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Are you ready to enter the cloud?

By Alan Collins, Technical Architect at T-Systems in South Africa


Johannesburg, 22 Jul 2011

The cloud computing hype cycle has well and truly left the building, and South African businesses now stand before the next phase: making the decision and moving to the cloud.

This is where reality starts rearing its head; it is now about choosing the right partner, making those hard decisions and investing your time and money to move to the cloud, or not. And are you, as an organisation, ready?

As most organisations and their service providers are painfully aware, there is no such thing as a silver bullet or foolproof recipe when it comes to technology. Cloud computing is no different - it takes expertise, due diligence and a lot of homework to take this step successfully.

For one, the chances are very good that organisations will be able to move everything to the cloud. They might not be able to migrate to the cloud at all. It is critical that the service provider in question is upfront about this from the get-go; very few companies can just pick up their information and send it to the strata and beyond.

A lot of companies operate in highly regulated industries that will make the move to cloud computing a challenge - here, for example, keeping these systems in-house or opting for a hosted private cloud solution as opposed to public cloud computing are better options.

Also, some companies operate in areas that are plagued by cable theft and resultant network connectivity issues. Stable connectivity is considerable when using cloud computing, as organisational information no longer resides within the physical confines the company. 24x7 online access is a necessity, not a luxury.

Cloud computing and bespoke systems aren't necessarily compatible. While cloud computing providers such as T-Systems offer over 80 standardised modules or “plugs”, making for a smooth well-defined transition, bespoke systems will require additional effort. The extra effort might be minimal, but then on the other hand it could be substantial.

A cloud computing provider should have consulting processes in place that ensure that organisations very quickly have a real-life view of what aspects of their infrastructure will be able to move to the cloud and whether they will be able to use any of the services at all.

At T-Systems, the team - as part of its readiness survey - will assess the organisation on three levels:

* Business processes, for example, applications and how it is integrated into the company;

* The entire IT infrastructure, which includes networks, servers, storage; and

* Services, those such as hot desking that meet the needs of the various business units within the organisation dictated by industry standards such as IT Information Library (ITIL), for example.

The above are based on years of experience, benchmarked results, strong and proven methodologies and considerable investment in technology development.

If one, therefore, considers the above, organisations should ask the following: have I really done my homework and is my service provider upfront about these challenges? Moreover, are they partnering with the right service provider?

The market is flooded with companies that offer hosting, virtualisation and outsourcing services. It takes a lot of time, years actually, to perfect cloud computing methodologies and technologies. Organisations need to select a company with a proven track record and benchmarked results. Cloud might be relatively new in South Africa, but it has been used in countries such as Germany for quite some time. Make sure you can leverage that kind of experience.

Beware of companies that place too much emphasis on virtualisation as the goal, rather than an enabling technology. Virtualisation is not cloud computing.

So, what should be on an organisation's checklist when considering the cloud?

A service provider that offers: experience; international recognition; and certification and standards credentials.

For example, in the case of certification, it is crucial for the infrastructure to be certified when moving SAP systems to the cloud.

Deploying SAP applications on an uncertified cloud environment could mean you will lose your support from SAP.

Research organisations such as Gartner, for example, offer a rating system for the various cloud computing providers - this will no doubt be useful when looking for the right partner.

The important thing when embarking on this next phase of the cloud computing is that organisation lay a strong foundation built on sound decision-making.

One, are you a cloud computing candidate, two, do you understand what systems are eligible, and three, have you chosen the right cloud computing service provider?

Alan Collins is presenting: “Ready or not” at ITWeb's annual Virtualisation and Cloud Computing Summit 2011, held in Fourways, Johannesburg from on 27 July 2011. Collins discusses why some companies and services cannot move piecemeal to the cloud and whether companies and their cloud computing service providers are ready.

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Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with around 129 million mobile customers, approximately 36 million fixed-network lines and more than 16 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2010). The group provides products and services for the fixed network, mobile communications, the Internet and IPTV for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in over 50 countries and has around 247 000 employees worldwide. The group generated revenue of EUR 62.4 billion in the 2010 financial year - more than half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2010).

T-Systems

Drawing on a global infrastructure of data centres and networks, T-Systems operates information and communication technology (ICT) systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions. T-Systems provides integrated solutions for the networked future of business and society. The company's 47 600 employees combine industry expertise and ICT innovations to add significant value to customers' core business all over the world. T-Systems generated revenue of around EUR 9.1 billion in the 2010 financial year.

Since the inception of T-Systems in South Africa in 1997, the company has cemented its position as one of the most successful T-Systems companies outside of Europe. As the leading ICT outsourcing service provider locally, T-Systems offers solutions in both the ICT operations and systems integration markets. Its extensive portfolio of services covers the vertical, horizontal, IT and TC space. T-Systems South Africa's head office is located in Midrand, with another major office in Cape Town, and 20 further representative offices in locations throughout southern Africa.

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