Out-Tasking: The Key to Getting Started in the Cloud

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Chris Patterson.

NaviSite works with many businesses getting started with cloud technology and one question we often hear is, “Where do I start? Which part of my infrastructure should I move into the cloud first?” IT leaders must pick a starting point for cloud adoption, and the decision becomes easier when they understand that leveraging cloud technology can take place incrementally, one task at a time. We call this approach “out-tasking,” which often begins by migrating small, low risk applications onto the cloud, where they can be easily tested, debugged and improved through an iterative approach.

The out-tasking framework helps IT leaders overcome the common misconception that moving onto the cloud means transferring their entire infrastructure in one fell swoop. In reality, we’ve found that businesses experience vastly better results when they don’t use cloud as a replacement, but instead begin to augment and modernize their existing compute environment…

Key Steps to Successful Out-tasking

The first step to successful out-tasking is for IT teams to take inventory of existing applications to clarify the status, condition, key dependencies and right order to begin the out-tasking process. This first step involves taking a deep dive to gain a granular understanding of the company’s IT environment. Many times these ecosystems grew organically over dozens of years as applications were developed using various methodologies. For this reason, it’s key to gain a full appreciation and clear scope of the status of the organization’s applications…

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/cloud-computing/tasking-key-getting-started-cloud-0903866#jk8S7IRRYK17Woxm.99