Cloud migration best practice Part 4: Executing the migration

Yahoo-Microsoft Merger Proxy Fight – May 14, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

As I alluded to last week, “It’s not over ’till it’s over” Carl Ichan Looking to Start Yahoo Proxy Fight Money – The Microsoft-Yahoo Merger may not be over. Billionaire…

Now in the ring Sun/Amazon! – May 04, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

The Sun/Amazon cloud may be announced soon. Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz delivered a short keynote at Startup Camp in San Francisco, an adjunct event to the JavaOne Conference. According to…

Microsoft gives up on Yahoo? – May 04, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

“Cloud computing is far more than a concept. With Broadband Internet connections now all-but-ubiquitous and microcomputers and locally-run software now so trouble-prone, Cloud Computing’s time has come.” This is a…

IBM, Google and the Blue Business Platform – May 01, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

Today was good !! This morning. there was a main session built around “CIO 2.0”. The basic premise was that CIOs have now earned a seat at the business management…

The coming cloud – April 30, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

I attended the IBM Public Sector briefing this morning. The IBM executives were clearly basking in a financial performance glow. After ending 2007 with increases in revenue, profit and earnings…

Google, Cloud Computing, and the US Intelligence Community – April 29, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

Just arrived in Los Angeles for the IBM Business Partner Leadership Conference. IBM is billing this as a “new” conference, but I have my doubts. I am, however, very interested…

Location Based Services – April 25, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

INmobile.org is a exclusive community for executives in wireless industry. As a member, I have the opportunity to participate in a number of interesting discussions about mobile and wireless technology.…

IBM Business Partner Leadership Conference – April 23, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

I just completed registration for the IBM Business Partner Leadership Conference. This is a new invitation-only conference being held this year in Los Angeles from Wednesday, April 30th through Friday,…

Telephone & Web = WOW !! – April 21, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

The power of the Internet and the web lies in its ability to provide access to information. The mobile web takes this one step further with its ability to provide…

The Power of Family Oral History – April 19, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

Although I just started this yesterday, I’ve decided to backdate this entry to last Saturday, April 12, 2008. That’s when my family had it’s 3rd Annual Black History Party. The…

This series has stepped through cloud migration best practices. After providing an overview, we discussed:

With all of that completed, it’s now time to select the right cloud service provider (CSP) and finally execute the migration. Cloud provider selection is an area that many enterprises ignore. Executives looking to take advantage of the real business value that the cloud delivers often view providers simply as commodity technology providers. With this mindset, decision-makers usually pick the most familiar name. But this strategy is little more than throwing the dice.

A Smarter Way to Select a Provider

Cloud service provider selection requires a well-developed hybrid IT strategy, an unbiased application portfolio review and the appropriate due diligence in the evaluation of all credible cloud service providers. When discussing this linkage, I leverage the Digital Transformation Layered Triangle as a visualization tool. After agreeing to an appropriate high-level hybrid IT strategy, a digital transformation core tenant, candidate CSPs capabilities must be compared based on their:

  • Availability of technology services that align with the business/mission model.
  • Availability of data security controls that address legal, regulatory and data sovereignty limitations.
  • Compatibility of CSP sales process with enterprise acquisition process.
  • Cost forecast alignment with budgetary expectations.

Understanding Cloud Service Agreements

Comparing cloud service agreements from the remaining viable service providers is next. These agreements typically have three components:

  • Customer Agreement: Describes the overall relationship between the customer and provider. Service management includes the processes and procedures used by the cloud provider. Thus, it’s crucial to provide definitions of the roles, responsibilities and execution of the processes. The customer agreement does this. This document can be called a “master agreement,” “terms of service” or simply “agreement.”
  • Acceptable Use Policy (AUP): Defines activities that the provider considers to be improper or outright illegal. There is considerable consistency across cloud providers in these documents. While specific details may vary, the scope and effect of these policies remain the same, and these provisions typically generate the least concerns or resistance.
  • Service-Level Agreement (SLA): Describes levels of service by in terms of availability, serviceability or performance. The SLA specifies thresholds and financial penalties associated with violations of these thresholds. Well-designed SLAs can avoid conflict and facilitate the resolution of an issue before it escalates into a dispute.

Designing a CSA Evaluation

The CSA Evaluation must take into account all critical functional and nonfunctional organizational requirements and IT governance policies, to ensure:

  • Mutual understanding of roles and responsibilities.
  • Compatibility with all enterprise business level policies.
  • An identifiable metrics for all critical performance objectives.
  • Agreement on a plan for meeting all data security and privacy requirements.
  • Identified service management points of contact for each critical technology services.
  • Agreement on service failure management process.
  • Agreement on disaster recovery plan process.
  • An approved hybrid IT governance process.
  • Agreement on a CSP exit process.

This due diligence process maximizes the success probability of any cloud migration program. With CSP selection complete, the organization can now tackle the hard work of executing the actual migration. This task should include:

  • Planning and executing an organizational change management plan.
  • Verifying and clarifying all key stakeholder roles.
  • Detailed project planning and execution.
  • Establishing internal processes for monitoring and periodically reporting the status of all key performance indicators.
  • Establishing an internal cloud migration status feedback and response process.

The most important lesson learned across all industries is that cloud migration is not a project for the IT team alone. This is an enterprise-wide endeavor that requires executive leadership and focused change management efforts across multiple internal domains.

This post was brought to you by IBM Global Technology Services. For more content like this, visit ITBizAdvisor.
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