Cloud & Integration Strategies

Enterprises and their respective IT organizations can see the benefits of Cloud computing on the horizon.  Although Software as a Service (SaaS) applications have been around for a while, the IT industry is taking it to a new level.  Enterprises are beginning to see the business value and the agility provided by moving applications to the cloud.  In the past, almost every IT project came with a huge upfront capital investment in hardware and software.  There was often an even bigger (and often hard to estimate) post implementation operational support cost as well.  IT had to estimate these costs based on how many users, how many transactions, etc. and purchase for the maximum.  The cloud helps organizations use what they need, when they need it and only pay for it then.  This shift is going to allow organizations to refocus those remaining resources and dollars on business innovation and give them a competitive edge over their competition.

There are really 3 models with cloud computing:  Hosted Servers, SaaS, and Cloud Development Platforms.  The first 2 models have been used for many years and provide organizations a lot of cost savings with respect to internal operational IT costs.  The third model is the game changer.  Cloud platforms such as Windows Azure are allowing organizations to dynamically push entire applications or pieces of applications to the cloud.  Not only do these platforms provide the cost savings that hosted servers and SaaS provide, but they can be spun up on as many servers as required at any given time.  It’s a pay as you go model and the cost grows along with your business.  Huge capital investments do not need to be made to service end user number one.  Applications can be developed, changed, and implemented much quicker.

MPS Partners  believes a pragmatic approach to cloud computing can achieve the greatest results for our customers.  Although it is a major IT shift in paradigms, we don’t recommend our customers start planning to move all of their applications to the cloud tomorrow.  The most value in cloud computing will be by defining a portfolio of on-premise, off-premise, and hybrid applications.  An organization should begin by creating an Enterprise reference architecture and roadmap.  A strategy can then be built to put the most appropriate applications or services to the cloud first.  To facilitate this pragmatic approach, an organization will need to have a strong strategy based on services and integration.  The decision of hosting an application on premise or off premise ( or both) should be built into the normal IT governance strategies of an organization.

Cloud Readiness Assessment

“Is your organization ready for the cloud?”  MPS Partners can help you gauge your organization’s overall readiness with our Cloud Readiness Assessment. Our assessment approach provides technical information and strategic insights that help businesses begin the critical cloud computing dialogue and evaluation process.

Core Assessment Components

Learning Session - MPS provides key stakeholders and IT teams a cloud computing over session in which the three models for cloud computing (hosted servers, SaaS and cloud development platforms) are reviewed so the group can discuss the pros and cons of each approach.

Current State Analysis – MPS Partners analyzes enterprise architecture documentation or inventories enterprise applications when necessary. Based on that data, we prioritize applications and create a high-level roadmap and strategy for moving applications to the cloud.

Time & Cost Estimation - Finally, we talk specifics on how to take the first application to the cloud and provide timeline and cost estimates to help your organization plan from a tactical standpoint.

To learn more about MPS Partners’ cloud readiness assessment approach or to request an assessment for your organization, click here.

Cloud Computing Pulse Survey – Explore Its Growing Impact

Because the cloud computing movement poses profound questions to the IT industry, MPS Partners and Microsoft have developed a pulse survey for IT leaders. Review  “The Future of Cloud Computing: Is ‘The Cloud’ the Next Revolutionary Change for IT?” by clicking the link below:

Q3/Q4 2009: Cloud Computing Pulse Survey Report.pdf

MPS Partners is committed to keeping a pulse on the evolution of cloud computing by conducting ongoing pulse surveys that explore the progress, development and impacts of the cloud. We look forward to sharing ongoing cloud insights in upcoming pulse surveys and events.

To sign-up to receive an invitation to participate in our future cloud computing pulse surveys and information about upcoming events, please click here.

More information about the survey and a link to past suvey documents can be found on our Cloud Survey Page.