Thoroughly Modern: How To Navigate IBM i Cloud Success – Beyond Migration

May 6, 2024 Lief Morin

The decision to migrate to the cloud is a vital part of an organization’s modernization endeavors. However, the true measure of success lies after the production applications go-live. To understand the critical role of a strategic plan, the measurements of success, and technical and process optimizations, it is essential for organizations to achieve operational excellence and realize the benefits of the IBM i cloud.

IBM i Cloud Environments: Private, Hybrid, and Public

In a previous article, we provided definitions of various cloud consumption models, but as a brief review, a cloud service is one that offers self-service, network access, resource pooling, elasticity, and measured service. These qualities can be delivered in the following ways.

Private: Dedicated infrastructure and/or applications that deliver direct control of resource consumption.
Hybrid: A strategy that leverages the strengths of both private and public clouds, and allows organizations to realize the benefits of each to address specific business needs and regulatory requirements.
Public: An environment entirely comprised of shared resources from third-party providers, that offer seamless elasticity and cost-efficiency.

The Strategic Plan: The Foundation Of Cloud Success

Before embarking on an IBM i cloud journey, it is essential to have a strategic plan. Just as Sir Edmund Hillary’s meticulous preparation was vital to the conquest of Mount Everest, a comprehensive plan is the foundation of a successful cloud migration.

The plan must define the purpose and success criteria for a cloud deployment and then identify all the elements required to achieve that success. Those items include personnel, economics, architecture, applications, connectivity, and security.

A good place to start is with the discipline of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library). The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle emphasizes continuous improvement and optimization in all IT operational functions and is significant in managing cloud environments. This approach underscores the importance of a strategic plan to mitigate risks, service disruptions, and ensure a seamless transition to the cloud.

A good way to begin is to engage dialogue with internal and external stakeholders to evaluate the workloads to migrate, the services and business operations those workloads support, the resiliency requirements, secure the budget, identify obstacles, develop contingency plans, and allocate the human capital to support the migration.

The strategic plan must also include the steady-state processes and expectations after a cloud deployment is complete. Continuous assessment of the deliverables associated with a cloud deployment includes effective communications, security administration, SLA management, and escalation procedures. These must align with and adapt to evolving business objectives, and new technologies to ensure organizations stay ahead in a digital landscape that continues to evolve.

Optimize: Enhance Operational Efficiency

While there will always be a transition period, a strategic plan, and effective stakeholder commitment, will minimize the need for immediate optimization. However, as organizations grow and new functionality is implemented, new complexities come into focus. Optimization aims to fine-tune existing processes and tooling so that a cloud deployment becomes more effective over time. The assessments defined in the planning stages above are just some of the elements to be considered. Technology refresh cycles, personnel transition management, and ongoing fiscal discipline are all part of effective operational discipline.

An example of a discipline that needs extensive planning and ongoing optimization, is disaster recovery testing and execution. This is, by far, the most neglected cloud service, and has simultaneously become one of the most critical business functions. Whether validating data replication mechanisms across diverse locations or stress-testing specific applications, proactive testing is indispensable to sustain operational resilience and curtail downtime. The only strategy to ensure success is to follow the ITIL process: Plan – Do – Check – Act.

Measure IBM i Cloud Success

How can an organization gauge the success of a cloud implementation? While there are many measurements that should be evaluated (financial, SLAs, and the like), the most important answer is availability. The perfect metaphor is the cellular phone. It has boundless functions, the ROI for individuals and organizations alike is immeasurable, but if it breaks or if the cloud systems that provide those functions become unavailable, all value is rendered useless.

A cloud infrastructure lacking stability and high availability holds little intrinsic value. Even the most sophisticated disaster recovery systems or backup services are pointless if they fail in times of need. Whether hosted on private clouds or entrusted to cloud hyperscale providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), the ultimate test lies in uptime and reliability.

Cloud deployment should augment availability across all facets, empowering organizations to optimize resource allocation, strengthen security, align with technology and business objectives, and drive economic efficiencies. While these benefits can be measured and are worthy of evaluation, they should always rely on or be supported by a well-established framework of availability and security.

Forge A Path To Excellence

With a strategic plan, continuous optimization, a relentless focus on availability and security, and a disciplined approach to measure the effectiveness of a cloud environment, both technical experts and executives can steer their organizations towards enduring success on their IBM i cloud journey.

For deeper insights into the cloud strategies and post-deployment considerations discussed in this article, join Fresche Solutions at POWERUp 2024. In my sessions – which are called “Choosing the Right Cloud Strategy: Private, Public, or Hybrid?” and “I’ve Moved Over to Cloud. . . Now What?” – I will explore practical approaches to optimize cloud deployments and chart a course for sustained operational excellence.

Lief Morin is the general manager of cloud at Fresche Solutions. He started his career in 1990 as a programmer and field engineer on the AS/400 and RS/6000. He founded and ran an IBM solutions provider for 20 years and joined Fresche after selling that business. He specializes in cloud services for IBM i.

This content is sponsored by Fresche Solutions.

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