A content delivery network (CDN) refers to a geographically distributed group of servers which work together to provide fast delivery of Internet content.

A CDN allows for the quick transfer of assets needed for loading Internet content including HTML pages, javascript files, stylesheets, images, and videos. The popularity of CDN services continues to grow, and today the majority of web traffic is served through CDNs, including traffic from major sites like Facebook, Netflix, and Amazon.

A properly configured CDN may also help protect websites against some common malicious attacks, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks.

Is a CDN the same as a web host?

While a CDN does not host content and can’t replace the need for proper web hosting, it does help cache content at the network edge, which improves website performance. Many websites struggle to have their performance needs met by traditional hosting services, which is why they opt for CDNs.

By utilizing caching to reduce hosting bandwidth, helping to prevent interruptions in service, and improving security, CDNs are a popular choice to relieve some of the major pain points that come with traditional web hosting.

What are the benefits of using a CDN?

Although the benefits of using a CDN vary depending on the size and needs of an Internet property, the primary benefits for most users can be broken down into 4 different components:

Improving website load times – By distributing content closer to website visitors by using a nearby CDN server (among other optimizations), visitors experience faster page loading times. As visitors are more inclined to click away from a slow-loading site, a CDN can reduce bounce rates and increase the amount of time that people spend on the site. In other words, a faster a website means more visitors will stay and stick around longer.

Reducing bandwidth costs – Bandwidth consumption costs for website hosting is a primary expense for websites. Through caching and other optimizations, CDNs are able to reduce the amount of data an origin server must provide, thus reducing hosting costs for website owners.

Increasing content availability and redundancy – Large amounts of traffic or hardware failures can interrupt normal website function. Thanks to their distributed nature, a CDN can handle more traffic and withstand hardware failure better than many origin servers.

Improving website security – A CDN may improve security by providing DDoS mitigation, improvements to security certificates, and other optimizations.

How does a CDN work?

At its core, a CDN is a network of servers linked together with the goal of delivering content as quickly, cheaply, reliably, and securely as possible. In order to improve speed and connectivity, a CDN will place servers at the exchange points between different networks.

These Internet exchange points (IXPs) are the primary locations where different Internet providers connect in order to provide each other access to traffic originating on their different networks. By having a connection to these high speed and highly interconnected locations, a CDN provider is able to reduce costs and transit times in high speed data delivery.A content delivery network (CDN) refers to a geographically distributed group of servers which work together to provide fast delivery of Internet content.

A CDN allows for the quick transfer of assets needed for loading Internet content including HTML pages, javascript files, stylesheets, images, and videos. The popularity of CDN services continues to grow, and today the majority of web traffic is served through CDNs, including traffic from major sites like Facebook, Netflix, and Amazon.

A properly configured CDN may also help protect websites against some common malicious attacks, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks.

Is a CDN the same as a web host?

While a CDN does not host content and can’t replace the need for proper web hosting, it does help cache content at the network edge, which improves website performance. Many websites struggle to have their performance needs met by traditional hosting services, which is why they opt for CDNs.

By utilizing caching to reduce hosting bandwidth, helping to prevent interruptions in service, and improving security, CDNs are a popular choice to relieve some of the major pain points that come with traditional web hosting.

What are the benefits of using a CDN?

Although the benefits of using a CDN vary depending on the size and needs of an Internet property, the primary benefits for most users can be broken down into 4 different components:

Improving website load times – By distributing content closer to website visitors by using a nearby CDN server (among other optimizations), visitors experience faster page loading times. As visitors are more inclined to click away from a slow-loading site, a CDN can reduce bounce rates and increase the amount of time that people spend on the site. In other words, a faster a website means more visitors will stay and stick around longer.

Reducing bandwidth costs – Bandwidth consumption costs for website hosting is a primary expense for websites. Through caching and other optimizations, CDNs are able to reduce the amount of data an origin server must provide, thus reducing hosting costs for website owners.

Increasing content availability and redundancy – Large amounts of traffic or hardware failures can interrupt normal website function. Thanks to their distributed nature, a CDN can handle more traffic and withstand hardware failure better than many origin servers.

Improving website security – A CDN may improve security by providing DDoS mitigation, improvements to security certificates, and other optimizations.

How does a CDN work?

At its core, a CDN is a network of servers linked together with the goal of delivering content as quickly, cheaply, reliably, and securely as possible. In order to improve speed and connectivity, a CDN will place servers at the exchange points between different networks.

These Internet exchange points (IXPs) are the primary locations where different Internet providers connect in order to provide each other access to traffic originating on their different networks. By having a connection to these high speed and highly interconnected locations, a CDN provider is able to reduce costs and transit times in high speed data delivery.

Beyond placement of servers in IXPs, a CDN makes a number of optimizations on standard client/server data transfers. CDNs place Data Centers at strategic locations across the globe, enhance security, and are designed to survive various types of failures and Internet congestion.

Latency – How does a CDN improve website load times?

When it comes to websites loading content, users drop off quickly as a site slows down. CDN services can help to reduce load times in the following ways:

The globally distributed nature of a CDN means reduce distance between users and website resources. Instead of having to connect to wherever a website’s origin server may live, a CDN lets users connect to a geographically closer data center. Less travel time means faster service.

Hardware and software optimizations such as efficient load balancing and solid-state hard drives can help data reach the user faster.

CDNs can reduce the amount of data that’s transferred by reducing file sizes using tactics such as minification and file compression. Smaller file sizes mean quicker load times.

CDNs can also speed up sites which use TLS/SSL certificates by optimizing connection reuse and enabling TLS false start.

Explore all the ways a CDN helps websites load faster

Reliability and Redundancy – How does a CDN keep a website always online?

Uptime is a critical component for anyone with an Internet property. Hardware failures and spikes in traffic, as a result of either malicious attacks or just a boost in popularity, have the potential to bring down a web server and prevent users from accessing a site or service. A well-rounded CDN has several features that will minimize downtime:

• Load balancing distributes network traffic evenly across several servers, making it easier to scale rapid boosts in traffic.
• Intelligent failover provides uninterrupted service even if one or more of the CDN servers go offline due to hardware malfunction; the failover can redistribute the traffic to the other operational servers.
• In the event that an entire data center is having technical issues, Anycast routing transfers the traffic to another available data center, ensuring that no users lose access to the website.

