Getting The Most Out Of The Cloud

27/11/2009

By Tom Brand, virtualisation practice lead at GlassHouse Technologies

Businesses are bombarded by suppliers claiming to improve efficiencies and offer return on investment (ROI) with a variety of new cloud services with varying degrees of in-house control.

Given that the outlook remains uncertain for 2010, businesses continue to be vigilant about investment. As the IT infrastructure is typically a large cost centre, the question of whether it meets current and future business needs is often meticulously considered.

If the infrastructure does not fulfil the business needs, cloud solutions can be viable, cost-effective alternative. When examining the options, it is also...

...crucially important that businesses determine whether in-house or outsourced management (or a hybrid of both) present the best IT solution. With a new breed of technologies and services now available, businesses need to examine what they have and make informed decisions on cloud computing.

Before transitioning to any cloud-based solution, it's important that organisations assess how their systems currently align to the business requirements. Once this has been completed, the IT department needs to assess the current systems to ensure they are suitable for a transition to a cloud based service. This can be a labour-intensive analysis but without it any short term efficiencies might turn into long term additional costs.Cloud services claim to reduce capital expenditure and maximise asset utilisation to provide a quantitative ROI. Cloud storage, for example, reduces resource-consuming administration tasks performed by the IT department so staff can focus on more strategic projects and optimising efficiency.

Successful cloud solutions are typically pay-as-you-go, consumption-based models. Buying cloud storage space on demand means that correct provisioning for big projects and future needs is less critical as you can access extra storage instantly. This is a useful service but it's important that the... continued on page two >

 

 

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