A Slow-and-Steady Approach to Cloud Computing

I always appreciate a prospective or current business partner’s initial willingness and enthusiasm to take its operations to the cloud.

The firm’s employees are probably accustomed to working away from the office as much as they are at the office, and moving out of the hardware business can improve economy and efficiency.

They’re ready to make the cloud commitment—as soon as possible.

However, at times, it’s my job to manage their cloud-integration expectations. It’s like finally agreeing with your kids and planning a trip to Disney World, but you’re not traveling to Orlando for six more months. Good luck tempering that excitement and anticipation for half a year!

But for even the most eager businesses, a slow and steady approach to cloud computing can pay tremendous dividends and guard against unintended consequences.

We recently discussed in this space the importance of “looking before you leap” to the cloud, explaining the benefits of the hybrid model of cloud/physical server support. Similarly, one plan that I’m following with several cloud-bound clients pairs a solid solution with a little patience.

Get There with Office 365

Office 365, which we’ve also recently discussed here, is very close to a stand-alone cloud solution for most businesses. In fact, Windows 10—scheduled for a mid-2015 release—will include Active Directory in the cloud and provide true user authentication to a managed cloud server. Currently, Active Directory in the cloud has to be tied to a local server, so Windows 10 should fill that gap, making 0365 the most comprehensive cloud product available.

Still, even with O365’s wide array of tried-and-true Microsoft applications, it can’t check every box for every company. Most businesses, for better or worse, rely on additional specific applications to get the job done day in and day out, like Dynamics GP or Worldox, for example.

Consider the “What-ifs”

With some consideration on the cloud and these business-specific applications, the “what-ifs” can mount quickly.

• What if some of our critical applications aren’t cloud-supported yet?  

• What if our applications require a SQL server onsite or local infrastructure? 

• What if it makes sense to keep some of our applications on an in-house server, because only a handful of our employees access them? 

For operational continuity, then, I recommend companies consider the O365 solution to handle as many business-critical functions as possible, initially. Patience comes into play if other business-specific applications do not yet have a cloud offering or if those applications must/should remain on a local server.

Software makers are working hard and fast on developing cloud alternatives, but we should still wait and see how those products mature and how they can be hosted. If it makes sense for your business, a combination of using O365 while migrating your other applications to the cloud when appropriate could be an effective approach.

As the technology evolves as we hope it will, over time, we can make incremental changes.

Supported Solutions 

Every company has different wants and demands; there is no one-size-fits-all solution, especially when it comes to cloud computing. So, to answer those “what-ifs” and develop a proper cloud-computing plan, it’s critical that I learn as much as I can about how a business operates now, and how it can best operate in the future.

For example, a retail customer with several stores has employees on the sales floor and in the back office. After spending some time with the business, learning its processes and desired outcomes, it became apparent that its floor employees could operate in the Citrix environment on thin clients, while its office staff required its own local computing environment.

In the same way, an IT partner should, before recommending a cloud-computing solution, understand its customer’s business, review existing issues in the current computing environment, analyze the resulting data, and use those findings to prioritize high-impact projects.

It’s why I’m a believer in the slow-and-steady approach to IT planning and implementation. For companies considering a quick move to the cloud and potential IT partners to take them there, be cautious of those who might move too fast, too soon, before answering your “what-ifs.”