-
8/8/2019 Understanding Enterprise-To-Cloud Migration Costs and
Risks
1/4
UnderstandingEnterprisetoCloudMigrationCostsandRisks
Overview
MigratingtoInfrastructureasaService(IaaS)isanattractiveoptionforcorporations
thatwanttoshiftfromacapitalexpensetoapayasyougomodel.Regardlessofthe
businessdriverforcloudcomputing,ofwhichtherearemanyincludingreducingcostsandaddingnimbleness,largeenterprisesarenowfacedwithreevaluatingtheircoreIT
assetswithaneyetowardsenterprisetocloudmigrationforimprovingbusiness
efficiencies.However,beyondqualitativelyappreciatingthebenefitsofcloud
computing,ITexecutiveslacktheabilitytoquantitativelyassesstheriskreward
structureofwhichapplicationshouldbemigratedfromtheenterprisetoacloud.
Withouthavingaquantifiableimpactassessmentofmigratingenterpriseresourcestoa
cloud,enterprisesarefacedwithadhocdecisionsduringtheircloudmigrationprocess.
CoreMigrationQuestions
ForCIOs,CTOsandbusinessapplicationarchitects,cloudcomputinghasbecomeinescapableaspectoftheiroverallITstrategy.Asbusinessesconsiderapproachesto
migratingpartsoftheirinfrastructuretothecloud,ITorganizationswrestlewith
fundamentalquestionssuchas:
i. Whatapplicationsoritscomponentsshouldbemigratedtothecloud?ii.
Whatshouldbetheorder/priorityofmigration?iii.
WhichIaaScloudprovidershouldbeselectedbasedonapplicationperformance
andreliabilityrequirements?
iv. HowdoImitigateenterprisetocloudmigrationrisk?
Withoutaddressingsuchquestions,enterprisesarefacedwithadhocdecisionsduringtheircloudmigrationprocessthatcanaddimmeasurableriskstotheirbusiness
operationsandunderminetheefficienciesthattheyseekbymigratingtothecloud.
TypicalMigrationProcess
Inatypicalenterprisetocloudmigrationprocess,acorporationwillidentifycandidate
componentsbasedondriverssuchbusinesscontinuity,scalabilityorloweroverallcost
ofownership.Theselectionofcloudvendorthenrequiresmovingservicecomponents
suchasdatabase,applicationservers,ESBs,andidentitystorestothecloud
environment.Onceafullreferencesystemisdeployedinthecloud,thebehaviorofthe
enterpriseapplicationinteractingwiththecloudbasedcomponentshastobetested.TestingareferencesystemdeployedinthecloudwithanIaaSproviderenablesan
enterprisetoevaluatetheclassofservers,memory,CPUandstoragebehaviorina
multitenantenvironment.IaaSprovidersalsohavetobebenchmarkedatvarioustimes
toensureconsistentbehavior.
Tounderstandtherisksofmovingapplicationcomponentstoacloudbaseddeployment
requiresquantifyingtheimplicationsofaddingadditionalhopsfromthecorporatedata
-
8/8/2019 Understanding Enterprise-To-Cloud Migration Costs and
Risks
2/4
centerstocloudproviders.Networklatencybasedtimeouts,messagedeliveryerrors,
performanceandsecurityprofileshavetobecodedbyhandintoanew'testversion'of
thedeployment,startingfromtheproductionversionimagethatwasportedovertothe
cloud,tocheckforwhatifscenarioswhileinteractingwiththecloud.Thisaddsa
significantdevelopmentburdenoncustomizingthecloudbasedcomponentsforthe
purposeofsimulatingfailure,performanceandscalabilityscenarios.Oncetheenterpriseishappywiththeinteraction,thecodeaddedforthesimulationhastobe
removedorturnedofftoensurethatapplicationsareinproductionandnotinadebug
state.
EfficientMigrationEvaluationAlternatives
Cloudsimulationandmigrationmodelingprovidesamoreefficientandnimble
alterativetobuildingafullcloudbasedreferenceinfrastructureforevaluating
enterprisetocloudmigrationrisks.Throughenterprisetocloudmigrationsimulation,
organizationscansimulateservicesinthecloudpriortoimplementation.Simulation
enablesenterprisestobenefitbynothavingtotouchproductioncodewhile
eliminatingthesubstantialtime,capitalandITstaffresourceexpensesrelatedto
creatingadistinctcloudtestenvironment.Expensesthatcanbeeliminatedthrough
simulationinclude:
i.
Afullscale,redundantarchitecturethatinvolveshardwareacquisitionandsoftwarelicensingcosts
ii.
Hiringdedicateddevelopmentteamstoperformtestingandbenchmarkingiii.
