This article was written for our sponsor, Vaco.
In a rapidly changing world, the ability to make equally rapid adjustments in business is crucial. Technology is the backbone of this flexibility, which is why migrating to the cloud is key.
Moving from internal computing to the cloud supports scalability because it allows for swift responses to customers and workload demands, fast recovery after a problem and potentially major savings, according to Datafloq.
For the greatest chance at success, moving to the cloud should follow several steps, said Larry Dawson, head of cloud operations at VacoBuilt, a division of management consulting company Vaco.
Step 1: Get your leaders involved
First, leaders should originate the migration, rather than the information technology department.
“You’ve got to get all departments on board,” said Dawson. “The CEO has to start it. Operations need to be fully engaged, and the HR department needs to be fully engaged. Those two departments need to be closely allied in a way that they may not otherwise be when you’re in your own data center.”
To help departments work together, leaders should connect the change to a business need. For Dawson, that means the CEO must not just be supportive of the change, but demand it. Developers can also show the CEO how migrating to the cloud will help the company deliver a certain capability.
Either way, leaders and departments should work together toward the solution.
“Step one is having security, operations and development agree on a governance method for the cloud,” said Dawson. “What I would suggest is that legal or security are the owners of the keys for all of the accounts. They would set up a cloud account, which only they have the keys to, and that account will be over all the others.”
The department that owns the keys can then create a sandbox account for developers to build new apps and procedures.
“Security sets up a top-level account owned by the corporation, and they set up a separate account below that where they give development freedom to play and work freely,” said Dawson.
Step 2: Let developers do their work
Next, the development group works out how to get code into that account.
“Once they have the processes down, they can start to build the rest,” said Dawson. “The more you have, the more complex things get, so I would suggest that, with a small company, they have a dev account, a QA and then a production account.”
A company should create a process that allows for development to immediately follow testing. Implementing this approach successfully means that developers are able to put out releases more quickly than in the past.
Setting up this infrastructure from the beginning is crucial.
“If you don’t get these things in place, you’re going to end up with a really complex environment that is not going to be easy to work with and is going to be hard to change afterward,” said Dawson.
For Dawson, that’s why all departments — even accounting — should be involved from the beginning.
“How budget will be set up is going to be critical,” said Dawson. “Part of the reason for the accounts is, if developers start making the sandbox too expensive, you’ll know why. If your costs go up too high in your dev account, you’ll know when it goes into production — it’ll cost too much. You can go to them and say, ‘Hey, I know you like these, but they’re super expensive. Is there a cheaper way to do this?’ Letting the accounting in lets you have a discussion with them.”
The next step is to ensure that operations can run development processes and that someone is familiar with the security and legal implications connected to the data. Then, testing ensures everything is secure and on budget.
Step 3: Enforce automation
The final step is to create a continuous integration/continuous deployment process.
“If they don’t, they won’t see the increased velocity of the deliveries,” said Dawson. “They won’t be able to take advantage of being in the cloud, and instead, they’ll end up creating a complicated morass.”
Ultimately, technology used well is powerful for not only company operations, but also overall company success.
“You have to come at it with ‘How can I help my company build the business?’” said Dawson. “With that mindset, the capabilities of the cloud can have a significant impact on every level of company operations.”
This article was written for our sponsor, Vaco.
