Do you have a Cloud Computing Strategy for your organization yet?

While discussing Hybrid vs Public Cloud with a client I realized that they still did not have an strategy for using Cloud for the enterprise.Cloud Computing has been here for a decade and yet cloud computing issues are still perplexing many CIOs. Studies indicate that less than 10% of enterprises have a well defined Cloud Strategy. All the new applications development in the next few years would have to follow the enterprise Cloud Computing strategy. Having a well planned Cloud Strategy will enable business to apply its tenets quickly with fewer delays, thus speeding the arrival of the ultimate business outcomes. So if your CIO still does not have a Cloud Strategy for your enterprise it's time he should define one. The 1st step in the journey to the Cloud is to understand the multiple aspects & phases of Cloud Computing.

                                            Soon everything will be served on the Cloud !

Cloud computing : 

The average cloud spending across industries is anything between 5 to 10% and most organizations are migrating on premise data center to cloud. The spending is projected to grow every year as legacy applications are migrated and new applications are built. A key benefit of public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) is to place applications closer to customers to enable a better user experience. Private cloud computing is also being exploited, especially where intellectual property, control, regulatory or compliance concerns, security, performance, and cost of service delivery are differentiated. In such cases, private clouds run on-premises, in co-location facilities or at provider facilities, and they can offer similar benefits to public cloud computing. Organizations are also exploiting Hybrid cloud computing with focus on  integration between the internal and external (or two or more external) environments at the data, process and/or security layers.

Defining a case for Cloud Computing : 

Next step is to define a Cloud Strategy based on the business vision and the digital strategy. Digital business requires speed and agility that cloud computing provides through the use of cloud services – which become available to a broader set of users through a dynamic self-service interface. Users “help themselves” to these cloud services, stimulating creativity and innovation.

CIOs need to educate their organization about the need to invest in cloud as a style of computing that drives greater speed, agility and innovation through this democratization of IT and the benefits they can derive from Cloud Computing. Organization's digital business strategy should justify the investments needed for cloud computing.

Design for Cloud  : 

Just using cloud services is not enough: you must optimize your application design for the cloud. Migrating applications to cloud requires change in application architecture and design. Unless we adapt the design to Cloud Computing we may land into badly designed application with poor scalability and performance with high maintenance overhead. We have to optimize our applications for cloud computing with the explicit purpose of getting the most value at the lowest effective cost. New applications essentially have to be designed for the Cloud and migration of legacy application should also be designed for the cloud.

Finally a picture of a sample Cloud Strategy Road-map for an enterprise.