Learn more about how a CDN helps keep websites online

Data Security – How does a CDN protect data?

Information security is an integral part of a CDN. a CDN can keep a site secured with fresh TLS/SSL certificates which will ensure a high standard of authentication, encryption, and integrity. Investigate the security concerns surrounding CDNs, and explore what can be done to securely deliver content. Learn about CDN SSL/TLS security

Bandwidth Expense – How does a CDN reduce bandwidth costs?

Every time an origin server responds to a request, bandwidth is consumed. See how a CDN, like the Cloudflare CDN, cuts down on origin requests. (coming soon)

Source :- https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/cdn/what-is-a-cdn/

You’re in between flights and you’re on a deadline. That “Free Public Wi-Fi” sign on the wall next to your gate looks tempting, but you pause before logging in—don’t hackers lurk on public Wi-Fi, just waiting for clueless passengers like you to open the floodgates to all your personal information?

The answer is yes, they do. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up public Wi-Fi altogether. There are plenty of ways to protect yourself and your sensitive info while using free public Wi-Fi. We’ll explain how hackers use public Wi-Fi to sneak into your accounts, and we’ll walk you through the steps you should take to fly under their radar and browse safely whether you’re at the airport, your mechanic’s shop, or your favorite restaurant.

1. Understand How Hackers Use Public Wi-Fi
2. Know the Wi-Fi You’re Using: Secured vs. Unsecured
3. Follow These 8 Public Wi-Fi Safety Rules
4. Beef Up Your Security
5. Consider Safer Alternatives to Public Wi-Fi

Understand How Hackers Use Public Wi-Fi

The best way to beat a hacker is to think like one. Stay one step ahead by understanding how hackers and identity thieves try to take advantage of unsuspecting public Wi-Fi users.

1. Fake Hotspots
• Like luring in kids with candy, hackers will try to lure you in with the promise of a free, easy, open Wi-Fi network. The catch? They’re in control, and they can see everything you’re doing online.
2. File Sharing

• Hackers may use open file sharing networks and AirDrops to infect your computer with malicious software (malware) or other viruses that can open up holes in your system and let them in.

3. System Upgrade Alerts
• You might think that performing a system upgrade will help keep you safer, but it could be a hacker acting like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Anytime you click on an alert while you’re on public wifi, you could end up with a virus instead of upgrade.d of an upgrade. Wi-Fi, you could end up with a virus instead of an upgrade.
4. Peeping Toms
• Simply put, if you’re using the same network as a hacker, they can see everything you’re doing online, including the sites you visit, the passwords you use, and the personal information you share. Armed with that information, they can use it to steal money from your bank account, open up fraudulent accounts in your name, and commit a host of other damaging crimes.

Know the Wi-Fi You’re Using: Secured vs. Unsecured

Anytime you use public Wi-Fi managed by someone else, it’s always somewhat unsecured. Unlike your home Wi-Fi, you don’t know who else has the password, so you don’t know who else might be on the network with you. For that reason, you should treat every public Wi-Fi network as potentially unsafe.

Unsecured Wi-Fi

Unsecured Wi-Fi (aka, “open” Wi-Fi) is the kind you find at McDonald’s and airports: no password needed. As long as you’re in range of the router, anyone can hop on the Wi-Fi and surf the web to their heart’s content. Unsecured Wi-Fi is about as public—and as risky—as you can get.

Secured Wi-Fi

Secured Wi-Fi (aka, “semi-open” Wi-Fi) typically requires a little more work to access than unsecured. You will usually need a password to log in, and you may be required to check a box on a terms and conditions page before gaining internet access. Some businesses also require a purchase before you can access their secured Wi-Fi. If you have a choice, always opt for secured Wi-Fi.

Follow These 8 Public Wi-Fi Safety Rules

Just like knowing the dangers of sun exposure doesn’t mean you should never go outside, knowing the security risks of using public Wi-Fi doesn’t mean you should never use it. Here are your hat and sunscreen equivalents for enjoying public Wi-Fi:

1. Enable firewalls and antivirus software.

Firewalls and antivirus software can warn you of suspicious websites and files, and protect your system against hackers trying to get at your data.

2. Turn off automatic connectivity features, including Bluetooth, before you log in to public Wi-Fi.

Turn off all features on your phone, laptop, or tablet that allow your device to automatically connect with another device or public wireless networks. This includes file sharing, AirDrop, and printer sharing.

3. Choose your public Wi-Fi wisely.

You want Wi-Fi that is secure, legitimate, and has as few users as possible. Look for a network that is password-protected, connected to a high-profile brand (like Starbucks), and tied to a business with small square footage. Password protection and small square footage limit the traffic on the network, and high-profile brands are more likely to run a tighter network ship because they have more to lose from a hacking scandal.

Pro Tip: If you want to avoid big airport Wi-Fi networks with lots of users, check out WiFox. It uses a crowd-sourced map to give you free public Wi-Fi spots and passwords for airport restaurants and lounges all over the world. Purchase the app or use the website for free.

4. Never download or install anything while on public Wi-Fi.

Don’t click on any pop-up windows asking you to install or download something in order to log on to free public Wi-Fi. Don’t download anything from the web, and always avoid doing any system upgrades or updates while on public Wi-Fi.

5. Look for the HTTPS padlock.

When possible, make sure every site you use has that little “s” for “secure” after the HTTP in the web address and the padlock symbol to the left. HTTPS sites are more secure than HTTP sites because they use encryption to protect any data you might send to the site’s server.

Pro Tip: Try the HTTPS Everywhere browser extension to automatically direct your web browsing to the secure HTTPS versions of sites, rather than their unprotected HTTP counterparts.

6. Don’t input any personal information on any sites you visit on public Wi-Fi.

Even with the HTTPS, it’s still risky to input any personal info while you’re using public Wi-Fi.

7. Limit the number of public Wi-Fi hotspots you use.

Just like you limit your risk of catching a cold by avoiding the number of strangers’ hands you shake in a day, you’ll limit your exposure to public Wi-Fi danger by limiting the number of open networks you connect to.

