Are your cloud computing resources working for you, or against you? A cloud evaluation is a good way to confirm whether your cloud strategy is operating as planned. Here’s why you should conduct a cloud evaluation, along with key assessment areas, appropriate evaluation tools, and action steps you can take post-evaluation.
Why Should You Complete a Cloud Evaluation?
It’s hard to break from routine and get motivated to make a significant change in your business. Even if your current cloud environment is causing some frustration, or is simply not as efficient as it could be, conducting an evaluation can feel like it’s not worth the effort.
However, a cloud evaluation can help you save money long term, prevent you from making more costly and complex changes in the future, and ensure your business is compliant with necessary industry and business-specific regulatory standards. If you don’t stop to evaluate your cloud environment and explore alternatives, your business may be saddled with higher expenses, greater security vulnerabilities, or simply a less-than-ideal environment.
Key Areas to Assess in a Cloud Evaluation
A cloud evaluation should include notes on cloud infrastructure performance, cloud waste, costs, scalability, flexibility, security, and compliance. You should also evaluate vendors and determine which skills you have or need in-house versus skills you may want to seek externally.
Cloud Infrastructure Performance
Your cloud environment can’t deliver what you need for your business if it’s not meeting your performance expectations. Latency measures how long it takes for data to travel from the source to a destination. Throughput looks at transit times between systems and devices. Response time will tell you how quickly a response can be produced after placing a request.
Some businesses require faster performance than others, but measuring these metrics alongside other cloud service providers and against your own requirements can tell you if it’s time for a change. For example, if a cloud provider’s performance tends to choke up in moments of high demand, that’s important to know.
Cloud Waste
Cloud waste can pile up if it goes undetected and unaddressed. Excessive storage and idle servers can run up costs without being necessary. Organizations estimate that about 27% of what they spend in the public cloud is waste, according to Flexera’s 2024 State of the Cloud.
Figure out what cloud waste you have in your environment and what would need to be done to rightsize the resources. Can it even be done in your current cloud environment, or would switching to another vendor be more cost-effective?
Costs
For many businesses, the model of paying for what you use in the cloud is more cost-effective compared to purchasing and maintaining your own data center. However, one way you can confirm this is by calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the cloud infrastructure compared to the potential costs of an on-premises data center. Analyze your upfront costs, ongoing expenses, and potential savings you may have by switching to another cloud provider or infrastructure.
There may also be areas for cost optimization, such as optimizing resource allocation, negotiating better pricing, and switching to more cost-effective cloud services. Some cloud providers even offer cost management tools.
Scalability and Flexibility
How well can the cloud provider handle rapid business growth or quick fluctuations in demand? Evaluate how flexible your cloud provider is against your need for scaling or variable resources. You may also want some level of customization in your cloud environment, which some providers can accommodate better than others.
Security
Some security features that cloud providers offer include intrusion detection systems, encryption, and access controls. It’s important to know what the cloud provider is responsible for and what your business needs to worry about. Find out what the provider’s incident response capabilities are, and what procedures they employ during an emergency.
Compliance and Regulations
If your business needs to keep to specific regulatory standards, understand the provider’s compliance with these standards, and whether you need to customize further to be compliant in the cloud. This could include PCI-DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2, and many other standards.
Under these standards, data may need to be audited and logged in a certain way, or data may need to be stored and processed in specific geographic regions to meet data sovereignty requirements.
Vendors
Much of cloud evaluation comes down to vendors, but most cloud providers offer the same basic services. If all things are equal, you may want to look at the cloud provider’s reputation, customer support, and financial stability to tip the scales one way or another.
In-House Skills
Finally, you’ll want to weigh all this against in-house cloud skills and capabilities. What can your team do? What does the cloud provider handle? Where might you need to fill some skills gaps?
Common skill gaps on teams can include cloud architecture, cloud migration planning, and cybersecurity best practices. These may call for an additional hire or the help of outside experts. You may also want to invest in training and development to boost the skills of current employees.
Tools and Methodologies for Cloud Evaluation
When conducting your cloud evaluation, your team may want to use some tools to make more well-informed decisions. These can include cloud assessment tools, analytics and monitoring tools, and third-party assessment services.
Cloud Assessment Tools
Some popular cloud assessment tools that are available through cloud providers include:
- AWS Trusted Advisor: Provides recommendations to optimize cost, performance, and security in AWS cloud environments.
- Azure Advisor: A similar tool to AWS Trusted Advisor that evaluates security, performance, and cost-effectiveness in Azure environments.
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Policy Analyzer: Identifies possible configurations and policy issues in Google Cloud Platform environments.
Well-Architected Frameworks
During a cloud evaluation, you should review the different well-architected frameworks cloud providers offer as they’re valuable resources. These frameworks offer a set of best practices and guidelines for designing and implementing reliable, scalable, and high-quality IT systems in the cloud. While each provider’s framework may have slight variations, they all share a common focus on security, efficiency, reliability, cost optimization, and scalability. By understanding and aligning with these principles, organizations can make informed decisions and choose a cloud provider that best meets their needs.
Examples include:
- Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework
- AWS Well-Architected Framework
- Google Cloud Architecture Framework
Analytics and Monitoring Tools
Analytics and monitoring tools can look at resources, applications, logs, and metrics for cloud resources and applications. These can include AWS’s CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, and Google Cloud’s Stackdriver.
Third-Party Assessment Services
Independent consulting firms, cloud provider partners, and industry associations can also provide third-party assistance to assess cloud environments.
Specialized firms can provide expert recommendations after conducting in-depth cloud assessments. Cloud providers can often offer assessment services through other partners in their network.
Creating an Action Plan Based on Evaluation Results
Once you’ve finished a cloud evaluation, the results can help you develop a comprehensive action plan. This plan will involve:
- Prioritizing areas for improvement: Determine which areas most significantly impact your business goals and objectives, and work on those first. Priority should also go to factors that will pose the greatest risks if not addressed. These need to be considered alongside any resource constraints as well.
- Developing a roadmap for optimization or migration: What outcomes do you want to see from cloud optimization or migration? What does a list of tasks look like, and how can you break them down into manageable steps? What does the sequence look like, and which team members will be responsible for which phases?
- Setting realistic timelines and milestones: Rushing the project can cause more problems than whatever you’re trying to fix in your current cloud environment. Set realistic deadlines for completing different project phases, allocate sufficient resources to support your projects, and decide how you will address potential obstacles and roadblocks to implementation.
- Continually monitoring and evaluating: Once you’ve completed your action plan, regularly monitor your progress and evaluate how effectively you’ve reached each outcome. Make adjustments as needed and continue to iterate until you reach your stated objectives.
Ready to Optimize Your Cloud Strategy?
Knowing your options is key to evaluating your cloud environment. Whether you’re transitioning from VMware or exploring new possibilities, TierPoint can help you navigate the complexities. Our experts can guide you in selecting the right cloud, tools, and configurations to ensure your cloud environment is tailored to your unique needs and goals.
