Time In The Cloud - Lessons Learned
Over the past year, a lot of learning has taken place around deploying multiple types of resources into the cloud. So far, these are some of the lessons I have learned while looking at the cloud as a strategic part of the IT organization.
Optimization
The cloud reminds me of the old phrase, “Out of sight, out of mind.” It can be very easy to view the cloud as a place where we can spin up multiple resources for testing and production. While this is very true, we need to remember that spinning down unused resources is also very important. Keep an inventory of your cloud environment, and review it frequently to ensure it is optimized. Doing this will help you keep your costs down, and will provide a much better idea of how much the cloud is costing your organization. The cloud isn’t necessarily always cheaper than on premise resources, but can be used strategically to benefit the organization.
Planning is a learning curve
As the cloud continues to grow and evolve, planning for cloud solutions can and will continue to introduce learning curves. The first phase (outside of e-mail) for cloud planning seems to begin with virtualizing what we can in the cloud, or migrating virtual machines to the cloud. Many times this can be a good idea if we do not have the infrastructure, or need to spin up a machine quickly. The second phase seems to be phase one of the Dev/Ops approach, where we let our dev individuals spin up machines in the cloud for testing (amongst other things), but this can often time lead to virtual machine sprawl. Hence the lesson above, optimization. But the cloud has continued to grow, and many more offerings are available. PaaS has continued to grow, for example the ability to host websites and SQL servers. No longer do you need to spin up a VM to host a website, you can just throw your website and your SQL backend into the cloud and Microsoft can host it for you. Sounds easy, right? The process for all of this is a learning curve, as not all services offered by technology fit the mold for PaaS. The cloud will continue to be a learning curve as it grows and matures, and IT professionals will need to evaluate deploying solutions with business partners, expanding the breadth of the Dev/Ops approach.
Yes, downtime happens in the cloud
Nobody wants to admit it, but downtime in the cloud will happen. I am not saying that it will always be the cloud vendors’ problem, but in one way or another, you will most likely experience cloud downtime. If you have a service that utilizes only one virtual machine, and it is not in an availability set, you are more likely to experience downtime. The only problem with an availability set is that you need more than 1 virtual machine, so the service you thought was going to cost x, it now costs ~ 2x. As I mentioned before, the issue may not always be with your cloud provider, it may exist at the network level. Whether you have ExpressRoute, or any number of network level providers, you will most likely see some type of network issue that will render your cloud service unavailable. One area that I have experienced little to no downtime is PaaS. PaaS seems extremely stable, and I recommend looking that direction as you review service solutions within your environment.
Embrace Hybrid
As you move forward embracing cloud technology, you will most likely find yourself embracing a hybrid model. While the cloud model can fit a number of different use cases, from the enterprise level there are some components of the business that will most likely stay internal. From a security perspective, not all organizations are comfortable with PAN data, or other types of customer data sitting in a data center somewhere that is out of its control. When reviewing and designing current and new business services, the cloud may not always make sense, meaning that some type of other data center solution will need to exist. Another factor in embracing the hybrid model is utilizing the investment that has already been made within a current data center. Why continue to place business services in the cloud when you have made the capital investment in technology, and the business service can run within that environment? A number of different factors (not just the ones mentioned here), will most likely lean your organization to embrace the hybrid cloud model.
Utilize Competition
As the cloud continues to grow and develop, vendors compete to gain new customers, as well as draw current customers into new spaces. If an organization decides to lock itself in with one vendor, it may lose out on lower pricing or services being offered by another vendor. Granted, it is not always easy to move a business service from one cloud vendor to another, but it is also not impossibly if planned correctly. If nothing else, being able to mention to a preferred vendor that another is offering competitive pricing with comparable service gives an organization more leverage with pricing. Along with pricing, not all cloud vendors provide the same services, or one may offer better functionality in one or more of the services being offered. Ensure that your organization looks at different cloud vendors to ensure they are receiving the best products and services that go along with price. Utilize competition among cloud vendors to place your organization in a better place.
Best of luck on your journey into the cloud!