8. Always “forget” the network after you use public Wi-Fi.

Be sure to click the “forget network” option on your network preferences once you finish using an open network. This will prevent your device from automatically connecting to it again without your permission.

Beef Up Your Security

If you’ve made it through the do’s and don’ts and you’d still like to take advantage of free public Wi-Fi hotspots, here are a few additional security measures you can take to protect yourself out in the public Wi-Fi jungle.

• Keep your security updates current.

• Yes, they take forever and they’re a big pain, but keeping your device’s security updates current will keep you safer on public Wi-Fi.

• Use two-factor authentication on your accounts.

• Two-factor authentication requires you to use a password and something else—like a security question or a PIN—to get access to an account. Using this on all your accounts is a good way to thwart any hackers who might get your password

• Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

• A VPN lets you surf the web anonymously by routing all your web activities through a secure, encrypted server. VPNs are a good choice if you’re a frequent traveler on public transport. Keep in mind that paid VPN services are more reliable and secure than free ones, and they cost only a few bucks a month.

If you’ve decided public Wi-Fi is too risky and you’d like to avoid it altogether, here are a few safer alternatives for you to consider.

Use free hotspots offered by your cell or cable company.

Many companies now offer their registered customers exclusive access to public Wi-Fi hotspots.

Use an unlimited data plan on your smartphone.

If you just want to use the internet to play games and surf social media, using unlimited data on your phone is a safer choice than logging on to public Wi-Fi.

Use your smartphone as a private hotspot.

If you need to use a computer or tablet, consider using your phone as a hotspot to connect to Wi-Fi so you can still conduct your online business in private.

FAQs

What is an MITM attack?

MITM stands for “Man in The Middle,” and an MITM attack is just what it sounds like: a hacker virtually places himself invisibly between your device and the server for a website you’re using. MITM attacks can happen when a hacker is sharing a public network with you.

Are mobile apps safe to use on public Wi-Fi?

Not always. Most companies’ mobile apps don’t have the level of encryption that their HTTPS websites do. If you have to use your phone to conduct transactions involving sensitive info, it’s best to use your browser and go directly to the website instead.1

Can I install a VPN on a loved one’s device?

Yes. VPNs are an effective protective measure for devices whose users may not be as vigilant about potential threats. If you want to increase internet safety for kids, installing a VPN on their device is a good way to allow them to still access public Wi-Fi without running the risk of them accidentally being hacked. VPNs are also good for keeping seniors safe online.

Source:- https://www.safewise.com/blog/public-wifi-safety/

Source :- https://www.lbmc.com/blog/4-steps-for-effective-information-technology/

Often compared with town-planning or urban design, enterprise architecture (EA) is a well-defined practice for conducting enterprise analysis, design, planning, and implementation for the successful development and execution of strategy. Enterprise Architecture reduces redundancy, complexity and information silos and business risks associated with IT investments. Thus, EA provides a blueprint for an effective IT strategy and guides the controlled evolution of IT in a way that delivers business benefit in a cost-effective way.

Practitioners of enterprise architecture, enterprise architects, are responsible for performing the analysis of business structure and processes and are often called upon to draw conclusions from the information collected to address the goals of enterprise architecture: effectiveness, efficiency, agility, and continuity of complex business operations.

Major Enterprise Architecture Frameworks

There is no shortage of EA frameworks in the IT industry, Zachman was the first to formalize the concept and publish a framework. Since then, many other EA frameworks have been published and are used by many organizations. They attempt to address the basic challenge of assessing, aligning, and organizing business objectives with technical requirements and strategies such as the Zachman Framework, The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), NAF, DoDAF, MoDAF and etc. Each framework possesses different strengths and weaknesses.

Enterprise architecture frameworks

Layers of Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise architecture is unique to every organization, however, there are some common elements. Since Stephen Spewak’s Enterprise Architecture Planning (EAP) in 1993, and perhaps before then, it has been normal to divide enterprises architecture into four architecture domains.

The four commonly accepted domains of enterprise architecture are:

Business architecture domain – describes how the enterprise is organizationally structured and what functional capabilities are necessary to deliver the business vision. Business architecture addresses the questions WHAT and WHO: WHAT is the organization’s business vision, strategy, and objectives that guide creation of business services or capabilities? WHO is executing defined business services or capabilities?

Application architecture domain – describes the individual applications, their interactions, and their relationships to the core business processes of the organization. Application architecture addresses the question HOW: HOW are previously defined business services or capabilities implemented?

Data architecture domain – describes the structure of an organization’s logical and physical data assets and data management resources. Knowledge about your customers from data analytics lets you improve and continuously evolve business processes.

Technology architecture domain – describes the software and hardware needed to implement the business, data, and application services. Each of these domains have well-known artifacts, diagrams, and practices.

Layers of enterprise architecture

Business architecture domain – describes how the enterprise is organizationally structured and what functional capabilities are necessary to deliver the business vision. Business architecture addresses the questions WHAT and WHO:

• WHAT is the organization’s business vision, strategy, and objectives that guide the creation of business services or capabilities?
• WHO is executing defined business services or capabilities?

Application architecture domain – describes the individual applications, their interactions, and their relationships to the core business processes of the organization. Application architecture addresses the question HOW: HOW are previously defined business services or capabilities implemented?

Data architecture domain – describes the structure of an organization’s logical and physical data assets and data management resources. Knowledge about your customers from data analytics lets you improve and continuously evolve business processes.

Technology architecture domain – describes the software and hardware needed to implement the business, data, and application services. Each of these domains have well-known artifacts, diagrams, and practices.

For many years, it has been common to regard the architecture domains as layers, with the idea that each layer contains components that execute processes and offer services to the layer above. Many EA frameworks combine data and application domains into a single information system layer, sitting below the business and above the technology (the platform IT infrastructure).

Why Enterprise Architecture?

The scope of enterprise architecture includes: the people, business processes, information and technology of the enterprise, and their relationships to one another and to the external environment. Enterprise architecture applies architecture principles and practices to guide organizations through the alignment of these architecture domains: business, information, process, and technology. These involve utilize the various aspects of an enterprise to identify, motivate, and achieve these changes by performing:

• Business and technology alignment
• Consistency in a federated landscape
• Interoperability and information sharing
• Return on investment
• Flexibility and agility

What is an EA Framework?

