As technology evolves, CIOs are looking to the Cloud. Embracing the Cloud Transformation is about more than just keeping up with the competition. It offers significant advantages that can be a game changer for innovative companies.
Cloud technologies are great for enterprises looking to offload the overhead of server and hardware maintenance, which allows them to focus on building solutions for customers. One of the key benefits of the Cloud is the ability to prototype complex architectures in minutes. Additionally, if something doesn’t work, then it can be reworked quickly foregoing the approval process and money required for capital expenditures, yielding significant cost savings.
Cloud Transformation was center stage at this year’s Cloud Summit in Albuquerque, N.M. A panel moderated by Sparq Chief Operating Officer Ingrid Miller looked at the options and benefits for companies moving to the Cloud in today’s tech climate.
“When building out a Cloud architecture, services like AWS Cloud Formation and Azure Resource Manager enable businesses to create templates for their environments,” said Brandon Avant, principal consultant, Sparq. “This allows architects to quickly script out the resources that their business will need and make necessary modifications along the way. By doing this, they can mitigate the tedious process of manually creating and linking resources, which allows businesses to focus on more important endeavors, such as developing their enterprises’ applications.”
With multiple Cloud-based options, there are some key considerations when making a decision between Azure, AWS and Google.
“Spend time thinking about compliance and security requirements prior to investing in a Cloud-based solution for your enterprise,” said Mathew Zannoni, senior consultant, Sparq. “Sometimes the best solution to adhere to regulatory constraints is to take a hybrid approach. Azure now offers many different connectors that make it much simpler to create complex hybrid solutions to connect on-premise resources to Cloud-based resources.”
As with any development or digital transformation, cost is a consideration. The panel experts say there are cost savings to be had, if you know where to look.
“As you get started using the Azure platform it is a good idea to pay close attention to the various costs involved,” said Zannoni. “There are many ways to optimize spend and reduce the overall cost of cloud solutions. I recommend spending some time examining different pricing scenarios using Azure’s cost calculators. This is one area where planning ahead can realize thousands of dollars in savings each month.”
In addition to cost savings, the cloud offers businesses access a variety of managed service at massive quantities of scale, giving access to cutting edge solutions and new efficiencies.
“Almost any cloud provider you will find presents their offerings as metered services,” said Jarred Kozlick, senior consultant, Sparq. “This allows business to convert IT expenditures that were conventionally capital costs into operating costs, only paying for the resources consumed. This model allows business to pay for only what they use, and always have the resources they need, leading to reduced costs while still being able to scale applications based on usage.”
Cloud providers also offer numerous managed services, such as databases and messaging queues. As Kozlick notes, using these services allows developers to focus on solving business problems instead of managing infrastructure. The move to the Cloud represents an opportunity for CIOs looking for cost savings, efficiency and flexibility. Companies that have already embraced Cloud Transformation are reporting impressive results. It takes a forward-thinking CIO to put an organization on this path, but with the right vision, team and partners, a successful Cloud integration will impact more than just a company’s backend. Cloud Transformation can positively impact the customer experience and, ultimately, the bottom line.
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