Data Sovereignty & Cloud Migration

The value proposition of cloud computing is highly compelling. The cloud offers rapid provisioning of low cost compute resources, decreased burden of capital expenditures and geographically dispersed workloads.

Many global companies are eager to shift and often leap forward with migration projects only to be blocked when jurisdictional compliance rules for data are encountered. Shifting cloud strategies to address data sovereignty requirements can result in unplanned additional investments.

Data sovereignty regulations can complicate the delivery model that has made cloud computing attractive, presenting new concerns for companies operating in multiple countries. It’s often assumed that some workloads cannot leverage the benefits of the cloud without being impacted by jurisdictional concerns, so it helps to understand how best to address the issues of jurisdiction and computing across geographical borders in a way that supports varied demands from different applications.

Technical Debt…A Fickle Mistress

It is not uncommon for IT leadership to loose awareness of the true cost of application ownership.

Financial challenges and budget constraints make easy targets out of any effort that is not delivering immediate results.As teams look at ways to become more resilient, it is important to consider what factors may have resulted in any shortcomings in terms of resiliency to begin with.

Data Leadership and the “Internet of Things”

Content is the blood that flows through the internet’s veins.

My first taste of the internet was when I had an Intel 386 based PC. I discovered that I can use my super-fast phone modem to access content that did not live on my hard drive. With the help of MS Windows 386, and a dial up connection to “CompuServe”, I was reading text base feeds and downloading GIF files to proudly display on my new EGA monitor. I was no longer constrained by content coming from floppy drives and my world started to move past playing “Leisure Suite Larry”.

Data Darwinism – Evolving the IT Development Paradigm

Data asset-based strategies must be reliable, repeatable, and produce beneficial results that are well beyond their costs.

Typically, organizations derive their IT strategy based on known business need at a given point in time. Applications are created to provide answers to specific questions. When I first learned IT, we started with some basic linear programming languages…Basic, Fortran, etc. Task #1 was to create a logic flow diagram. At some point in time, developers realized that many of the code pieces and parts can be reused both within the current process as well as by other processes. Instead of programming in a straight line, they began conditionally looping. When they noticed that the sub-processes that were being called would also work for other programs, they developed reusable classes and object orientation.

A CIO Primer for Cloud Transformation Strategy

Many presentations extol the advantages of CapEx vs OpEx. Also, we read white papers and articles explaining the benefits of transforming the footprint of IT at the business level. This often results in the assumption that ANY strategy of dumping the data center in favor of cloud services, will be a substantial win.

To begin developing a strategy for application migration to the cloud, the first step is determining what the businesses commitment and/or capability to commit to the effort. Basically, the amount of resources (Time, cost, quality) that they can provide measured against the point of diminishing return.