Articles about Cloud Services

This panel was moderated by John Dages, Technology Solution Director at Fusion Alliance and included (left to right): Shawn Chapla, Technology Consultant at Fusion Alliance, John Heckler, Senior Engineering Manager at Kroger, and David Imhoff, SVP of Core Software Engineering at Fifth Third Bank. You’ve made a commitment to domain-driven design. You catalog everything you build in a curated, well-documented API portal. And yet, teams across your organization continue to waste effort building the same components. Why? You haven’t nailed API discoverability. Moving to an API-first organization is a long journey. Creating long-term teams around each service, getting components cataloged, and adding search features like tagging or badging is part of the process. But until you get the discoverability piece in place, you’ll continue to experience API bloat, as developers search for what they need, fail to find it, and build another one. Or a third one. Or a tenth. Enable API discoverability by centralizing the developer experience To effectively communicate API availability, particularly in a larger organization, consider going beyond the catalog. Organizing a developer portal around domains, adding documentation and a data dictionary, and making your API marketplace a place that centers the developer experience can go a long way toward good governance — and more effective use of your resources. Taking a wider view than just your API catalog can give your organization a more coherent pathway into composability, along with other tangentially related goals like your enterprise data organization, domain segmentation, and security. You’re not only building a framework for repeatable composition, you’re also making the developer process nearly seamless — freeing up those team members to spend their time-solving business problems and meeting concrete business goals. About our panelists David Imhoff is the SVP of core software engineering at Fifth Third bank, where he drives the bank's domain service API strategy. David has 17 years of software engineering and cybersecurity experience at Fifth Third, General Electric, and Cincinnati Bell where he has built cyber detection capabilities, led large software organizations, and is currently building out the core banking replacement for Fifth Third. David holds a BS in Information Technology from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from Xavier University. He is passionate about mentoring and loves to help elevate the next generation of technology professionals. And he enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters, golfing, and watching the Cincinnati Bengals. John Heckler is a Sr. Engineering Manager at Kroger responsible for Kroger's API Program and Platform. John has over 25 years of experience in software architecture and development, over 15 years of managing development teams, and a passion for building and motivating high-performing teams. John holds a BS in CS from Bowling Green State University and a Master of Computer Science from the University of Dayton. Shawn Chapla is a Consultant at Fusion Alliance in the Technology Practice area, focusing on helping customers accelerate their business through API- and cloud-driven digital transformation. Prior to joining Fusion, he spent more than 40 years delivering technology solutions in the pharmaceutical, defense, and computer systems industries.

This panel was moderated by John Dages, Technology Solution Director at Fusion Alliance and included (left to right): Shawn Chapla, Technology Consultant at Fusion Alliance, John Heckler, Senior Engineering Manager at Kroger, and David Imhoff, SVP of Core Software Engineering at Fifth Third Bank. Every business wants to move with agility in the digital world. Most make customer-facing digital transformation plans — which is critical — but miss out on the backend technical frameworks that make digital aptitude possible. In a rapidly changing business environment, being able to pivot technologically can make or break a company’s viability. But how can you translate technical capabilities to concrete outcomes your leadership and business users can understand? How to build support for composability across the business Most C-level leaders are not technology experts, so to gain their sponsorship and alignment for the shift to composability, you’ll need to tie the technical gains you anticipate to concrete business objectives. After all, moving to a more composable, API-first framework is a culture change that calls for a new mindset. Many organizations find that the key to unlocking support for composability is tying the change to the organization’s long-term journey toward digital transformation. The API-first approach dovetails easily to that bigger picture, as a composable enterprise tends to be quicker to market and more efficient with developer resources, to say nothing of the profit associated with monetizing your API marketplace. As you start changing, be sure to quantify incremental value in terms of business goals and profit. Some examples might include: Showing how API and component reuse avoid future costs Demonstrating the ways that APIs and composable frameworks enable business wins Measuring time and cost to market for new initiatives The composable enterprise is a long game. In the short term, your organization may see building an API catalog or establishing a new architecture as a bottleneck to their plans. Proving value — both initially and along the way — can go a long way toward bringing the business with you on your path to modernizing your enterprise architecture. About our panelists David Imhoff is the SVP of core software engineering at Fifth Third bank, where he drives the bank's domain service API strategy. David has 17 years of software engineering and cybersecurity experience at Fifth Third, General Electric, and Cincinnati Bell where he has built cyber detection capabilities, led large software organizations, and is currently building out the core banking replacement for Fifth Third. David holds a BS in Information Technology from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from Xavier University. He is passionate about mentoring and loves to help elevate the next generation of technology professionals. And he enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters, golfing, and watching the Cincinnati Bengals. John Heckler is a Sr. Engineering Manager at Kroger responsible for Kroger's API Program and Platform. John has over 25 years of experience in software architecture and development, over 15 years of managing development teams, and a passion for building and motivating high-performing teams. John holds a BS in CS from Bowling Green State University and a Master of Computer Science from the University of Dayton. Shawn Chapla is a Consultant at Fusion Alliance in the Technology Practice area, focusing on helping customers accelerate their business through API- and cloud-driven digital transformation. Prior to joining Fusion, he spent more than 40 years delivering technology solutions in the pharmaceutical, defense, and computer systems industries.

