Public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, cloud bursting, cloud storming, elastic compute, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, the list of terms goes on and on ad-nauseam. Like it or not, cloud computing has taken hold as an important design consideration in companies ranging from small startups to large established enterprises. The concepts and technologies behind cloud computing have been around for quite a long time now so why is it taking so long for so many companies to move their applications and realize the benefits that cloud computing offers?

Getting beyond the ridiculous fear of the unknown, security concerns are a major inhibitor to cloud adoption but between private cloud and a slew of security technologies and methods that should only impact a small portion of applications. The real problem, in my opinion, is that nobody wants to fail and suffer damage to their personal and/or corporate brands. I've seen so many companies make a poor transition to cloud computing and it impacts their revenue and customer retention.

Companies like Netflix, Orbitz, and Family Search have been tremendously successful with their cloud computing initiatives. Do they have better technologists than other companies? Are their processes better than others? Do they have special tools that nobody else has? Or have they made a commitment that is okay to fail as long as they fail fast and don't repeat their mistakes? The answer might be a combination of all of the above depending upon which organizations we are talking about.

There is a wealth of information published on the internet about deploying applications to the cloud; there are companies that exist solely to help you move application to the cloud; there are even companies that exist to help you figure out IF you should move your application(s) to the cloud. I used to work for one of those companies and what we saw over and over again was that our clients really didn't know how to get started down the path of moving their existing applications to a cloud environment. Even worse were the companies that thought they knew what it took to successfully migrate their application(s) but didn't. All of these companies were missing crucial bits of information that would make the difference between a smooth and painless migration and a rough, frustrating migration.

The tools, processes, and information you use in the planning, execution, and ongoing management of your cloud applications will make all of the difference between success and failure.

In this blog series I'll discuss some of the key considerations related to planning and execution of migrating your applications to the cloud. I'll cover a few important aspects of deciding IF you should move your applications to the cloud and then focus mostly on what happens after you've decided to go for it. Everything I discuss will be directly from my experience moving and monitoring cloud applications within an enterprise and as a consultant.

In my opinion it's much harder to move an existing application than it is to set up a new application in the cloud. The good news is that there are common considerations for each of these scenarios so next week I'll discuss the following:

Should we move or deploy to the cloud?
What can I monitor to ensure my users are not impacted in a negative way?

In future posts I'll discuss the planning and migration phases, how to take advantage of cloud elasticity, and good ongoing management practices. I might even preview some awesome new features we're cooking up to make management of your applications faster and easier (shhhhh, it'll be our little secret).

The post Don’t Deploy Your Cloud Application Without Reading This – Part 1 appeared first on AppDynamics: The APM Blog.