Analysis Process

AgendaWatch Out!

Favorable FactorsWhat are

we talking about?

MythsEconomic

s

Agility

Value

Risk

Regulatory

Scale

Connectivity

Final Thoughts

Q&A

What are we talking about?

• Things that will help you be prepared for the cloud discussion

•Which apps should be migrated to the cloud

•Which apps shouldn’t

What do we mean by “migrate”?

•We mean transforming a legacy application into a cloud-native application that can:

• Scale commodity hardware

• Use cloud-based storage and databases

• Leverage PaaS where feasible

Think move you will not. Think transform you

will.

Things we aren’t talking about

• Shipping a VM image to a hosting provider

• Building a new greenfield application in the cloud

• Implementing SaaS for email or productivity apps (MS Office)

What do we mean by “cloud”?• Public cloud providers (generally speaking)

• Offering PaaS services such as databases, queues, communication, security, etc. that we can take advantage of

Myth #1 – You aren’t ready

No one ever is!

Myth #2 – The cloud isn’t secure enough

• It’s more secure than what you already have

• 89% of business don’t understand security in the cloud

• 94% of businesses found the cloud gave them more security features

Myth #3 – The cloud gives us lower cost and better performance

Picking up an application and dropping it on a server in the cloud provides neither

However, applications that are made “Cloud-Ready” can provide both

Favorable factors to look for

Economics: CapEx to OpEx• Move it off your balance sheet

• Buying servers involves a lot of cash – up front

• Flexibility to eliminate expense during slow times

Ideally your cloud expenses should rise and fall with your revenue

Cost: Eliminate Waste

• Cost is a function of compute time, not compute resources

• Prune DR, QA requirements

• Build to nominal (not peak) demand

Shorten your release cycle• Respond to change and get software in your users’ hands

sooner

• Average on-prem infrastructure cycle time is 12 weeks

• Try new features and designs without the capital expense

• Access to an expanded toolset (eg, different OS’s, development stacks)

Variability

• Your user base fluctuates seasonally

• Your app serves a market with bursts of activity

• E.g. tax season, website rollouts, events…

Promote open platforms• SOA, API’s and Integration Points

• Significant interplay between your organization and the outside world

• Customers

• Business Partners

• You have an “engine” that is a viable commercial product

Geography• Your app has a global reach, and you can't afford to set up

datacenters everywhere you need them

• Better OOTB support for a mobile workforce

• CDN

Return focus to business value•Write code that provides business value

• Are you maintaining a lot of infrastructure code?

• Maintaining the platform?

“Is this truly differentiating business logic that enables us to better compete, or is this a basic capability that should be provided by the platform?”

Handle scale

• High Performance Computing (HPC)

• Batch Processing

• Big Data

Things to watch out for

Unacceptable risk• Safety critical systems that control medical devices,

aerospace, or weapon systems

• Apps with “ERP-like” characteristics

• Very large user base

• Tightly coupled architecture

• Multi-level transaction scopes

Regulatory & contractual obligations• Compliance with security policies prevents you information

from being outside your physical facilities

• Customers or regulators care where your data is physically stored (state, country)

• Pre-cloud language can make moving an app difficult even if it otherwise makes sense

“The effect of the EU data protection reform includes

some far-reaching proposals that will directly affect organizations that hold

data…”

Connectivity requirements• Transaction-intensive, guaranteed consistency

• High throughput, low latency

• Real-time systems

Analysis

SWOT Analysis (with a twist)• Strengths: characteristics of the app that will improve by

moving it.

• Weaknesses: characteristics of the app that will degrade by moving it

• Opportunities: things that will help the business by moving the app

• Threats: things that will threaten the business by moving the app

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

• Ability to scale during peak times• Ability to take advantage of latest

technology features more quickly

• Requires faster internet connection to handle increased traffic

• Warehouse workers may experience more latency

• Capital savings in not having to buy/maintain servers

• Can offer API to external entities

• Cost to refactor code base, developer training

• Accuracy of data migration• Deadline before busy season

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

Assessing the results• Each Strength or Opportunity represents

value

• Each Weakness or a Threat represents an obstacle that has a cost

• Learn about each obstacle.

• Get a clear consensus that it really is an obstacle (real not perceived)

• What are the options?

• Is the cost/complexity to address the obstacle more than the value received?

• Go or No Go?

Addressing obstacles

• Take action

• Remove it

• Work around it

• Reduce its impact to an acceptable level

• Accept the cost of leaving it in place

A few tips…

• No problem is too complex to solve. Every problem has a solution.

• Make conscious decisions. Don't allow how it's always been to be how it always will be. Being introspective about how you deliver software is a good thing. Challenge the legacy approach.

A few more…• Don’t allow your organization to become

paralyzed by uncertainty.

• A recent poll of IT professionals found that 19% of cloud owners take more than 12 months to plan a project. That's way too long!

• Find support for what you want to accomplish -- either inside or outside of your organization.

• You will be making critical decisions, and you will make mistakes.

Dive In!

http://www.zdnet.com/news/moving-apps-to-the-cloud-why-when-and-how/6344653http://www.mendix.com/think-tank/6-good-reasons-to-move-your-apps-to-the-cloudhttp://cloud.dzone.com/articles/which-apps-move-cloudhttp://blogs.forrester.com/james_staten/12-11-06-q_which_apps_should_i_move_to_the_cloud_a_wrong_questionhttp://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-applications-you-can-move-to-the-cloudhttp://thoughtsoncloud.com/2013/08/a-reference-model-for-moving-your-applications-to-cloudhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2012/11/07/think-twice-three-times-before-moving-existing-apps-to-the-cloudhttp://resources.troux.com/blog/bid/103525/Moving-Critical-Apps-to-the-Cloudhttp://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/feature/Is-the-public-cloud-the-best-place-for-legacy-applicationshttp://www.techradar.com/us/news/internet/cloud-services/is-hybrid-cloud-the-future--208758http://esj.com/Articles/2012/07/30/Moving-to-the-Cloud.aspxhttp://www.heroix.com/blog/cloud-obstacles/http://www.mobilitechs.com/blog/cloud-servers-4-reasons-you-shouldn-t-move-your-business-to-themhttp://techapostle.blogspot.com/2013/01/checklist-is-my-app-ready-for-cloud.html

References