Key use cases for Go language development In today’s cloud-focused environments, speed, agility, and security increasingly impact operational success – and profitability. While traditional approaches to application development excused long cycle times, unwieldy code, and eleventh-hour fixes, those habits don’t transfer well to the hyperscaling, multicloud strategies, and workload optimization that companies need now. Modern application development prioritizes reliable yet rapid innovation — and Go (Golang) is a high-performance, developer-friendly language designed to scale for those realities. Why companies use Golang for modern app dev As a programming language, Golang was purpose-built for cloud-native development. Thanks to fast compile times and lower cognitive load, developers can use Golang to quickly and efficiently develop maintainable systems. Specifically designed to overcome downsides found in older programming languages, Golang brings together the most critical needs of modern development. Using Golang delivers the performance of C, the ease-of-use found in languages like Python, the garbage collection feature of Java, and native, language-level support for concurrency. And because Golang is compiled to machine code, instead of being interpreted or having virtual runtimes, it provides significant performance advantages over other languages. Language-based vs. framework-based systems A key driver in Golang’s flexibility is that it’s a language, rather than a framework. In framework-based systems, merging, modifying, and updating code can be time-consuming and difficult. While language-based models like Golang sacrifice somewhat in terms of features, the benefits of available patterns and standard libraries for maintainability are significant. Golang vs. Java, Rust, and other programming languages and frameworks Golang is incredibly robust, and while it isn’t a cure-all for software projects, it does provide building blocks for cloud-native environments and DevOps-focused organizations that want to scale quickly.Golang’s standard libraries address the vast majority of needs and problems. And because it was built to be as simple and clean as possible, in Golang you only add what you need before you deploy, rather than relying on a cumbersome framework mired in dependencies. This helps to avoid spaghetti development that slows down performance over time. Top use cases for Golang development As a compiled language, Golang’s focus is on writing efficient parallel code — making it ideal for today’s multiple processor machines and distributed developer teams. Because it’s designed for excellent performance and collaborative work, Golang is often used for workloads like APIs, web apps, CLI apps, networking, data processing, and cloud-native apps. Using Golang for DevOps Golang makes it easy for developers to adapt quickly to changing requirements, allowing the faster turnaround times IT customers demand. And because popular DevOps tools like Docker and Kubernetes are written in Golang, many companies find the use case for Golang development in cloud-native applications is hard to beat. Golang compiles directly to machine code on a single, standalone binary with no additional dependencies, so it’s faster and better suited to microservices and containerization than other languages. Python, Java, and JavaScript compile into intermediate object code, which slows down and complicates the process. As a result, older languages often can’t match the performance gains Golang delivers, and aren’t as easy to use in a DevOps process. Security — at speed and at scale A critical point in favor of using Golang for modern app dev is its test-as-you-go structure. Because testing is built into the toolchain, developers can find and fix issues before other workstreams are impacted. This radically increases maintainability and scalability in cloud environments. Golang’s guarantee of backwards compatibility, while often seen as primarily a collaborative work and future-proofing selling point, also impacts its reliability and security. Because Golang is backwards compatible, new security fixes can be added to older code without slowing it down or breaking it, simply by adding additional features. Modernizing legacy workloads Golang provides API bridging that can enable legacy workload migration to the cloud or unlock those workloads to inform cloud-based apps. Rather than rewriting and redesigning an entire legacy application for the cloud, or attempting to run it within a container, Golang can add an abstract layer between a legacy backend system and a more modern, cloud-native frontend. Getting started with Golang Use cases for Golang development could make recentering your tech a smart move. But how do you know if using Golang for modern app dev will pay off for your organization? As a tech-agnostic firm, Fusion has the breadth of expertise necessary to deliver expert — yet objective — guidance for your digital journey. Whether you’re considering adding Golang development to a project in progress, or you’re looking for a full assessment of your cloud readiness, we can help. From strategy to implementation to managed services, Fusion adds expertise to your team. Learn more about cloud-native development >> Schedule a consultation >>

