Enterprise cloud spending is expected to triple by 2017, and reach $235.1 billion (Source: IHS), so if you are not already there, it is very likely that you soon will be moving to the cloud.
Today IT success is measured on the value you deliver to the business, and how well you service the end-users you support. Consequently, regardless where your applications are deployed, on premise or the cloud –outside your control–, IT is ultimately responsible for end-user experience. Do you want to successfully move to the cloud and avoid business disruptions and end-user escalations and complaints?
Here are some quick guidelines to help ensure cloud migration success for enterprise IT teams:
1. Properly evaluate your cloud provider. Did you know that Gartner is predicting that 1 in 4 cloud providers will gone under by 2015? Therefore, think long-term, do your prep work carefully, don’t skimp time on your selection process, and closely evaluate key areas like:
- Current/future cloud locations: It is best to span your cloud architecture across multiple locations to mitigate outage risks. In addition, if your organization operates in Europe, be aware that the EU (European Union) Data Protection Act mandates keeping personal information within the EU, so you need a cloud vendor with global coverage.
- Data format considerations: Think about in which format your data will be stored, and more importantly, prevention is the best cure, so plan to keep a local copy, or at least instant data access, in case your cloud provider goes under.
- Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Plans. For example, evaluate automatic back-up capabilities, and consider an architecture that lets you store back-up data and applications locally, and across cloud locations for added protection.
- Security. This is a critical area, especially if you are planning to move to the cloud sensitive application data that fall under regulatory compliance (e.g. HR records, patient information, credit card data, financial records, etc.). Therefore, carefully assess providers’ security mechanisms (e.g. Intrusion detection and prevention systems, spam and virus filters, role-based access, SSL tunneling, etc.), examine independent 3rd party audit reports, and make sure you understand who is ultimately responsible for the security of your data.
2. Consider a phased-approach — don’t move all applications at once! Less is more. Start small, moving less critical applications first to make sure that you get it right, and everything is working as expected. In addition plan to test and measure application performance, from your users’ perspective, BEFORE you move to the cloud to baseline your performance, and AFTER your migration is completed. That way you can compare performance pre and post-cloud deployments, and take corrective actions as needed.
3. Monitor application performance, from your end-user perspective, from the get go. Since application content will traverse a complex path of interrelated entities inside and outside your control zone – datacenters, private and public clouds, remote sites and locations, 3rd-party services and components – there will be more potential bottlenecks and failure points that can impact end-to-end application performance, as perceived by your users. Consequently, proactively monitor your applications from your users’ perspective to find problems before they do.
4. Don’t assume that your cloud vendor will take care of overseeing application availability and performance. While your business colleagues may think they can buy cloud services and instantly meet all their requirements, you know better. Your operational requirements won’t change, regardless of where your applications are deployed. If the cloud provider doesn’t fully meet your requirements, you have to fill the gap, so proactively monitor your SLAs to ensure quality and predictability, for all users at all times.
5. Keep all stakeholders in the know. Look for an application performance solution that gives you custom reports and automatic email distribution capabilities (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) by application, by transaction step, by location, a summary of SLA violations, etc. That way you can easily access and share information across cross-functional teams and stakeholders and keep everybody aligned, a must for cloud deployments.
Are you ready to ensure cloud migration success?
If you haven’t done so yet, check out Tevron’s CitraTest APM, an enterprise-class user centric monitoring solution for ALL your applications, regardless of where they are deployed: datacenters, private and public clouds. By automating the driving of ANY application — just like a real user would do — visually examining the desktop and responding to changes, driving the keyboard and mouse and taking response time measurements along the way, CitraTest APM ensures that all critical aspects of a cloud-based or on premise application or service are available and working effectively for your users, instantly alerting you at the first sign of trouble.
Use Tevron’s CitraTest APM to:
- Baseline application performance prior to cloud migration
- Proactively monitor application performance post-cloud deployment
- Be the first to know you have an application performance problem, slowdown or bottleneck
- Resolve issues before large volumes of users are impacted
- Validate your SLAs, from an end-user perspective, by application, by transaction step and by location
- Keep everybody aligned and your business humming
Good luck with your cloud initiatives!