Cloud Integration – a Peek into What it Takes to Join the Revolution

Integrating your data and applications into the cloud is attractive. But what does it take to achieve it? Here are a few pointers that may be useful in your decision making exercise.
Political factors: Resistance to change is unavoidable. This may come from within the ranks of the organization or from the Administration. The ranks may object on operational grounds. They do not want to give up on functionalities or change the business processes. There is an underlying fear that process compromises may result in quality compromises or result in unemployment. Risk-averse management may resist the cloud on grounds of perceived loss of control over data and applications. Test drive deployments may help your organization decide to go with you.
Technical Considerations: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS); Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS) will transform IT thinking and strategy. This will create resistance at all levels of the organization. The organization will need to recognize benefits of outsourcing IT and overcoming limitations of in-house IT. For instance IT will have to focus attention on the type and nature of data that will be transmitted into the cloud as it will have a bearing on the type of cloud architecture that is selected for the organization. The enterprise may have to take network latency or appliance based solutions into consideration while designing the cloud strategy.
Financial Considerations: The total cost of ownership (TCO) will have to be evaluated before a cloud solution is adopted. This will have to be compared with the on premise solution before decisions can be made. Normally, a cloud based solution is OPEX intensive while an on premise solution is CAPEX intensive. TCO can be affected by number of licensed users, the amount of custom configuration required for integrating the vendor hardware/software with in house resources and whether the current set up is providing you with the necessary economies of scale and reducing costs.
Legal Considerations: Industries subject to legal mandates may also like to take into consideration any legal implications of adopting the cloud. They will need to examine if the cloud facilitates compliance; legal e-discovery and security of personal customer information.
We at Data Deposit Box understand your world. We hand hold you through your brainstorming sessions and help you make up your mind on whether or not the cloud is the best solution for you. If you decide to join the revolution, we are there to help you organize your data and select the best tools for transforming your IT into a cost effective system that will make you proud and profitable.