An Architecture Framework establishes a common practice for creating, interpreting, analyzing and using architecture descriptions (Views and Viewpoints) within a particular domain of application or stakeholder community. It is a structure for the content of an Enterprise Architecture Description, according to the IEEE 1471 definition, we can describe an EA framework as the model shown below:

Enterprise architecture framework model

Utilizing an Enterprise Architecture framework streamlines the process for creating and maintaining architectures at all layers (e.g. enterprise architectures, functional business segment architectures, cross-cutting technology domain architectures, and solution architectures) and enables an organization to leverage the value of architecture best practices.

An Enterprise Architecture framework provides a collection of best practices, standards, tools, processes, and templates to assist in the creation of the Enterprise Architecture and architectures of various scopes. Enterprise Architecture frameworks typically include:

• Common vocabulary, models, and taxonomy
• Processes, principles, strategies, and tools
• Reference architectures and models
• Prescriptive guidance (EA processes, architecture content, implementation roadmap, governance)
• Catalog of architecture deliverables and artifacts
• Enterprise Architecture Content Meta-model

Addresses – View addresses Concern

Agile – An iterative approach to planning and guiding project processes.

Application Architecture – A description of the structure and interaction of the applications as groups of capabilities that provide key business functions and manage the data assets.

Application Portfolio Management – The discipline applied to managing software assets to justify and measure the financial benefits of each application in comparison to the costs of the application’s maintenance and operations.

Architecture – The organization of a System in terms of components, their relationships to each other and the environment.

Architecture Description – An Architecture Description is a work product used to express the Architecture of some System of Interest. The Standard specifies requirements on ADs. An AD describes one possible Architecture for a System. An AD may take the form of a document, a set of models, a model repository, or some other form (AD format is not defined by the Standard).

Architecture Principle – A qualitative statement of intent that should be met by the architecture. Has at least a supporting rationale and a measure of importance.

Business Architecture – A description of the structure and interaction between the business strategy, organization, functions, business processes, and information needs.

Business Architecture Framework – A conceptual view of how business blueprints, business scenarios, and business architecture knowledgebase interrelate to provide a foundation for establishing the business architecture.

Business Capability – The expression or the articulation of the capacity, materials, and expertise an organization needs in order to perform core functions. Learn more in our definitive guide to business capabilities!

Business Capability Modeling – A technique for the representation of an organization’s business anchor model, independent of the organization’s structure, processes, people or domains. Learn how to get started with business capability modeling in 4 steps!

Business Capability Roadmap – A capability roadmap is a plan describing a feasible series of carefully scoped initiatives along with the sequence and estimated timelines in which those initiatives should take place, in order to achieve a business objective. Usually delivered as a document or architectural model describing the business capabilities as they are, and the changes planned over the course of a future period of time. Read more in our whitepaper about business capabilities.

Business Capability Taxonomy – A business capability taxonomy is an ordered hierarchy of business capabilities, structured in a manner that makes sense to the stakeholders, and used to create associations between capabilities and business units.

Business Goal – A Goal is a statement about a state or condition of the enterprise to be brought about or sustained through appropriate Means. A Goal amplifies a Vision – that is, it indicates what must be satisfied on a continuing basis to effectively attain the Vision.

Business Information Model – A model illustrating the groupings and relationships between the data elements that make up business documents.

Business Model – A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value. Read a case study here.

Business Policy – Formally documented management expectations and intentions. Policies are used to direct decisions, and to ensure consistent and appropriate development and implementation of Processes, Standards, Roles, Activities, IT Infrastructure etc.

Business Process – An event-driven, end-to-end processing path that starts with a customer request and ends with a result for the customer. Business processes often cross-departmental and even organizational boundaries.

Business Service – Supports business capabilities through an explicitly defined interface and is explicitly governed by an organization.

Capability – An ability that an organization, person, or system possesses. Capabilities are typically expressed in general and high-level terms and typically require a combination of organization, people, processes, and technology to achieve.

Change Management – The automated support for development, rollout, and maintenance of system components (i.e., intelligent regeneration, package versioning, state control, library control, configuration management, turnover management and distributed impact sensitivity reporting).

Cloud Transformation – The process of moving data, applications or other business elements from an organization’s onsite computers to the cloud, or moving them from one cloud environment to another. Read more in our white paper “How enterprise architecture paves the way into the cloud”.

Concern – A Concern is any interest in the system. The term derives from the phrase “separation of concerns” as originally coined by Edsgar Dijkstra. Examples of concerns: (system) purpose, functionality, structure, behavior, cost, supportability, safety, interoperability.

Data Object – Reflects information about important business items. This could be data of the kind of account, employee or organization. A Data Object Fact Sheet can be linked to Applications and Interfaces and stores additional information about data sensitivity. A good use of the Data Object is when you want to manage data sensitivity or manage consistency of business information.

Digital Transformation – The process of changing from analog to digital form, also known as digital enablement. Said another way, digitization takes an analog process and changes it to a digital form without any different-in-kind changes to the process itself. Read more in our white paper “Digital transformation: A case for lean enterprise architecture management”.

Enterprise Architecture – A discipline for proactively and holistically leading enterprise responses to disruptive forces by identifying and analyzing the execution of change toward desired business vision and outcomes. EA delivers value by presenting business and IT leaders with signature-ready recommendations for adjusting policies and projects to achieve target business outcomes that capitalize on relevant business disruptions.

Enterprise Information Architecture – The part of the enterprise architecture process that describes — through a set of requirements, principles and models — the current state, future state and guidance necessary to flexibly share and exchange information assets to achieve effective enterprise change.

Enterprise principals – A basis for decision-making throughout an enterprise. Such principles are commonly found as a means of harmonizing decision making across an organization. In particular, they are a key element in a successful architecture governance strategy.

Environment – The environment, or context, in which the system exists including the social, business and technical aspects.

Framework – Conventions, principles and practices for the description of architectures established within a specific domain of application and/or community of stakeholders.

Information Architecture – Set of rules that determine what, and how and where, the information will be collected, stored, processed, transmitted, presented, and used. On the internet, information architecture means how a website’s content is organized and presented to its users to facilitate navigation and search functions.

