Cloud Deployment: Slow and Thoughtful Wins the Race

This recent research on cloud computing from The Register delves a little deeper than many of the “We’re all adopting cloud!” surveys we’ve seen. They found that meaningful cloud adoption and the idea of the cloud-first enterprise are still not reality for many businesses. The Register’s stats also show a more gradual cloud deployment trend over the past five years, not any sort of explosion. One important takeaway is that coherence across internal and external clouds is essential for IT right now. That translates into tasks like planning better cloud management and application and platform integrations.

Here’s an in-depth look from PacketPushers at the decisions and process that go into big IT projects like lifecycle refreshes and cloud moves. There are some excellent tips on avoiding common issues with buying new technology products. For example, avoid buying new hardware if you can repurpose what you have now. Make sure you could do the necessary work in-house, or do the careful math to see how much consultant time (and money) would be required to do the overhaul or upgrade. And keep an open mind on trying new vendors.

And here’s another useful take on the decisions around moving to cloud. It takes into account the emotional nature of some aspects of business decisions, such as security. If someone’s been burned by a data breach, or works in a regulated industry, the idea of storing sensitive data off-premises may just not be tenable. Moving large workloads to the cloud can also just not be possible, depending on the amount of data. However, businesses with small IT teams and budgets, and those looking for DevOps-esque agility, can do well with cloud.

On the topic of those emotional security decisions, we came across these cloud security tips from Network World. There are some necessary cloud security best practices, including encrypting data, both in transition and at rest, as well as testing and setting policies. Other useful tips include using role-based access control features for user-level security, and working with your cloud or SaaS provider to build a private cloud just for your company’s data.

'til next week, keep calm and trust the cloud.