Whether businesses rely on the cloud for backup and disaster recovery, inexpensive storage, or near limitless scalability for their applications, there’s no doubt that adopting this technology offers myriad benefits. Now, your organization is ready to make the shift, but that doesn’t mean you can start moving files and applications and assume that’s all you need to do. Instead, you need a sound strategy to ensure you’re maximizing the benefits the cloud offers and are set up to meet your goals. To help you get started, we’re sharing the five keys to planning a successful cloud implementation. 1. Have a vision The first key to any successful cloud implementation is understanding the business need and use case. This may seem obvious, but too often, businesses implement new technology for the sake of technology – they see their competitors turning to the latest shiny object and want to follow suit. However, “tech for tech’s sake” goes against the mission of your IT department, which is to leverage technology to operate more efficiently, effectively, and profitably. That’s not to say that the cloud is the latest shiny object. Businesses ranging from sole proprietorships to enterprise-level organizations use it to improve operations, increase agility, reduce costs, and/or increase security. So, your first step is knowing exactly what you want to get out of implementing cloud solutions and making sure those benefits are agreed upon by corporate officers. Having the business use case clearly defined will form the vision for how cloud computing is used within the corporation. 2. Develop a sound strategy Once your company has clarity into the business needs, document them in a strategic plan that will become the guiding vision and mission of the project for your organization. State the objective in plain, clear language how cloud implementation will help the business become more efficient, effective, and profitable and achieve the overall goals and vision of the company. With your project’s mission statement clearly defined, the next step is to perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis regarding your cloud implementation. This will help you and your team understand your organization’s cloud readiness and the challenges or blocks that may prevent the implementation from achieving the stated objectives. Example SWOT Analysis Strengths Significant virtualization experience IT systems management and governance Strong, trusted offshore partner Strong, collaborative, supportive leadership Weaknesses Cloud expertise is lacking overall, skills retooling required Network connectivity at satellite locations Opportunities Leverage cloud to reduce corporate costs, especially SaaS and PaaS solutions Leverage cloud to increase responsiveness to the business Offload compliance and auditing burden Foster innovation Threats Increasingly competitive industry External regulators are introducing new revisions to their compliance requirements in the next two quarters Recently lost our primary enterprise architect Using the SWOT analysis, you and your team can develop a strategic plan that contains specific, measurable goals and the actions you need to take to achieve them and spans a one-year, two-year, and three-year roadmap. This will act as a guide for moving your company down the path of cloud implementation, making progress toward, and achieving the stated goals and objectives. The roadmap should list projects (broken down into steps if needed), training needs, strategic hires, and show how it is making a measurable impact on your strategic goals. 3. Establish governance now We can’t talk about implementing cloud solutions without talking about establishing governance. Virtually every new technology requires a conversation about governance, and this is especially true with cloud implementation. But why? The cloud makes buying and deploying technology cheaper and easier than ever before. Business units that control their own budgets can purchase cloud technology, sometimes with just a company credit card, and set it up themselves, bypassing IT completely. In general, allowing business units this much leeway in technology buying decisions rarely works out well, providing short-term benefits to that business unit, but adversely affecting the entire organization over time. As a foundation, start by integrating cloud governance into existing technology steering committees or enterprise architecture groups to provide ongoing governance in the workloads that make sense for the technology. With this in place, you can take a holistic approach to establishing governance. We also recommend minimizing the risk of business unit implementation by engaging the finance department to monitor business expenses and departmental expenditures for rogue cloud activity. Also, consider modifying bonus structures so that a portion of management bonuses are based on making decisions that benefit the organization, rather than just a manager's particular business unit. 4. Manage organizational change Forbes has tagged the cloud as potentially “the most disruptive technology ever,” and this includes the internet. That kind of disruption does not come without impacts to an organization and it’s important to not underestimate those impacts. Your team needs to learn new skills and adopt new ways of thinking, and new groups must be organized. However, the biggest impact is the fear that comes with big change, whether that's fear of the unknown, of being replaced, not being able to keep up with the new tech. And this fear will lie at the root of your organization’s resistance to adopting the new technology. So, with something as transformative as cloud implementation, it’s also essential that you manage the people side of the change and get your employees on board. That’s where organizational change management comes in. OCM defines the steps, processes, and cultural changes necessary for your employees to embrace the technological and cultural changes that are planned. It doesn’t matter how much time, money, and effort you have invested into the technology; if the people in your organization fail to adopt it, the project is doomed to fail. 5. Innovate Of all the benefits the cloud brings to businesses, the ability to facilitate innovation is perhaps the most overlooked. The cloud provides a “fail-fast, succeed-fast” environment that gives businesses the opportunity to experiment with new technologies and new