IT managers suffer Cloud migration pains

David Bicknell

about 1 year ago 0 Comments

A new survey by the US networking company Cisco has painted an intriguing picture of the problems IT managers are having in getting their networks ready to migrate business applications to cloud computing.

The study revealed that without an effective cloud migration strategy, more than one third (38 percent) of IT decision makers said, rather colourfully, that they would rather have a root canal tooth operation, dig a ditch, or do their own taxes than address the network challenges associated with public or private cloud deployments.

The research findings provide an insight into the current state of cloud networking and the chasm between IT expectations and network realities. The survey also examines the experiences of IT professionals regarding the level of difficulty and time required to update their networks and migrate their applications to the cloud.

Among its findings, the Cisco Global Cloud Networking Survey reveals that updating the network is one of the top focus areas for cloud migration. In order to successfully move more applications to the cloud, the majority of respondents cited a cloud-ready network (37 percent) as the biggest infrastructure element required for further cloud deployments, ahead of having a virtualised data centre (28 percent) or a service-level agreement from a cloud service provider (21 percent).

This survey predicts that more than 50 percent of computing workloads in data centres will be cloud-based by 2014, and that global cloud traffic will grow over 12 times by 2015, to 1.6 'zettabytes' per year, or in other words, the equivalent of over four days of business-class video for every person on Earth.

Key Findings Summary

• Almost two in five (39 percent) of those surveyed said they dread network challenges associated with private or public cloud deployments
• At the same time, nearly three quarters (73 percent) feel they are confident with enough information to begin their private or public cloud deployments
• Without proper processes and planning, more than one quarter (31 percent) said they could train for a marathon in a shorter period of time than it would take to migrate their company’s applications to the cloud
• Presently, only 5 percent of IT decision makers have been able to migrate at least half of their total applications to the cloud. By the end of 2012, that number is expected to significantly rise, as one in five (20 percent) will have deployed over half of their total applications to the cloud
• In order to successfully move more applications to the cloud, the majority of respondents cited having a cloud-ready network (37 percent) as the biggest infrastructure element required for further cloud deployments, ahead of a virtualised data centre (28 percent) or a service-level agreement from a cloud service provider (21 percent)
• During the cloud migration process, data protection security (72 percent) was cited as the top network challenge or roadblock responsible for preventing a successful implementation of cloud services, followed by availability/reliability of cloud applications (67 percent), device-based security (66 percent), visibility and control of applications across the wide area network (WAN) (60 percent) and overall application performance (60 percent)
• If given the choice of only being able to move one application to the cloud, most respondents would choose storage (25 percent), followed by enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications to manage HR, customer relationship management, supply chain management, project management systems (20 percent) email (16 percent) and collaboration solutions (15 percent)
• When asked which applications have been moved, or are being planning to be moved to public or private clouds in the next year, the majority of IT decision makers cited email and Web services (77 percent), followed by storage (74 percent) and collaboration solutions such as Web conferencing and instant messaging (72 percent)
• When asked to anticipate the length of time the transfer of applications such as Web conferencing, storage and email would take to either private or public clouds, most respondents anticipated a private cloud migration to take longer than a public one. In addition, when asked to estimate the average length of time it would take to complete the cloud migration for their applications, most IT professionals indicated the deployment would take less than six months.
• When asked the reason behind their move to the cloud, 52 percent of respondents claimed it was an imperative made by their business in order to improve costs, productivity and agility; 41 percent said they’re simply following the industry or their peers; and 30 percent are doing so because of customer requirements.

Do you agree with Cisco's snapshot of cloud migration? What are your biggest headaches or fears about migrating applications to the cloud?

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