Embarking on a cloud computing journey at any level - be it private, public or hybrid, poses many challenges as well as opportunities for organisations. Even more challenging is actually delivering on the cost savings and improvements that cloud promises to bring.
Richard Vester, director of Cloud Services at EOH, says total cloud adoption will impact on many different business processes, and involves the co-ordination of many different parts of the business. "A successful cloud implementation cannot happen without integrated business-driven strategic planning."
Businesses expect a lot from their cloud investments, and even though the term 'cloud' has been around for several years, the industry is still, relatively speaking, in its infancy. "Very few companies have clear cloud strategies in place, and even fewer have a strategic plan laid out, which can be detrimental to the success of this computing model," he says.
"As businesses start to plan strategically for cloud adoption, they need to carefully consider the scope of their planning activities. Cloud computing is a big change, but it is also only a single part of a journey that began over a decade ago, which saw the industry transitioning from old, legacy systems and monolithic technology, to a services-oriented approach to ICTs."
Vester says any strategic planning for cloud must also fit in with the basic business strategies, particularly around services. "This doesn't necessarily mean a massive plan encompassing every level of the organisation, but rather one that takes into account the value chain and makes sure that innovation isn't stifled and business opportunities are not cut short by current application boundaries. A 'mud against the wall' approach will not work; rather formulate a strong and logical framework in which several options can work.
"Cloud has grown and changed a lot since its early days. In its early stages, cloud was more about cost restructuring, particularly where automation and standardisation were concerned. Platform as a service (PaaS) was used mainly for non-critical or niche business applications and the software as a service (SaaS) layer was used for critical Web applications such as ERP, CRM and other critical applications such as e-mail."
He believes cloud's next stage will focus more on business services as well as the architecture of those services. "Cloud services will need to align with all the client facing business services, to create a truly services-oriented business. Because of this, cloud needs to be fully integrated with strategic planning, particularly for businesses which are after more than just rationalising their infrastructure investments."
Cloud will continue to evolve and grow over the next few years. "This fast-morphing environment requires planning that can prepare and plan for growth and change. Companies must plan for ongoing and fast maturing of all the variables - technology, suppliers, standards, regulations, products and services, as well as internal capabilities such as skills and learning."
Strategic planning must be tightly integrated with cloud. The plans have to anticipate and prepare for change, and must focus on core business strategies and be flexible. "Without a comprehensive plan in place that takes both cloud and strategy on board, technology investments will fail. An integrated, strategic plan will allow the organisation to maintain a solid competitive advantage."
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