Getting ‘Cloud Ready’
August 6th 2014
Having made the decision to move some or all of your IT environment to a cloud service, it is vital that you take the necessary steps to ensure that your business is ‘cloud ready’.
1. Align IT to business objectives
Aligning IT to the business strategy optimises the value that IT adds to the organisation. To ensure alignment there must be an understanding of how IT applications, technologies and services will contribute to the business objectives, today and into the future. There will need to be a shared focus on where to expend resources, both time and money. Finally there will need to be a positive relationship between the IT department and other departments, with both working together for the betterment of the company.
2. Make cloud a strategic business decision
To make a transition to cloud a success, it will need to be a strategic business decision. The buy-in and support of those in management positions and above is a necessity. They must then use their leadership skills to get staff support at all levels by becoming the ‘executive sponsors’ of the project. They will carry the message and they will provide a context for the ‘why’ and the ‘why now’. They will also identify staff opposed to the move and they will engage more closely with these people to try to identify and address their concerns. Additional support and resources may also be required prior, during and after the change process if the skills required are not available in-house.
3. Be ready for change
Switching to a cloud environment will require some ground work.
- Spring Clean: The move to a cloud service can and should be a spring-cleaning exercise. Before you start to make the changes look at what applications you are using that you don’t need and that don’t add any value to the business.
- Data: Tidy up the amount of data that you have, so that all that you are left with is what you need. There is no point in creating unnecessary headaches for yourself by trying to move data that is not needed.
- Trade Secrets: Identify the documents whose loss would be deemed catastrophic for the business and ensure that you have a copy of these.
- Time-sensitive applications: Many of the older enterprise applications were not written for the cloud and they expect their own dedicated hardware / connections, especially those that require the instantaneous transfer of large amounts of data e.g. CAD.
4. Be ready to compromise
You need to have a clear expectation of how IT and cloud computing will contribute to reaching the company’s business goals and objectives. You then need to be ready to compromise. There will be improvements in some areas, such as software applications will always be up to date. However the trade-offs could come in the shape of the robustness and depth of features available in an application. It is important that expectations are handled effectively to avoid disappointment.
5. Consider the advantages
The Cloud levels the playing field, empowering small and medium sized organisation with tools that were once only available to large enterprises that had the money and resources to manage complex solutions. Now available as on-demand services where you only pay for what you use, the cloud liberates firms from the cycle of hardware upgrades and the burden of managing complex systems.
- Reduced costs – the pay-as-you go model avoids capital investments
- Scalable solutions – on-demand services can be ramped up or down as needed
- Automated services – firms are freed up from distracting ICT responsibilities
- Remote access – employees can work easily from anywhere
- Business continuity – back-up and disaster recovery becomes seamless and affordable
At IT Force, we have professionals who are experienced in developing and aligning business and IT strategy. We can work with you to help you to understand the benefits that cloud computing can deliver to your business.
For more information
Call us on 01 5546 000 or info@itforce.ie