Cloud Readiness Over the last three months, we have discussed the reasons why you may have wanted to move to the cloud. Maybe the decision wasn’t yours to be made in the first place? Either way, you are now getting ready to start down that road of cloud enlightenment! The question is, what is the […]
Over the last three months, we have discussed the reasons why you may have wanted to move to the cloud. Maybe the decision wasn’t yours to be made in the first place? Either way, you are now getting ready to start down that road of cloud enlightenment!
The question is, what is the first thing you should be in possession of when starting a cloud project? The answer may or may not shock you, but it is knowledge.
Why would I say that? Or maybe, knowledge of what might be the other question. Having knowledge of what some specific terminologies are will help you get started, or truly understand what is happening.
Being thrust into a new model of operations based on virtual resources can be quite challenging. The difference between vCPU and a physical CPU in a cloud environment needs to be understood. Also, you have vRAM and physical RAM, along with its block storage use in a cloud management tool and what is presented at the physical level.
So, what is the number one thing I tell my clients before they get started? It is a simple question, “Where is your test cloud?” Not all clouds need to be hosted by third party companies. You can have a test cloud setup with something as small as a single laptop, or two larger machines depending on the cloud management software and virtualization software that is used.
So you now have a test cloud, error free of course, so what are you going to do with it? You will be running many different tasks, all based on using the full potential of the cloud management software you have chosen. Let’s review a few tests that you should perform, so you get a better idea of the cloud and the cloud management software.
This is just getting ready for the cloud. Again, all engineers MUST understand these principles, and managers SHOULD understand them. Next month we will talk about what to do with your new knowledge of the cloud!
By Richard Thayer