4 Steps to Heaven

Posted on by March 20, 2013

This is the penultimate article in our short, sharp series on cloud computing. It’s David Akka’s 4-step plan for moving applications to the cloud. His first step is to take stock:

“The key is to check how much it costs to maintain the assets on-site and to explore how much saving can be achieved with a cloud alternative.”

Step 2 is to realise what is possible, and Step 3 to formulate an “evolutionary process”, rather than a “big bang”:

“differentiating between hardware consolidation and software as these are two completely different worlds.”

Step 4 is to decide which migration model is best for your organisation. Akka gives the following example:

“A very attractive option for some companies is to cloud enable part of the application, say you are a big manufacturer and you want to outsource your purchase orders or your admin(for BPO) you can take that portion of your application to the cloud in days.”

Akka finishes with these words of wisdom:

“To my mind its all about research and planning, don’t rush into anything, plan every step of your move you know what they say about proper preparation…”

Everyday cloud activities

Posted on by March 20, 2013
This article by Robert Davies for IT Donut takes a simple look at the applications businesses use all the time that are, in fact, cloud-based, including those applications that may not be consciously recognised as “cloud computing”.

If you’d like further information on any of the applications or functions covered, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

Saved by the cloud

Posted on by June 9, 2015

The next article in our cloud mini-series takes a look at the cost motives for companies to move into the cloud. Clouded Judgement by William Fellows for CXO discusses, in a somewhat jargonny manner, how cloud computing can help a company “to cut costs and environmental impact”.

Fellows makes the point that a company with a rigid server structure may be paying for services it doesn’t need or struggling to keep up with demand. Putting some services in the cloud, however, means that storage and hosting can keep pace easily with growth or contraction. As he says:

“The private cloud is seen as a potentially cost-efficient implementation that many businesses can no longer afford to ignore.”

Fellows goes on to look at the various flavours and permutations of cloud and how they benefit business. He also looks at what prevents companies moving into the cloud, concluding that:

“Often reluctance to embrace cloud computing has little to do with technology. Snagging points revolve around issues of internal resistance to change.”

How true. Fellows says that the industry must rise to this challenge “to promote an atmosphere of wider acceptance”.

If you can wade through the jargon to the end of the article you’ll find many good points. It will be interesting to see if Fellows’ predictions come true.