Where to start when considering moving to the Cloud

By Mitesh Agarwal

Fifty percent of the companies listed in the Fortune 500 in 2000 have gone out of business. Some of the largest companies in the world have disappeared and this highlights the need for focus, continuous innovation and a competitive edge.

Keeping up with today's market and its trends is the only way to survive. Learning about Cloud is a key enabler of modernization, transformation and innovation and it is essential that companies get on that journey now. The question now is "how to harness cloud before it's too late?"


Despite research firm Forrester predicting that half of large enterprises will be running production workflows in the cloud by 2018, it is obvious that many companies still lack a clear, long term cloud strategy. So, where should you start?

Understanding the cloud model
SaaS : A great starting point for any organization looking to migrate to the cloud is with Software-As-A-Service (SaaS). Easy to purchase and set up, these front-end enterprise applications have immense power to help modernize the business across Sales, Marketing, Finance and HR. They provide a modern work experience with new functionality and the chance to introduce social, mobile and new data analytics capabilities alongside existing on-premises applications. For example, adding talent management into a traditional HR solution. As these modular building blocks can be used to either complement or replace legacy applications they make it an ideal way of handling one part of the transition from on premises into the public cloud.

Platform Cloud: Cloud is a shared offering and comes in one size; but that doesn't have to fit all. Most SaaS offerings allow a level of personalization, similar to that of an iPhone. You can't mess with the underlying code, but you can add your own apps, data, wall papers and ring tones. This enables organizations to meet their specific business needs and upgrade the software, something that was impossible in the legacy world of highly bespoke software applications.

For companies that want to go one step further, Platform Cloud empowers them to extend their applications to make them 'best' fit their business, giving added deployment, integration, business process management and security capabilities, as well as enabling mobile application development, content development or digital engagement strategies.

IaaS: The third cloud journey is with Infrastructure-As-A-Service (IaaS). While SaaS brings in new features and functionality, IaaS is about hosting your existing applications in the cloud, significantly reducing the effort, expertise, and expense required to own and run infrastructure. A starting point is with research and development as this enable you to dip a toe in the water without touching mission critical enterprise systems. In the long run it makes sense for companies to move production and high availability zones to the cloud.

Organizations not ready for the public cloud can start by virtualizing their legacy systems. Companies have the option of using 'cloud ready' infrastructure that comes 'in a box'. This can be operated either in a traditional way in the company's own data centre, or set up as a private cloud. Increasingly there are options offered where companies can buy in to options that enable them to run the public cloud from behind the firewall in their own data centre.

Even the most advanced cloud adopters do not make a complete shift. Every enterprise has multiple systems at different stages. For most there will be an extensive period of coexistence, with applications and data in both on-premises and cloud environments. Just moving everything to the cloud would reduce the value of large investments made into on-premises systems, both of hardware and software. Add to this various regulatory/compliance requirements that dictate where and how data can be located. Therefore, a typical cloud strategy should include both, new cloud services and legacy on-premises environments and most likely hybrid cloud approaches, new innovations, with the ability for existing business processes to coexist. For this reason, the hybrid approach, is gaining popularity, and is expected to be the dominant approach by companies in cloud for some time.

Every enterprise is different. Every cloud journey will be too
Deciding on the best path can be challenging. There will be diverse and often conflicting demands from different business managers. It will often mean different starting points for various departments, so it is important there is a united vision for where the business is going. Cloud offers enormous potential, but it still requires a connected strategy across the business with coordinated implementation and integration.

Corporations need to act now, innovate, modernize and transform or risk extinction.

(The writer is Vice President, Oracle India)