Shifting an IT infrastructure to cloud is not a question of if but when. The current trend shows a continuous decline in the use of on-premises infrastructure or internal private cloud. According to Gartner, “an average organization expects to triple its allocated share of capacity to public cloud services across the next two or three years”.
Many senior business leaders believe that cloud offers the scale and flexibility needed to support the operating model transformation at the speeds unmatched by internal IT organizations. It helps to speed up new product development by innovating, delivering digital services to customers.
In this article, we’ll discuss the six steps which every IT team must follow to build a scalable cloud infrastructure:
1. Determine the role of cloud in your enterprise’s digital strategy: Today, every organization needs to be efficient in terms of agility, scalability, and cost optimization. While developing the cloud strategy for your organization, start by examining how cloud can enable your business activities instead of starting with a perspective of corporate IT.
2. Determine the priorities and trade-offs: Before you collaborate with a business partner, determine the priorities and trade-offs between speed, cost and risk. Educating your business partners about the cloud and its required trade-offs is an important part of developing a wider digital understanding of the enterprise.
3. Begin with simple projects and build up on them: Today, digital priorities of organizations are changing so rapidly that every strategy needs to be flexible in order to meet the changes in demand. Adopt a test-and-learn approach by beginning with projects that are less complex in nature and building iteratively to high-value efforts.
4. Focus on simplicity and responsiveness: While designing a cloud architecture, prioritize on simplicity and responsiveness. Designing a cloud architecture is not an end in itself but a beginning of providing rapid and simple infrastructural services to the customers. Instead of focussing on what the infrastructure will look like, focus on how it will enable the services you want to deliver.
5. Adapt operations to leverage the benefits of cloud and automation: Rather than forcing cloud into older operations and process models, look at how you can change your organization’s current process models according to the cloud strategies to leverage on the benefits offered by Cloud. Also, look at the new roles that support the automation capabilities offered by cloud.
6. Build tech-savvy, collaborative and innovative cloud teams: Consider building different team models and skill profiles that will blend architectural knowledge with technical depth. Ensure that your team members have the skills required for collaboration and communication and are business savvy. This will help the teams find innovative ways to use cloud for improved business processes.
Admins should understand that cloud is not just a change in technology but an enabler of operating model transformation. To make your business successful, leverage the benefits offered by cloud by making the changes to the IT infrastructure which will support your organization’s priorities.
Is your organization ready to leverage the benefits of cloud? Sysfore offers your organization an abundance of cloud-relates skills and insights, covering all aspects of the transition to an environment in which legacy systems and cloud services coexist.
Write to our experts at info@sysfore.com or get in touch with us at +91 (80) 4110-5555 and get free consultation!