Moving to the cloud? Stop and think: When switching business processes to the cloud, it's tempting to simply take your in-house legacy and move it, as-is. But is that the best plan?
David Amerland suggests an unusual philosophy, encouraging us to think from first principles. The results may surprise you!
Right now, Cloud computing is the strategy of choice for enterprises of all sizes. It’s frequently cited as the move that will transform businesses into sleek productivity machines with lower overheads and higher profits. It’s especially attractive to organizations that feel they’ve stalled in their progress.
Is cloud computing a panacea for all ills? Not quite, but it does have the ability to dramatically lower communication barriers across every part of the enterprise, bringing people and departments closer together.
Time Is Money
Time saved getting something done or organizing it to be done has a direct impact on the bottom line. But if you decide to make the jump, where should you start?
Every enterprise is unique, so the shape of your cloud-computing architecture will be a direct result of your uniqueness. But the initial starting point should come from the same three criteria that define the corporate cloud.
Each criterion is designed to form the cloud in the first place. I call them:
- Instrumented
- Interconnected
- Intelligent
Let’s look at each:
1. Instrumenting Your Business Processes
Data has to come in from somewhere, which means it needs to be captured.
Whether it’s from local sensors recording mechanical tasks, tablets that require human interaction for input, or a combination of the two, the implementation of the instrumenting starts with the choice of the right ‘tools’ to get the job done.
Whether your data is big data or small data, it's the first piece of the puzzle needed to give your corporate cloud shape. So start here, rather than rush into moving your existing legacy to a cloud provider.
2. Interconnecting Your Business Processes
When it comes to connecting all your hardware to get the data communicated, the choices broaden considerably.
- Do you need real-time updates? If so, you’ll need to think about a robust, always-on network, with sufficient bandwidth to cope with sudden data spikes.
- Alternatively, can updates happen in batches when data is dumped into the cloud?
Perhaps your data analytics needs are such that they require a combination of the two. The choices you make will depend upon your needs, which in turn should come from your business aims and goals.
If you’re looking at market forces, trying to determine seasonal demand in your goods and services, a batch-style data dump is probably the best way to get the information into the cloud.
But if you’re selling soft drinks and refrigerator performance is key to sales, data that warns you when a fridge is about to go out of service is best sent in real time, so you can act pre-emptively.
These are just examples, but you can see how each choice you make comes with its own implementation steps.
3. Intelligence In Your Business Processes
This is the most critical component of your cloud: It determines whether or not you save money and make more money.
Intelligence is always supplied by the sophistication of your software. It determines how data outputs are handled.
If you’re a transportation company, for example, you’d want your cloud to be able to report real-time transportation logistics. You may also want to consider additional analysis that shows you the seasonal peaks and troughs, helping identify and diagnose problems with your transportation network fulfilling demands of orders of your product to your customers, at peak times.
Start Small, Scale Big
This three-step approach to cloud computing has the advantage of scalability: The criteria are the same across the enterprise.
This allows the cloud to start small and then build up as confidence and experience in running it increases. This is radically different from typical large-scale cloud transitions, which put an entire enterprise’s functionality into virtual environments and then spend months fine-tuning the process and adapting to a new way of working.
By starting small across departments, an enterprise can turn the transition to the cloud into a learning experience. In and of itself, it helps build-up and maintain momentum. This is a huge win in any a CEO’s book, when it comes to driving change across the corporation.
The greater connectivity and faster response time has impacts across many areas:
- The enterprise itself: it can now enjoy lower operating costs
- Workforce and customers: big data solutions bring personalization to the work and smarter customer relation management systems
- Community: part of the transition to a social business model
And There’s Another Win: A Big One
A move to cloud computing takes IT out of its traditional compartmentalized role. Instead of a team running servers, it can now integrate their activity into almost every department of the corporation. If you allow it.
This is a radical and disruptive change, but it helps spread expertise and save money. Detailing its impact will have to wait for my next article. Stay Tuned!
How are you moving to cloud computing? Or aren't you? Weigh in with a comment below...
By David Amerland (@DavidAmerland)
Image credit: FutUndBeidl (cc:by)
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