CIOIN

While the popular conception of the Indian market is that organizations look for cost reduction more than anything else, it was interesting to find that agility, more than cost reduction was the key driver for cloud adoption.

Different organizations employ different cloud models for different reasons. However, these models can be classified into two major categories: evolutionary model and revolutionary model. While the former model relies more on the organization’s IT infrastructure and evolves the same into a cloud, the latter model follows a more application-centric approach.

Cloud service providers use complex jargon when they speak about the technology and this further muddles organizations’ idea of the same. Murad Wagh, Senior Solutions Strategist, CA Technologies, simplified the whole idea about the cloud when he said, “Cloud computing is nothing but a blend of virtualization and automation that is used to bring down heterogeneity.”

An interesting thing about cloud computing is that it means different things to different people. A service provider would say that a cloud is nothing but a new way to deliver the same technology, whereas an SI would say that a cloud is a new service model as well as a business model. A customer’s verdict would be that a cloud is an amalgamation of different technologies used to make optimal use of IT resources.

However beneficial cloud technology may be, many organizations are not yet prepared to implement it for their operations. Abhilash Purushothaman, Solution Strategist – Service Assurance (India & SAARC), CA Technologies, recalled a real-life experience to support this fact. He said that the CIO of a very famous and large Indian bank was certain he would be able to save nearly $150 million just through data consolidation but was worried that he would lose control over the data.

Abhilash mentioned that CA Technologies’ offerings would simplify the complexities associated with the implementation of cloud computing. He said that CA’s cloud offerings reduce the high levels of complexity and provide high visibility over data. He added that CA’s Application Performance Management links the whole transaction to the platform.

One of the most common mistakes many organizations make while adopting cloud technology is that they follow the big bang approach by moving all data from their on-premise infrastructure to the cloud all at once. Tarun Pandey, VP-IT, Aditya Birla Financial Services, reiterated that this approach would never work out in the case of cloud technology. He said, “All technology experts are united in this aspect. The implementation of cloud technology should always be considered a journey. Organizations should take baby steps, one at a time.”

The conundrum of moving mission-critical applications to a virtual environment or cloud infrastructure still plagues the minds of IT executives. Explaining the reason behind organizations’ hesitation to do this, S S Mathur, GM – IT, CRIS, said, “The coding of mission-critical applications needs to be tweaked in order to suit a virtual environment. That is the main reason organizations find this risky.”

Since the adoption rate of cloud technology is expected to increase in the coming months, the IT staff must be prepared to tackle the challenges they might face during implementation. Sanjay Malhotra, AVP-IT, BS & eBiz, Amway India, added a word of advice saying, “Application performance, database portability and security are the three major areas one has chances to falter in when it comes to cloud computing. Hence it is essential to define a clear strategy for implementation.”

Also, organizations have to take into consideration different aspects before choosing a cloud service provider. Hitesh Arora, Director, Head–IT, Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd, echoed this view when he said, "Organizations must have clear-cut SLAs with their service providers. They need to make sure that all terms and conditions have been mentioned properly in the contract."