Setting up cloud computing infrastructure requires substantial forethought and careful planning. A multitude of variables come into play, such as vendor lock-downs, API controls, site architecture, application mapping, and many others. Transitioning to the cloud without evaluating critical considerations could impede businesses from achieving a successful migration, therefore leaving the company at risk.
Compared to just five years ago, the considerations have changed dramatically. Many enterprises are avoiding standardizations in order to augment flexibility and cost effectiveness, thus revealing the ability to non-disruptively migrate applications and data from one cloud service platform to another.
ProfitBricks provides comprehensive cloud services to support all kinds of businesses with a varied set of applications and workloads. To provide a roundup of the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure, we asked a group of leading cloud experts to answer the following question: “What are the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure?” We’ve included the most helpful responses from more than 20 cloud authorities below.
Meet Our Panel of Cloud Infrastructure Experts:
Ondrej Krehel
Sean Dendle
Ian Perez Ponce
Ari Weil
Morgan O’Mara
Nikolay Anisimov
Ilyas Iyoob
Chris Ciborowski
Manon Buettner
Mark O’Hare
Darren Guccione
Aja McClanahan
Michael Bremmer
Michael Fimin
Paul Kubler
Jeb Molony
Pierluigi Paganini
Nick Pegley
Andy Johnson
Ondrej Krehel
Ondrej Krehel is the founder and principal of LIFARS LLC, an international cyber security and digital forensics firm. He’s the former Chief Information Security Officer of Identity Theft 911, the nation’s premier identity theft recovery and data breach management service.
I think the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
1. What technologies are used to detect, remediate and prevent data breaches? Is there an additional cost for it?
2. How well is mobile technology support provided by the current infrastructure? What is the mobility strategy for this cloud provider?
3. What is the guaranteed SLA for services provided? Is there a price for a higher SLA? Who will be my primary contact ensuring that SLA is met?
4. In the case of compromised data, how quickly can data can be accessed for forensic analysis? What legal agreements are should be in place prior to investigation?
5. What industry certification, compliance, regulatory frameworks, and data governance does the cloud provider offer (PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO, SSAE16, etc…)?
6. How many governments and nations have reach to data for this cloud provider? Has the provider already been subpoenaed from multiple states or nations?
7. Is a hybrid infrastructure supported? In other words, can I also send specific servers, VMs, or other resources just for my specific system to the cloud provider?
8. Are major virtualization layers supported, such as KVM, VMware, and vSphere? What else is supported?
9. Is live backup included in pricing, meaning at other geographical locations? How do I need to backup my data and systems?
10. When I have technical issues, how are they internally resolved and what third party partners are available to support implemented technologies?
Sean Dendle
Sean Dendle is a technology entrepreneur who has been working in IT from the age of 15. Sean established Cymax in 1996 to provide IT support to Brisbane businesses. It has since evolved to provide cloud services to companies across Australia. In 2011, Cymax was awarded as one of the top 10 service providers within Australia, and in 2013, the company was recognized as one of the top 501 managed service providers internationally by MSP Mentor.
I think the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
1. Integration and leverage. The better integrated the systems, the more leverage you are going to have from your cloud infrastructure.
2. Certain vendors and products work better together than others, and so investing the time to ensure the integration in the short term will pay massive dividends in the long term.
3. Speed of recoverability. People moving to the cloud expect little to no down time, and so you will be measured on your performance and ability to recover the systems rapidly.
Ian Perez Ponce
Ian Perez Ponce is Vice President of Product Management and Strategy at Zerto. Prior to joining Zerto, Ian was a senior member of the product management team at VMware. He has also held thought leadership roles with Cisco, EMC, Intel, and VCE.
