Ebook Five Key Steps Cloud Takeoff

FIVE KEY STEPS FIVE KEY STEPS
to a successful cloud takeoff

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FIVE KEY STEPS
FIVE KEY STEPS
BY JOSH CROWE
SVP, 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
TABLE
of contents
3 -------------------- Moving to the Cloud
4 -------------------- Whats 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
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 isnt a slight to the work that enterprise
IT organizations have done over the past few
decades. Its simply a function of the fact that high-
performing, reliable infrastructure is most effcient
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 preconfgured 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 CLOUD
one app at a time
based on a Tier1 survey
top drivers
for 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
fexibility 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 benefts 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

WHATS SO GREAT
about cloud anyway?
43%
COST
REDUCTION
7%
CONSOLIDATION
12%
REDUCED
COMPLEXITY
18%
FLEXIBILITY/
SCALABILITY
20%
TIME TO
MARKET
4
While it may seem like the cloud is a fx-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 roadblocks
you had to
overcome when
moving to the cloud
1
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 READY
for enterprise applications

who is using the
IaaS model?
2
Internap
Microsoft
Terremark/Verizon
Amazon Web Services
IBM
OpSource
Savvis/Century Link
Its easy to say that IaaS is ready, right? But youve
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 benefts 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 fnd a way
to gradually make it more effcient, reliable and
scalable.
EXECUTION IS DIFFICULT
so you need a good strategy
So how and where do you get started in
building 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 specifc performance
requirements? Are there privacy or compliance
issues? What about hardware and software
requirements? Will application re-writes be needed?
F
IR
S
T

C
L
A
S
S
C
O
A
C
H
HEAVY
P
R
I
O
R
I
T
Y
ONE
understand 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
wont want to make the transition, and thats okay.
Dont forget incentives during this process, including
your own. Set realistic metrics and objectives, but
dont create an artifcial roadblock by placing too
much emphasis on setting perfect goals at this
point or youll never get started. Most importantly,
dont be short-sighted stay focused on long-term
goals and results.
TWO
reallocate resources
and realign goals
Dont 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 youre done. By doing
so, youll 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 youll 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 providers infrastructure will
support your specifc applications.
THREE
take a hands-on approach
to evaluating your options
11
After youve removed dependencies on bespoke
infrastructure, perform a pilot in which you test
a cloud-specifc application to the cloud. Once
stable, follow your existing, proven application
release methodology, and move it offcially to the
cloud environment. Through trial and error, you
can smooth over any bumps in the process and
be better prepared for future migrations.
FOUR
test a cloud ready
application
12
contactsales@internap.com | www.internap.com
Go low-risk with your frst 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.
FIVE
just do it
13
SUMMARY .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR As cloud providers roll out more features, locations
and capacity, IT organizations are increasingly
choosing to buy cloud services over capital
equipment. Theyre 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 Internaps 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 fexibility. 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 fexibility 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 fexibility, improved effciency and
enhanced security
Maximum performance by distributing
workloads to the optimal environment
Integrated options to fexibly 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
ABOUT
Internap
Click here to LEARN MORE
about INTERNAPS PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND CLOUD
storage solutions
SOURCES
1. Henry Baltazar, The Progression of Cloud Storage: Hybrids, QoS, and Beyond. http://www.snia.org/
sites/default/fles2/cloudburst2011/presentations/HenryBaltazar_Progression_Cloud_Storage.pdf
2. Gartner, Cloud Computing: Whats 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.

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FIVE KEY STEPS FIVE KEY STEPS

to a successful cloud takeoff

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