The emergence of cloud computing in recent years has resulted in a paradigm shift that is disrupting the whole IT industry.
As more companies start to adopt cloud services, it is important to understand the most effective way to build your enterprise cloud strategy.
Gartner states that moving to the cloud without a strategy results in higher costs, disjointed management, security vulnerabilities, and overall dissatisfaction.
With this in mind, it’s clearly imperative that you take a strategic approach to implementing cloud computing to your enterprise.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
What is an enterprise cloud strategy?
An enterprise cloud strategy is a plan that describes how your business will implement and use cloud services. This strategy helps make sure that your company is moving into the future with the most efficient and effective way of using cloud computing.
The purpose of an enterprise cloud strategy is to help align your company’s IT strategies with market changes. It also provides insight into what you might expect from new technologies and trends in order to inform strategic decisions.
A well-defined enterprise cloud strategy can help enterprises mitigate risks and take advantage of opportunities associated with moving to the cloud.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Cloud computing basics
Cloud computing is a type of computing that relies on shared resources. It is the delivery of computing as a service over the Internet, rather than installing software on your computer.
With cloud computing, companies can easily scale up or down by adding or removing resources without changing their software. One of the main benefits of enterprise cloud strategy is that it allows for a dynamic approach to business on a global scale. Enterprises can access their data from any device at any time, which makes it easy for them to analyse and manage their content.
There are three basic types of cloud computing: public, private, and hybrid clouds. The first two options are the most common. Public clouds offer infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS). Private clouds are used by companies that want complete control over their data while they use IaaS or PaaS.
The final option is a hybrid approach. This type of cloud is a combination of public and private clouds, which allows companies to move workloads from the public cloud to the private cloud when necessary.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”8578″ css=”.vc_custom_1645506981844{padding-top: 60px !important;padding-bottom: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]
Understanding your business goals
A solid enterprise cloud strategy begins by understanding your business objectives and how they can be met through cloud services. You need to determine the type of cloud services that work best for your company, and the different types of data that would be hosted in the cloud.
Determining your strategy in line with your business objectives will include mapping out your infrastructure and software needs, determining the cloud provider partner that will help you meet your goals and business requirements, preparing a detailed cloud service level agreement (SLA) with your cloud provider partner, and determining which applications will be hosted in the cloud.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Moving applications to the cloud
Rehosting, refactoring and rebuilding are three common strategies for moving an application to the cloud.
Rehosting: moving an application with minimal effort. This also means minimal change and therefore minimises benefits, as most of the application aspects stay the same.
Refactoring: utilising an existing database in order to take advantage of services such as cloud-managed databases rather than migrating existing databases or continuing them internally on another system, but that is done elsewhere.
Rebuilding: taking a strategic application and redesigning it around elastic scalability and pay-per-use pricing models found through a different architecture built for this purpose due to its unique characteristics.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Cloud security and privacy
Security and privacy are important factors that must be considered in enterprise cloud computing.
The benefits of using the cloud can be immense, but they may come with a cost. A key concern is that once data is stored on a public cloud, it is potentially available to anyone who has access to that information.
Another concern many companies have is that they may be subject to data breaches in the future. In 2021, Australia recorded the third-highest average total cost increase of data breach damage worldwide.
Companies are concerned about the possibility that their sensitive information could be stolen by cybercriminals, or their private data could fall into the hands of malicious actors who may use it to ransom payment.
In order to address these concerns, you need to include comprehensive security policies and procedures alongside your enterprise cloud strategy.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Get enterprise cloud strategy guidance from the experts
In the modern era of technology, companies are increasingly turning to the cloud. With all of the benefits that come with this model, it’s no wonder that it’s so popular. That said, there are challenges and risks that come along with this transition.
The cloud engineers at INTELLIWORX have all the cloud knowledge, expertise, and tools to help you develop a cloud strategy tailored to your enterprise needs. Talk to them today and get started.