ways of doing things at a lower price point than ever before. Before implementing a cloud solution, your company should set the stage for success by forming a cloud innovation group that experiments with ways of leveraging the cloud to make the business more efficient, effective, and profitable. Small investments in cloud innovation can bring big rewards for companies that are not afraid to adapt to the new reality of cloud computing. This ensures that your organization won’t implement the cloud for one use case, then stop there without maximizing your opportunities and seeing added benefits. Take the Next Step of Cloud Implementation As with any complex technology, implementing cloud solutions requires your team to invest time and care in crafting a clear vision and strategy to provide the greatest return on investment and avoid the pitfalls of increased overhead, rogue IT, and duplicated systems. Making this investment and avoiding the common pitfalls of cloud adoption will ensure that the cloud helps make your organization more efficient, effective, and profitable. Interested in learning more? Take five minutes to find out how cloud can be a profit center. Another quick read explains which public cloud offering is right for you.

Which public cloud offering is right for you? Your company has meticulously weighed the pros and cons and has decided to transition from an on-premise to a public cloud infrastructure. While that’s an important step, it’s only the first one. Now, you need to develop a cloud implementation plan that will help your business meet its goals, but with a myriad of options and providers available, this may seem easier said than done. Our team of cloud computing experts is providing an in-depth look at your options to help you build the foundation of your strategy. An overview of public cloud infrastructure services For the flagship public cloud providers, application services are available in the following paradigms: Software as a Service (SaaS) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Platform as a Service (PaaS) To help you make the best choices for your organization, our team is evaluating the three public cloud offerings on several criteria: Portfolio objective and existing investments Technical requirements Security and regulatory compliance Funding approach It’s important to note that while each option has benefits that may better suit your organization, transitioning to any of the three cloud-computing models will offer greater business agility and reduce your management and maintenance costs compared to using an on-premises infrastructure. For a more in-depth understanding of these options, be sure to read our whitepaper on the topic, Cloud 101: Let’s remove the complexity. Software as a Service (SaaS) SaaS is a software licensing and delivery model that is entirely managed by a third-party provider and typically offered through a subscription. This offers greater flexibility and while reducing costs. Common SaaS products include Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce CRM, Workday, and Google G Suite. Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) IaaS offers computing, storage, and networking resources in the cloud, making it the most similar to the traditional virtual machine hosting in your organization’s on-premises datacenter or remote hosting facility. This is a key element of most organizations’ cloud implementation plan, offering scalable hosting in a pay-as-you-go format. However, after your cloud implementation plan is complete, IaaS virtual machines still require your IT team to manage underlying patching and support. Example workloads of IaaS include application hosting, backend processing, and traditional enterprise software, such as Microsoft Dynamics AX. Platform as a Service (PaaS) PaaS is a service that allows organizations to build and run applications without the cost and complexity of maintaining the supporting infrastructure, including the networking, servers, storage, OS, and middleware. Examples of PaaS products include Amazon Elastic Beanstalk and Microsoft Azure Web App. According to an April 2019 Gartner report, SaaS is the largest public cloud service market, though IaaS is the fastest-growing market segment. Overall, no model is better or more preferred over another. Instead, with such rapid growth of cloud adoption, it’s essential to choose the right options and build a cloud implementation strategy that best suits your goals and will support your ability to remain competitive and provide value to your customers. This diagram shows how responsibilities are divided between your organization and the cloud provider depending on the public cloud offering you choose. Portfolio Objectives All enterprises rely on multiple software applications to fulfill a broad range of business objectives. These applications are typically in variable states of value to your business and have differing degrees of currency with modern patterns and frameworks. Enterprise applications are generally organized into three categories: invest, contain, and replace. Each category serves different purposes, and with each, there is a preferred cloud implementation that best fits those purposes. Portfolio investments Enterprises have essential applications that serve the core line of the organization. These are unique to the organization, rooted in the organization’s value offering, and are enhanced to accommodate a changing business marketplace, respond to competition, and deliver value to customers. Best choice: PaaS Because these applications are mission-critical to your organization and act as differentiators from competitors, these will likely require a high degree of investment in financial and human resources. PaaS is the best option for this role because it offers the greatest flexibility to accommodate custom business applications