A Google Cloud strategy that delivers? The 4 key steps to success

The cloud allows you to scale to a level of computing, networking and storage that you could not otherwise achieve. It enables continuous innovation and ease of collaboration. But to achieve these benefits, it’s important to design your cloud solution with high availability, security and governance. In this blog, we explain how to achieve this with Google Cloud.

While there may be specific circumstances in which it is advisable to opt for a hybrid cloud strategy, expert advice is increasingly focused on moving to public cloud. There are several reasons for pursuing a public cloud strategy including:

1. CapEx vs. OpEx. Cloud computing moves organisations from a CapEx (capital expenditure) model to an OpEx (operating expense) model, with OpEx offering low or no upfront costs, and tax deductible benefits. It also provides lower risk and exit costs.
2. Lower TCO (total cost of ownership). You save money as you don’t need to build out your own datacentre with all the ongoing associated maintenance and running costs.
3. Pay-as-you-go philosophy. Only pay for what you use, unlike an on-premise datacentre that requires overprovisioning, which means you pay for computing resources regardless of whether you use them.
4. Flexibility and agility. Public cloud makes it far easier to adapt your IT projects as needed, with almost immediate provisioning and the ability to scale up or down rapidly. Over and above these, CIOs want a solution that provides security and governance. To achieve this, it’s best to follow a proven methodology and to go slowly.

Designing a step-by-step Google Cloud strategy that delivers

At SoftwareOne, we follow a well-practiced step-by-step process to ensure all the benefits and requirements of a Google Cloud project are met.

What projects can be tackled with Google Cloud?

Examples of projects we have done with customers are:

• Workload migration
• Transformation and modernisation
• Workstations virtualisation
• Datacentre extension
• DRaaS, backup and continuity management
• Microsoft Active Directory Managed Service
• Remote and easy access for internal web applications with BeyondCorp
• Virtualisation based on VMware

For each scenario we apply a decision model that, after discovery and planning, consists of deciding whether to migrate (rehost or replatform) or change (refactor or rebuild). Then we enter a continuous cycle of improvement and optimisation.

To undertake each project with customers, we have total flexibility to adapt to their needs. We provide turnkey projects, where scope, time and price are agreed up front; an agile model with an agreed bag of hours for development and maintenance; a baseline approach in which we provide skilled resources, consulting or training; or a combination of any of these depending on requirements.