The procurement of a cloud service isn’t the same as the traditional approach to purchasing technology. Traditional procurement is designed for the complete and permanent purchase of hardware or software. It therefore may not be cognizant of the dynamics of buying infrastructure as a service.
A failure to adjust technology procurement procedures to accommodate the unique requirements of the cloud can inhibit an organization’s ability to identify and leverage the power of the cloud. Here are the things to think about before procuring a cloud service.
1. Know Why Cloud Service is Different
The commercial delivery of a cloud service is markedly different from an on premise technology purchase. Cloud services are more standardized and do not have the degree of customization you see for traditional IT. Knowing this difference can ensure more effective purchase.
Cloud services negate the need for a customer to own a physical IT asset. The cloud has an on-demand approach to service provision that mirrors utility services. In fact, a good cloud procurement strategy can be developed by examining how utility services are procured, used and paid for.
2. Involve Key Stakeholders
No cloud strategy can succeed without the participation and support of key stakeholders from the start. Procurement, IT, finance, legal, security departments as well as the overall business leadership must be involved early in the process. This ensures all parties understand the impact of cloud adoption on existing procedures.
Broad participation also ensures management of performance and budget expectations. Finally, it encourages department-level innovation by sensitizing staff on the benefits that can be derived from a cloud service.
3. Ask The Right Questions
Traditional data center requirements won’t necessarily be relevant in cloud procurement. If an organization insists on recycling traditional data center questions, they are at best likely to end up with a hybrid solution that optimizes neither traditional nor cloud capabilities.
Since no physical assets are purchased during cloud computing procurement, cloud requirements must focus on performance-based application-level goals that prioritize outcomes and workloads while paying less attention to underlying infrastructure.
4. Adopt a Utility Pricing Model
Rigid fixed-price contracting is unlikely to work with cloud computing procurement. In order to purchase a cloud service in a way that accommodates fluctuating demand, you require a service contract that allows you to pay per use. For that reason, cloud service pricing should be pay-as-you-go where customers pay based on their usage monthly.
This allows organizations to better plan their budgets as opposed to guessing their future needs and thus over procuring. Most cloud providers have an alert system that automatically notifies customers when they are about to exceed their predefined usage threshold or budget spend.
5. Know That Security is a Shared Role
The security, privacy and compliance roles in cloud infrastructure are shared between service customers and service providers. In a cloud model, customers control the design and security of their data and applications. The cloud provider on the other hand is in charge of controlling and securing the infrastructure.
That said, the exact details of who will be responsible for what will depend on the deployment model used (i.e. Platform as a Service, Software as a Service or Infrastructure as a Service). Also, third party tools can come in handy. For example, for organizations using Amazon Web Services, monitoring AWS with Appoptics.com or a similar app can enhance security capabilities.
6. Design Cloud Data Management
Organizations that procure cloud services must retain complete ownership and control of their data. This includes the ability to choose the geographic locations where their data is stored. It also means defining authorization levels that control system user and third party access to data and infrastructure.
The organization must understand its responsibilities as regards how data is stored, managed, protected and encrypted.
The above considerations are the core components in the formulation of a cloud service procurement strategy. Organizations that are getting into cloud procurement for the first time have an opportunity to reexamine existing procedures and create an acquisition process that’ll give them the ability to tap into the vast benefits of the cloud.