IS YOUR ENTERPRISE READY TO MIGRATE TO THE CLOUD?

STEP BACK, AND ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.

CLOUDSO N T H E H O R I ZO N

THERE ARE MANY REASONS TO MIGRATE YOURENTERPRISE’S APPLICATIONS TO THE CLOUD.

THE TOP DRIVERS ARE:

67%CUT COSTS

66% SIMPLIFY

OPERATIONS

56%BOOST

RELIABILITY

THE TOP DRIVERS ARE:

CONSIDER THESE 3 MAIN DOMAINS IN YOUR ENTERPRISE’S CLOUD USAGE TRANSFORMATION:

PEOPLE PROCESS TECHNOLOGY

All too often, however, the emphasis placed on technology far outweighs

the proactive thought directed toward people and processes. Decision

makers who want their projects to succeed need a firm grasp of the

impact on personnel and practices before partnering with cloud vendors.

MAKE SURE YOU’RE ASKING YOURSELF THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.

PEOPLE

The skills to migrate from a physical

environment to a virtual one

An accurate assessment of the time

and effort required for migration

The experience to handle this activity

in addition to their daily roles

TO ANTICIPATE POSSIBLE COMPLICATIONS, ANALYZE AND TEST YOUR TEAM’S READINESS. YOUR STAFF NEEDS:

IS YOUR TEAM READY TO ANTICIPATE THE DELAYS IN CONNECTING GLOBAL SYSTEMS?

ONLY 41% OF IT DEPARTMENTS ARE FULLY STAFFED WITH SKILLED CLOUD-COMPUTING PROFESSIONALS.

ARE YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES READY FOR HYBRID IT?

With enterprises developing a cloud strategy alongside

integrating legacy environments, whether to curb concerns

or maximize efficiency, your team must be aware that roles

and responsibilities will change moves to either a service

organization or hybrid IT. Taking on a broader view of

business applications can be a challenge to adoption.

As automation and user self-service replace many typical

administrative tasks, it provides IT staff with more time to

perform strategic work.

Source: “Cloud Computing, Security and Project Management Skills Most Likely to Lead to Career Advancement for IT Professionals,” Robert Half Technology, 2013

YOUR CONSUMERS WILL NEED TRAINING TO GET UP TO SPEED ON THE NEW SERVICES. YOU’LL NEED TO ADDRESS:

ARE YOUR IT CONSUMERS READY FOR A SELF-SERVICE MODEL?

Ultimately, you’ll need to allow non-technical users to deploy

self-service environments, bringing diverse domains, such as:

FUNDING

TIMESTORAGE

APPLICATIONS

NETWORKING

SECURITY

FUNDING

TIME

DOES YOUR STAFF HAVE THE SKILLS TO ADDRESS AUTOMATION AND ORCHESTRATION?

CLOUD INITIATIVES REQUIRE A LOT FROM YOUR TEAM. IT’S MORE THAN JUST ANTICIPATING HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE PURCHASES. THEY NEED CUSTOM WORK AND LESS LONG-TERM UPKEEP TO CREATE A FUNCTIONING PLATFORM.

Source: “Under Cloud Cover: How leaders are accelerating competitive differentiation,” IBM, 2013

Leading organizations are

79% MORE LIKELY TO RELY ON THE CLOUD to locate and leverage

expertise anywhere in the

ecosystem for deeper

collaboration.

Your team needs to have expertise in creating deployment

templates and developing automation activities.

PROCESS

WHEN IT COMES TO LAYING OUT CLOUD BUDGETS, CONSIDER:

IS YOUR ORGANIZATION PREPARED TO INCORPORATE NEW APPROACHES?

PAY AS YOU GOoffers flexibility, as scaling on demand

can be difficult on a fixed budget.

CHARGEBACKcan be unpopular among

departments that benefit from current

cost accounting procedures, which

may not welcome a change.

Source: “Cloud Computing, Security and Project Management Skills Most Likely to Lead to Career Advancement for IT Professionals,” Robert Half Technology, 2013

When will you start to monitor systems?

When should they be cleared out?

When will they enter the CMDB?

YOUR ORGANIZATION SHOULD KNOW IF YOUR ITIL IS MATURE ENOUGH TO INCORPORATE NEW SCENARIOS, SUCH AS MONITORING AND CHANGE CONTROL WHEN AUTO-SCALING IS IN USE.

CAN YOUR IT INFRASTRUCTURE LIBRARY (ITIL) PROCESSES INCORPORATE ADDITIONAL SITES?

WITH YOUR ENVIRONMENT POTENTIALLY RAPIDLY SCALING UP AND DOWN IN HOURS, ASK:

HOW WILL RECOVERY AND AVAILABILITY BE IMPACTED BY CLOUD ADOPTION?

Revise your continuity plans with the new activities you’ve tested. Although the cloud can

improve your availability levels, migrating solo provides you with no guarantee, and the

consequences can prove costly.

