Cloud Computing Planning

Before deploying applications to cloud, it is necessary to consider your business requirements. Following are the issues one must consider:

• Data Security and Privacy Requirement
• Budget Requirements
• Type of cloud - public, private or hybrid
• Data backup requirements
• Training requirements
• Dashboard and reporting requirements
• Client access requirements
• Data export requirements

To meet all of these requirements, it is necessary to have well-compiled planning. In this tutorial, we will discuss the various planning phases that must be practised by an enterprise before migrating the entire business to cloud. Each of these planning phases are described in the following diagram:

Strategy Phase

In this phase, we analyze the strategy problems that customer might face. There are two steps to perform this analysis:

• Cloud Computing Value Proposition
• Cloud Computing Strategy Planning

Cloud Computing Value Proposition

In this, we analyze the factors influencing the customers when applying cloud computing mode and target the key problems they wish to solve. These key factors are:

• IT management simplification
• operation and maintenance cost reduction
• business mode innovation
• low cost outsourcing hosting
• high service quality outsourcing hosting.

All of the above analysis helps in decision making for future development.

Cloud Computing Strategy Planning

The strategy establishment is based on the analysis result of the above step. In this step, a strategy document is prepared according to the conditions a customer might face when applying cloud computing mode.

Planning Phase

This step performs analysis of problems and risks in the cloud application to ensure the customers that the cloud computing is successfully meeting their business goals. This phase involves the following planning steps:

• Business Architecture Development
• IT Architecture development
• Requirements on Quality of Service Development
• Transformation Plan development

Business Architecture Development

In this step, we recognize the risks that might be caused by cloud computing application from a business perspective.

IT Architecture Development

In this step, we identify the applications that support the business processes and the technologies required to support enterprise applications and data systems.

Requirements on Quality of Service Development

Quality of service refers to the non-functional requirements such as reliability, security, disaster recovery, etc. The success of applying cloud computing mode depends on these non-functional factors.

Transformation Plan Development

In this step, we formulate all kinds of plans that are required to transform current business to cloud computing modes.

Deployment Phase

This phase focuses on both of the above two phases. It involves the following two steps:

• Selecting Cloud Computing Provider
• Maintenance and Technical Service

Selecting Cloud Computing Provider

This step includes selecting a cloud provider on basis of Service Level Agreement (SLA), which defines the level of service the provider will meet.

Maintenance and Technical Service

Maintenance and Technical services are provided by the cloud provider. They need to ensure the quality of services.