service-level agreement (SLA). Unfortunately, public cloud computing providers aren't yet willing to commit to the kinds of availability levels that most corporate users demand for their business-critical applications.
Pure Performance Given this backdrop, let’s address
the question of performance. What types of applications should users avoid running in a public cloud, purely from a performance standpoint? First, latency-sensitive applications aren't
a good fit. Latency across the Internet can vary, but increases with distance, which is typically beyond a user’s control. Second, applications with large datasets are problematic because uploading large amounts of data is time consuming and costly in terms of bandwidth. Third, applications that require special hardware, such as a graphics processor for rendering, aren't candidates for the public cloud. On the flip-side, compute-intensive
applications tend to be a good fit, particularly those with small datasets. Applications with spiky or fluctuating workloads, as long as they’re not latency sensitive, can also be good candidates to run in the public cloud.
Good Fit vs. Bad Fit So what do these rules of thumb
mean for the suitability of running particular applications in the cloud? Let’s explore that further and consider the fitness of some common applications in two categories: those that are generally a good fit for the cloud, and those that are a questionable or poor fit. Applications that are a good fit for
moving to the cloud include: • Dev/Test Apps: These tend to be quite suitable for the public cloud. The largest percentage of compute instances on major cloud sites (like Amazon Web Services) are dev/test workloads. The build and test process tends to be compute-intensive, and therefore a natural fit for cloud computing.
• Personal Productivity Apps: Word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation design software tend to be a good fit. These applications
IMAGE © SCANRAIL / FOTOLIA
are based on unstructured data and generally don't require low latencies or sub-second response times. Vendors such as Microsoft have developed SaaS bundles of productivity applications that are hosted in the cloud.
• Collaborative Apps: Social networking, Web conferencing, and other collaborative apps are good for the cloud, especially since many of these solutions were written for the cloud in the first place. Legacy apps such as SharePoint have also been adapted to run in the cloud.
• High-Performance Computing (HPC) Apps: Based on their compute- intensive nature, HPC apps are usually a good fit for cloud compute farms, as long as their data needs can be managed.
• Virtualized Apps: Given their compact footprint and built-in efficiency, most virtualized apps are highly suitable for the cloud.
• Disaster Recovery (DR) Apps: DR apps can be an excellent fit for the cloud because the cloud provides a cost-effective, universally accessible recovery platform. Vendors are now busy building or reengineering DR apps to make them cloud-savvy.
• “Big Data” Apps: The data mining and analytics of big data applications, such as those running in Hadoop clusters, make them good candidates for cloud-based processing. One caveat: It may be costly and time- consuming to move large amounts
of data into the cloud, so if this is a requirement, you’ll need to decide whether it’s worthwhile. Applications that are a poor fit for
moving to the cloud include: • Mission-Critical Apps: Mission- critical apps such as ERP suites tend to have all the wrong characteristics to be hosted in the cloud. They tend to be transaction-intensive, with high throughput and low latency requirements. They contain sensitive data and often large datasets, and have high availability requirements. Some such apps also have regulatory compliance needs that may be difficult to meet in the cloud. So all in all, these aren't good candidates for the cloud.
• Network-Intensive Apps: Unless you have access to fast, high-quality network resources, applications that continually transmit and receive large amounts of data won't be a good fit. Such applications will often require access to, or integration with, other applications to share data. A whole host of considerations enter in here, but suffice it to say, caveat emptor. Keep in mind that these are general
guidelines, and your decision about moving applications to the cloud should be based on your own situation, including application performance needs, budgetary constraints, and a whole lot more.
Your Journey to the Cloud
Starts with an Assessment The first step in your cloud project is to examine the big picture. PC Connection assessments will ensure that you do just that, and kick your project off right. • Our Server Assessment gives you a clear picture of your infrastructure, helping you understand the capabilities and shortcomings of your existing servers.
• Our Network Assessment identifies equipment that needs to be upgraded and pinpoints performance issues such as bottlenecks. Once network issues are uncovered, we can provide remediation plans to fix the problems and optimize your network’s performance.
• Our Security Assessment can provide you with a better understanding of your organization’s current security-focused infrastructure and present recommendations on how to meet the needs and challenges of the network security landscape.
Discover why we are your Cloud Connection™ provider.
Call your Account Manager to schedule an assessment today! 1.800.800.0014
www.pcconnection.com/assessments
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