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Summary: How do you know if cloud computing makes sense for your organization? And if it makes sense for your organization what sort of services should you buy into? Here are the questions to ask.

How do you know if cloud computing makes sense for your organization? And if it makes sense for your organization what sort of services should you buy into? Even though cloud computing is everywhere, is being offered by all the major technology players, and all agree you need it, definitions vary.

Cloud Computing refers to the delivery of infrastructure components and services. Its name is derived from architecture diagrams where a cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet. A cloud is used to abstract and represent the complex infrastructure environment.

The components that are housed in the cloud on the diagram are client devices, servers and data centers. Client devices include mobile devices, think and thick computers. While the data center in the cloud are defined as servers or collections of servers, for small organizations the cloud may represent a portion of a server. Being able to provide a portion of a server, or storage space, called capacity on demand is one of the hallmarks of cloud computing.

The as a service paradigm in cloud computing has vendors offering Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Database as a Service (DaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and more. In addition to getting the right balance of cost to benefit, availability, scalability, capacity, and regulatory concerns will drive the decision process.

Additionally, determining your organizations risk profile will be key to understanding if cloud computing and associated service is right for you. So what service makes sense for your organization? Here are the questions to ask.

1. Does the cost benefit justify the disruption?

Data center migrations are disruptive, costly, and complicated. Tightly coupled mission critical systems that make up the minority of the data center take the most time and expense to migrate. Though savings range from project to project and will vary by organization, the greatest savings will be found with labor, hardware, and software. The key is that the cost benefit outweighs the disruption the migration will cause.

2. Do your applications require specific hardware components or speed of delivery?

Some applications cannot be virtualized as they require specific underlying hardware components. While tempting, it is best to not migrate these to the cloud. Additionally, some applications require minimal delivery speeds. If latency is an issue, it is best to keep the entire system (i.e., all the system components - web, application, database, middleware servers, etc.) local. Simply look for other cloud opportunities within your environment (e.g., end of life servers hosting non-critical applications).

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Cloud Computing: Is it right for you?