If you are planning to scale up your IT infrastructure to cloud then this article is for you. But do managing public cloud services is as simple as managed shared hosting / dedicated hosting / VPS servers? Let’s have a look.

Key Questions to Consider Before Migrating

The public cloud has forever changed the way companies approach IT strategy. Because it can drastically reduce capital expenditures, enhance sharing and collaboration, and provide the ideal launch pad for new applications, nearly 9 in 10 enterprises now use public cloud services. Moving to the cloud, however, is not as simple as signing up and setting up. There are several important questions and variables to consider first.

•  Do you fully understand your public cloud options?

For most users, moving resources to the public cloud includes not only migrating servers, but also ongoing performance monitoring, security patching, resource provisioning and other maintenance tasks that are required to maximize the utility of the infrastructure. To address those needs, top providers offer dozens of core and complementary products – from analytics and application services to database management and development testing. Furthermore, organizations are increasingly adopting a hybrid strategy. This means certain assets, applications and workloads stay on premise or live in a private cloud by nature of use case or compliance, while others are managed in a public cloud.

•  Can you manage your public cloud resources once they’re running?

Major public cloud service providers, such as Microsoft Azure, offer powerful, reliable products – secure environments, good service levels, instantly scalable resources – but in most cases they still require the user to play an active role in monitoring and maintenance. In fact, the baseline service for most major public cloud providers don’t extend to the operating systems installed on the cloud instance, leaving the subsequent management tasks up to the user. This is no sweat for some businesses, but if your IT team is already backed up against the wall (or if your IT team is just you) life in the public cloud may involve more work than you initially envisioned.

•  Is the public cloud even the right infrastructure for your technology needs?

The popularity and prominence of public cloud is undeniable, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for a universal solution. While it’s great for applications with unpredictable traffic and startups that need an economized, pay-per-use model, oftentimes public cloud customers are overpaying for and underutilizing their infrastructure. Certain workloads – such as applications or websites with steady, predictable traffic – are better suited in dedicated environments like virtual private clouds or on bare metal servers

• Public Cloud Evaluation Checklist

Before you move ahead, consider the following steps required for a successful public cloud strategy, and most importantly, make sure you have the time and resources to manage your infrastructure once it’s up and running.

• RESEARCH AND EVALUATION

1. Evaluate­ current IT infrastructure utilization.
2. Explore alternative IaaS options — e.g. dedicated or virtual servers, private cloud
3. Research­ vendors
4. Ensure­ service complies with internal IT policies/ industry regulations
5. Understand­ public cloud billing — e.g. metered usage, cycles

• EXPECTED PUBLIC CLOUD USAGE

1. Data­ storage/warehousing
2. Data pipelining
3. Big Data analysis
4. Application­ development and testing
5. Application­ hosting
6. Media­ & content delivery
7. Integration­ w/ on premise networks (hybrid)

• MAKING THE TRANSITION

1. Audit­ servers and VMs moving to cloud
2. Determine­ migration support/management needs
3. Develop­ and execute detailed deployment plan
4. Setup­ user accounts/authorization
5. Train­ admins and staff

• MANAGING YOUR PUBLIC CLOUD

1. Automate­ provisioning of new resources
2. Network­ setup and configuration
3. Manage­ Operating System
4. Manage­ event logging
5. Disk/partition­ configuration and management
6. Optimize­ resource usage
7. Determine­ customer service/support needs
8. Monitor­ resource performance
9. Monitor­ resource capacity
10. Evaluate­ additional system administration needs
11. Track­ fluctuations in monthly spend
12. Create­ process for moving workloads to and from dedicated environments

• SECURING YOUR PUBLIC CLOUD ASSETS

1. Evaluate­ resources needed for security monitoring, maintenance, troubleshooting
2. Schedule­ and install OS security patches
3. Ensure­ current backup and disaster recovery tools integrate with cloud
4. Configure­ and customize firewalls
5. Questions about public cloud, managed services or other IaaS options?

Talk to InverseSoft team for any cloud related help and managed cloud services.