Kanban – Technique used in lean manufacturing (i.e., just-in-time) environments to reduce process cycle time by managing the flow. Learn the difference between Agile, Kanban and Scrum here.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI) – A high-level metric that reflects a process or characteristic that is typically measured on a business leader’s scorecard.

Lean – A focused approach to the provision of effective solutions involving the consumption of a minimum of resources.

Model – A view is comprised of Architecture Models. Each model is constructed in accordance with the conventions established by its Model Kind, typically defined as part of its governing viewpoint. Models provide a means for sharing details between views and for the use of multiple notations within a view.

Model Kind – A Model Kind defines the conventions for one type of Architecture Model. Purpose The purpose of a system is a concern of the relevant stakeholders.

Portfolio Management – The selection, prioritization and control of an organization’s projects and programs in line with its strategic objectives and capacity to deliver. Learn all you need to know about portfolio management in our definitive guide.

Product Lifecycle Management – A philosophy, process, and discipline supported by software for managing products through the stages of their life cycles, from concept through retirement. As a discipline, it has grown from a mechanical design and engineering focus to being applied to many different vertical-industry product development challenges.

Project – A temporary endeavor undertaken to achieve a specific business outcome, creating a unique product, service or result. A project may be sequenced or grouped with closely related projects within a Program. Each project has a life cycle that typically includes specific project phases: initiation, planning, execution, and closure.

Quality Assurance – The maintenance of a desired level of quality in a service or product, especially by means of attention to every stage of the process of delivery or production.

Resource – An economic or productive factor required to accomplish an activity, or as a means to undertake an enterprise and achieve the desired outcome. The three most basic resources are land, labor, and capital; other resources include energy, entrepreneurship, information, expertise, management, and time.

Risk – One of the elements of a business model assessment, a risk is a type of potential impact to the organization that should be considered as part of business judgment. The business model assessment is composed of one or more business judgments and puts perspective around the model or models evaluated.

Scrum – A framework for project management that emphasizes teamwork, accountability and iterative progress toward a well-defined goal.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) – A service level agreement is a contract made between two business units, where one business unit provides a service to another. The contract describes specific measures by which the service provider’s performance will be measured, as well as acceptable ranges of those measures that the consumer would find acceptable.

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) – A design paradigm and discipline that helps IT to meet business demands. Some organizations realize significant benefits using SOA including faster time to market, lower costs, better application consistency and increased agility. SOA reduces redundancy and increases usability, maintainability, and value. This produces interoperable, modular systems that are easier to use and maintain. SOA creates simpler and faster systems that increase agility and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO).

Software-As-A-Solution (SaaS) – Software that is owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more providers. The provider delivers software based on one set of common code and data definitions that is consumed in a one-to-many model by all contracted customers at any time on a pay-for-use basis or as a subscription-based on use metrics.

Solution Architecture – An architectural description of a specific solution. Solution architectures combine guidance from different enterprise architecture viewpoints (business, information and technical), as well as from the enterprise solution architecture.

Stakeholder – Stakeholders are individuals, groups or organizations holding Concerns for the System of Interest. Examples of stakeholders: client, owner, user, consumer, supplier, designer, maintainer, auditor, CEO, certification authority, architect.

Statement of Work (SOW): An objectives section allowing the customer to emphasize the desired end state or performance metric to be achieved. It also mandates the assessment of past performance, technical approach, and cost for each task order. The customer determines the relative importance of each criterion.

Supply chain management (SCM): The processes of creating and fulfilling demands for goods and services. It encompasses a trading partner community engaged in the common goal of satisfying end customers.

Technical Reference Model – A foundation to categorize the standards, specifications, and technologies to support the construction, delivery, and exchange of business and application components (Service Components) that may be used and leveraged in a Component-Based or Service-Oriented Architecture.

Technology Obsolescence – The time and state in which a piece of technology or product ceases to be useful, productive or compatible.

Technology Risk – Any potential for technology failures to disrupt your business such as information security incidents or service outages. Learn all you need to know about technology risk management in our definitive guide!

Total Cost Of Ownership (TCO) – A comprehensive assessment of information technology (IT) or other costs across enterprise boundaries over time. For IT, TCO includes hardware and software acquisition, management and support, communications, end-user expenses and the opportunity cost of downtime, training and other productivity losses.

Value Proposition – The central notion of a business model, the value proposition describes how the business, through its activities, adds value to the consumer or marketplace. The Value proposition binds together the notions of customer demands, required competencies, revenue models and business partnerships. It is a statement from the viewpoint of the target customers that informs everyone “why” the business’ products and services are valuable.

Value Stream – A sequence of business processes the boundaries of which are typically defined by business transactions. They represent end-to-end sequences such as “order to cash” or “idea to available product”.

View – An Architecture View in an AD expresses the Architecture of the System of Interest from the perspective of one or more Stakeholders to address specific Concerns, using the conventions established by its viewpoint. An Architecture View consists of one or more Architecture Models.

Viewpoint – An Architecture Viewpoint is a set of conventions for constructing, interpreting, using and analyzing one type of Architecture View. A viewpoint includes Model Kinds, viewpoint languages and notations, modeling methods and analytic techniques to frame a specific set of Concerns. Examples of viewpoints: operational, systems, technical, logical, deployment, process, information.

Web-oriented architecture (WOA) – A substyle of service-oriented architecture (SOA) that leverages Web architecture. It emphasizes the generality of interfaces (user interfaces and APIs) via five fundamental generic interface constraints: resource identification (e.g., uniform resource identifier [URI]), manipulation of resources through representations (e.g., HTTP), self-descriptive messages (e.g., Multipurpose Internet Messaging Extensions [MIME] types), hypermedia as the engine of application state (e.g., links) and application neutrality.

Source:- https://www.visual-paradigm.com/guide/enterprise-architecture/what-is-enterprise-architecture/

What is cloud computing, in simple terms?

Cloud computing is the delivery of on-demand computing services — from applications to storage and processing power — typically over the internet and on a pay-as-you-go basis.

How does cloud computing work?

Rather than owning their own computing infrastructure or data centers, companies can rent access to anything from applications to storage from a cloud service provider.

One benefit of using cloud computing services is that firms can avoid the upfront cost and complexity of owning and maintaining their own IT infrastructure, and instead simply pay for what they use, when they use it.

