Integrating Cloud into your organization is more of a journey than a one-time project. As your business needs evolve so can your cloud needs.  Is hybrid cloud adoption your next stop?   By adopting hybrid cloud companies can tap into the flexibility of public cloud services while also utilizing private cloud for more sensitive data and applications. Today let’s look at seven steps your organization can take to integrate hybrid cloud from John Meegan of IBM’s Thoughts on Cloud.

How to get started:

• Determine the cloud deployment model
• Integrate with existing enterprise systems
• Address connectivity requirements
• Develop governance policies and service agreements
• Assess and resolve security and privacy challenges
• Manage the cloud environment
• Consider a backup, archive and data recovery plan

Mr. Meegan explains more on how to choose the right Cloud Deployment Model, “The right deployment model aligns IT and business needs, and makes it easier to achieve those objectives.” He lists out the following decision criteria to guide your hybrid cloud adoption (or any cloud model):

• flexibility
• security
• speed
• automation
• cost
• locality
• service levels
• system interdependencies.

Your company’s unique operation and needs should drive what cloud model to choose.

On connectivity, he points out that IT should remember that aside from connecting components, you must also consider does the connection meet service levels, security and does it empower your overall IT management strategy.  Mr. Meegan also mentions your organization should consider using network virtualization if available and make sure connectivity also supports resilience and disaster recovery requirements.

Finally, think through how you will manage your hybrid cloud environment. What tools do you have in place? What tools does your cloud provider have? How can these be utilized in your operations? Working in multiple environments creates additional challenges but the right management strategies and tools can help your team manage your IT operations in and out of the cloud.

source: thoughtsoncloud.com

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