I believe the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
Seemingly endless factors can come into play when prioritizing criteria for successful cloud infrastructure deployment in the enterprise. Factors can range from the efficiency of cloud infrastructure across a growing mix of application environments to self-service and provisioning agility to determining the optimal blend of private, public, and hybrid cloud services and providers. Considering many enterprise organizations have recently opted to go down the path of standardizing on hybrid cloud for enhanced cost control and flexibility, this brings to light a subset of considerations for IT Operations staff around workload conversion and mobility, or the ability to effectively and non-disruptively migrate applications and their data from one cloud service platform to another.
Many business-critical applications, like SAP, ERP, and other systems of record, are extremely complex and can be highly distributed. As a result, managing these applications and moving them between disparate cloud service platforms based on changing business needs can be a difficult and time-consuming process. A second, but equally important consideration is how to continuously protect these critical applications and their data as they traverse the hybrid landscape and also in the event of data loss, corruption, or any other unexpected event that is disruptive.
One possible solution to help mitigate the challenges of workload mobility and application protection alike is to evaluate platform-agnostic data replication services that deliver on the concept of cloud continuity. Such services enable seamless replication and portability of applications and their data between private and public cloud service assets. Cloud continuity, as an overarching layer to enterprise cloud infrastructure, can enable IT Operations teams to better manage and protect a diverse mix of applications and data, no matter where the applications reside and regardless of the underlying virtualization technologies supporting their cloud strategy.
Once a viable cloud continuity service layer is in place, key decision-makers in IT may be able to further embrace the benefits of a [hybrid] cloud infrastructure, without concern over a heterogeneous mix of vendor or technology partners (e.g. AWS, Microsoft, VMware, etc.) in play. Instead, IT decision-makers can choose the appropriate cloud technologies and service platforms that make the most sense for the business, rather than comprising their business and application needs to fit any one single mold. With cloud continuity in effect, cloud infrastructure agility reigns in the end.
Ari Weil
Ari Weil is the Vice President of Product Strategy for Yottaa, a developer of cloud-based web application optimization software.
I believe the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
Architecture – Is your architecture compatible with the cloud infrastructure? What security issues might arise as a result of choosing to use this cloud infrastructure? How will this change your app/dev delivery cadence? You don’t want to start adopting a cloud infrastructure until you know that your architecture and the groups supporting it (engineering, security, ops) can manage it.
Service Level Agreement – What are your goals with the cloud infrastructure, and how do you evaluate its ability to help you reach those goals? There must be guarantees for performance, scalability, and security, as well as processes for how to remediate any issues that could arise. Hearkening back to the architecture piece, the SLA might drive changes to your architecture (think Etsy adopting AWS and not architecting to use US-E and US-W…when US-E went down, so did all of Etsy).
Manageability – Do you have direct access? Do you have real-time access? These are two different things and both are critical for you to understand. Also, what other details are there around web portal vs. terminal vs. API? Does the infrastructure provide onboarding, training, certification, white glove service, etc.? How does the infrastructure need to be managed? Is it more infrastructure for you to monitor, administer, and code to? Is it a black box that must be configured by Client Services or Support at the infrastructure provider? These will ultimately shape your ongoing experience and relationship.
Total Cost of Ownership – Finally, with the three items above, the infrastructure provider costs, and the change in process you may be forced to undergo, what is the total cost of ownership for the infrastructure service? Take extra time with this step because most providers reward you with more economical options for pre-planning effectively. For example, a SaaS solution will save millions if they make appropriate use of reserved instances.
Morgan O’Mara
Morgan O’Mara is a digital marketing content coordinator at Shred Nations. She attended Michigan State University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in Digital and Technical Writing. Since college, she has studied cloud infrastructures and has been working in the cloud industry.
I think the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
Size – One size does not fit all when it comes to cloud storage capacity. Depending on the size of the company and the intended growth, the cloud storage size can vary. To gauge what kind of capacity your company needs, you may be interested in using a storage capacity planning tool. A tool like this ensures that you are getting the most bang for your buck. It records your usage and recommends the best storage capacity for you so that you are not spending too much or hindering quality of service. Capacity and performance management are very important when considering the transition from paper to cloud-based technologies, because the correct storage and quality system will make the process easier.