Source: "Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: Don't Go It Alone"

ESTIMATED AVERAGE COST OF ENTERPRISE DOWNTIME:

$163,000 PER HOURSET A HOLISTIC PLAN TO ACCOMMODATE THE END-STATE HYBRID ENVIRONMENT.

HAVE YOU ESTABLISHED IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT AT YOUR ORGANIZATION?

YOUR ENTERPRISE SHOULD BE OPERATIONALLY MATURE ENOUGH TO HANDLE:

CAPACITY MANAGEMENT

SERVICE CATALOG

MANAGEMENT

RELEASE MANAGEMENT

TECHNOLOGY

ARE YOUR APPLICATIONS A GOOD FIT FOR CLOUD TECHNOLOGY?

EXTERNAL-FACING AND CRITICAL BUSINESS APPLICATIONS ACCOUNT FOR 60% OF CLOUD USAGE. DETERMINE WHAT ROUTE IS BEST FOR EACH APPLICATION.

Source: “2013 State of the Enterprise Cloud Report,” Verizon Enterprise, 2013;“2013 Cloud Computing,” IDG Enterprise, 2013

ENVIRONMENT:

The main reasons that concerned IT decision makers forego cloud migration are:

Even so, 90% of corporate decision makers plan to have some form of cloud analytics solution in the next few years, and deployments are up 50% from 2011.

CLOUD:

Physical Virtual Private Public Hybrid

Control Security InfrastructureLimitations

IF THEY AREN’T A GOOD FIT, WHAT DOES THE ROAD MAP LOOK LIKE TO GET THEM TO THAT STATE?

OF ORGANIZATIONS ARE WORKING TO IDENTIFY IT OPERATIONS THAT ARE CANDIDATES FOR CLOUD HOSTING. DECIDE IF YOUR SOFTWARE WILL SUPPORT YOUR STRATEGY OR HOLD YOU BACK.

Source: “2013 Cloud Computing,” IDG Enterprise, 2013

WHEN CRITICALLY ASSESSING YOUR ENTERPRISE’S APPS, ASK:

Are there versions for

alternate platforms, or

perhaps an SaaS offering?

Do specific resource

requirements present

challenges to performance?

What is the ROI of rewriting

them for the cloud vs.

running them on traditional

infrastructure?

Do current testing

procedures allow you to

validate your performance

in a new environment?

59%

HAS YOUR IT PLAN UNDERGONE A THOROUGH CLOUD-READINESS ASSESSMENT?

BETWEEN JANUARY 2012 AND JUNE 2013, ENTERPRISES INCREASED THEIR AVERAGE MONTHLY SPEND ON THE CLOUD BY 45%.

Source: “Under Cloud Cover: How leaders are accelerating competitive differentiation,” IBM, 2013

Performance Availability Regulatory requirements

Security data governance

Software licensing Application architecture

TO AVOID MISSTEPS OR UNPLANNED COSTS, YOUR ORGANIZATION MUST EVALUATE:

Going over the data backup and disaster recovery plan

Understanding the data migration roadmap

Studying the fine print

Avoiding development with the provider’s

proprietary APIs

TAKE EXTRA CARE TO UNDERSTAND THE DEGREE OF LOCK-IN SOME CLOUD PROVIDERS REQUIRE. WHEN IT COMES TO SELECTING A VENDOR, AVOID LOCK-IN BY:

IF YOUR CRITICAL SYSTEMS ARE BUILT WITH A CLOUD PROVIDER, CAN YOU TAKE THEM WITH YOU IF YOU MOVE?

PEOPLE

PROCESS

TECHNOLOGY

THE RIGHT QUESTIONS:Is your team ready to anticipate the delays in connecting global systems?

Are your organizational roles and responsibilities ready for hybrid IT?

Are your IT consumers ready for a self-service model?

Does your staff have the skills to address automation and orchestration?

Is your organization prepared to incorporate new approaches?

Can your IT infrastructure library (ITIL) processes incorporate additional sites?

How will recovery and availability be impacted by cloud adoption?

Have you established IT service management at your organization?

Are your applications a good fit for cloud technology?

If they aren’t a good fit, what does the road map look like to get them to

that state?

Has your IT plan undergone a thorough cloud-readiness assessment?

If your critical systems are built with a cloud provider, can you take them

with you if you move?

Partner with a cloud service provider that will maximize efficiency with

enterprise-class cloud services, while integrating legacy environments. Leverage

cloud computing to increase your staff’s operational efficiency and agility, ensuring

your organization has the right processes in place to engage the cloud for success.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SUNGARD’S ENTERPRISE CLOUD SERVICES, VISIT:

WWW.SUNGARDAS.COM

Sources:silversky.com, ibm.com, verizonenterprise.com, idgenterprise.com, aberdeen.com, roberthalf.co.uk