Today let’s take a look at recommendations on how to ensure Successful Cloud Adoption.

Reynaldo Mincov Jr. in a recent Thoughts on Cloud post tees up a cloud definition: “Cloud is about efficiency, economy, scalability, elasticity and doing things faster and better.”

The cloud allows companies to scale without the added capital expense of purchasing new hardware.  The cloud can bring efficiency by taking on routine admin processes, freeing up more time for innovation. The cloud can open up new opportunities by allowing any-sized organizations access to enterprise-class technology. But, before you can reap the benefits of cloud you must first know your own IT systems. Mr. Mincov adds, “for successful cloud adoption, you first need to deeply understand your IT environment by identifying those workloads that will best fit your target cloud environment while also giving you a consistent return on your investment.”

Mr. Mincov shares these pointers for gaining a deeper understanding of your IT systems and environment:

• Business impact. Which systems are mission critical and which are less critical? Classify and rank. For cloud first try moving a small, back-end system to gain experience
• Production versus development and test.  How are these environments the same, how are they different? Mr. Mincov recommends that your test environment should be configured to match production
• Performance. Again examine your applications and determine what the impacts are to each if the app is slow or offline. Determine which are “performance-sensitive”
• Complexity. Rank your IT for complexity. Something with several integration points should not be your first choice for cloud
• Security. What compliance and regulations are important to your industry and must also be followed in the cloud
• Preparation.  Measure how “cloud ready” you are. Be honest, what other tasks or transformations must take place in order to be ready to bring cloud into your organization. And, don’t forget to think about how to prepare your staff

Knowing your current IT systems in and out will help you make the right choices to better Ensure Successful Cloud adoption.