Security – Many electronic document management software solutions allow for different permissions to be developed for different departments or individuals in the organization. This is to help with the security of the information stored in the cloud.
A legitimate cloud backup or storage service will encrypt the data while it’s being transferred to the cloud server and as it sits on the cloud server. As another precaution, employees should make logins with strong passwords, and there should be a limit to the number of employees that have access to critical files. This can help ensure your files will never be compromised.
Public – A public cloud service is a free or pay-as-you-go service where companies provide services like storage, email, and more to anyone that chooses to use it. You probably have accessed or used one of these systems recently. Do you have a Gmail account, utilize Google Drive or DropBox, or use any other web-based service that stores or passes along information? All of these are public cloud services. If you can use it at little or no cost to you, you’re probably on a public cloud.
Private – A private cloud is structured almost identically to a public cloud. One of the main differences is that the cloud services are controlled and accessed by an individual organization within their firewalls. Private clouds typically have proprietary architecture that allows the organization the ability to control the data they have stored on the private cloud. Simply put, it gives an organization more control of what happens with their data, how they control that data, and offers dramatically increased security measures.
Hybrid – A hybrid cloud solution is the happy medium between a public and private cloud service. It gives you the flexibility to utilize both types of services depending on the level of security and types of services that you would like to use.
Nikolay Anisimov
Nikolay Anisimov, Ph.D., is the Director of Research at Bright Pattern, Inc. He is an industry veteran with 20 years of experience in contact center technologies. Anisimov has also authored numerous patents, as well as technical and research papers.
I think the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
From a technical point of view, there are several well-known and important considerations to weigh while building a cloud infrastructure, including security and privacy, network access (connectivity), elasticity and resource pooling, fault tolerance, and high availability, as well as migration. However, it seems that more attention is paid to security considerations. Indeed, this area is most critical for the majority of applications and is integrated in any aspect of operational architecture. Security considerations include multi-tenancy, data security, internal and external authorization, access to data, and processes.
From an organizational point of view, the most important consideration is securing personnel who will effectively manage all of these considerations and maintain operations of the cloud infrastructure. Without the right people, no technology, architecture, equipment, software, and ultimately, the cloud itself, will work properly.
Ilyas Iyoob
Ilyas Iyoob, Ph.D., is a Sr. Research Scientist and Director of Advanced Analytics at Gravitant. His award-winning research is currently focused on applying Operations Research to Cloud Analytics and optimizing the concepts of Cloud.
I think the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
The first step is screening applications for the cloud to ensure feasibility and benefit. Assuming that has been done for the application(s) in question, the next step is to carefully set up a cloud infrastructure as follows:
Use container technologies (such as Docker/Rocket) wherever possible – for portability.
Put limits on bursting in order to benefit from scaling without being penalized for it.
Tag all cloud assets by user/project/duration of use to avoid sprawl.
Set up firewalls at multiple levels of the architecture for added security.
Deploy a backup environment at a warm site and a DR environment at a cold site for redundancy.
Sign up for a support plan for rapid response times.
Following these steps ensures an efficient cloud infrastructure deployment, and the organization will benefit from the cloud with minimal challenges.
Chris Ciborowski
Chris Ciborowski is a Founder and Managing Partner at Nebulaworks. There, he helps companies optimize application development and delivery with DevOps. A veteran of the technology industry, he has worked with numerous customers with varying needs – from startups to Fortune 10 companies – solving real-world challenges with creative, well engineered, and cost-effective solutions, bridging the gap between technology and business.
I think the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
API controls. All aspects of the cloud infrastructure should be addressable from a well-defined and documented API. This includes compute, network, and storage. Even better, this API should be supported with libcloud, Fog, jclouds, etc. This enables automated configuration and orchestration both direct to the infrastructure as well as from within cloud-native applications themselves.
Software-defined. In addition to the hypervisor virtualizing computer resources, we feel that cloud infrastructure should also support software-defined networking and storage. These allow for flexibility when launching instances or containers, scaling storage, and scaling cloud applications.
