Virtual and cloud-based environment migration specialist SANpulse announced the release of a report titled "Migrating to the Private Cloud: Evolution of Infrastructure into a Service Model." Available for free download via the company's Website, the report focuses on infrastructure as a service and key pitfalls to keep in mind when identifying the appropriate solutions to make on-premises IaaS deployments successful, helping organizations reduce the risk, complexity and cost of moving from traditional IT to private cloud infrastructure.
Revealed in the report are many considerations to be cognizant of when looking into cloud-based infrastructure, including security, which the report noted for large enterprises is the most important aspect of information management. The report warns that proprietary and sensitive data, if exposed, could have dire consequences to the business, and therefore most Fortune 1000 companies prefer a private cloud model.
The report also underlines the importance of understanding the existing IT environment: Enterprises must leverage solutions that can discover the infrastructure in a nonintrusive manner and provide the configuration and interdependency information vital to understanding what business units are utilizing today. The migration will require coordination among operational teams from the server, network, storage, database and application owners. As the existing infrastructure is dynamic and in constant flux, it is important to find a solution that can monitor the changes and drive process encapsulation into automation during cloud migrations.
Also touched on is the importance of identifying a performance tool that can provide accurate detail on the source of a potential performance bottleneck. As the infrastructure is complex and has one or more abstraction layers, it is important to have visibility into shared resources for proactive management.
Consideration of multitenancy effects on shared resources is also included. The report notes when building a cloud infrastructure, companies should ensure it does not cause further performance degradation and provides alerts based on preset policies. "A well thought out environment will be architected for maximum insight and efficiency," the report states.
Capturing and measuring the constant flux and movement of data between performance tiers to ensure the tier and time for which it was utilized are accounted for in billing is also considered critical: As companies migrate to a private cloud environment, they should ensure that only essential data is optimized and moved while cleaning up the infrastructure in the process.
"Cloud computing is not a temporary phenomenon but rather one that's here to stay. Its advantages, when deployed correctly, provide a grid-based model that yields great benefits to the business units," said SANpulse CEO Peter Mehta, author of the report. "Key to making on-premise IaaS successful is process encapsulation driven by accurate analytics. It is essential to find solutions that can facilitate capturing the correct information and provide the ability to drive decisions through process automation."
Mehta also noted that there are many considerations to be cognizant of when looking for specific cloud migration solutions. "While there is no nirvana where all the requirements are going to be met by a single tool or product, there are solutions that provide a vast spectrum of the functionality required," he said. "During due diligence, identify solutions that work in conjunction to drive the establishment and management of a cloud-based infrastructure."
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