What Your Hybrid Cloud Strategy Checklist Should Include
Hybrid cloud infrastructure boasts the best of all worlds and is now being adopted by 82% of IT leaders, according to the Cisco 2022 Global Hybrid Cloud Trends report. Hybrid cloud adoption and cloud computing are gaining popularity as companies seek to innovate and work on in-house digital transformation projects. In this growth, companies seek efficient, cost-effective cloud migration strategies to keep up with demand. While carrying out a strategic plan is difficult, to begin with, figuring out the list of items to keep in mind can be even harder. To make things a little easier, we’ve created an 8-step hybrid cloud strategy checklist to help you get started.
On a high level, planning your detailed approach to cloud deployment involves figuring out how you will move your application workloads that are currently on-premises or in a colocation data center, along with associated data, to the cloud. Because this could include multiple workloads or have various dependencies and complexities, planning a migration is not a one-and-done endeavor.
Instead, it is best done in parts. These parts can include making the plan and assessing what needs to be done for the migration, designing the plan, conducting a pilot project, and performing the actual migration. Taking an easily moved workload and migrating it to a public cloud can be a good test. It can teach you the process and prepare you for more intricate migration projects.
Disasters can come from human-made or natural causes. Depending on the disaster, the plan to handle it will look different. What processes do you have in place in case of disaster? Think about what might be inherent to your area. Earthquakes, power outages, hurricanes? To plan how you would need to react and recover from them.
A disaster recovery plan and cloud backup solutions are required to keep your business moving. The plan should detail how you regain access to your systems and get you back to a functional place after a disaster.
IT Security is not solely the responsibility of a few qualified professionals at your organization. Instead, it is a responsibility shared across your business, made possible by everyone interacting with your infrastructure, workloads, and sensitive data. Your plan should include training on cybersecurity for end users that complements what cybersecurity professionals set up. Hybrid cloud security includes virtualization, software-defined networking (SDN), and application support across multiple data centers and hardware devices.
When adding different cloud platforms to your infrastructure, you shouldn’t create siloed systems that don’t communicate with each other. Cloud interoperability is all about making sure different systems collaborate and work effectively and efficiently across any cloud platform you might have. All of your workloads should be able to work together to achieve an intended outcome.
