Walking In The Cloud

I have been discussing Cloud Strategy with a group of architects and once again it became evident that most people still seem to think Cloud is just another product that you can adopt without really need for a enterprise wide Cloud Strategy. It is not as simple as selecting one cloud service provider from Amazon Web Services (AWS) , Google, Microsoft Azure, Salesforce, and IBM.. Enterprises should take help of Cloud Architect  or else take help from the Cloud service provider to define it's Cloud Strategy. For example if you are considering AWS then AWS architect will provide architecture guidance to the enterprise to define its cloud strategy. Each vendor has multiple products offerings for it's Cloud and it is important to understand how Cloud Service Provider will replace your hardware infrastructure and how it will provide a robust solution.

Key points to decide the cloud strategy

• How data is going to be stored on the cloud and how you will save data center expenses?
• How cloud will enable application to scale on demand ?
• How Cloud Capacity planning is different from owned infrastructure capacity planning? 
• How enterprise will save capital expenses by way of Pay-As-You-Use variable expense
• How cloud will increase speed of delivery by way of using API and reusable services
• How business will become more agile by moving to cloud based architecture
• What are the additional features of individual cloud service provider that differentiate it from others

Many enterprises still lack clarity about their cloud strategy because they are not familiar with the Cloud offerings. An enterprise that wants to adopt the Cloud across all it's business units must have a mature and well-formed understanding of its Enterprise Architecture and a clear view of it's components. Enterprise Architecture Planning enables an enterprises to build structural foundations to support proposed business strategies. It captures the vision of an enterprise by integrating its dimensions to contextualize transformation strategies, organizational structures, business capabilities, data pools, IT applications, and all technology objects. Every business unit of an enterprise is subject to change, and each change may have significant consequences throughout organizational domains.

Cloud Computing is a paradigm to decentralize data centers, by visualizing both infrastructure and platform, and enable services using the internet. It gives access to platforms, services, and tools from browsers deployed across millions of terminals. As well, it reduces the management and maintenance of all the resources associated to technology and infrastructure while providing dynamism, independence, portability, usability, and salability of platform tools.