Stage Five: Optimize | How to make the most of the Cloud

It’s impossible to leverage all the benefits that come with cloud adoption without also implementing appropriate migration and governance strategies. Optimization will also feature significantly in this process. As cloud technology continues to grow and the number of services offered multiplies it becomes more of a challenge to manage the combination of clouds in use and new updates released. This situation increases complexity which can only be dealt with through effective optimization.

Migration to the Cloud alone does not necessarily ensure that the full benefits of cloud adoption will be realized. Cloud adoption will help to drive down costs and resources but all too often migration strategies have failed to take advantage of new infrastructures and architecture available. An effective optimization program should aim to utilize these benefits.

Cloud optimization is required mainly for organizations that choose to adopt a rehosting migration strategy. Rehosting, otherwise known as “lift and shift”, involves the redeployment of applications from on-premises into a cloud infrastructure. Optimization is not as critical, however, if an organisation decides to adopt the refactoring migration option. Refactoring involves the re-writing of applications that will run on a cloud provider’s infrastructure which means optimization is already taking place as part of the migration. However, even if a refactoring migration is used, many cloud providers continue to add new services. In order to leverage these services further optimization will be required.

Scalability is one of the most important issues that needs to be addressed as part of any cloud migration program. Optimization is key to addressing this challenge as it will ultimately improve scalability within the cloud and meet the demands of increased growth within the business and demand for more services. The aim when working with the Cloud is to change scalability. Specifically, vertical scalability as opposed to horizontal scalability. Vertical scalability features an increase in capacity which occurs by adding more resources, such as more memory or additional CPU. The difficulty with this approach is that it can lead to the purchase and use of more power or resources which may not always be necessary or required.

The objective should be to use resources that meet specific demands on an as-needed basis. The key benefit of the cloud is that alongside improved scalability it also allows for greater elasticity. Elasticity means that when demand increases, one can scale by adding more resources, whether in terms of machines or more power. When demand subsequently decreases, elasticity allows for the scaling back or shrinking of unneeded resources. Elasticity is especially important in cloud environments, whereas in a pay-per-use model such as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) you do not have to pay for resources that you are not currently using.

Effective optimization should be about enhancing scalability and elasticity. This enables increased efficiency as it provides a way to manage resources more effectively by meeting changes in demand. Most cloud providers are continually adding new services which provide organizations with the opportunity to do things previously not available; however, to continue leveraging these new services requires further optimization as an ongoing process.

As official partners of GCP and AWS, GFT have experience and expertise with these and other top cloud providers. We have helped our clients identify the best solution for their particular needs and realize success through cost savings, greater agility, efficiency, and productivity. To learn more about GFT’s cloud services and how we can help your organization visit us at www.gft.com/cloud or email us at CloudServ.NA@gft.com.


This is the fifth and final installment in the Five Stages of the Cloud Migration Journey blog series. View the infographic to learn what other important considerations your firm should be making in this necessary first step towards digitalization. Or visit our blog here to read about the other topics in this series.

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