Minimizing complexity of ’cloud integration’

By Juan Madera

CIOs (Chief Information Officers) today are under pressure to adopt cloud services as soon as possible. The ease of acquiring IT services by using a credit card in a matter of minutes and increasingly sophisticated customers who demand that IT departments respond more quickly only exacerbate the situation.

However, it is not that simple. There are some basic challenges that any IT organisation needs to first consider before attempting to buy cloud services, for example:

• Security:

Enterprise privacy policies must be compatible with those of the cloud providers.

• Identity Management:

Enterprise user account policies such as password complexity and account lockouts must also be compatible with those of the remote service.

• Connectivity:

Some types of cloud-based applications rely on good quality broadband Internet connections to function well.

• Service Level Agreements:

Skills and expertise is required to select suppliers more comprehensively.

• Compliance and Legal Obligations:

Compliance directives and legal obligations may conflict if the service provider is located in another country or region.

And this is just the beginning. In fact, let’s use a real life example:

What if you are a new CIO and have been tasked to source IT capabilities for a new subsidiary company using the cloud? In that case, and regardless of the size of this new company, you are likely to need at least one IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) provider, two or three PaaS (Platform as a Service) providers, and of course several SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions.

Moreover, all these "things-as-a-Service" solutions and providers will need to talk to your old corporate IT systems such as your printers, your network, your firewalls and your ITSM software.

Before you know it, your life could be as complicated as a soap opera.

However, despite all this complication, there is hope. Both cloud providers and consulting firms are starting to work together to minimize the complexity of the Cloud integration and provide platforms to help integrate many cloud services into a simplified one-stop-shop.

In summary, experts will provide the glue to your cloud-puzzle, which could be a very effective pill for your cloud-headaches.

If you get it right, your organization will benefit from a more agile IT service at a lower cost.

Juan Madera is the Infrastructure Consulting Lead at Accenture Korea. He can be reached at juan.madera.jimenez@accenture.com