and provides the support needed for it to function properly. Portfolio containment Many of your business applications are essential but serve a narrow business need related to operations. These may include accounts payable, recruitment, or timekeeping. Typically, these applications serve the organization well in their existing state and don’t require major project teams to support them. Best choice: IaaS These applications don’t require major investments of either time or money to “keep the lights on.” Choosing IaaS during your cloud migration plan is often the best option as you continue to support these applications without having to overhaul the core implementation and architecture. Portfolio replacements Every organization has applications that are outdated, obsolete due to a changing business and regulatory environment, or simply no longer serve their original intended purpose. Most likely your organization has applications that should simply be replaced with a more modern solution that will better suit your needs. Best choice: SaaS Replace applications with subscription-based software as a service. You can use it as long as it suits the needs of your business, and because a third-party engineering and support team is in place, your business will benefit from the continuous updates without having to expend extra resources beyond the subscription cost. Choosing a public cloud infrastructure service based on technical requirements It’s also important to consider the technical functionality an application may require as the technical requirements may make one cloud offering preferable to the others. When migrating an application to a PaaS versus an IaaS, there are several technical requirements to consider in order to implement the cloud migration plan successfully. Technical requirements requiring reengineering for a PaaS migration include: Server installed software (ActiveX, Win32, VAS, etc.) Local/SAN file access (local processing, file drops, etc.) – Many of the PaaS offerings abstract away all local resources to better accommodate the public cloud environment Web applications that favor server-based session state versus database-/cookie-based state  Non-traditional application and environment solutions (e.g., SQLite, nginx, etc.) High I/O loads  Vertical scale architectures/server state management — One large virtual machine is typically more expensive than many less expensive ones If these items are not a factor, then a PaaS migration may be the right choice. However, the more of these items that become applicable, the higher the re-platforming cost and lower the overall value. In that case, it would be smarter to use a traditional IaaS offering. Leveraging existing investments While your organization may want a true cloud hosting approach, in some cases, your existing datacenter investments will better serve your application needs. This is most common with applications that have high restructuring costs where keeping them contained in the existing datacenter is most practical. Considering security and regulatory compliance in a cloud implementation plan Security is a top priority with all modern applications, and nearly all industries have regulatory compliance rules in place. While each organization is different, factoring in security and regulatory compliance into cloud deployment has consistent themes. PaaS PaaS offer the best value for custom and convertible cloud migration plans, but they may not meet specific regulatory requirements. For example, there may be concerns related to physical server identification, multi-tenancy, and own-IP proprietary requirements. Though companies that must meet strict regulations can go the PaaS route, any personally identifiable customer or employee data may need to reside in IaaS hold-offs or local datacenters operating in a hybrid model. IaaS The majority of current regulatory components are targeted towards on-premises hosting models. Shifting to an IaaS option provides the most linear comparison to meet those needs. SaaS SaaS offerings, as public cloud entities themselves, provide regulatory disclosures to customers. These typically offer very little change flexibility per customer but are available to review on demand. The two largest cloud providers, Amazon and Microsoft, also provide trust information for all service offerings across the cloud. Funding strategy A cloud migration plan typically requires a substantial financial investment though each public cloud option has several approaches for funding. However, it’s important to consider whether each funding strategy falls within the parameters of your organization. PaaS PaaS options are subscription-based, so it’s important to consider this if you plan to reduce ongoing revenue expenses. However, they have limited maintenance costs and efficient server usage which may reduce overall outgoing revenue and may be a better financial option. IaaS IaaS virtual machines are available as an operational expense. However, by supporting a datacenter analogue, product licensing costs may be front-loaded from a capital perspective, making this a more attractive option for capital-heavy organizations. SaaS SaaS applications are subscription-based services, so like the PaaS options, may be better for companies with operational expense budgets rather than capital budgets. Which public cloud offering suits your cloud implementation plan? When you’re considering which public cloud offerings are the right option for your organization, it’s important to examine the four factors above and prioritize how they fit into your goals. Taking this approach will help you gain clarity into which will be the best suited for your cloud implementation plan. If you’re feeling stuck or have some questions about transitioning to a public cloud infrastructure, we’re here to help. Reach out to us today to get started.