Container support. Containers are quickly becoming the de-facto standard for deploying applications. Being able to launch containers on cloud infrastructure (either on bare metal or Linux instances) allows for flexibility in the development, test, and release cycles as well as provides the ability to move applications between clouds without modification.
Multiple Availability Zones. Cloud-native applications should be architected to be deployed across Availability Zones for maximum availability. This is a requirement to achieve the availability levels demanded by enterprise applications.
Manon Buettner
Manon is a founding co-chair of Cloud Girls. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Channel Partners and is a member of Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA), Executive Women in Technology (EWiT), the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW), and 7×24 Exchange.
I think the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
I advocate for clients looking to leverage public, private, and hybrid cloud and recommend these top areas of consideration:
Performance
Security
Support
Tenure
Pricing
Governance
Mark O’Hare
Mark O’Hare is the director, president and chief executive officer of Security First Corp., a privately held company leading the way in the IT security industry with its data-centric, software-defined security technology. O’Hare founded the company in 2002 and is responsible for the overall development of the business.
I think the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
The business world needs to understand that in today’s world, companies must change and stop focusing just on the security of the network. That’s like securing the vault, but not the cash inside. Instead, why not secure the data itself? So for companies that are considering setting up a cloud infrastructure, security of the data itself should be one of the top concerns.
I believe it is possible to secure the data within a cloud infrastructure and the answer lies with bit-splitting -something the government, military, and a few commercial organizations have been working with for quite a while now.
Darren Guccione
Darren is the co-inventor of Keeper Security, a company he started with his extensive experience in product design, engineering, and development. At Keeper, Darren leads product vision, global strategy, customer experience, and business development.
I think the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
Guarantee that a data-protection strategy is in place to ensure that all sensitive data is encrypted, proper controls are in place to permit access to that data, and that the policy is consistently tested and audited for effectiveness in preventing data-loss from both external and internal threats. Centralized management of enterprise-wide access, heat-detection systems, external and internal security auditing systems, and the ability to securely share sensitive information and credentials are all key components of an effective data-protection strategy for the enterprise.
Aja McClanahan
Aja McClanahan is the owner and founder of Cloud Based CRM shop, Comprehense, Inc.
I think the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
Is the vendor reliable? What are statistics on uptime, and are there other similar-size users that can confirm this?
Can the solution grow with your business?
What’s the ecosystem of support like? Is it proprietary, or are there other certified professionals who can take over if your initial implementation lead (on the vendor side) leaves or cannot finish or support your configurations?
Are there enhancements via third parties, or are all available enhancements proprietary as well?
Michael Bremmer
Michael Bremmer is the CEO of Telecomquotes. He has specialized in telecom/tech for 23 years working with medium-sized businesses.
I believe the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
1. The data center(s) your server reside in MUST have redundant POWER/Connectivity, preferably off multiple power grids with physically diverse internet connections. Cloud without connectivity is useless (like a cellphone without service is in PAPERWEIGHT mode).
2. Your data should be backed up to multiple data centers across multiple servers, and you should be able to EASILY verify this via IP tests. If your data center has a natural disaster (earthquake, hurricane, zombie outbreak)
and all your data is in one compromised center, it’s useless.
3. The financial strength of your cloud provider. A bankrupt cloud provider holds your data…which is your business. Good luck getting your data back during a bankruptcy proceeding in time to save your business.
Michael Fimin
Michael Fimin is an accomplished expert in information security and CEO and co-founder of Netwrix, the #1 provider of change and configuration auditing solutions. Netwrix delivers complete visibility into who did what, when, and where across the entire IT infrastructure.
I believe the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
Cloud, being a continually maturing technology, offers numerous advantages to various businesses. It is cost-effective, doesn’t require special skills in support and expensive equipment, it’s easy to scale up and allows remote access and control. These are the most obvious advantages for adopting cloud technologies. A lot of companies have already moved toward adopting this technology, providing a steady market growth for public IT cloud services.
