9-Step Roadmap for Cloud Computing
October 26, 2011 4:39 PM
9-Step Roadmap for Cloud Computing
The CSCC recently released its primer and guidelines on cloud computing, including these prescriptive steps toward successful deployment from the perspective of a cloud consumer. The roadmap takes into consideration differences in enterprise size and IT maturity level.
Assemble Your Team
Cloud adoption should be led by the CEO and CFO, with CIO and CTO as the key enablers and resources drawn from across the business such as sales and marketing, IT, finance, legal and administrative. This diverse approach can best address the skills required at different stages of adoption.
Develop Business Case and an Enterprise Cloud Strategy
An enterprise should develop a comprehensive cloud strategy, which sets the foundation for project-specific adoptions. Each cloud service should be compared against the current cost of delivery. Make sure to consider whether training will be done internally or through an outside service.
Select Cloud Deployment Model
Choosing from the handful of deployment options will largely depend on the IT maturity and size of your organization. Factors to consider include migration costs, elasticity, security needs, multi-tenancy, and the critical nature of the information and services going to the cloud.
Select Cloud Service Model
The standards organization focused in on the three main service models: infrastructure as a service, software as a service, and platform as a service. For large and SMBs, CSCC recommends identifying a contained, non-critical business area where the cloud could make an impact, and align it with one or more service model to review feasibility and ROI.
Determine Who Will Develop, Test and Deploy the Cloud Service
Here, the size of the organization matters. Because of a smaller skill set, SMBs likely should consider contracting resources from a cloud provider. Large enterprises are generally more flexible to reassign skills on a cloud project. To make that decision, designate your resources available toward cloud skills, start-up, services updates, and regular testing.
Develop a Proof-Of-Concept Before Moving to Production
Although optional, a Proof-of-Concept team (consisting of IT architects and administrators, and a representative of business users) can be set up to verify cloud service functionality in a test environment, run end-user simulations, check data recovery activities, ensure the help desk can address problems, and develop a back out plan for an unexpected problem in the early stages.
Integrate with Existing Enterprise Services
CSCC pushes for building on adoption of open infrastructure standards to increase interoperability, or using the new cloud deployment as the baseline and integrating standards through APIs. With this integration, interface controls are crucial to keep the transfer of data secure.
Develop and Manage SLAs
Key elements of SLA management include: establish a team from IT, business, operations, and legal to review SLA considerations; define critical processes with the cloud provider; schedule reviews with enterprise stakeholders, as well as the cloud provider; and maintain a level of responsibility, noting that an SLA does not absolve a consumer of responsibilities. The cloud provider should also include a service availability target.
Manage the Cloud Environment
Responsibility of the cloud operation must be shared by the enterprise CIO, and the manager of customer support, with the backing of the SLA. In addition, put a change management process in place to cover the validation and testing of needs from the business-side, and a disaster recovery process must be defined, implemented and verified before going forward with cloud production.