- The paper introduces a cost modeling tool utilizing extended UML diagrams and an assessment spreadsheet for evaluating enterprise benefits and risks during cloud migration.
- Case studies demonstrated the tools' ability to compare costs across providers like AWS, identify performance considerations, and assess diverse risks and benefits.
- These decision support tools provide enterprises with valuable insights for informed cost management and strategic risk mitigation during their transition to cloud infrastructure.
Decision Support Tools for Cloud Migration in the Enterprise
In the context of cloud migration within enterprise-level IT environments, the paper titled "Decision Support Tools for Cloud Migration in the Enterprise" introduces two pivotal tools aiming to enhance decision-making processes during IT system transitions to cloud infrastructure. Authored by Ali Khajeh-Hosseini, Ian Sommerville, Jurgen Bogaerts, and Pradeep Teregowda, the paper presents tools designed to streamline the evaluation of costs, benefits, and risks associated with public Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platforms.
Tools Description
The first tool highlighted is a comprehensive cost modeling application. This tool provides IT architects and systems engineers with the capability to forecast financial estimates related to public IaaS cloud usage. Integrating unique extensions to UML deployment diagrams, the tool allows detailed modeling of application infrastructure, operational requirements, and resource utilization patterns, accommodating elasticity patterns and allowing comparisons across various cloud providers.
The second tool is an assessment spreadsheet that collates potential benefits and risks from an enterprise perspective. Drawing insights from an extensive review of prior literature and industry reports, the spreadsheet categorizes risks and benefits into organizational, legal, security, technical, and financial domains, utilizing a Likert scale to gauge importance.
Case Studies
Evaluation through two distinct case studies underlines the practical utility of these tools. The first case paper revolves around an academic digital library, CiteSeer™, showcasing how the tools aided in navigating system growth and volatile demand patterns. The cost modeling exercise identified AWS as the most economical provider, yet highlighted performance consideration due to variable cloud conditions.
The second case paper, involving a media corporation's European R&D division, explored various AWS deployment configurations. It emphasized the importance of elastic resource provisioning and suggested substantial cost savings with optimized deployment strategies. The benefits and risks assessment also revealed differing perceptions of cloud migration advantages and drawbacks between local and corporate entities.
Results and Implications
The paper demonstrates a nuanced understanding of infrastructure costs, facilitating informed decision-making during cloud migration. It advocates for the collaborative use of cost modeling alongside project management and software cost estimation techniques to encapsulate comprehensive cost implications. Furthermore, the detailed benefits and risks table provides a strategic risk mitigation roadmap, essential for reducing migration uncertainties.
Future Directions
The research opens avenues for developing a method to map stakeholder motivations and concerns, essential in aligning enterprise strategies with cloud advancements. Furthermore, considering the potential challenges posed by interoperability and governance, future work should focus on improving middleware solutions that ease cross-cloud interactions while ensuring regulatory compliance.
Conclusion
This paper contributes valuable tools and insights, fostering a deeper understanding of cloud migration complexities, emphasizing cost efficiency and risk assessments. Enterprises can leverage these tools to optimize their transition strategies, adapting to the flexible, self-service model offered by modern cloud paradigms. Overall, this research establishes a foundational approach for embracing cloud migration, mindful of its multi-dimensional impacts on enterprise systems.