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So You have Moved into the Cloud - Now What?

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Implementing a Cloud solution, like many IT projects, requires careful planning, thorough testing and requires continual assessment.    It is not like the rotisserie chicken commercial where you can just “set it and forget it”.  So what are the important steps of managing the cloud service provider ongoing relationship and what should you expect from your cloud provider.

Once you are in the Cloud, it will be important to ensure you are receiving visibility into your environment to be able to monitor your capacity and utilization.  Are you able to add or remove resources easily?  Is your cloud provider meeting with you regularly to understand your business objectives? Do you have future growth plans or peak seasons throughout the year they need to be able to scale for?  Are you looking at business acquisitions that may change your volumes?  

In addition, the Cloud provider should be making you aware of new technologies they are implementing that may offer a more efficient or cost-effective solution.  Technology is always evolving and the best service providers are staying close to the latest trends and are on the leading edge of implementing these new technologies to be able to offer to clients. Typically these new technologies may offer greater performance, potentially a lower cost, or greater value due to the higher performance at the same price-point.  One of the benefits of partnering with a service provider is to leverage the research and development they perform and being able to take advantage of their life-cycle hardware refreshes and new technology they are implementing.

The ideal Cloud provider, should be meeting with you on a regular basis to cover current operational items, SLA and client satisfaction, along with meeting with you periodically to review your strategic goals, business objectives and long-term initiatives. 

This insight and dialog is critical for both partners to better align and ensure the technology being utilized not only meets the current business objectives, but it is also positioned to align in the future as well.

The CIO's Guide to Implementing a Cloud Solution