Defogging the cloud decision

Negotiating the cloud question is easier than it once was, according to Penelope Gordon

Should my customer migrate to the cloud? Which type would be best: private, public, or hybrid? Who should own the labour contracts and other assets used in delivery?

These are just three of the many questions raised when choosing a cloud offering, especially as cloud computing becomes increasingly popular, and has even been heralded as a force that may help economic recovery.

Most potential buyers are aware of the business benefits. Not so well known is that cloud is not always the right solution. If business objectives are not aligned with the inherent strengths and characteristics of cloud, it may be better to stick with non-cloud offerings.

At the Open Group we have developed a decision tree that we think can help determine whether to deploy cloud, whether public or private is best, and whether it should be IaaS, PaaS or SaaS. Ten questions range from possible impediments to whether or not the app is insulated from business process changes.

If a business process is horizontal, there are no interdependencies between process, application platform and infrastructure layers. If the business situation is vertical, this means there are such interdependencies, and the business processes may rely on particular applications software.

The next step is to determine how much of each solution layer should be outsourced, and whether cloud should be considered accordingly.

There are many potential impediments to outsourcing, including immature business architecture, business culture and industry regulation. Any barriers, business- and industry-specific location risks or government legislation issues that may hamper or prevent outsourcing must be identified quickly.

Cloud adoption may also be impeded by SLAs and entry costs.

If there are no barriers to outsourcing or cloud, you can consider the benefits. Is the primary business driver compatible with cloud computing?

If you ask the right questions at the start, it will save you time and money in the long term.

The cloud offering landscape is not the uncharted wilderness it once was – if you ask the right questions.

Penelope Gordon is enterprise architect at the Open Group