Hybrid Cloud Strategy

Cloud computing is now a mainstay within the world of IT. Likewise, cloud computing continues to grow ever more complex and multi-faceted. Organizations often build their own private cloud infrastructures in-house, sign up for services from public cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, or Microsoft Azure, and create hybrid environments. Other vital choices follow close behind, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in many shapes and forms. Architects and engineers must deal with an array of connections, integrations, portability issues among clouds, resource options, orchestration, storage, and more. And it must all be managed and maintained, made to work for improved profitability and productivity.

You can probably see why a carefully thought-out and detailed approach to cloud computing — a strategy, in other words — is so important.

Jumping onto the cloud is easy. Getting it right is somewhat trickier. Getting it right for the long term is a big challenge. A good cloud strategy helps you and your organization work things out, makes sure all the bits and pieces fit together well, and improves the odds of realizing your business goals.

This book’s topics are laid out in a logical order. But you don’t have to read chapters in order unless you want to. Even so, I think Chapter 1 is a great place to start. That said, if a topic catches your fancy, jump into (and around) this book however you like. Each chapter stands on its own, so you can chart your own course. Read it in any order you like (but it’s probably not helpful to read it backwards). I hope that, if you read this book in its entirety, you’ll agree that you’ve been handed good ingredients and a recipe to put such a strategy together.