| |October 20179CIOReviewMigration to cloud for the first time could be a daunting task, so it is always advisable to have a cloud partner in placestrategy to check network readiness and scope of enhancement and scal-ing up needed for cloud adoption.Basic Framework for Cloud Strategy 1. Identify Cloud Vision: You should be able to answer what and which cloud for your organization2. Draw the Current State ­ Define the base of current IT state as services, technology, Operating models and other data aggregations.3. Define Future State ­ Define to be model, parts using cloud and parts using in premise version.4. Create a Roadmap ­ Define initiatives and projects which will be able to achieve the future state of the system.Cost Benefit analysisThere is misnomer that cloud is expensive while some people always feel that since you only pay for what you use in cloud, it is much cheaper. Truth is, Cloud is not always expensive or cheaper than provider based or own data centre but it depends on the use case and several parameters like Nature of the application, compute power required, number of users, Service need and the kind of connectivity needed. For example, if number of users are very small, it is no brainer to have SaaS based or even PaaS or IaaS service from a cloud provider.SecurityMost cloud security is on top of the line as that is the core business of the provider and technology has evolved to facilitate the same. One must make sure to pay enough attention to the integrated security including connectivity with their own IT landscape.Types of Cloud ServiceYou must decide what kind of service is needed for which applications and then select the provider accordingly1. IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) ­ basic building block of the cloud which is hardware either in bare metal or virtual machines and you can run any software on it. Example ­ Rackspace, AWS, MS Azure, Netmagic, Nextgen.This is generally used when you want to refresh the hardware or adding new applications. In some scenario, it is also used to create elasticity and scalability to handle peak loads.2. Paas (Platform as a Service) ­ Using platform as a service on top of infrastructure for computing platforms like DB, Code run environment, Web server, Example ­ AWS elastic beanstalk, force.com, oracle DB on cloud as service. Mostly used when organizations are moving towards focusing on core applications and for elasticity as well as agility.3. SaaS (Software as a Service) - This is using a software as service without having much consideration on what kind of hardware or OS it is running on. Example ­ Salesforce CRM, Zoho CRM, MS 365, Concur, vehicle trackingMostly used when applica-tion needs are more standardized. Currently this is one of the main growth areas for providers and al-most all kinds of applications are cloud based. Most common func-tional areas are CRM, Email, Ex-pense Management, GIS services, HRMS. However, these days even Core ERP, Financial ERP and re-tail sales software has cloud option as SaaS.ConnectivityWork on the connectivity and it is advisable to have connectivity either through SSL or MPLS for IaaS or PaaS when you are using services even in hybrid mode. For SaaS, generally internet connection is fine.Final Planning and MigrationNow when you have roadmap, ser-vice needed, providers finalized and connectivity approach in the place, you need to combine them togeth-er for final project based planning and aligning different teams. Based on the planning, projects should be executed.Migration to cloud for the first time could be a daunting task, so it is always advisable to have a cloud partner in place. Over the period internal teams can execute and man-age cloud migration projects on their own. Anjani Kumar
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