Top 10 Considerations for Enterprises Progressing to Cloud

企业上云的十大注意事项

Industry data from Uptime Institute and 451 Research evidence a rapid rate of cloud computing adoption for enterprise IT departments. Organizations weigh cloud benefits and risks, and also evaluate how cloud will impact their existing and future data center infrastructure investment. In this video, Uptime Institute COO Julian Kudritzki and Andrew Reichman, Research Director at 451 Research discuss the various aspects of how much risk, and how much reward, is on the table for companies considering a cloud transition.

根据Uptime Institute和451 Research的行业数据表明，云计算技术在企业IT部门的应用正急速增长。各组织不仅权衡上云的益处与风险，并且也在考虑上云之后将对他们现存的以及未来的数据中心基础设施投资产生怎样的影响。在这段视频中，Uptime Institute首席运营官Julian Kudritzki与451 Research的研究主管Andrew Reichman从各个维度共同探讨了在企业思考云转型的过程中到底存在着多少风险与回报。

While some organizations are making a “Tear down this data center” wholesale move to cloud computing, the vast majority of cloud adopters are getting there on a workload-by-workload basis–carefully evaluating their portfolio of workloads and applications and identifying the best cloud or non-cloud venue to host each.

当一些组织正“推倒”自建的数据中心进而将业务大规模地迁移至云计算应用时，绝大多数的云用户通过分步部署的方式以此来评估他们的工作负载及应用程序哪些适合在云端，哪些又不适合。

The decision process is based on multiple considerations, including performance, integration issues, economics, competitive differentiation, solution maturity, risk tolerance, regulatory compliance considerations, skills availability, and partner landscape.

决策过程是基于多维度综合考虑的，它包括性能，集成度，经济性，差异竞争性，方案成熟性，风险承受能力、合规性、技能可用性以及合作伙伴前景。

Some of the most important of these considerations when deciding whether to put a workload or application in the cloud include:

在决定是否将工作负载或是应用程序部署于云端时，需要重点考虑以下事项：

1. Know which applications impact competitive advantage, and which don’t. 

1.辨别清楚哪些应用程序影响竞争优势而哪些没有。

You might be able to increase competitive advantage by operating critical differentiating applications better than peer companies do, but most organizations will agree that back office functions like email or payroll, while important, don’t really set a company apart. As mature SaaS (software as a service) options for these mundane, but important, business functions have emerged, many companies have decided that a cloud application that delivers a credible solution at a fair cost is good enough. Offloading the effort for these workloads can free up valuable time and effort for customization, optimization, and innovation around applications that drive real competitive differentiation.

你可以通过比同业公司更好地运营关键的差异化应用程序来提升竞争优势，但是大多数组织都认为像邮箱系统或是薪酬系统这样的后台功能虽然重要，却不能让公司脱颖而出。随着为这些普通却重要的商业应用程序提供支撑的成熟SaaS(软件即服务)已经出现。许多公司认为用“以合理成本提供可靠解决方案”的云端应用已经足够满足需求了。通过云端应用将这些软件带来的工作量解除，这样可以使企业有更多的时间和精力去投入到定制、优化和创新那些真正能产生差异化竞争优势的应用程序中去。

2. Workloads with highly variable demand see the biggest benefit from cloud. 

2.满足高弹性工作负载需求是云技术带来的最大益处。

Public cloud was born to address big swings in demand seen in the retail world. If you need thousands of servers around the Christmas shopping spree, public cloud IaaS (infrastructure as a service) makes them available when you need them and return them after the New Year when demand settles down. Any workload with highly variable demand can see obvious benefits from running in cloud, so long as the architecture supports load balancing and changing the number of servers working on the job, known as scale-out design. Knowing which applications fit this bill and what changes could be made to cloud-enable other applications will help to identify those that would see the biggest economic benefit from a move to cloud.

为了解决在零售世界（译者认为是亚马逊）里需求处理量大幅波动的问题，公有云应运而生。如果你需要在圣诞购物季中调用数千台服务器处理需求，公有云IaaS（基础设施即服务）可以为你提供，并且当在新年后处理需求稳定下来时，将处理资源释放。只要架构支持负载均衡以及可在工作中改变服务器运行数量的横向扩展功能，云端上运行高弹性工作负载的优势是显而易见的。了解哪些应用可以匹配这样的条件以及为了云化又需要改变哪些应用将会为你从云迁移中获得最大的经济收益。

3. Cloud supports trial and error without penalty. 

3.云技术可以支持没有代价的试错。

Cloud gives users an off switch for IT resources, allowing easy changes to application architecture. Find out that a different server type or chipset or feature is needed after the initial build-out? No problem, just move it to something else and see how that works. The flexibility of cloud resources lend themselves very well to experimentation in finding the perfect fit. If you’re looking for a home for an application that’s been running well for years, you might find that keeping it in on-premises will be cheaper and less disruptive than moving it to the cloud.

