You have to take the good with the bad, and a number of enterprises out there are finding the move to the cloud requires slightly more brain cells than they possess. This means epic fails, all of which could have been avoided if perhaps I wrote this post a few years ago. Consider this one a public service.
Here are the top three surefire ways to fail with cloud computing.
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Reason 1: No security, governance, and compliance planning
Remember those guys who pushed back on cloud computing due to issues with security and compliance? Well, those are the same guys who forget to plan for security, governance, and compliance when moving to the cloud. The result is a cloud-based system that won't provide the proper services to the user and, most important, won't pass an audit.
There is good news. A recent survey in Security Week revealed that many small and midsize firms improved their security once they moved data and applications to the cloud. However, you have to do some planning -- and make sure to use the right technology.
Reason 2: Selecting the wrong cloud technology or provider
Amazon Web Services is not always the right solution. Other clouds exist, as do other models, such as private, hybrid, and multicloud. It's the job of the IT staff moving applications to the cloud to pick the right technology and platform for the job.
The ability to understand requirements before selecting applications, cloud technologies, or public cloud providers is a migration requirement unto itself. This process is no different than for other migration projects or for any system development projects. You're just deploying on cloud-based platforms.
Reason 3: Selecting the wrong application or data
On the first try, the applications selected to migrate to the cloud are often the wrong applications (or database). I look at applications and databases as tiers, with first tier being the mission-critical systems, the second tier being those systems that can be down for a day without much of a disruption of the business, and the third tier for systems that are only occasionally used.
Try to work at Tier 2 or 3 for your initial application or data migration project. That way, if you run into any issues -- such as performance, security, or integration -- you'll be able to recover. If you move a mission-critical application to the cloud and fail to deliver on the service, it will be a long time before you're allowed to use cloud-based platforms again -- if you're even given a second chance.
Hope this helps. Cloud on!
This article, "3 surefire ways to fail in the cloud" originally appeared at InfoWorld.com. Read more of David Linthicum's Cloud Computing blog and track the latest developments in cloud computing at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.