Cloud planning and design
Constraining and defining the role of cloud computing in your organization, including what will be internal, what will be external, and what service levels will be expected, is a critical first step in planning and designing your cloud. You are going to have many groups associated with the cloud effort — producing it, operating it, regulating it, and consuming it. Identifying all those who will be affected, whether they are initially engaged or brought in later, will help prevent surprises along the way for all concerned.
Consider how the cloud will interact with the rest of the data center environment. Are there shared management tools? Security requirements? Compliance rules? Or is your cloud an island? Now think beyond your data center. Will you be leveraging public cloud resources, as well?
As you answer these questions, you will need to define the requirements, including compliance and security, outline the different options, identify the costs associated with delivering each option, and create an implementation plan.
Key steps to cloud planning and design include:
- Cloud-service-design — To meet the needs of both your initial users and ITs broader customer base, it is important to identify which cloud services are needed, how the public cloud might be leveraged, which service tiers and service levels to offer, and how best to create a corresponding "bill of materials."
- Cloud-operations-definition — To make sure your cloud will operate at its best, define your cloud reference architecture, map out necessary performance and capacity planning, and determine any operational compliance and security requirements.
- Cloud-business-planning — In order to ensure your cloud meets not only IT's needs but also the needs of your business, you must consider your current and future demand, manage cloud service providers, determine service costing and pricing, and guarantee regulatory compliance.
Cloud planning and design overview diagram
Cloud planning and design, why do it?
A little IT planning saves millions of dollars and prevents failed projects, unmet expectations, and general frustration. As with any business problem, before uncoiling a single network cable or procuring a single 64-way box, it makes sense to take a step back and consider the best approach to addressing the challenge.
In the case of the cloud, that problem is often characterized as "more resources faster" or "less CapEx on the books" or even "halting the surreptitious use of public cloud resources outside the boundaries of internal IT". These types of statements imply some defined goals and expectations for your cloud effort.
The other primary source of motivation often comes from industry buzz, in which the topic becomes so hot and hyped that individuals in the organization feel "someone better look into what we're doing with cloud." This second type of statement usually implies that there are not defined goals for the project. However, if you wish to be successful with your cloud project, those goals should be articulated.
A good cloud plan can be created in a few short weeks, with the right people and the right motivations. Armed with a plan, technology decisions will be easier to make, stakeholders will have properly set expectations, and the implementation team will have a strong go-ahead to move forward.
Who needs to be involved?
Cloud planning not only engages the initial stakeholders in an organization, but also envelops users from across IT and across the business. Gathering stakeholders early in the planning stage will ensure that their goals are properly represented and that you continue to get their support as the project progresses. By considering differing perspectives, you can also hedge against the risk of omitting key requirements that might significantly impact the group. The goal is to set the tone of incremental delivery against the cloud requirements, with collaboration along the way, when needed.
Potential cloud stakeholders to consider:
- The cloud architect, if one exists in your organization, charged with designing the cloud environment
- The capacity and performance team, whose job it will be to ensure the cloud performs as well as — or better than — the physical alternative
- The network team, upon whose resources and skills you will rely to network the cloud
- The storage team, whose storage boxes will be critical to supporting cloud workloads — and for whom demand may grow significantly with this new technology
- The applications team, who are often the de facto "users" of the cloud — unless that premise is examined
Other individuals within the organization can also shed light on the cloud planning process. These might include representatives from finance (who can help determine how a cloud environment is funded and how it charges its users) and business representatives (who can help identify projects that could best utilize the cloud). For example, if a bank is looking to increase the transaction capacity of its online systems, the target growth numbers can help inform the capacity decision.
While it is important to consider all the stakeholders while designing a cloud, it may not be critical to actually include all of them on an early cloud design team. Some organizations have found success by starting with a small tactical team to build out an initial cloud with future broadening and ongoing development in mind. The initial cloud offering would include only a handful of service offerings, and demonstrate the power of cloud. The small initial team would then strategically expand its membership as it further pursues long-term options.
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