Critical Role of System Integrators in Enterprise Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing is regarded as a Silver bullet to ease the cost & infrastructure woes of an Enterprise, and is currently viewed as a Game Changer for Organizations. It is certain that CIOs haven’t missed it from their radars.
Why Cloud Computing
Let us take a look at the existing scenario. Whenever there is a requirement, to scale up Hardware & Software infrastructure, enterprises make purchase decisions, based on the requirement itself and on any possible future need. An immediate requirement for hardware or software would require considerable amount of time & such delays are fatal in a market where competition rules. To mitigate IT Procurement costs, Virtualization was adopted. Virtualization allows Enterprises generate more value with the existing resources available to them.
Cloud Computing Adoption
Cloud Computing brings a proven perspective & ubiquity to business. The concept of computing available on demand on pay-per-use model can greatly reduce the IT Budgets. Business agility through anytime-anywhere data and applications can reduce the latency between what business demands and IT delivers.
Cloud Computing Adoption Patterns
Beyond the fancy labels, a close look at Cloud Computing reveals considerable number of choices, arrangements and Architectural patterns that an organization must decide upon before thinking about ROIs. To facilitate the migration from a traditional model to the Cloud model, organizations require more than just investment of minds. Decisions range from choosing the type of clouds – Public, Private or Hybrid, to the type of Architectural shifts depending upon the risk and criticality of data involved in an Enterprise. Not to mention the various Cloud Computing vendors and software stacks to choose from. Since the spread of Cloud Computing, the list of Vendors for all kinds of Cloud implementation has been ever growing. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and others have been around for some time, and their technology is mature enough to be adopted at the enterprise level. Concerns regarding Data Security and Infrastructure sharing is another decision Organizations need to take.
To successfully mitigate the risk and challenges involved in an Enterprise Cloud Adoption, a detailed analysis of the existing structure of an Enterprise IT model and Operations is a must. The wide variety of IT Systems in operation, each with its own demand of performance and scalability, requires a careful scrutiny of methods and practices. Moreover with major focus on data security and exclusiveness on a Cloud, a thorough scan of in and outs of Cloud is a necessity.
System Integrators and Cloud Adoption
A SI (System Integrator) specializing in Cloud adoption practice evaluates the existing IT System in an Enterprise. A SI’s role ranges from assessing & recommending the migration of the brick and mortar implementation of Infrastructure to either a public, private or a hybrid form of Cloud, to deciding which existing Desktop applications like CRM, Payroll and ERP may be made available as Software-as-a-Service model.
The SI’s role expands to develop and integrate the solutions it recommends. Since SI’s have the experience in various Cloud vendor implementations they make available best practices that not only reduces the latency in Cloud adoption, but also creates a robust and flexible architecture for the Enterprise. The SI also has understanding of the gaps if any in the IT Systems which requires to be filled when moving to Cloud.
A close interaction between the business and the System Integrator is thus a fruitful bond that can lead to a better and agile progression of Cloud adoption by any Enterprise.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:28 PM
Great article !!!
January 16th, 2010 at 10:27 AM
Adopting social media concepts by service industries is a great sign. Good Article.