eBook Five Key Steps Cloud Takeoff

FIVE KEY STEPSFIVE KEY STEPSto a successful cloud takeoff

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BY JOSH CROWESVP, Product Development, Internap

©2012 Internap Network Services Corporation. All rights reserved. Internap is a registered trademark of Internap. All other trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. 08/12

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TABLEof contents

3 -------------------- Moving to the Cloud

4 -------------------- What’s So Great About Cloud?

6 -------------------- Iaas is Ready

7 -------------------- Cloud Strategies

9 -------------------- Step One: Prioritize

10 ------------------ Step Two: Realign Goals

11 ------------------ Step Three: Be Hands On

12 ------------------ Step Four: Test a Cloud-Ready App

13 ------------------ Step Five: Just Do It

14 ------------------ Summary

15 ------------------ About Internap

16 ------------------ Sources



http://clicktotweet.com/060hg


Leading IT organizations are realizing that it can

be easier to consume quality infrastructure from

vendors than to build out ever-more assets into

their own data centers.

This isn’t a slight to the work that enterprise

IT organizations have done over the past few

decades. It’s simply a function of the fact that high-

performing, reliable infrastructure is most efficient

at scale, and the demand for these services is

being better met with each passing day.

So, what are world-class IT organizations

doing? They are getting out of the

infrastructure business. While wholesale

outsourcing of infrastructure still presents a

host of challenges, most IT departments are now using Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) for at least some of their applications. IaaS

provides preconfigured hardware and storage

over the Internet. This is a cost-effective

delivery model, where the service provider

is responsible for owning, hosting, running

and maintaining the equipment. In this type

of model, organizations typically pay only for

what they use.

MOVING TO THE CLOUDone app at a time






based on a Tier1 survey

top driversfor your public cloud project 1

With organizations all over the world abuzz about

cloud, the question is no longer if cloud, but when

cloud? The advantages of the cloud are many,

including: decreased operating costs, increased

flexibility and improved service levels. In a Tier1

survey, respondents cited the ability to reduce

costs after migrating workloads to the cloud as a

top driver for making the switch.1 Companies are

seeing these benefits and acting accordingly. One

survey found that 7 in 10 companies using cloud

services will move new apps to the cloud and that an

estimated 60% of servers will be virtualized by 2014.2

WHAT’S SO GREATabout cloud anyway?

43%COST REDUCTION

7%CONSOLIDATION

12%REDUCEDCOMPLEXITY

18%FLEXIBILITY/SCALABILITY

20%TIME TO MARKET

4



While it may seem like the cloud is a fix-all,

this technology does not come without its

share of concerns. Security, privacy, cost,

implementation time and reliability are issues

many have about the cloud. Ultimately the

choice to outsource infrastructure to the cloud

quickly leads to another question: “Can I trust

my mission-critical applications to the cloud?”

based on a Tier1 survey

top roadblocksyou had to overcome whenmoving to the cloud1

43%LEARNING CURVE

8%BUY-IN

12% SECURITY

15% COST

22% COMPLEXITY






Over the past few years, IaaS has rapidly

matured to the point that many applications can

be hosted reliably – with few or no problems. To

be sure, there are those who make a living based

on the complexity of enterprise IT environments

who will provide well-crafted objections about

the shortcomings of current IaaS offerings. In

some cases they will be right, but IaaS providers

are increasingly addressing concerns about

reliability, performance and security, and doing

so at a lower cost than internal IT.

IaaS IS READYfor enterprise applications

who is using theIaaS model?2

Internap

Microsoft

Terremark/Verizon

Amazon Web Services

IBM

OpSource

Savvis/Century Link






It’s easy to say that IaaS is ready, right? But you’ve

got mission-critical applications with real-world

requirements that are not set in the current context

of the capabilities of IaaS providers.

For better or worse, expectations have been set

by the custom, high-performing environments that

the budgets of the last 20 years allowed. Everyone

is looking for the benefits of cloud, along with

application performance and functionality.

Reliable and scalable infrastructure is simply

expected. Your reward for building a world-

class enterprise infrastructure is to find a way

to gradually make it more efficient, reliable and

scalable.

EXECUTION IS DIFFICULTso you need a good strategy






So how and where do you get started inbuilding an IaaS migration strategy?

FOLLOW THESE FIVE STEPS






In classifying the value of each application to your

business, use criteria such as:

» How critical is this application to the business?

Does it support revenue? What are the impacts of

application downtime?

» How hard would it be to move this application to

a new platform? Are there specific performance

requirements? Are there privacy or compliance

issues? What about hardware and software

requirements? Will application re-writes be needed?

FIRST

CLASS

COAC

H

HEAVY

PRIORITY

ONEunderstand and prioritize your application portfolio






You may need to assess how to realign both people

and budgets around the application. Refocusing

your efforts higher up the stack may require

retraining people who have been focused solely on

building and maintaining infrastructure. Some people

won’t want to make the transition, and that’s okay.

