Cloud Connection: Seven Steps To Effective Public Cloud Services

By Jelle Frank van der Zwet, For, CRN January 25, 2013

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Today, business adoption of cloud computing is on the rise and expected to increase. In fact, Gartner predicts the worldwide market for public cloud services will experience 100 percent growth by 2016, significantly outpacing overall IT spending. The emergence of a variety of cloud models, like IaaS, SaaS and PaaS, in addition to the array of deployment models, including public and private, is accounting for the cloud's shift from a complex technical solution to a true business enabler.

Furthermore, with the cloud market maturing, enterprises are building new IT environments where software and infrastructure are consumed as services and exist next to on-premise virtualized environments. These hybrid cloud solutions combine public and/or private clouds and on-premise IT and will become the new cloud reality for enterprises looking to benefit from the best of both worlds.

Today's reality is that building a hybrid infrastructure and subsequently connecting private and public clouds is challenging, particularly when different technologies and vendors come into play. For this reason, enterprises are increasingly looking to systems integrators, whose roles will transition from IT configuration managers to service-based cloud migration agents.

Systems integrators will not only simplify the cloud deployment process for enterprises but also greatly benefit from the delivery of cloud computing to their customer base in order to maintain and grow a consistent revenue stream and achieve greater integration with customer business requirements. At the same time, system integrators will be tasked with difficult decisions, such as whether to build, buy or rent the underlying platform on which to build a hybrid cloud solution.

However, before reaping the benefits of a hybrid cloud, enterprises -- with or without the help of systems integrators -- must go back to the basics and carry out a series of tasks that will ensure they have a proper cloud connection in place.