Customhandcodingwhatifscenariostodetermineerrorconditionsrelatedto
latency,performance,scalabilityandsecurityThroughsimulatingapplicationcomponentsinthecloudpriortoimplementation,organizationscanviewrealworldinformationaboutcloudprovidersincluding:
i. Performancemetricsii.
Geographiclatencyandserviceinitiation/spinuptimesiii.
Failures,outagesandapplicationerrorstatesiv.
Security,capacityandinteroperability
Armedwithenterprisetocloudinteractiondataundervariousoperationalscenarios,
companiescanmakedecisionsontheircloudmigrationstrategywithoutmovingallor
partoftheirapplicationtothecloud,modifyingtheirproductioncodeforwhatif
scenarioevaluationandincurringsignificantdevelopmentandinfrastructurecosts
duringtheevaluationprocess.
CloudMigrationTradeoffsFactors
Theinformationgatheredbysimulatingenterprisetocloudinteractionenables
corporationstomakekeydecisionsonthecloudmigrationstrategy.Simulationsmay
-
8/8/2019 Understanding Enterprise-To-Cloud Migration Costs and
Risks
3/4
revealasignificanttradeoffbetweenkeycostandriskfactors.Suchtradeoffscanhelp
companiesdecidewhethertomaintainstatusquoormoveapplicationtoacloud
provider.
Costfactorsdeterminedbysimulatinganapplicationwithinacloudmayrevealthatthe
serverclassrequiredwithinacloudprovidertomaintaintherequiredapplicationperformancethresholdsmaybecostprohibitive.IaaSvendorsprovideavarietyof
optionsbasedonCPUandmemorysizes.Thecostratiobetweenatopendserverwith
themaximumavailableresourcesandanentrypointservercanbeashighas30.
Throughdetailedsimulationbasedanalysis,therightserverclasscanbeidentifiedand
itscostscanbeappropriatelymodeled.
Corporationsmaychoosetopickmultiplecloudprovidersforredundancyandfailover.
Intercloudcostanalysisenablescompaniestodecideassetmigrationacrossmultiple
vendors.Inadditiontothepayasyougocostsassociatedwithpickingoneormultiple
cloudproviders,anumberofothercostfactorshavetobeconsideredincludingthe
costsofsecuring,managingandmonitoringenterprisetocloudinteractionandthe
actualcostofmigration.
RiskfactorsassociatedwithmigratingapplicationcomponentstoIaaSprovidersneedto
beclearlyunderstoodandquantified.Additionalhopsfromtheenterprisetothecloud
providerschangethetopologyandriskbyinsertinganewpointoffailurethathastobe
addressed.Theadditionalcloudnodehasperformanceimplicationsespeciallywithin
amultitenantcloudenvironmentwhereperformanceofthecloudinfrastructurecan
varydramaticallybasedonthenumberofpartiessharingthesameinfrastructure.
SelectingalargerserverclasswithhighmemoryandlargeCPUseemsliketheobvious
choiceforreducingperformanceandavailabilityrisks,however,thecostimplicationofsuchchoiceshavetobecloselycalibratedbeforecommittingtoamigrationprocess.
Withaclearunderstandingofcostandriskfactorsassociatedwithenterprisetocloud
migration,anenterprisecanquantitativelyevaluatethetradeoffbetweensuchfactors.
Throughsuchtradeoffanalysis,corporationsmayarriveatanumberofunanticipated
conclusions.Forexample,thecandidateapplicationmaynotbesuitedforcloud
migrationgiventhecostsandriskprofile.Theapplicationmayonlybesuitedforprivate
cloudswithonlycapacityissuesoffloadedtocloudvendors.Thelatencyaddedby
enterprisetocloudinteractionmaybebeyondacceptabletolerances.Adifferent
asynchronousorbatchprocessingtypeapplicationmayhavealowermigrationcostriskprofilethanarealtimeapplicationwithmillisecondresponsetimerequirementsthat
mayrequirecostprohibitiveserverswithredundancyacrossmultiplecloudproviders.
Conclusion
Simulatingenterprisetocloudmigrationoffersasimple,costeffectiveandflexibleway
-
8/8/2019 Understanding Enterprise-To-Cloud Migration Costs and
Risks
4/4
ofmodelingthecostsandrisksassociatedwithmigratingapplicationstomultipleIaaS
vendors.Enterprisesappreciatequalitativedriversforcloudmigrationbutlackthetools
andtechniquesforgatheringquantitativedatatoassesstheimpactofenterpriseto
cloudmigrationontheirbusinessoperations.Byincludingsimulationtoolsand
techniquesintheirassessmentprocess,corporationscanmakewellinformeddecisions
regardingtheircloudmigrationstrategywithoutaddingunnecessarycostandrisktotheiroperation.