Over 90 percent of companies use cloud solutions in some way, from using a single file sharing application to housing their entire enterprise on a cloud native infrastructure. But even though the technology is pervasive with companies rapidly expanding their adoption of cloud solutions, there’s still a lot of confusion surrounding it. Whether your company wants to adopt more cloud technology solutions, or you simply want to know what the cloud is, we can help. Our team put together this guide to walk you through the basics of the cloud, including definitions, different types of technology, benefits, and more so you have a good foundation to understanding what all the buzz is about. What is the Cloud? At its most basic, the cloud refers to software and services that are stored on internet servers and operate online instead of locally on your computer’s hard drive. When data or an application is stored on the cloud, you can access it remotely from any device with an internet connection. To take it a step further, the cloud allows you to receive IT resources as a service through a provider with the provider taking ownership of the related resources, operation, and processes while you pay a subscription fee to use the service. For example, before the cloud, Microsoft Word, Outlook, and other tools had to be installed directly on a computer. All associated data was stored on the computer, and users could only access it from that fixed location while data could only be shared via email. On the other hand, Microsoft 365 is a cloud solution that offers Word, Outlook, and several other tools that you can access from anywhere with an internet connection. A mobile application allows you to stay connected even on a phone or tablet, and file sharing and collaboration solutions mean that several people can work within a project simultaneously and see updates in real time. Types of Cloud Solutions Now that you have an answer to “What is the cloud?” it’s time to dig a little deeper and answer the question, “What are they types of cloud?” There are four specific types of cloud solutions: Software as a Service (SaaS) Platform as a Service (PaaS) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) On-premises (private cloud) Software as a Service (SaaS) SaaS offerings are cloud native applications in which the vendor provides access to highly specific services, and your organization does not have to install, configure, or deploy infrastructure to support it. As we said above, the provider handles all maintenance and management. SaaS offerings are the most common cloud technology solutions and are generally an organization’s first foray into the cloud. Our example above, Microsoft 365 is a popular example of SaaS, as are: Salesforce CRM Dropbox Google Workspace These and similar enterprise products offer cloud computing solutions for all types of organizations and represent the majority of growth in the competitive cloud marketplace. While users may have to sacrifice flexibility, SaaS applications offer a convenient, often affordable solution to a need that is available the moment your organization is ready. Platform as a Service (PaaS) PaaS are also called cloud platform services and provide a framework that developers use to build and create custom applications. For organizations that build and leverage applications, PaaS offerings are the best of both cloud and customized solutions and represent the greatest total cost of ownership (TCO) and fastest time to market for custom solutions. With this type of cloud solution, the vendor or third-party provider manages the infrastructure, including networking, storage, and servers, while your development team members focus on code, data, and integrating the application into the organization. This makes developing, testing, and deploying applications simple, efficient, and cost-effective. PaaS applications also offer a variety of characteristics and functionalities, including: Unlimited, push-button scalability without having to add new code Transparent and independent infrastructure patching and updates Simplified distribution across multiple servers Ability to deploy the application across multiple environments as needed, pay for temporary usage, then scale back when multiple environments are not needed Unified management portal and application performance management Integrated web services and databases Accessible to multiple users via the same development application Examples of PaaS include: AWS Elastic Beanstalk OpenShift Microsoft Azure App Service Google App Engine Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) IaaS is also known as cloud infrastructure services which consist of highly scalable, automated compute resources that are delivered using virtualization technology to support your servers, network, operating systems, and data storage. Organizations can purchase the resources and hardware they need, when they need them, based on existing consumption, creating a scalable alternative to traditional, on-premises datacenters. Unlike SaaS or PaaS, the organization will need to be more hands-on for management and maintenance of applications, operating systems, middleware, and data, but the IaaS vendors will still manage the servers, networking, virtualization, and storage. To transition to an IaaS environment, your organization moves your virtual machines from your data center to the cloud infrastructure. Doing so gives you scalable capacity while eliminating the cost of cooling or replacing equipment. The configurations and settings remain the same, the only thing that changes is where your server exists. Also, IaaS does not need to be an all or nothing option, and you’re not required to move all your virtual machines to the cloud. In fact, most organizations select a hybrid option where some servers are hosted in the cloud and others are hosted in their own datacenter. Choosing which servers to move depends on factors like cost, hardware lease renewals, or software licensing requirements. For example, if an application is running on outdated hardware, you can move it to a cloud server rather than having to replace the hardware. Examples of IaaS include: Amazon Web Services (AWS) Microsoft Azure Google Compute Engine Rackspace On-Premises (private cloud) In some cases, enterprises may choose an