In turn, providers of cloud computing services can benefit from significant economies of scale by delivering the same services to a wide range of customers.

What cloud computing services are available?

Cloud computing services cover a vast range of options now, from the basics of storage, networking, and processing power through to natural language processing and artificial intelligence as well as standard office applications. Pretty much any service that doesn’t require you to be physically close to the computer hardware that you are using can now be delivered via the cloud.

Benefits of Cloud

What are examples of cloud computing?

Cloud computing underpins a vast number of services. That includes consumer services like Gmail or the cloud back-up of the photos on your smartphone, though to the services which allow large enterprises to host all their data and run all of their applications in the cloud. Netflix relies on cloud computing services to run its its video streaming service and its other business systems too, and have a number of other organisations.

Cloud computing is becoming the default option for many apps: software vendors are increasingly offering their applications as services over the internet rather than standalone products as they try to switch to a subscription model. However, there is a potential downside to cloud computing, in that it can also introduce new costs and new risks for companies using it.

Why is it called cloud computing?

A fundamental concept behind cloud computing is that the location of the service, and many of the details such as the hardware or operating system on which it is running, are largely irrelevant to the user. It’s with this in mind that the metaphor of the cloud was borrowed from old telecoms network schematics, in which the public telephone network (and later the internet) was often represented as a cloud to denote that the just didn’t matter — it was just a cloud of stuff. This is an over-simplification of course; for many customers location of their services and data remains a key issue.

What is the history of cloud computing?

Cloud computing as a term has been around since the early 2000s, but the concept of computing-as-a-service has been around for much, much longer — as far back as the 1960s, when computer bureaus would allow companies to rent time on a mainframe, rather than have to buy one themselves.

These ‘time-sharing’ services were largely overtaken by the rise of the PC which made owning a computer much more affordable, and then in turn by the rise of corporate data centers where companies would store vast amounts of data.

But the concept of renting access to computing power has resurfaced again and again — in the application service providers, utility computing, and grid computing of the late 1990s and early 2000s. This was followed by cloud computing, which really took hold with the emergence of software as a service and hyperscale cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web Services.

How important is the cloud?

Building the infrastructure to support cloud computing now accounts for more than a third of all IT spending worldwide, according to research from IDC. Meanwhile spending on traditional, in-house IT continues to slide as computing workloads continue to move to the cloud, whether that is public cloud services offered by vendors or private clouds built by enterprises themselves.

451 Research predicts that around one-third of enterprise IT spending will be on hosting and cloud services this year “indicating a growing reliance on external sources of infrastructure, application, management and security services”. Analyst Gartner predicts that half of global enterprises using the cloud now will have gone all-in on it by 2021.

According to Gartner, global spending on cloud services will reach $260bn this year up from $219.6bn. It’s also growing at a faster rate than the analysts expected. But it’s not entirely clear how much of that demand is coming from businesses that actually want to move to the cloud and how much is being created by vendors who now only offer cloud versions of their products (often because they are keen to move to away from selling one-off licences to selling potentially more lucrative and predictable cloud subscriptions).

What is Infrastructure-as-a-Service?

Cloud computing can be broken down into three cloud computing models. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) refers to the fundamental building blocks of computing that can be rented: physical or virtual servers, storage and networking. This is attractive to companies that want to build applications from the very ground up and want to control nearly all the elements themselves, but it does require firms to have the technical skills to be able to orchestrate services at that level. Research by Oracle found that two thirds of IaaS users said using online infrastructure makes it easier to innovate, had cut their time to deploy new applications and services and had significantly cut on-going maintenance costs. However, half said IaaS isn’t secure enough for most critical data.

What is Platform-as-a-Service?

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is the next layer up — as well as the underlying storage, networking, and virtual servers this will also include the tools and software that developers need to build applications on top of: that could include middleware, database management, operating systems, and development tools.

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What is Software-as-a-Service?

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is the delivery of applications-as-a-service, probably the version of cloud computing that most people are used to on a day-to-day basis. The underlying hardware and operating system is irrelevant to the end user, who will access the service via a web browser or app; it is often bought on a per-seat or per-user basis.

According to researchers IDC SaaS is — and will remain — the dominant cloud computing model in the medium term, accounting for two-thirds of all public cloud spending in 2017, which will only drop slightly to just under 60% in 2021. SaaS spending is made up of applications and system infrastructure software, and IDC said that spending will be dominated by applications purchases, which will make up more than half of all public cloud spending through 2019. Customer relationship management (CRM) applications and enterprise resource management (ERM) applications will account for more than 60% of all cloud applications spending through to 2021. The variety of applications delivered via SaaS is huge, from CRM such as Salesforce through to Microsoft’s Office 365.

Cloud computing benefits

The exact benefits will vary according to the type of cloud service being used but, fundamentally, using cloud services means companies not having to buy or maintain their own computing infrastructure.

No more buying servers, updating applications or operating systems, or decommissioning and disposing of hardware or software when it is out of date, as it is all taken care of by the supplier. For commodity applications, such as email, it can make sense to switch to a cloud provider, rather than rely on in-house skills. A company that specializes in running and securing these services is likely to have better skills and more experienced staff than a small business could afford to hire, so cloud services may be able to deliver a more secure and efficient service to end users.

Using cloud services means companies can move faster on projects and test out concepts without lengthy procurement and big upfront costs, because firms only pay for the resources they consume. This concept of business agility is often mentioned by cloud advocates as a key benefit. The ability to spin up new services without the time and effort associated with traditional IT procurement should mean that is easier to get going with new applications faster. And if a new application turns out to be a wildly popular the elastic nature of the cloud means it is easier to scale it up fast.

For a company with an application that has big peaks in usage, for example that is only used at a particular time of the week or year, it may make financial sense to have it hosted in the cloud, rather than have dedicated hardware and software laying idle for much of the time. Moving to a cloud hosted application for services like email or CRM could remove a burden on internal IT staff, and if such applications don’t generate much competitive advantage, there will be little other impact. Moving to a services model also moves spending from capex to opex, which may be useful for some companies.

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Cloud computing advantages and disadvantages

Cloud computing is not necessarily cheaper than other forms of computing, just as renting is not always cheaper than buying in the long term. If an application has a regular and predictable requirement for computing services it may be more economical to provide that service in-house.

