There is one piece of advice above all others for those companies planning a transition to the cloud:
Plan your monthly recurring charges against your actuals, don’t estimate them based on hopes & dreams.
What this means in practice:
- You aren’t going to downsize/rightsize your systems. If you had the time and resources it would be done already. Count up all the components of your infrastructure and assume the same needs in the cloud (total cores, RAM, bandwidth, backup space, etc.) Account for 3 to 5 years of growth in your plan, e.g. in 2019 don’t just look at 2020 but also out to at least 2023 and where you want/need to be by that time.
- You aren’t going to build it yourself. Over half the DIY plans I’ve seen have had wholly incorrect assumptions regarding land lease, building lease, utility costs, and so on. That’s before people, hardware, software, and other costs. The 3 hyperscalers (Amazon, Google, and Microsoft) each have anywhere from 10x to 100x your buying power and negotiating leverage, with literally everyone. They have higher productivity per person. Even national and regional MSPs will nearly always beat your buying power and ability to execute.
Moving to the cloud brings a ton of benefits I can’t fit in one post. Planning for your real costs minimizes surprises and reduces risk.
Your CFO and COO will thank you.
Sean M Masters 