on-premises, private cloud in which you own all the resources. But how does this differ from an on-premises, physical datacenter? A private cloud provides resources like networking, servers, and storage like a service, allowing you to introduce automation and self-service capabilities. This frees up time and improves efficiency for your IT personnel, allowing them to focus on driving business decisions instead of spending their time on repetitive processes or putting out fires. A private cloud is ideal for businesses who have already invested heavily in an existing datacenter and don’t want to take on another large expenditure to transition to a public cloud. You can leverage your existing hardware to reap many of the benefits of cloud technology solutions, and as equipment ages and licenses expire, your company can gradually transition to a public cloud. You can transform your data center into a private cloud by meeting two goals: Make your datacenter capable of providing self-service so that staff can request servers, infrastructure, or any other IT request through a centralized solution, such as a portal Automate your datacenter so that servers, infrastructure, and other IT resources are provisioned, managed, and deprovisioned without IT intervention Why Choose Cloud Technology Solutions? While we’ve touched on some of the benefits of transitioning to cloud computing, we wanted to go into a bit more depth, especially since you’ve already invested in your existing architecture. Do you really need to switch over to having a cloud provider host your machines when you’ve already got the hardware you need? The key benefit to the cloud is in how you receive the service these cloud providers offer. They bestow an easy-to-use, configurable way to spin up servers, networks, and storage on demand while also picking up the minutiae of management and maintenance. The vendor is in charge of your hardware, data, and all the processes related to it, such as disaster recovery and capacity management, so your IT team can focus on optimizing opportunities and looking for ways to leverage tech to increase revenue and decrease costs. More specifically, there are four key benefits to switching your servers and services to cloud hosting: Agility Scalability Reliability and security Cost Agility Consider how long it takes to provision a full application for your business, assuming you have the resources to do so. First, you would have to discover each tier of the app and determine the hardware needs, and if you don’t have the hardware available, you would have to go through the request and procurement process to get what you need. Of course, you wouldn’t want to overpay for what you don’t need, so you have to right-size the capital expenditure before the app is even in development. Once the app is ready, you need to install servers in the datacenter, deploy the virtualization software to the machine, and start building the machines within the specifications. Even if your company diligently purchases and over allocates hardware to anticipate future capacity trends, you’re still unable to rapidly provision servers when your business needs it. The cloud lets you provision on demand without the up-front investment or added labor cost. To build an application, you choose the server size, OS, and any other configurations, and you’ll have what you need to launch your application in minutes while paying only for what you need. Cloud agility allows your organization to quickly develop, test, and launch software applications that can grow your business while empowering your team to focus on higher priority issues instead of workload tasks. Scalability Determining capacity is an elusive endeavor for most companies. You’re predicting the resources you need through what you’ve needed in the past while determining growing or decreasing need based on trends. However, predictions aren’t always right, which can lead to a serious problem down the road for your company. Invest in too much and you’re wasting money, but invest in too little and it’s very hard to acquire the additional hardware and resources you need and integrate them into your existing infrastructure. The cloud eliminates this challenge because the resources you need are there when you need them. Whether you need to scale up or down, you pay for what you’re using at that point in time. For example, if you have a retail company and need 5,000 more web servers to handle Black Friday and holiday shopping rushes, that’s not a problem with cloud technology solutions. After the holiday sales boom has ended, you can scale back down to your normal amount. Being able to focus on right-sizing existing resources is the norm with the cloud. Reliability and Security Having your own servers and keeping your data in house allows you to control risk, build your cybersecurity, and create strategies surrounding business continuity and disaster recovery. But if you switch to cloud solutions, will you still have the security and reliability you need for your business? Cloud providers have spent significant time and resources to pass security and regulatory agencies like PCI, HIPAA, and Sarbanes-Oxley as well as keeping and security data. These providers know that a data breach would be a disaster, most likely culminating in lawsuits and a loss of business and reputation, so they have invested heavily in security and reliability measures. Also, you will always own your data. Even when it’s hosted on the cloud, your data is secure and cloud providers’ disaster recovery service-level agreements (SLAs) are unmatched. Cost Cloud technology solutions are incredibly cost-effective compared to on-premise infrastructure. Subscription based services allow your organization to budget easily rather than make a large expenditure all at once and as your organization grows, you can add on or improve your services. Also, making the shift to the cloud doesn’t have to occur in one lift-and-shift process. Instead, companies concerned about cost can take a gradual or hybrid approach like we outlined above to keep costs low. If you’re interested in bringing more cloud technology into your organization, but you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed or you’re not sure where to start, we can help. Reach out to our cloud experts today to get started!

