Can not touch the stones across the river - Seven complex issues as the cloud platform migrates

There are already more and more large enterprises can not help but the temptation of the software vendors, began to consider the original large-scale operation of the private data center applications to the cloud migration. As for the commercial value of cloud computing, all kinds of cloud computing service providers usually tell enterprises that cloud computing can help enterprises save costs, increase IT system and business flexibility, accelerate application deployment and enhance business innovation capability. More complex than the traditional applications, the use of cloud computing services is as easy to turn on the air conditioner switch, and even enterprise CMO and sales executives can get it. However, in reality, the enterprise's "cloud walk" road has never been a bright road, but hidden all kinds of pitfalls and difficulties.

In fact, the successful construction of a cloud computing platform or the migration of an application to the cloud must not be taken "by the river of stones" luck. CIOs should first have a clear understanding of the hidden costs of cloud computing and the ways in which they are implemented. According to a China Cloud Computing Survey conducted by IDC, what is urgently needed by potential cloud computing business users in China today is a comprehensive and clear implementation planning standard that will help them put the concept of cloud computing into practice.

Recently, Neil Cavanagh, a senior IT expert involved in implementing the largest Oracle Business Suite user cloud migration project in the UK, disclosed various complex issues involved in migrating enterprise applications to the cloud.

First, the original problem of IT investment

In the future, large-scale applications that support thousands of users are often invested heavily in existing IT infrastructures, including resilient server infrastructures, storage systems, and software licenses.

If you are migrating an application to the cloud, you need to take some time to think about what impact this will have on your existing IT infrastructure as these migrated applications share processing performance, disk resources and other (local) applications Expensive database license.

In addition, if you remove an application, you may have to move the existing software licenses to the cloud service provider. If you have multiple applications hosted by different vendors on the same cloud computing platform, It will mean that you may repeatedly pay the software license fee.

Second, supporting the application of the problem

Most large systems do not work alone, you may have a lot of companion applications from different vendors such as enhanced reporting and data import tools.

So if you're planning to migrate applications to the cloud, you also need to ensure that the cloud's configuration keeps these companion applications up-to-date with the main application. Remember that in the past, large amounts of data transmission often occurred in the early hours? Unfortunately, it is also often the early morning of cloud service providers doing maintenance.

In addition, an application suite often requires operation and maintenance support from multiple vendors. Before migrating to the cloud, it's best to read through your cloud computing contract and make sure your vendor also has the access you need for technical support.

Third, PaaS or SaaS, depends on labor law

You can usually choose SaaS (software as a service) or PaaS (platform as a service) cloud computing models for very large-scale systems, and you also need to consider both the problems posed by the two models of IT staff .

Your business may already employ enterprise application experts, database administrators, and other IT infrastructure technicians. If companies choose SaaS cloud computing services, then many of these IT technicians will be fired. Many countries now protect their employees through the Transfer of Undertakings. This can be tricky for businesses that can not plug IT staff deprived of cloud computing jobs in other departments.

Fourth, demand forecasting and multiple environments

Enterprise application examples are usually divided into "production", "development", "training" and "test" four categories. For those with the necessary tools for business, it is easy to set up these application examples, which is very important for major application release or patch testing.

For example, business people can visit the "experimental environment" to approve major changes to applications, especially when it comes to legal issues.

However, application vendors are often reluctant to migrate all of your existing instances to the cloud, so you need to evaluate the impact of the cloud-based release management process on your release and the employees in other parts of the enterprise.

Also remember to check your disk space and your backups anytime and try to anticipate your data storage needs and make sure your budget supports this growth. The cloud computing needs forecasting will be at the heart of CIOs. Keep in mind that major upgrades, improvements, and changes to compliance often have a significant impact on data storage.

Fifth, connectivity

Cloud computing is a network service provided remotely, so ensuring flexibility and reliability of connections is an important indicator of cloud computing services.

Many application providers offer IPSec VPN services, but you still need to make sure that your internet connection, proxy server, and firewall have sufficient reliability.

Sixth, component problems

SaaS cloud computing solutions to help you solve the software management problems, but you still need to ensure that end-users can access and use these SaaS services.

After the local fat client application is upgraded to the web version of the SaaS service, you need to consider some of these issues:

Browser upgrade

Oracle Java

Citrix

ActiveX component

Sometimes, some of these components need to be upgraded with operating systems or hardware, so you need to thoroughly investigate whether the enterprise's desktop environment meets the needs of your SaaS service and whether the components required by SaaS conflict with your in-house applications.

Seven, assessment and contract errors

Cloud computing migration assessment should be treated as a separate project.

Large-scale SaaS migration is usually the overall corporate decision-making, not just the IT department for the final say, not just the IT department, in particular, should pay attention to avoid the five errors in cloud computing service contract

PaaS may be a quicker cloud computing journey for those looking to avoid the cost of replacing business suites with SaaS.