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Planning keeps cloud afloat

By Nadine Arendse
Johannesburg, 11 Jul 2012

ITWeb Virtualisation and Cloud Computing Summit 2012

In today's cut-throat business environment, it is essential to innovate in order to remain competitive. One such innovation is adopting cloud services in order to realise efficient service and performance. ITWeb's Virtualisation and Cloud Computing Summit takes place from 17 to 19 July. For more information and to reserve your seat, click here.

Any organisation wanting to implement a virtualisation or cloud solution first needs to define a clear strategy and engage in careful planning.

So says group IT executive of Tiger Wheel and Tyre, Melody Fourie, explaining that the devil is in the detail. She recommends partnering with individuals who have already been exposed to cloud computing or implemented cloud solutions, as they know how to approach this technology.

Fourie adds that cloud computing is not only about technology, but people too. Moving into a virtualised/cloud environment requires a different level of support, with fewer staff to support IT infrastructure, she says. Questions about how to redeploy these individuals must be addressed, she notes.

According to Fourie, organisations should obtain performance metrics for as many aspects of the physical environment as possible, to make it easier to determine what has and has not improved as a result of virtualisation.

Organisations should also anticipate performance issues in the planning stages of the physical to virtual project, as the more one anticipates ahead of time, the better the overall experience will be, she says.

The business case for Tiger Wheel and Tyre moving to a virtualised/cloud environment was clear: more than 70% has been saved to date since removing old, conventional servers by consolidating the organisation's data centre using virtualisation.

Fourie is a speaker at the ITWeb Virtualisation and Cloud Computing Summit, taking place from 17 to 19 July. For more information about this event, click here.

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