Many firms assume public cloud is the best place to host all apps, but that’s not always the case. Before you drink the cloud Kool-Aid, ensure it’s a cost-effective move.

The public cloud is an attractive option for many enterprises because of its scalability, speed and pay-as-you-go model. But those benefits don’t apply to all workloads — in fact, some applications could perform poorly or cost more in the cloud.

This means, before you migrate apps to a public infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platform, you need to ensure the move will provide business value.

First, understand what your motivation is for a cloud migration. Do you want lower costs? Do you need more flexibility? Some businesses move to the cloud too fast, only because they assume they should, which could cause issues down the road.

Before you take the big step and migrate apps to the public cloud, start with these three questions:

How do I choose which apps to migrate?

Assess your application, and review its requirements — for both performance and compliance — to determine if it is a good candidate for the public cloud. Check if the application has any specific network needs or dependencies. Unless you also migrate the systems on which your app depends, including databases, latency could be an issue. Also, review an application’s design before you migrate it to the cloud; those apps that frequently read and write to storage systems, for example, could end up costing you more off premises. In general, applications that are “bursty” or have frequent spikes in demand are a good fit for public cloud, while applications that run on a more consistent, predictable basis might be better left in-house.

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Kathleen Casey – Search Cloud Computing – TechTarget