Move to the cloud from on-premises IT
In a rapidly growing and ever-changing world of information technology, the variety of IT solutions, tools and services is increasing daily. How do we keep up to date and how do we focus on providing the best solution to the business units?
For many years, IT delivery in FAO has been centralized and IT delivery has been done in a more traditional way. The infrastructure is centralized through a corporate data center, the software is developed ad-hoc to meet the changing needs of the organization and keeping up with such fast-paced demand is increasingly difficult.
One of the avenues being explored is that of cloud-based solutions. Moving to the cloud poses many challenges and we need to look at various criteria before taking the step. In this article I will discuss some of the main considerations that were made in the IT division. Cloud-based technology is not new and is increasingly becoming the dominant model in IT. Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge about cloud-based solutions has been the biggest challenge in most organizations.
FAO has a traditional IT infrastructure with a centralized data center in each of the main offices and the delivery of IT solutions has been done through development projects based on user requirements. Most of the organization’s IT delivery is managed internally, with occasional assistance from software development companies, and for most corporate systems there is a history of continuous customizations due to policy changes that require continuous updates to software. systems.
We have recently completed several applications using Google’s suite of data tools, including Google Earth Engine and Google Maps, which gave us access to an unprecedented volume of geospatial data, computing power through which we have been able to analyze satellite imagery. in real time to deliver actionable information. Without cloud services, the solution would have been prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, requiring the compilation of terabytes of satellite imagery and computing power far beyond that available in the geospatial data of a computing center.
Learned lessons:
New skills are required, including network configuration, security, database and server administration, and systems operations and integration.
Fast and robust internet connectivity is paramount, as availability and performance are directly dependent.
Moving large amounts of data to and from the cloud must be carefully considered, for example a large amount of geospatial data or legacy multimedia.
Discipline in the use of resources in the cloud is essential, only use what is needed and turn it off when you’re done.
A new internal billing / chargeback process is required.
Employee perception of data privacy and security must be managed carefully.
Ensuring that the appropriate legal issues have been addressed.
Provider Assurance – Once you move to the cloud, it can be difficult to switch providers when using highly desirable value-added features.
Moving to the cloud is part of the current mandate and future direction. It will be a complete transformation of the current traditional way of working. Recently, the organization has moved seamlessly to Office 365 with a transformation that required minimal training and included benefits that will be apparent to users as they experience the new model in more detail.
Cloud computing can save substantial capital costs with zero internal server storage and application development requirements. By not having an on-site infrastructure, associated operating costs in the form of power, air conditioning, and support costs are eliminated. We will pay for what we use and disconnect if necessary, as there is no invested IT capital to worry about.
Cloud computing is much more reliable and consistent than in-house IT infrastructure, as most providers offer SLAs that guarantee 24/7/365 availability and availability. 99.99%. Organizations can benefit from a massive pool of redundant IT resources, as well as a fast failover mechanism. If a server fails, we are unlikely to know, as cloud providers have a seamless failover.
The time required for IT acquisition will be drastically reduced. Organizations can implement mission-critical applications that deliver significant business benefits without upfront costs and minimal provisioning time.
Cloud computing offers faster recovery times and multi-site availability at a fraction of the cost of conventional disaster recovery. Cloud computing is based on virtualization, which is different from traditional disaster recovery approaches. With virtualization, the entire server, including the operating system, applications, patches, and data, can be copied or backed up to an external data center and made available on a virtual host in minutes.
Tierney Smith of TechSoup Canada summarizes the benefits as “The shift to the cloud has great potential for nonprofits of all sizes. Not only are many organizations able to achieve cost savings by not having to run and maintain their own servers (or pay a consultant to do it). do), many cloud tools enable new levels of sharing and collaboration, which can transform the way we work. We live in a world where our fans look to us for greater transparency and there is a growing need for partner with other organizations to make real impact. Using the right cloud tools can help us break down the barriers we currently face and be the most open, effective and resilient organizations we need to be. “
In conclusion
The shift to cloud computing is seen as a positive way forward and we recognize that cloud computing is constantly changing and cloud solutions need to be constantly evaluated. This should not be considered a one-time process, as many of the problems experienced in today’s cloud computing solution could be resolved in a few months, so the process continues. The main benefit of cloud computing is that the infrastructure and systems are off-premises, and the vendors take care of them and implement regular software, hardware, and security updates. This will allow us to forget about technology and focus on key business activities and objectives. You can also help us reduce time to market for newer applications and services.