+
EDITOR’S QUESTION
///////////////////
MARK CHADWICK,
HEAD OF CLOUD
SERVICES,
DATACENTRIX
T
he term ‘Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)’ has become
practically synonymous with ‘cloud’. The difference? Cloud
can be looked at as a location and on-demand consumption
model, while IaaS delivers the actual cloud computing infrastructure,
facilitating the availability of new capabilities in an evergreen manner.
When a company decides to go the IaaS route and selects a service
provider, it is important that they adhere to the type of principles
that would be used for any type of technology decision – due
diligence still applies and provides a good starting point.
“
For instance, factors such as security, service level agreements and
other typical contractual checks would most
definitely be relevant when it comes to this
type of evaluation.
While this might provide a good baseline
from an IaaS perspective, the next step
entails looking at the reason behind the
business’ move to the cloud. Everyone wants
to make the change, but it is important
to understand why. It is critical that the
organisation gets to the bottom of what
the business case is – be it based on a
specific business requirement, or perhaps the
definition of a new strategy.
A potential IaaS partner should be able
to conduct a rationalisation exercise,
ascertaining cloud readiness, making
recommendations as to which lower risk
workloads to move first, as well as providing
a roadmap that allows the company to
build confidence in the new environment.
By identifying a specific use case, businesses
would also find that some IaaS providers may
be more suitable than others.
Next, the organisation should look at how
to optimise what has been moved from
on-premises to IaaS, determining the real
benefits that can be gained, such as cost
www.intelligentcio.com
reductions or operational efficiencies. This is often overlooked, and
it makes sense to ensure that the service received is not prohibitively
expensive for the same, or less value than a traditional setup.
Another question to ask is to what extent the
potential provider can help with managing
the environment. Some IaaS partners offer
managed service capabilities, where they
take on the responsibility of at least part of a
company’s environment over and above the
provision and management of the underlying
infrastructure, and it is here that greater scale
and value can be gained.
WHEN A COMPANY
DECIDES TO GO
THE IAAS ROUTE
AND SELECTS
A SERVICE
PROVIDER, IT IS
IMPORTANT THAT
THEY ADHERE
TO THE TYPE OF
PRINCIPLES THAT
WOULD BE USED
FOR ANY TYPE
OF TECHNOLOGY
DECISION.
In addition, it is important to find out whether
the potential partner offers complementary
services, such as serverless technologies,
which allow for the dynamic consumption of
computing resources via the cloud, without the
need to manage underlying virtual machines
and accompanying OS components.
Finally, compliance is of particular
significance when it pertains to data,
specifically with regards to regulatory
frameworks like the South African Protection
of Personal Information Act (POPIA), which
defines how companies should process
information about data subjects, or people’s
personal information, and what controls need
to be in place to do so. The key here is to find
an IaaS partner that has already done the
legwork in this regard and is able to assist
companies in navigating this landscape. n
INTELLIGENTCIO
27