In my previous post I spoke (quite extensively) about the swamp that is using VMs in a hyperscaler.
Yes. The extra costs, lock-in and inaccessibility can be a sticky burden to bear. But I have a number of neat ways to mitigate a number of those perilous pitfalls.
Let’s take a look at what to do to soften each blow that those ‘gotchas’ have in store.
How To Get The Best Outcome(s) When Using VMs In The Cloud
In terms of embracing VMs, I present the following advice:
- Use the cloud to mitigate any risk attached to ageing infrastructure and capacity constraints. VMs in the cloud were designed for that.
- Make sure your engineering team is geared for this. Get them ready to fully embrace all the cool stuff VMs in the cloud can do.
- Modernise within the confines of cloud VMs. Use the cloud to get off of deprecated operating systems and risky applications.
- Use a VM in the cloud strategy as a means to tailor your environment. Optimise and build in the redundancy you always wish you had.
- Attach a timeline to the use of VMs in the cloud. Go in with a modernisation mindset and whilst the hyperscalers are looking after your VMs, start your planning to eliminate them from the technology roadmap.
Tips to make (or break) a successful cloud migration
When it comes to mitigating the bad and the ugly aspects of cloud-based VMs:
- Don’t become lazy. Provision in the cloud the same way you did on-premise, but sleep tight knowing you won’t run out of storage!
- Prepare the business for the shift in spend from Capex to Opex. Don’t surprise the finance guys with invoices they’ve never seen before!
- Know your tech stack. It will help you tailor-suit the environments you need and identify the best use cases for the tech that these providers give us.
- Keep an eye on those costs and make sure you use it efficiently. Some tips on that can be found here.
- Because you are de-risked by moving to the cloud, it doesn’t mean there is NO risk. Make sure all of the old-school thinking around backups and system protection moves to the cloud with you. The cloud gives us amazing ways to manage this risk, but none of it is “by default” ; it needs to be provisioned and used.
- Embrace a modernisation mindset! Make sure you keep your eyes on the prize when it comes to the end state of the cloud. You want to move away from things like VMs and into Paas/SaaS offerings which have better scale and capability.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Technology firms, both boutique and global, can help you get best practice in place. Keep an eye on the numbers and get your modernisation success story written!
Want To Know How You Get The Best From The Cloud?
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