The effectiveness of cloud is often determined by the transition

How an organisation approaches the transition to the cloud will often determine how effective cloud based solutions are for them.

A recent blog by influential cloud commentator Ben Kepes discussed the approach of Stan Klimoff, Director of Cloud Services for Grid Dynamics. This approach is a series of simple tips that Klimoff uses when talking to businesses about moving to the cloud. This approach is summarised by four steps:

1. Identify business processes that can benefit from using the cloud
2. Break down the IT processes and applications that support your business processes
3. Analyse to avoid potential road blocks
4. Calculate the total cost

This approach reminded me of Gen-i’s own four step ‘Pathway to Cloud’ process, which consists of these four steps:

1. Explore – what is the current situation?
2. Expand – what is holding you back?
3. Envision – what could the future look like?
4. Enable- how will we get from here to there?

What both approaches have in common is the drive to have a deep understanding of an origination’s strategic objectives. This includes an understanding of the current IT constraints preventing achievement of these objectives. Check out this video where Mark Sewell from Finzsoft discusses how this Pathway to Cloud framework assisted their transition to the cloud.

I’d recommend that any business considering transitioning a workload to the cloud spends some time to ensure they have the right partner, with the experience and technology solutions to assist their business to achieve its objectives.

I’m interested to hear any comments on transitioning to the cloud from businesses that have already moved to the cloud or are currently in the process.