7 Key Things to Look For Before Migrating to Private Cloud

Any decision that impacts your infrastructure as much as migrating to a private cloud needs to be well-informed. A little bit of introspection is a must to ensure you are all set. Let's look at what to cross-check and verify before making the shift.

1. Readiness among the workforce

A private cloud functions in a quite different manner compared to a typical client-server architecture that you might already have. This has a learning curve attached to it. You must ensure that you as well as all affected employees have agreed to shift to the cloud and there is no element of doubt. This is essential because as with the software development life-cycle, conflicts will be costlier (and probably unfeasible) to correct in later stages when employees get hands-on with the up-and-running, on-premise cloud.

2. Market awareness

Make sure you have evaluated both tried-and-tested solutions as well as lesser known (but nonetheless innovative) solutions that can help you build your private cloud. Do not invest without thoroughly researching the competition as it is highly likely that a vendor may have an offering which exactly matches your broad-level requirements.

3. Adoption by other organisations

You aren't alone in moving to the cloud. Before zeroing in on a solution, read about success stories (or otherwise) of reputable organizations which have tried to set up their private cloud based on that solution.

4. Avoid vendor lock-ins

You haven't really spent much on your planned cloud yet. Now you are going to make a big investment. Make sure that you do not see yourself subject to a vendor lock-in for your further plans to scale. Proprietary APIs may lead you into a vendor lock-in. Avoid that, unless there is a compelling need. In short, make sure that your private cloud will be able to talk to other platforms as you deem fit (replacing components if necessary) and benefit from the same.

In the process of selecting another platform, do you see yourself being subject to a vendor lock-in? Are you forced to purchase the entire stack from your new cloud solution provider? Such situations limit the flexibility of your private cloud, which, after all, should be in your control and not operationally dictated by the CSP, whether the current one or the next.

5. Reverse-migration options

What if the new platform too doesn't suit your current requirements after you try it for a while? Does your current CSP allow you to undo the migration of the data/applications? The systems are of course physically with you, but does your data and the applications remain in a form that can be easily incorporated in another CSP's solution or they have been irreversibly changed? In case your applications need rewriting to support the new platform, have you considered the porting costs into your RoI analysis? These are the essential questions which must be answered before giving up on your current platform.

6. SLAs

A considerable part of your experience with a private cloud is dictated by the terms and conditions of the SLA. You need to read between the lines and analyze the consequences of leaving your current platform.

7. Asset utilization

For your private cloud, you may have made a heavy investment in systems, storage, networking equipment and cabling, etc. Have you made sure that each of these will be utilized to the same level (if not more) in order to minimise wastage? What about other resources such as manpower? Does your current CSP provide technical assistance with the actual migration process? Or you need to obtain the necessary expertise in-house?

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