First of all, plan ahead and focus on benefits and risks. Before moving to cloud, consider how many of your services need to be virtualized, how to perform the transition without affecting business processes, and how much time and budget that will take. Then consider the delivery model (public, private or hybrid cloud) and services type (IaaS, PaaS or SaaS) depending on your business needs.
The second and one of the most critical considerations is choosing a trusted service provider. Its level of service and reputation is closely connected to security. When keeping data outside, you need to be sure it’s stored safely. Make sure that a cloud provider has security policies in place, find out what processes these policies include, and how the provider proves its effectiveness, including proof of successfully passed security audits and vulnerability tests. A cloud provider should have an emergency plan in case of a security incident, as well as possible compensation in case of data loss.
Paul Kubler
Paul Kubler is a security researcher at LIFARS.
I believe the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
Security and availability are the two most important things to consider when setting up a cloud storage infrastructure, whether it is hosted internally or by a third party. Security is always number one, as it is essential to protecting business data and servers from compromise or a confidentiality breach. Not enough time is spent ensuring the systems are secure, in a secure environment, and using secure communication channels. It is important that the cloud environment be treated like a normal in-house environment when it comes to security, including firewalls, IDS/IPS, anti-virus, secure facilities, secure logins, and so on. It is extremely common for people to neglect this, and that can result in breaches later. If security is included in the development process, the infrastructure will be significantly less prone to attacks.
Another important concern is availability. It is paramount that the systems be available, and while this is obvious, it is frequently forgotten that this requires an active approach during the research phase. The proper networking equipment and setup, cabling, redundancy, and the like are all important to consider. Ensuring two different providers with different last miles can really make a difference. If it is being done in a third-party site, make sure to get an SLA that clearly defines that what is guaranteed is up to the standards of the organization. Do not forget to account for physical disasters, like storms, floods, and power outages. An insurance plan may be necessary, or additional resources for offsite backups need to be planned.
Jeb Molony
A native Charlestonian, Jeb Molony is President and Founder of e-vos, a firm which utilizes cloud computing to assist clients, increase productivity, and stay on-trend, while decreasing the costs associated with traditional IT. Mr. Molony founded e-vos in 2011, bringing his background in finance, law, and website design to his role in the company.
I believe the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
Proper planning. The greatest advantage cloud computing provides a business is scalability. Scalability can only be achieved if there is a clear plan for scaling services up and down. Developing a scalable model starts with mapping each individual position based on the organizational chart. A list of tools or programs required for each position should be created to determine what cloud services are needed for each individual. This map gives the business a clear path for adding and removing individual employees, as well as a per-head cost of employees based on position.
The next step is to determine what type of collaborative tools the business should deploy. In order to determine the collaborative tools needed, the organizational chart should be used to map out who needs to share data. Once the data-sharing map is completed, a business can determine which cloud services will be used for each point of collaboration. After the collaboration tools are assigned, an organization can determine the level of access for each user type, based on the organizational chart and needs within the collaborative service. This data-sharing map will provide an organization with a clear understanding of how it plans to grow and work securely on a team level.
The maps created for the individual and the team will give an organization a clear path for growth. It will also provide the IT department with a clear understanding for on-boarding and team expansion. The final step is to treat these maps as a constant work-in-progress that should evolve as your business and its needs change. Having the ability to scale the services quickly means minor changes will not require a system rebuild, so the IT budget can focus on projects that improve productivity rather than system maintenance.
Pierluigi Paganini
Pierluigi Paganini is a Security Researcher for the InfoSec Institute.
I believe the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
Public vs. Private?
Choosing the correct service provider
Setting up a detailed business plan
Map business services to cloud IT services
Assess company applications & workloads
Adopt a flexible interoperability model
Avoid being locked into a particular cloud service supplier/vendor
Implement security and privacy requirements
Decide which data to migrate to the cloud and request the implementation of necessary measures to ensure integrity of the information and preserve it is confidentiality. Let’s imagine the source code of the core application developed by a company that needs to be moved to the cloud. The software repository needs to be hardened against external
attacks and their access must be regulated to prevent data leakage from insiders.
