows, security standards, etc. when evaluating service selection.
Inventory Needs
Get a good sense of how cloud migration must support day-to-day operations. Find out from stakeholders and users what they require in terms of access and availability, support, business functions, and mobility.
Look for the Five Essentials
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.
Mind 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 Options
Keep in mind that some cloud services are best suited for consumers. An enterprise requires performance capabilities which include agility and redundant, managed and monitored services.
Inquire Into Credentialing
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.
