Cloud Migration – The God’s Algorithm

For starters, God's algorithm is a notion originating in discussions of ways to solve the Rubik's Cube puzzle, but which can also be applied to other combinatorial puzzles and mathematical games. It refers to any algorithm which produces a solution having the fewest possible moves, the idea being that an omniscient being would know an optimal step from any given configuration (source wiki).

With the constant barrage of messaging these days, almost pushing you over to adopt cloud, does the choice between “To Move” or “Not To” almost feel like cracking the “God’s Algorithm”? Well, hopefully by the time you are done reading this, you would have a fair bit of understanding around what it takes and what you should consider.

Okay, now that we have set the context, let’s try to understand why migration to cloud has become such an imperative.

There are primarily two major considerations; one being Cost and the other Business;

 When it comes to Cost, anything and everything related to Application, Server, Storage, Network, IT, Labor, and other overheads (like space, power, cooling) are your main considerations. Main drivers of such expenses would be around Hardware & Software maintenance, its administration and compulsory skill sets (read labor).

Business consideration however is more around the efficiencies that a cloud adoption would drive, freeing up precious time, labor, effort & funds which can then be re-directed towards building an Agile Enterprise, which, responds faster to market changes & demands, can scale up or down instantly (without bothering too much about sunk costs) and thrives on Thought leadership & Innovation. 

With all its advantages, it does however come neatly wrapped with “small prints”, which some organisations ignore to read and which is why they fail.

 Let’s look at some of these;

• All clouds are not equal: Public, Private or Hybrid, each one of them have associated strengths and weaknesses. It’s key that the strengths resonate well with your need-gaps and critical that weaknesses do not impede your business plans in any way.
• Keeping a scorecard: Its essential to evaluate all existing workloads with respect to their economic, security and risk profiles. This helps in deciding which one would go first or last or just stay.
• Fine tuning: Once you are done deciding which workloads would make it to cloud, its necessary that you fine tune them for cloud utilisation. One size does “NOT” fit all.
• Cloud "means" Outsourcing: This is what most organisations get wrong! While cloud does help you take your “hands-off”, doesn’t mean “eyes-off” too. Lacking in-house cloud management expertise can cost dearly and result in project failures.
• Move beyond lift & shift: “Cloud isn’t helping us much, neither is it cost effective”, we get to hear this a lot. Using cloud should not only be about cheap storage and hardware but really about what more can you do with it. Don’t get it wrong, cloud’s term licensing tends to be always costlier in the short and medium term, however, when it comes to the Total Cost of Ownership vs Total Return on Investment, Cloud “always” wins hands down.

So, coming back to where we started, is a “God’s Algorithm” out there which would ensure migration to cloud fail proof? Well, while a lot of us are still searching, philosophies are gaining good shape… here’s is one of them with lots of fan following

The key is to break your strategy into bite-size pieces. A well-planned migration along with an airtight transition approach which has a razor-sharp focus on continuous improvement almost always ensures success. After all, you would know by the time you plan whether your application or workload is worthy of a cloud move.

 Hopefully this was some good food for your thought and optimistically has helped you make your decision between “To Move” or “Not To” a bit easier.

Who are we?

Octane Software Solutions Pty Ltd is an IBM Registered Business Partner specialising in Corporate Performance Management and Business Intelligence. We provide our clients advice on best practices and help scale up applications to optimise their return on investment. Our key services include IBM Planning Analytics (TM1) Consulting, Delivery, Support and Training.

 Octane has its head office in Sydney, Australia as well as offices in Canberra, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Mumbai, and Hyderabad.

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