Planning II

Question 1

What are some things to consider when planning a Cloud?

Answer 1

The challenge ahead 
Your applications or data 
Costs associated 
Proper research into CSPs (Cloud Service Providers) 
Data Governance and Security 
Your overall strategy

Question 2

What are the challenges of moving to a Cloud?

Answer 2

Migration process is not easy
Easy to get things wrong the first time
People and process may be in your way

Question 3

What are some tips for Cloud planning?

Answer 3

Always have your end goal in mind.
Don’t discount the psychological factor, you will doubt your decisions and may worry about the vendor.
Don’t see your objectives as critical, others may not be on board.

Question 4

Cloud migration is all or nothing (T/F)

Answer 4

False

Question 5

What are some things to consider about your application / data?

Answer 5

Don’t migrate what you don’t need (adds complexity, costs and headaches
Not all data is suited for the cloud (consider the costs of making applications compatible vs. the gains)

Question 6

What are some things to consider about costs?

Answer 6

Licensing costs
Hardware requirements vs. cloud migration
Legacy applications
Hidden expenses

Question 7

Clouds are generally cheaper, but infrastructure can be more expensive (T/F)

Answer 7

True

Question 8

Data governance is one of if not the most important aspects of clouds/cloud planning (T/F)

Answer 8

True

Question 9

What are some things to consider about data governance?

Answer 9

How and where data is stored
How data is accessed
Technical aspects like encryption and retention

Question 10

When choosing a provider, there is more than meets the eye (T/F)

Answer 10

True

Question 11

What are some considerations when choosing a CSP?

Answer 11

Ensure they are fully committed to understanding your business
Pure technical boasting may be a red flag (green flag for IaaS)
Sometimes niche or specialty providers are best

Question 12

What are some questions to ask when looking for a CSP?

Answer 12

What services are provided?
What is the SLA downtime history, data availability, penalties?
How secure is the datacenter or data in general?
What support is available?
Can the solution meet our needs?
Customer testimonials

Question 13

What are SLAs?

Answer 13

ITIL: An agreement between an IT service provider and a customer. It describes the IT service, documents service level targets, and specifies the responsibilities of the IT service provider and the customer.

Question 14

What are properties of an SLA / things to look for?

Answer 14

Formal and legally binding, legal action possible if in violation
Quantitative not Qualitative, 99.999% Uptime vs. high uptime
Will cover key aspects of your cloud service
Key in determining what you will be getting

Question 15

What are some key factors to consider for SLA/CSP?

Answer 15

Availability
Security/Privacy
Data location, access, portability
DR/Backup
Performance
Customer service
Change management process
Dispute mediation strategy
Your expectations
CSP's expectations and on/offboarding / exit strategy