Moving to the cloud: What you’re really worried about

So we’re talking about cloud computing, specifically the question, “What are my real concerns when I move my applications/platform/infrastructure to the cloud?”

Bandwidth. Productivity means people aren’t waiting for a sluggish interface to respond. Do you have a T1 now? What’s its utilization? Because you may be moving up to a T3. Already on an OC3? Have you shopped high-end WAN links lately?

Network reliability. Now your network is the Internet. How often does your connection go down? It’s going to be worth your while to run the numbers here: average downtime of x per month, times cost y of users sitting idle, equals your risk exposure. Do you save at least this much by moving to the cloud?

Working when your link is down. Can you work? I’m seeing some pretty elaborate preparations around this, like nightly data extraction from Cerner’s Linux/Oracle cluster for local replication. If I were going to count on a web-based application (like Cerner) I’d sure wonder what kind of local business continuity they can provide, and exactly how.

Where’s your data? Once you move it to “the” cloud, who knows? But actually, you’re usually moving to “a” cloud, like Amazon’s or Google’s or Cerner’s, which means that in some cases you know where your data is. That may be enough, even in medical records situations, provided data is encrypted in transit and preferably encrypted at rest. But if you’re working for the VA, you already know: no data is leaving their own data centers. Law and policy may prevent you placing your data outside your organization.

Data ownership. I recall all too well supporting MestaMed, which locked up your company’s data in several proprietary formats. Doing data extraction and migration was a profitable business, which was nice for me but maybe not so much for my clients. So if you leave GE’s or Cerner’s or anybody’s system, will they give you your data? Free? Without a massive hassle? In a format you can use?

My friends, this is more than critical. Ponder these questions carefully before you make this move. Feel free to post your thoughts or experiences with the cloud.