Some companies may be reluctant to host sensitive data in a service that is also used by rivals. Moving to a SaaS application may also mean you are using the same applications as a rival, which may make it hard to create any competitive advantage if that application is core to your business.

While it may be easy to start using a new cloud application, migrating existing data or apps to the cloud may be much more complicated and expensive. And it seems there is now something of a shortage in cloud skills with staff with DevOps and multi-cloud monitoring and management knowledge in particularly short supply.

In one recent report a significant proportion of experienced cloud users said that they thought upfront migration costs ultimately outweigh the long-term savings created by IaaS.

And of course, you can only access your applications if you have an internet connection.

What is cloud computing adoption doing to IT budgets?

Cloud computing tends to shift spending from capital expenditure (CapEx) to operating expenditure (OpEx) as companies buy computing as a service rather than in the form of physical servers. This may allow companies to avoid large increases in IT spending which would traditionally be seen with new projects; using the cloud to make room in the budget may be easier than going to the CFO and looking for more money.

“CIOs are increasingly turning to cloud infrastructure and services in order to increase flexibility and relieve pressure on capital budgets,” notes ZDNet’s survey of IT budget predictions. Of course, this doesn’t mean that cloud computing is always or necessarily cheaper that keeping applications in house; for applications with a predictable and stable demand for computing power may be cheaper (from a processing power point of view at least) to keep in-house.

Cloud computing spending is growing even faster than expected

How do you build a business case for cloud computing?

To build a business case for moving systems to the cloud you first need to understand what your existing infrastructure actually costs. There’s a lot to factor in: obvious things like the cost of running a data centers, and extras such as leased lines. The cost of physical hardware — servers and details of specifications like CPUs, cores and RAM, plus the cost of storage. You’ll also need to calculate the cost of applications — whether you plan to dump them, re-hosting them in the cloud unchanged, completely rebuilding them for the cloud or buying an entirely new SaaS package each option will have different cost implications. The cloud business case also needs to include people costs (often second only to the infrastructure costs) and more nebulous concepts like the benefit of being able to provide new services faster. Any cloud business case should also factor in the potential downsides, including the risk of being locked into one vendor for your tech infrastructure.

Cloud computing adoption

It’s hard to get figures on how companies are adopting cloud services although the market is clearly growing rapidly. One set of research suggests that around 12% of businesses consider themselves to be ‘cloud-first’ organisations, and about a third run some kind of workloads in the cloud — while a quarter of firms insist they will never move on-demand.

However, it may be that figures on adoption of cloud depend on who you talk to inside an organisation. Not all cloud spending will be driven centrally by the CIO: cloud services are relatively easy to sign up for, so business managers can start using them, and pay out of their own budget, without needing to inform the IT department. This can enable businesses to move faster but also can create security risks if the use of apps is not managed.

Adoption will also vary by application: cloud-based email — is much easier to adopt than a new finance system for example. Research by Spiceworks suggests that companies are planning to invest in cloud-based communications and collaboration tools and back-up and disaster recovery, but are less likely to be investing in supply chain management.

What about cloud computing security?

Certainly many companies remain concerned about the security of cloud services, although breaches of security are rare. How secure you consider cloud computing to be will largely depend on how secure your existing systems are. In-house systems managed by a team with many other things to worry about are likely to be more leaky than systems monitored by a cloud provider’s engineers dedicated to protecting that infrastructure.

However, concerns do remain about security, especially for companies moving their data between many cloud services, which has leading to growth in cloud security tools, which monitor data moving to and from the cloud and between cloud platforms. These tools can identify fraudulent use of data in the cloud, unauthorised downloads, and malware. There is a financial and performance impact however: these tools can reduce the return on investment of the cloud by five to 10% , and impact performance by five to 15% . The country of origin of cloud services is also worrying some organisations (see Is geography irrelevant when it comes to cloud computing? below)

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What is public cloud?

Public cloud is the classic cloud computing model, where users can access a large pool of computing power over the internet (whether that is IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS). One of the significant benefits here is the ability to rapidly scale a service. The cloud computing suppliers have vast amounts of computing power, which they share out between a large number of customers — the ‘multi-tenant’ architecture. Their huge scale means they have enough spare capacity that they can easily cope if any particular customer needs more resources, which is why it is often used for less-sensitive applications that demand a varying amount of resources.

What is private cloud?

Private cloud allows organizations to benefit from the some of the advantages of public cloud — but without the concerns about relinquishing control over data and services, because it is tucked away behind the corporate firewall. Companies can control exactly where their data is being held and can build the infrastructure in a way they want — largely for IaaS or PaaS projects — to give developers access to a pool of computing power that scales on-demand without putting security at risk. However, that additional security comes at a cost, as few companies will have the scale of AWS, Microsoft or Google, which means they will not be able to create the same economies of scale. Still, for companies that require additional security, private cloud may be a useful stepping stone, helping them to understand cloud services or rebuild internal applications for the cloud, before shifting them into the public cloud.

What is hybrid cloud?

Hybrid cloud is perhaps where everyone is in reality: a bit of this, a bit of that. Some data in the public cloud, some projects in private cloud, multiple vendors and different levels of cloud usage. According to research by TechRepublic, the main reasons for choosing hybrid cloud include disaster recovery planning and the desire to avoid hardware costs when expanding their existing data center.

Cloud computing migration costs

For start-ups who plan to run all their systems in the cloud getting started is pretty simple. But the majority of companies it is not so simple: with existing applications and data they need to work out which systems are best left running as they, and which to start moving them to cloud infrastructure. This is a potentially risky and expensive move, and migrating to the cloud could cost companies more if they underestimate the scale of such projects.

A survey of 500 businesses that were early cloud adopters found that the need to rewrite applications to optimise them for the cloud was one of the biggest costs, especially if the apps were complex or customised. A third of those surveyed said cited high fees for passing data between systems as a challenge in moving their mission-critical applications.

The report by Forrester also found that the skills required for migration are both difficult and expensive to find — and that even when organisations could find the right people they risked them being stolen away by cloud computing vendors with deep pockets. One third of those surveyed said their software database license costs drastically increased if they moved applications.

Beyond this the majority also remained worried about the performance of critical apps and one in three cited this as a reason for not moving some critical applications.