Map company data for requesting security classification.
Review the cloud providers’ security/privacy measures (e.g. physical
security, incident notifications) and make sure they are documented in the
cloud SLA.
Identify sensitive data.
Define/review the authorization and authentication processes.
Examine applicable regulations and carefully evaluate what needs to be
done to meet them after a migration.
Manage the risks of security or privacy violations, evaluating the
impact on the company business for every task/activity moved to the cloud.
Manage the migration as a project, using a Statement of Objectives such as the following:
Conducting an inventory of every asset and service of the company
Defining metrics to evaluate the evolution of activities during the
migration to the cloud
Application Mapping
Identifying appropriate service models (e.g. SaaS, IaaS) and
deployment models (e.g. private, public)
Developing the business case to quantify cost and benefits
Migration planning
Nick Pegley
Nick Pegley, is VP of Marketing of All Covered, the IT services division of Konica Minolta.
I believe the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
1. Learn about different clouds. What’s the difference between SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and HaaS – and what does it mean for your business?
2. Plan your move to cloud. Will the applications change? How will this affect employees?
3. Not all clouds are created equal. Evaluate different vendors, review infrastructure with a person who understands cloud architecture, and carefully inspect SLA agreements. Understand what “three nines” is and why it isn’t highly reliable.
4. Do a true Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis. The cloud may “look” expensive, but the true costs of running your own infrastructure are often overlooked. Real estate expenses, hardware refresh labor, and warranties are all factors, as well as building out a highly redundant server, network, storage, electrical, security, and cooling infrastructure in your current facility.
5. A move to the cloud can be highly disruptive if not planned correctly. Use a trusted cloud vendor who has experience with cloud migrations to ease your transition to the cloud.
6. A cloud is only as good as your connection. Use a private circuit, if feasible, to have a high bandwidth, lower latency connection. The Internet may be cheap, but may not be appropriate for your cloud-based business.
7. Always have two types of connections – a primary and backup, using two different media types, preferably from two different vendors.
8. A move to the cloud can enable new ways of doing business. Look at new cloud-enabled applications that are revolutionizing various industries every day.
9. A move to the cloud can enable new ways of saving money on IT equipment. Look at thin clients and mobile devices as an alternative to fixed desktops.
10. Moving to the cloud can be intimidating, even for leading-edge businesses. Often, it can be helpful to test the waters, rather than jumping in with both feet. Only moving one application or set of applications can ease the transition, or possibly consider moving a test or QA environment before the production environment.
Andy Johnson
Andy Johnson joined GTT in June 2011 and is responsible for managing the company’s sales efforts outside the United States. Prior to joining GTT, he was with PacketExchange for 8 years as SVP Sales and Business Development, driving the global sales growth in the enterprise and wholesale data communications markets. Mr. Johnson is a talented spokesman and has presented at industry conferences and seminars around the world. Mr. Johnson has worked within the telecommunications industry for over 18 years, holding senior management and sales positions within the ISP, Carrier and Equipment Manufacturer communities, including PSINet Europe, Level 3, 3Com, and Motorola.
I believe the most important considerations in setting up a cloud infrastructure are…
As you are aware, cloud solutions are only as good as the network they are built upon. This is where many enterprises today are missing the mark. While they are trying to increase productivity, operate more efficiently, and reduce costs by re-locating their applications and services to the cloud, many don’t realize how important the network connectivity is to success. Strong network connectivity is exactly what provides employees at every location flexible, reliable, and secure access to those cloud-based applications and services. That is why the network and network connectivity should be the most important consideration in setting up a cloud infrastructure.
The post Setting Up a Cloud Infrastructure: 19 Cloud Experts Weigh in with the Most Critical Considerations for Businesses Implementing Cloud Infrastructure appeared first on ProfitBricks Blog.