云技术为用户的IT资源提供了可轻松改变应用架构的切换功能。在完成初始系统搭建后才发现服务器类型和芯片的组成跟预期的不一样？没问题，那我们把它迁移至云端，我们来看看它是如何工作的。云资源的灵活性赋予了它可以通过测试寻找完美适配的能力。如果你期待的是一台可以承载常年良好运转应用程序的主机，你也许会发现将它保留在内部部署会比迁移至云端的成本更低，且不会有很大的颠覆性。

4. Big looming investments can present opportunities for change.

4.迫在眉睫的投资选择可以成为变革的机遇。

Cloud can function as an effective investment avoidance strategy when organizations face big bills for activities like data center build-out or expansion, hardware refresh, software upgrade, staff expansion, or outsourcing contract renewal. When looking at big upcoming expenditures, it’s a great time to look at how offloading selected applications to cloud might reduce or eliminate the need for that spend. Once the investments are made, they become sunk costs and will likely make the business case for cloud transition much less attractive.

当组织面临着像数据中心扩建与扩张、硬件更新、软件升级、人力扩张、外包合同续签等大额投资活动时，公有云起到了有效规避投资的作用，在考虑即将到来的大笔支出时，这是一个将选定应用程序做云迁移的好时机，以此降低或避免投资。一旦进行了投资，这些投资将会成为沉没成本并且使云转型项目变得没那么有吸引力。

5. Consider whether customization is required or if good enough is good enough.

5.思考清楚定制需求的必要性，还是当下的已经足够好了。

Is this an application that isn’t too picky in terms of server architecture and advanced features, or is it an app that requires specific custom hardware architectures or configurations to run well? If you have clearly understood requirements that you must keep in place, a cloud provider might not give you exactly what you need. On the other hand, if your internal IT organization struggles to keep pace with the latest and greatest, or if your team is still determining the optimal configuration, cloud could give more flexibility to experiment with a wider range of options than you have access to internally, given a smaller scale of operations than mega-scale cloud providers operate at.

应用程序是对服务器架构和高级功能要求并不苛刻，还是它真的需要特殊定制的硬件架构或配置才能良好运行？如果你很清晰的了解它必须维持现状，那么云提供商很难提供你所刚好需要的。从另一方面看，如果你的企业内部IT组织正挣扎于跟上最新的技术，又或者说如果你的团队仍然决定想用最佳的配置，云会更具灵活性，让你可以尝试更多的选项，相比于内部访问所带来的小规模运营，云提供商运营的规模更大。

6. Conversion to cloud native architectures can be difficult but rewarding in the long run.

6.转化为云原生架构虽然是一件困难的事，但从远期运营来讲，它是值得的。

One benefit of cloud is renting instead of buying, with advantages in terms of scaling up and down at will and letting a service provider do the work. A separate benefit comes from the use of cloud native architectures. Taking advantage of things like API-controlled infrastructure, object storage, micro-services, and server-less computing requires switching to cloud-friendly applications or modifying legacy apps to use cloud design principles. If you have plans to switch or modify applications anyway, think about whether you would be better served running these applications in house or if it would make sense to use that inflection point to move to something hosted by a third party. If your organization runs mostly traditional apps and has no intention of taking on major projects to cloud-enable them, you should know that options and benefits of forklifting them unchanged to cloud will be limited.

公有云的一大益处是用租赁取代采购，并且可以让云提供商来提供任意的弹性增减服务。云原生架构还可以带来另外的益处。在你将业务切换至云端，又或者是根据云技术设计的原则来修改旧版应用程序后，你将会从诸如“API-控制的基础设施”、“对象存储”、“微服务架构”、“无服务器计算”（一种云计算执行模式）等技术中获得甜头。如果你计划切换或修改应用程序，需要思考的是在本地运行或者是借此契机转为由在第三方运行这两种模式之间哪种更好。如果你的组织运行的基本是传统应用程序，并且无意在大的项目中启用云技术，你应当清晰的了解切换到云所带来的益处是非常有限的。

7. Be honest about what your company is good at and what it is not.

7.诚实的认知自己公司擅长的与不擅长的。

If cloud promises organizations the ability to get out of the business of mundane activities such as racking and stacking gear, refreshing and updating systems, and managing facilities, it’s important to start the journey with a clear and honest assessment of what your company does well and what it does not do well. If you have long standing processes to manage efficiency, reliability and security, have relatively new facilities and equipment, and the IT staff is good at keeping it all running, then cloud might not offer much benefit. If there are areas where things don’t go so smoothly or you struggle to get everything done with existing headcount, cloud could be a good way to get better results without taking on more effort or learning major new skills. On the other hand, managing a cloud environment requires its own specialized skills, which can make it hard for unfamiliar organization to jump in and realize benefits.