Cloud modernization is not new. According to a recent survey, over 51% of organizations who responded are in the midst of application transformation and cloud migration. Many businesses have moved at least somewhat to the cloud. However, moving custom applications off-premises remains a holdover in many organizations. If your organization is experiencing any of the following pain points . . . Your competitors are growing faster than you can because of your legacy software and speed of execution Your on-premises, custom applications can’t scale to meet increasing demand Your customers are asking for features that you can’t add quickly Reliability, security, or performance post a significant challenge . . . then now may be a good time to reconsider modernizing your aging, custom software. But how do you identify the benefits and justify the cost of rewriting these applications? How do you guarantee that newer equals better and that you haven’t dug your organization into a hole? This article presents a more practical approach to application modernization by selectively identifying the pain points of existing applications and prioritizing a phased approach using specific cloud technologies. All of this gives you a clearer return on investment. It’s an approach we’ve successfully used with clients to develop cloud modernization project plans. Traditional approach to modernization Many application rewrite efforts are born out of statements like: We should be using the latest version of this framework. We should be leveraging microservices. We should be using the cloud. Ask why to any of these questions, and you will get a myriad of responses, most of which are justified and based on industry best practices. But it is not good enough to simply make these statements in isolation. We must always review the software in context and make the best decision possible for that application. Only then will it be clear which framework is the right choice, which cloud services to leverage, and which features are best suited for standalone microservices. Most discussions about cloud migration or modernization of this application will consider the entire application, which is a mistake. Figure 1 shows a hypothetical application broken up into four modules with four features in each module. Microservice patterns were designed to make the best architectural decision for the smallest unit possible. As you can see, this highlights our core pitfall. When discussing app modernization, always review each feature independently. Often in such a review, you will find most of the application is meeting the needs of your business, but certain other areas are struggling. Those are the features that should be prioritized and discussed in detail to ensure any modernization addresses the areas of need. Figure 1 A more informed approach to modernization Figure 2 shows the same hypothetical application with several “hot spots” – areas of pain within the current application. After isolating issues in specific features, it is much easier to make informed decisions. Figure 2 Such analysis will often result in one of the following outcomes: A phased approach to modernization – By addressing features of specific concern now, your business can reduce the scope of the remaining migration and achieve the end goal in more granular phases, providing incremental business value along the way. Improve the outcome of an existing app modernization – Even if your organization is down the path of re-architecting an existing application, this process is still worthwhile. You may find your engineering team is focused heavily on the use of bleeding-edge technologies without considering whether the technology is the right tool for the job based on the business need. Avoid a long, costly rewrite altogether – The existing application can take advantage of new technologies while existing features that work well can remain in place. The benefits of the phased approach Our experience designing app modernization plans tells us that your application modernization initiative will have a greater chance of success when you use the second, more deliberate approach to app modernization. This approach can reduce costs by only rewriting what needs to be optimized rather than trying to rewrite and rework the entire application. In this article, we presented an alternative to costly re-architecture projects that don’t seek to understand the business challenges upfront. Making well-informed business decisions and understanding and correlating those decisions to the right technology is critical to differentiating your business from your competition. If you have questions about how to implement this approach in your organization, don’t hesitate to reach out. Click here to discover how we helped McGraw-Hill Education meet the demand for digital education experiences by implementing a state-of-the-art, adaptive learning system. Related Articles: Cloud 101 5 Keys to Planning a Successful Cloud Implementation Which Public Cloud Offering is Right for You