Analytics: The missing influence in cloud migration

It’s an interesting time to be in computer related technology services today. One can see cloud technology and services constantly being advertised on television to a variety of businesses and consumers. The perception of the cloud can almost be summed up as a subjective interpretation of what a person wants to envision as an ideal world of mobility and interoperability. Consumers are bombarded with concepts of instant access to deep and varied vaults of content, information, or conveniences. Of course, many of those consumers are directly or indirectly members of the cloud product community or consumers of cloud products.

So we, the technology based consumer, are confronted by the concept of the cloud. More specifically, cloud migration. We are left to consider what is this concept and is it beneficial. What will it bring to us in the form of productivity, savings, or competitive advantage? Do we consider it a visionary move? Is it something driven by the economics of change? Could it be classified as merely a trend or some form of a perceived need driven by a compulsion to compete in a given market space?

From a casual vantage point, cloud migrations are happening for all of these reasons and more. The constant corporate bombardment of solutions, products, and services is reaching a fevered pitch. With the economy in desperate times and companies searching for new methods of survival, the cloud seems like a new “Eldorado” of operational fortune. Companies are jumping on the concept and boldly claiming to be visionary or advancing ahead of their competition.

Cloud migrations done for these reasons may be fraught with mistakes. Whether driven by some form of technical insecurity or arrogance, migrating software or applications for the sake of migration is reactive methodology indicative of mismanaged resources. Cloud migration should and must be done because it makes sense for a business from a financial perspective and from an operational perspective. A clear and targeted roadmap that maximizes performance as well as getting the best ROI is crucial. Further, in order to achieve both, a business must not only be knowledgeable in the benefits of cloud services, but must also know exactly what can migrate to the cloud and what should not. Knowing exactly what resources make sense to migrate justifies the effort of migrating.

Migration analytics seems to be a silent topic in the cloud discussion.  Tools that interactively operate with data and applications to find out how much improvement can be gained seem to be below the collective radar of cloud “consciousness”.  It seems like the enormous white elephant in the room, or maybe sitting in the cloud. Cloud pundits promote the known advantages but are not openly divulging what it really takes to reap the best benefits available. They will never tell you “it may not be appropriate to migrate everything to the cloud”. Unless a company is truly savvy and analytical about its systems and services, a business will be confronted with a critical leap-of-faith that has a expensive repercussions if it fails. Turning back from the cloud may cost more in time, lost services, and spent resources that originally migrating to the cloud.

It is our belief that just as in real estate that it’s all about “location, location, location”…Cloud migration is all about “analytics, analytics, analytics”. Knowing exactly how applications and services are used day-in-and-day-out as well as how those targeted elements work within the framework of the operational functions of a company is the key to migration. Cloud migration should not be an all or nothing venture. It also shouldn’t be a subjective event supported by surveys, check-lists, or interactive spreadsheets. Leveraging data based on measurable performance values should be the foundation of cloud migration. There is an immediate need to bring cloud analytics and measurement to the front of the line of the consciousness of the cloud community. We see this as a void that needs to be filled.