Tarot card readers say the “Hanged Man” does not indicate an insurmountable obstacle; it simply suggests the time is not right for action. Wait for information to be revealed that makes choosing the right path clearer. How do you know if migrating to the Cloud is the right choice? VMC Engagement Manager Chuck Hobart shared his insights on potential barriers to making the move.
“I’m not sure I would use the term ‘barrier,’ because anything that’s currently in a company’s data center can be replicated pretty well in the Cloud. I think the real issue is getting a clear handle on what’s actually going on within the current structure so you can make more intelligent choices on how to make that move.
For example, if you’re building out a facility for the first time, you need that facility to provide specific functions, such as accounting, billing and inventory. To do that, you’d have a systems architect come in to determine what the databases will look like, how systems will talk to each other, and what hardware and software is needed. Once that infrastructure is built out, the company starts business. Now, say a few years go by, and this company is going to form a partnership with another company that uses different technology or approaches, so they meld or modify things. Maybe one partner needs systems access to do field inventory updates, but you don’t want that partner to have access to customer credit card data stored on the same server. To handle that, you might pull in an authentication server. Well, that means the architecture changes. Over time, these kinds of changes can happen again and again. Unless someone is taking copious notes and keeping architectural drawings on what’s going on, you get a very contaminated view of what your system actually is.
It’s pretty rare that companies are really up to date. So, that’s why our first step in a Cloud consulting role, besides working through the business case, is to go out and actually look at the environment and redefine where the client is now. Depending on the size of the systems, that could take anything from a week to two or three months. While this doesn’t mean the Cloud is not the way to go, it is a barrier in the sense that it affects the timing.”
Think of ways in which your system architecture may have changed over time. What could you do today to gain clearer insight into its current state before you take action toward its future state?
Contact Chuck Hobart by email at chuckh@vmc.com or 877.393.8622.
