IT infrastructure and applications are almost impossible to imagine without the cloud. Since the trend of cloud computing started, many companies have already switched part of their infrastructure to the cloud, or have done a full migration. But how do you know if your IT landscape is ready for the cloud?
Answering that question is still quite complex. It depends on many factors whether you can make the switch to the cloud. Being cloud ready is more than the willingness or desire to make this transition to the cloud.
The first companies to move their systems to the cloud, did this partially because of the promise that the cloud would be much cheaper. This is also the case because expensive hardware no longer needs to be purchased and because only the usage is billed. But if applications are not suitable to take advantage of the other benefits that the cloud offers, then the move to the cloud does not have that much added value. Transferring applications and systems to the cloud 1-on-1 is not a good idea for that reason either. The chances of getting all the benefits out of the cloud are very small and you even run the risk of it being more expensive with the cloud than in an on-premises environment.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
To assess which applications are suitable for the cloud, you can look at how your products or applications are linked together. Is the application used all day, or only during business hours? You should also determine what the most crucial parts are, incase they always need to be available!
For example, the cloud offers the advantage that you can turn off systems when they are not used. When required you can easily use additional computing or storage capacity in the cloud if necessary. Applications that can handle this elasticity, such as scaling up and down, are better suited for the cloud.
Integration Layer
Once you have an idea of what applications are Cloud Ready, it is important to create a migration plan. The so-called connectivity layer that provides the integration between two systems must also move to the cloud. If you're going to move components to the cloud, you'll automatically have to deal with connectivity, so the integration layer that ensures the data transfers between the cloud and on-premise and vice versa. Because the whole process is quite complex, a switch to the cloud often takes multiple smaller steps.
Determining if you are Cloud Ready, depends on whether you have a good migration plan and if all your applications can make optimal use of the cloud. Basically, every application is Cloud Ready, but think carefully about how you want to migrate and also if you're going to save costs. Because there is quite a bit of work involved, when switching to the cloud. It may be beneficial to seek advice of guidance from a specialist.
CURIOUS HOW WEAREFRANK! HAS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED EXTENSIVE SYSTEM INTEGRATION?
Jeroen Jansen van Rosendaal, from WeAreFrank! is closely involved with system integration, he takes us through this extensive project.
