3 Signs You Can Make That Private Cloud Sale Now

William Bush

By William Bush, Solutions Architect, Sungard AS

Your customers want out of legacy IT. Many struggle to maintain their in-house systems, and most find themselves continually in need of more — expensive staff, hardware, security, money. But when you suggest a cloud-first strategy, the objection usually goes like this: “Untangling applications from legacy infrastructure is too daunting. It’s not worth the time, business risk or cost right now.”

As partners know, however, nursing legacy systems on for a few more months or years has its own costs. Maybe they’re not easy to put in a balance sheet, but the lost flexibility, efficiencies, scalability and growth opportunity that customers give up when they put off a cloud-first strategy may come back to haunt them, especially if they’re up against nimbler born in the cloud competitors.

Digital service providers with comprehensive “land and expand” portfolios can alleviate the concerns around governance, security and control that keep customers tied to traditional IT solutions.

Besides delivering a range of security and other offerings in an as-a-service model, you might find that a hosted private cloud provides an ideal bridge from legacy infrastructure. However, it’s important to be realistic and recognize which workloads work well in the private cloud today, and which don’t. For example, applications built for non-x86 platforms or any system where the technology and code base aren’t a good fit for a distributed cloud model will likely need to be left behind. In other situations, it’s too risky or costly to move or refactor an application. In these cases, maybe you can recommend a SaaS replacement.

Then there are applications that need public cloud. Any system with dynamic workloads that are prone to unpredictable utilization needs, or applications that operate at scale, are examples. Additionally, complex, resource-intensive processes like data analytics or machine learning are well suited for the programmable and elastic capabilities the public cloud provides.

What’s left? Workloads that you can help migrate while positioning yourself as a digital transformation change agent.

Here are three signs a workload is an ideal candidate for a hosted private cloud:

• • It has predictable demand: Some applications’ resource requirements are more predictable than others. It’s impossible to know exactly how much demand will be put on an application, but some workloads, like those associated with ERP systems or back-office platforms that support accounting, HR and payroll, don’t usually change drastically from month to month. Applications that continue on a predictable organic growth curve over time are ideal for hosted private cloud.
  • Associated data is sensitive: The physical isolation of the private cloud makes it an ideal platform for hosting applications and data where physical location (safe harbor) and governance are a concern. A hosted private cloud provides the modularity and scalability of the public cloud combined with …