Using the hybrid cloud for a major project

Research by the Cloud Industry Forum found that if hybrid cloud adoption continues at its current rate, 80% of businesses will use it in their IT environment by the end of this year. It’s evident that we’re continuing to experience cloud’s rapid adoption growth stage. While much has been written about moving some, part or your entire environment into the cloud, companies with fluctuating demands or temporary needs are often reluctant or have no need to move across permanently. Yet those enterprises can also benefit from the efficiencies that hybrid cloud offers. Here Stefan Haase looks at how the cloud can be used to support a project and the benefits that data centre managers can reap from its use.

Temporary demands on compute happen for a variety of reasons. Some may take the form of a major business project, in which on-premise and the cloud may need to exist on the same network. For example, an enterprise may enter a new market that has peak seasons, in which greater capacity is needed on an intermittent basis. As the hybrid cloud allows for scalability, it’s an ideal solution to your transitory need.

Likewise a temporary requirement, such as your business undergoing a premises move may necessitate an easy way to seamlessly migrate applications, while you’re doing the physical lift and shift of the equipment, without incurring downtime. You may require a brief move from on-premise and into the cloud and possibly back again for data that needs to be available 24/7, while other less vital data can remain on-premise and ‘out of action’ during the move. The hybrid cloud can accommodate for simple data migration, as users can move workloads between the cloud and on-premise as requirements change.

When undergoing a location move, the data held on-premise can’t be simply ‘turned off’ then moved to the cloud: the two may need to co-exist. The hybrid cloud makes this simple: it allows you to extend the logical boundaries of your data centre by connecting the two, which can then be managed via a single interface to migrate existing applications, workloads and templates. This creates a unified network that spans both existing and new data centre capacity with the same reliability and performance you’d expect from your own data centre.

Data being migrated back and forth can only be done if your existing data is of a current format, so check that you aren’t planning on transferring data held by legacy software. This raises a good point. Before you begin researching potential providers, you need to establish whether you’re actually cloud-ready. While the cloud is highly beneficial, it doesn’t fit all requirements. Obviously you can only move into the cloud if the provider is capable of supporting your data. Legacy systems and software are unlikely to be supported by the cloud, for example, and this can limit your ability to move data in and out on a temporary basis.

When sourcing a cloud provider, you must do your due diligence to determine what will work best for your enterprise. This is even more important when using the cloud for a major project. Specific needs will arise from the changes to your business, and your hybrid cloud environment must meet these demands. References can help you determine how credible your cloud provider is, and in this case they will indicate whether they can support the requirements of your project. Check references and ask to see examples of how they’ve successfully supported similar projects so you can be confident that they have the capability to support your needs.

It goes without saying – only commit to a cloud service once you have done a test drive of a cloud provider’s service and checked its capabilities before purchasing.

When you do commit to a provider ensure that you have an exit plan. This means that both parties know where responsibility lies at the end of a contract. This is especially important when undergoing a temporary project since you know that the requirement will come to an end. Make sure that you have the smoothest transition in and out of the cloud.

As with any procurement process, IT must establish whether the commitment of resources is commercially viable. Unlike with a strategic and long-term move into the cloud, using a hybrid model – especially temporarily – means expenditure or cost to the business without an equivalent income as a result. For example, utilising external cloud resources to obtain more bandwidth to test a new product launch or market development may still not result in the product being launched or market being developed, reducing potential income. While these costs may be absorbed by the new product development ‘test’ budget, they still need to be incorporated into overall cost of business.

While moving into the cloud often alleviates internal resourcing issues, procuring and implementation of a temporary service may stretch already stretched resources. IT departments, especially those who haven’t any previous or prior cloud experience, will have to check internally that they have the capability to introduce a hybrid cloud environment.

The hybrid cloud model is ideally suited to a project environment. By its nature, it’s able to offer the best flexibility to scale up when needed but then back down as the need diminishes – all the while keeping existing operations, on premise, unaffected and operating normally. With that said there are always issues that need to be considered before utilising cloud services. Check that you and your data is ready to move; ensure the provider can support you; ensure it’s commercially viable; do due your due diligence; but most of all make sure that you know how it will come to an end – have an exit plan.