Cloud is about getting things out of your data center. But using cloud effectively also requires bringing things into your data center. What changes do you need to make to your data center for your people and your technology to work well with cloud?
1. New monitoring tools.
Don’t think you can rely on the cloud provider’s tools to keep an eye on your cloud infrastructure. If you have multiple cloud providers—or even if you have just one cloud and still have additional capability on premises—you’ll need a third-party tool to provide a consolidated, overall view of status and utilization. Because cloud costs aren’t fixed, you’ll want that tool to correlate your cloud usage with cloud spending and offer suggestions to keep cloud expenses controlled. VASTView, powered by CloudHealth, can provide those insights.
2. Increase automation.
Without automation, it’s difficult to ensure complete, consistent configurations, deployments, and policies across environments. Different clouds have different ways of doing things, and it’s too easy for manual procedures to make mistakes. Automation ensures systems aren’t missed and changes are implemented correctly.
3. Increase training.
Development teams need training to take advantage of cloud capabilities, and operations teams need training in how to monitor cloud systems and respond to any problems. With multiple clouds, teams need cross-training in multiple vendors to ensure you’ve got adequate support capability.
4. Additional integration.
Clouds are almost never completely isolated from on premises systems. Data center teams need to pay additional attention to integration and especially data transfers, whether via file transfers or apis. Each connection point is an access point that can potentially be utilized by malware to gain access to networks and systems.
5. New security tools.
Data stored in the cloud is largely dependent on the cloud provider’s security controls, but there are additional measures and tools you can use to increase your control and ensure appropriate protection. The Bitglass Cloud Access Security Broker helps ensure only approved cloud services are used and protects cloud data from unauthorized sharing.
6. Expert support.
Although cloud is no longer a new technology, it’s still disruptive and organizations are still struggling to adapt to its impact. Cloud support from VAST IT Services helps organizations make the cloud transition and optimize their cloud usage. With experience across clouds including AWS, Azure, Google, and Oracle, VAST’s team brings expertise to every cloud configuration. Contact us to make the changes your data center needs to succeed with cloud.