如果想要云让你从诸如繁琐的事务、更新系统、管理设备等日常商业活动中抽身出来，你需要一开始就清晰、诚实的评估自己公司的特长与短板。如果你有长效的流程来管控效率、可靠性以及安全性，同时也拥有较新的设备与仪器，并且IT人员的运维能力也很强，那么云技术可能带来的收益会非常有限。如果业务进展的并不顺利，人员也很紧张，那么云技术是一种轻努力成本与学习成本而可实现目标的好的路径。从另一方面讲，管理云端环境也需要专业技能，如果企业对此不熟悉，那么上云也会收效甚微。

8. Regulatory issues have a significant bearing on the cloud decision.

8.监管问题对上云的决策影响重大。

Designing infrastructure solutions that meet regulations can be tremendously complicated. It’s good to know upfront if you face regulations that explicitly prevent public cloud usage for certain activities, or if your legal department interprets those regulations as such, before wasting time evaluating non-starter solutions. That said, regulations generally impact some workloads and not others, and in many cases, are specific to certain aspects of workloads such as payment or customer or patient identity information. A hybrid architecture might allow sensitive data to be kept in private venues, while less sensitive information might be fine in public cloud. Consider that after a public cloud solution has seen wide acceptance for a regulated workload, there may be more certainty that that solution is compliant.

设计一套符合政策法规的基础设施解决方案是非常复杂的。你最好事先了解政策法规中规定的又或者是法务部分解释认为的哪些业务确切不可通过公有云实现。避免浪费时间去评估一项不可能启动的解决方案。也就是说，政策法规通常多数情况下会涉及诸如支付系统、客户系统、患者身份信息等明确类型的业务负载，而不包括其他。混合架构可以允许敏感数据保存在私有区域，而不太敏感的数据可以保存在公有云上。考虑到未来公有云会被广泛接受用于合规的业务负载，公有云的解决方案也许会越来越规范。

9. Geography can be a limiting factor or a driver for cloud usage.

9.地理位置对云应用或限制或驱动。

If you face regulations around data sovereignty and your data has to be physically stored in Poland, Portugal, or Panama (or anywhere else on the globe), the footprint of a cloud provider could be a non-starter. On the flip side, big cloud providers are likely already operating in far more geographies than your enterprise. This means that if you need multiple sites for redundancy and reliability, require content delivery network (CDN) capabilities to reach customers in a wide variety of locations, or want to expanding into new regions, the major cloud providers can extend your geographic reach without major capital investments.

当你的数据不得不被实际存储在波兰，葡萄牙、巴拿马或全球任意一个涉及到数据主权政策法规的地方时，云提供商的脚步无法触及这些区域。从另一方面看，大型云提供商可能比你公司运营更多区域的业务，这意味着如果你需要基于内容分发网络（CDN）技术的“多网点”能力以提高冗余和可靠性，或者你有拓展新业务区域的想法，主流云提供商可以帮助你扩大版图覆盖，并且不需要大的资金投入。

10. The unfamiliar may only seem less secure.

10.未知的像是不安全的。

Public cloud can go either way in terms of being more or less secure than what’s provisioned in an enterprise data center. Internal infrastructure has more mature tools and processes associated with it, enjoys wider familiarity among enterprise administrators, and the higher level of transparency associated with owning and operating facilities and gear allows organizations to get predictable results and enjoy a certain level of comfort from sheer proximity. That said, cloud service providers operate at far greater scale than individual enterprises and therefore employ more security experts and gain more experience from addressing more threats than do single companies. Also, building for shared tenancy can drive service providers to lock down data across the board, compared to enterprises that may have carried over vulnerabilities from older configurations that may become issues as the user base or feature set of workloads change. Either way, a thorough assessment of vulnerabilities in enterprise and service provider facilities, infrastructure and applications is critical to determine whether cloud is a good or bad option for you.

公有云存在相比企业数据中心更高或更低安全性的可能，企业内部基础设施拥有更多与之关联的成熟工具与流程，被企业管理员所广泛熟悉。资产及运营工具相关的高透明度使得组织对结果变得可预见，这种高透明度也让企业享受了其舒适性。与之比较，云服务提供商相比单一企业运营规模更大，因此雇佣了更多的安全专家并且可以获得相比于单一公司更多应对威胁的经验。不仅如此，相比于企业从旧配置结构中获取漏洞，构建共享租赁的方式可以驱动服务提供商全面锁定数据，这将使用户群或是工作负载特征集产生变化。无论哪种方式，针对企业、服务提供商的设备设施以及应用程序进行彻底的漏洞评估，将为你在“云技术是否适合我”这件事上提供决定性的依据。