Don’t forget incentives during this process, including

your own. Set realistic metrics and objectives, but

don’t create an artificial roadblock by placing too

much emphasis on setting “perfect” goals at this

point or you’ll never get started. Most importantly,

don’t be short-sighted – stay focused on long-term

goals and results.

TWOreallocate resources and realign goals





Don’t write an RFI/RFP/RFQ; these are all methods of

learning about what the post-sale experience will be

like. Instead, spin up some infrastructure with a few

providers, and turn it off when you’re done. By doing

so, you’ll gain a more in-depth understanding of

what the offerings provide in terms of performance,

availability, customer service and ease-of-use,

among other criteria. Your staff will get invaluable

hands-on time, and you’ll likely spend less time

and money than you would in a protracted sales

process. This type of evaluation will give you a real-

world view of how well a provider’s infrastructure will

support your specific applications.

THREEtake a hands-on approach to evaluating your options

11


After you’ve removed dependencies on bespoke

infrastructure, perform a pilot in which you test

a cloud-specific application to the cloud. Once

stable, follow your existing, proven application

release methodology, and move it officially to the

cloud environment. Through trial and error, you

can smooth over any bumps in the process and

be better prepared for future migrations.

FOURtest a “cloud ready”application

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Go low-risk with your first application. Begin your

migration with the easiest application to transition that

still provides the greatest possible value by moving.

Inevitably, issues will arise, and everyone will be quick

to blame the infrastructure. So focus on an application

that is robust and has a supportive user community.

The real key is to start the process and prove to your

organization that it can be done, thus setting the

stage for a more comprehensive application migration

strategy.

FIVEjust do it

13


SUMMARY .

ABOUT THE AUTHORAs cloud providers roll out more features, locations

and capacity, IT organizations are increasingly

choosing to buy cloud services over capital

equipment. They’re moving their applications to

the cloud, and their mission-critical applications

are soon to follow. Prioritizing your apps, setting

goals, running preliminary tests and getting

started with the right application will add up to

a strategic approach that makes the transition

successful.


Josh Crowe leads the Product Management and Business

Development functions across the complete portfolio of Internap

solutions including Data Center Services and IP Services. He

is a seasoned executive with extensive product management,

development and strategy experience, with particular emphasis

in the areas of cloud computing, managed hosting and network

services. Mr. Crowe most recently served as Internap’s Senior

Vice President of Product Engineering. Previously, he was with

Savvis, where he served as Vice President, Global Software

Development for the network, managed services, security and

cloud computing portfolio. Mr. Crowe holds an M.B.A. and a

Masters in Information Management from Washington University

in St. Louis, as well as a B.A. from Missouri State University.






Transform your IT Infrastructure into a competitive

advantage with IT IQ from Internap, intelligent IT

Infrastructure solutions that combine unmatched

performance and platform flexibility. Our unique trio

of route-optimized enterprise IP, TCP acceleration

and a global content delivery network improves

website performance and delivers superior end-user

experiences. Our scalable colocation, managed

hosting, private cloud, public cloud and hybrid

offerings provide enterprises the flexibility to adapt

to changing business needs and future-proof their IT

Infrastructure. Since 1996, thousands of companies

have entrusted Internap with the protection and

delivery of their online applications.

INTERNAP CLOUD » Increased flexibility, improved efficiency and

enhanced security

» Maximum performance by distributing

workloads to the optimal environment

» Integrated options to flexibly connect with

other Internap platforms

» Optimized application agility with on-demand

provisioning

» Unlimited capacity for both your day-to-day and

unforeseen events

» Improved performance from the cloud to your

end user

» Dedicated, award-winning enterprise support

» One application environment, one support

contact and one invoice

ABOUTInternap

Click here to LEARN MOREabout INTERNAP’S PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND CLOUD

storage solutions



http://www.internap.com/flexible-cloud-hosting-solutions/




SOURCES

1. Henry Baltazar, The Progression of Cloud Storage: Hybrids, QoS, and Beyond. http://www.snia.org/

sites/default/files2/cloudburst2011/presentations/HenryBaltazar_Progression_Cloud_Storage.pdf

2. Gartner, Cloud Computing: What’s It All About? June 2010

©2012 Internap Network Services Corporation.

All rights reserved. Internap is a registered

trademark of Internap. All other trademarks

and brands are the property of their

respective owners.



http://www.snia.org/sites/default/files2/cloudburst2011/presentations/HenryBaltazar_Progression_Cloud_Storage.pdf

http://www.snia.org/sites/default/files2/cloudburst2011/presentations/HenryBaltazar_Progression_Cloud_Storage.pdf


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eBook Five Key Steps Cloud Takeoff