THE TOP FIVE MISTAKES

You Want to Avoid When Becoming a Cloud Superhero

TABLE
of Contents
Executive summary Leaping before you look Thinking you have found the one Believing tomorrow will be like today If it fits, it ships 3 4 6 7 8

Not leveraging the full potential of the cloud 9 Summary About Internap 10

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EXECUTIVE
Summary
he cloud is continuing to gain popularity as a sustainable infrastructure deployment option for enterprises, but is it the right choice for all of your applications? Are you wondering how you can leverage the full benefits of the cloud? To become your organizations cloud superhero, youll need to evaluate the fundamental differences between available cloud offerings, their distinct advantages, disadvantages and the mistakes to avoid. As you navigate the road to the cloud, there are five common mistakes not to make to ensure a successful deployment and adoption. Use this eBook to learn the top five mistakes to avoid in cloud adoption.

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MISTAKE 1
Leaping before you look
odays CIOs are under tremendous pressure to do more with less and faster than ever before. The potential for cost savings makes the cloud a tempting option. However, remember that the cloud is a means to an end, not the end itself. It is in your best interest to begin with a comprehensive analysis of your IT needs to determine whether a cloud solution will help you reach your long-term business goals. Before moving an application into the cloud, make sure you can get the performance and cost improvement you desire. Remember, not all clouds are created equal. You may use a public cloud to solve your scaling and bursting needs, whereas a private cloud would be useful if your enterprise has strict security and compliance requirements. Alternatively, clouds based on open-source hypervisors may have fewer and/ or different features than their VMware-based cousins. Consider the questions on the following page to determine whether a cloud solution is right for you.

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Will my applications receive acceptable performance if I put them in the cloud?

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Do I have any compliance considerations that restrict my ability to use shared infrastructure?

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There are several compliance regulations that make The answer depends on not only how the provider 01100111 10100110 it challenging to run an application in the cloud. For built the cloud but how you built your application as 01010001011 example, the PCI-DSS standards for credit card well. Traditional elements for measuring performance processing are clear that firewalls must be used in such as hardware specifications and network design order to protect users security. Youll need to ask if only provide a partial answer when running workloads your auditor will permit your firewall to be in the cloud. Providers may not reveal the specs of 011101100111 cloud-based. the infrastructure, or how other existing customers are using that infrastructure. Technology is rapidly 001111001010001011 Will the cloud meet my availability changing and traditional attributes cannot be used requirements? objectively to measure performance. Finally, many providers design clouds for massive horizontal scaling Similar to performance characteristics, cloud across virtual machine instances to support workload 00 availability is a pragmatic attribute. Once you receive increases, redundancy and overall performance. If your 001111001010001011 a Service Level Agreement (SLA) from a potential applications were not developed with that in mind, provider, check to see if they disclose how their performance can become an issue. Before choosing cloud is architected. Without this information it may a cloud provider run performance tests with your own be difficult to calculate feasible availability. However, applications to ensure you receive the performance with dedicated environments, you are able to specify you require. redundancy at various levels of infrastructure, allowing you to achieve the availability you need.

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MISTAKE 2

Thinking you have found the one

electing a provider is not like selecting someone to marry, it doesnt have to be until death do you part you have the ability to change providers in the future. It is important to consider how you will manage your cloud infrastructure as well as establish a back-up plan.

Will you use application programming interfaces (APIs) to manage your cloud infrastructure? If so, will the APIs be proprietary to the provider or common across multiple providers? Proprietary APIs may have more functionality; however, multivendor interfaces such as OpenStackTM and VMware give you the option to change providers without the hassle of having to rewrite code. The same considerations should be applied to images and data. You will want to have your Plan B fleshed out in the event your service provider has a system outage or raises rates without warning, so you can act quickly and save the day.

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MISTAKE 3
Believing that tomorrow will be like today

ike the old adage you never know what tomorrow holds your application requirements may change over time. You may need cloud today, but in all likelihood, it wont be the only thing you need tomorrow. Many of todays Internet businesses were started in the public cloud, however as they grew, bottlenecks and economic break-points occurred, causing them to move some infrastructure into a managed hosting or colocation facility. Similarly, some enterprises have attempted to move their infrastructure to the cloud, only to realize significant portions of their business needed to reside on dedicated, physical hardware as well forcing them to work with multiple providers. Managing multiple providers adds unnecessary complexity and switching providers can be painful, like being in a room filled with kryptonite. Find a vendor that can not only meet your current requirements but can also support future unanticipated needs. Map out growth projections for major applications and stay advised on your companys strategy and how it relates to IT Infrastructure growth.

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MISTAKE 4
If it ts, it ships

he cloud motto is not the same as that of your neighborhood post office: if it fits, it ships. Dont rely on the assumption that every cloud has the strength of a superhero and can support your most complex applications. In order to decide whether or not cloud will work for your business, take a close look at how your critical applications are designed. Are they complex or highly-customized? For those types of applications, there may be requirements that a cloud model cannot support. For example, if your application is multi-tiered and requires layer 2 (vLAN) connectivity to properly function, a cloud, which supports layer 3 (IP addressing) connectivity, will not necessarily be ideal. In addition, the cloud may not offer the specialized appliances required for your application. If you require a physical indexing appliance or a specialized firewall, it may be difficult to incorporate dedicated hardware with cloud components. If you have complex needs but still want to move into the cloud, find providers who can facilitate hybrid hosting between cloud and other IT Infrastructure choices such as managed hosting and colocation, or your company-owned data center. In general, the cloud is the best fit for applications that scale horizontally, have limited application tiers and are constructed to communicate on layer 3 connectivity.
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MISTAKE 5
Not leveraging the full potential of the cloud
he cloud gives new possibility to your business. For example, instead of sizing your virtual machines based on previous physical specifications, make sure you are optimizing them for the cloud. You will be able to leverage the on-demand aspect of the cloud to deal with the bursty parts of your application. By scaling services on-demand on a pay-per-use basis, you will realize significant benefits by eliminating the need for expensive and underutilized capital investments. Additionally, you should investigate whether you can use the same cloud to create a test/ dev, staging and production environment for streamlined design and implementation. By eliminating the need to move final products to the cloud, you will ultimately speed time-to-market for your applications making you a cloud superhero.

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he cloud offers the promise of rapid scalability combined with pay-for-use billing, while also removing the headache of specifying and managing physical infrastructure. It is a powerful evolution of IT Infrastructure outsourcing options. However, the cloud still has important caveats to keep in mind. Before leaping over tall clouds in a single bound, understand that cloud may only be a part of your overall IT Infrastructure strategy and that happy customers and end users will be the measuring stick for success.

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