Assessing enterprise applications before deploying cloud computing services
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 11:39:13 AM
Read Write Web recently published an article that provides guidance for prospective cloud computing adopters working to establish which of their operations, applications and data should and could be transferred to cloud computing service.
For individuals, and even some organizations that have very low amounts of best practice policies, the shift to the cloud will likely be very simple and require not much more than simply choosing a provider and establishing an adequate service level agreement with them. However, most enterprises will need to compartmentalize their applications and data to ensure they are ready for the cloud.
According to the source, the five different types of applications executives and IT personnel should use as categories are ones with relaxed security requirements, those already off of traditional legacy systems, those not under the scope of regulatory compliance, those modulated and applications that would not be affected by a latent approach to hosting.
Depending on the size and scope of the enterprise's operations, this process can range in difficulty, but enlisting the help of IT personnel, as well as any individuals overseeing applications in-house for regulatory compliance purposes, will make it a more successful and rapid assignment.
It is important to create a comprehensive assessment of all applications, as well as any other services an enterprise intends to move to the cloud, before beginning to shop for a potential vendor of cloud computing technology. This is mostly due to the increased importance of adequate service level agreements in the industry.
Experts believe that service level agreements between cloud computing vendors and consumers will either make or break the experiences of both parties in the venture. While these documents are widely used across a broad number of industries, because of the novelty of cloud computing and many of the industry's leading providers, SLAs work to ensure the fairness and adequacy of specifications on both ends.
Read Write Web notes that assessing these categories and compartmentalizing applications into them should be fairly straightforward for well organized businesses and individuals. Additionally, the source explains that all applications of a company do not necessarily need to fall into these categories.
Enterprises can decide to move all, several or even just one application to the cloud if it seems like the most reasonable option. For example, cloud-based Software-as-a-Service email operations have been among the most rapidly used applications since the inception of the technology.
-McAfee Cloud Security
