Cynthia Stoddard, senior vice president and CIO of NetApp, a data management company, outlined the following three challenges her company faced when adopting a cloud computing system in CIO magazine.
1. Switching to a cloud will impact culture. “Adopting a cloud infrastructure requires new corporate IT muscles,” Ms. Stoddard wrote. Cloud computing requires its own set of skills, including new expertise in security, virtualization, storage efficiency and process automation, so CIOs need to ensure they have the proper skills and talents available on the team.
2. Finding IT support can be difficult. Although it is difficult, it is still necessary, according to Ms. Stoddard. “Your IT organization will need help adapting to a new support model,” she wrote. “I can’t stress enough how important it is to learn how to support multiple cloud vendors and learn whom to call when problems arise. Cloud education is essential.”
3. Partnerships become more important than software. Ms. Stoddard wrote that she evaluates the cloud vendors’ stability, commitment and level of service, turning the priority on the relationship between user and provider, unlike software services. “The vendor relationship became the center of our planning for the future,” she wrote. “Our cloud provider is a part of our daily delivery of services. Their performance is our performance.”
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