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• Is geography irrelevant when it comes to cloud computing?

Actually it turns out that is where the cloud really does matter; indeed geopolitics is forcing significant changes on cloud computing user and vendors. Firstly, there is the issue of latency: if the application is coming from a data center on the other side of the planet, or on the other side of a congested network, then you may find it sluggish compared to a local connection. That’s the latency problem.

Secondly, there is the issue of data sovereignty. Many companies — particularly in Europe — have to worry about where their data is being processed and stored. European companies are worried that, for example, if their customer data is being stored in data centers in the US or (owned by US companies) it could be accessed by US law enforcement. As a result the big cloud vendors have been building out a regional data center network so that organizations can keep their data in their own region.

In Germany, Microsoft has gone one step further, offering its Azure cloud services from two data centers, which have been set up to make it much harder for US authorities — and others — to demand access to the customer data stored there. The customer data in the data centers is under the control of an independent German company which acts as a “data trustee”, and Microsoft cannot access data at the sites without the permission of customers or the data trustee. Expect to see cloud vendors opening more data centers around the world to cater to customers with requirements to keep data in specific locations.

And regulation of cloud computing varies widely elsewhere across the world: for example AWS recently sold a chunk of its cloud infrastructure in China to its local partner because of China’s strict tech regulations. Since then AWS has opened a second China (Ningxia) Region, operated by Ningxia Western Cloud Data Technology.

Cloud security is another issue; the UK government’s cyber security agency has warned that government agencies need to consider the country of origin when it comes to adding cloud services into their supply chains. While it was warning about antivirus software in particular, the issue is the same for other types of services too.

Consultants Accenture have warned that ‘digital fragmentation’ is the result as different countries enact legislation to protect privacy and improve cyber security. While the aims of the laws is laudable, the impact is to raise costs for businesses. Three quarters of the 400 CIOs and CTOs surveyed expect to exit a geographic market, delay their market-entry plans or abandon market-entry plans in the next three years as a result of increased barriers to globalization.

More than half of the business leaders surveyed believe that the increasing barriers to globalization will compromise their ability to: use or provide cloud-based services (cited by 54% of respondents, versus 14% that disagree); use or provide data and analytics services across national markets (54% versus 15% ); and operate effectively across different national IT standards (58% versus 18%).

Over half said these increasing barriers will force their companies to rethink their: global IT architectures (cited by 60%) physical IT location strategy (52%); cybersecurity strategy and capabilities (51%); relationship with local and global IT suppliers (50%); and geographic strategy for IT talent (50%).

What is a cloud computing region? What is a cloud computing availability zone?

Cloud computing services are operated from giant datacenters around the world. AWS divides this up by ‘regions’ and ‘availability zones’. Each AWS region is a separate geographic area, like EU (London) or US West (Oregon), which AWS then further subdivides into what it calls availability zones (AZs). An AZ is composed of one or more datacenters that are far enough apart that in theory a single disaster won’t take both offline, but close enough together for business continuity applications that require rapid failover. Each AZ has multiple internet connections and power connections to multiple grids: AWS has over 50 AZs.

Google uses a similar model, dividing its cloud computing resources into regions which are then subdivided into zones, which include one or more datacenters from which customers can run their services. It currently has 15 regions made up of 44 zones: Google recommends customers deploy applications across multiple zones and regions to help protect against unexpected failures.

Microsoft Azure divides its resources slightly differently. It offers regions which it describes as is a “set of datacentres deployed within a latency-defined perimeter and connected through a dedicated regional low-latency network”. It also offers ‘geographies’ typically containing two or more regions, that can be used by customers with specific data-residency and compliance needs “to keep their data and apps close”. It also offers availability zones made up of one or more data centres equipped with independent power, cooling and networking.

Cloud computing and power usage

Those data centers are also sucking up a huge amount of power: for example Microsoft recently struck a deal with GE to buy all of the output from its new 37-megawatt wind farm in Ireland for the next 15 years in order to power its cloud data centers. Ireland said it now expects data centers to account for 15% of total energy demand by 2026, up from less than two percent back in 2015.

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Which are the big cloud computing companies?

When it comes to IaaS and PaaS there are really only a few giant cloud providers. Leading the way is Amazon Web Services, and then the following pack of Microsoft’s Azure, Google, IBM, and Alibaba. While the following pack might be growing fast, their combined revenues are still less than those of AWS, according to data from the Synergy Research Group.

Analysts 451 Research said that for many companies the strategy will be to use AWS and one other cloud provider, a policy they describe as AWS + 1. These big players will dominate the delivery of cloud services: Gartner said two thirds of the spending on cloud computing services will go through the top 10 public cloud providers through to 2021.

It’s also worth noting that while all these companies are selling cloud services, they have different strengths and priorities. AWS is particularly strong in IaaS and PaaS, but has designs on moving up towards databases. Microsoft in contrast has a particular emphasis on SaaS thanks to Office 365 and its other software largely aimed at end user productivity, but is also trying to rapidly grow its IaaS and Paas offering through Azure.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) (which also offers office productivity tools) is somewhere between the two. IBM and Oracle’s cloud businesses are also made up of a combination of Saas and more infrastructure based offerings.

There are vast numbers of companies who have are offering applications through the cloud using a SaaS model. Salesforce is probably the best known of these.

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AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure — what is the difference?

The cloud giants have different strengths. While AWS and Microsoft’s commercial cloud businesses are about the same size, Microsoft includes Office 365 in its figures. IBM, Oracle, Google and Alibaba all have sizeable cloud businesses too.

Increasingly the major cloud computing vendors are attempting to differentiate according to the services that they offer, especially if they can’t compete with AWS and Microsoft in terms of scale. Google for example is promoting its expertise around artificial intelligence; Alibaba wants to attract customers who are interested in learning from its retail know-how. In a world where most companies will use at least one cloud provider and usually many more, IBM wants to position itself as the company that can manage all these multiple clouds. Meanwhile AWS is pitching itself as the platform for builders, which is its new take on developers.

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Cloud computing price wars

The cost of some cloud computing services — particularly virtual machines — has been falling steadily thanks to continued competition between these big players. There is some evidence that the price cuts may spread to other services like storage and databases, as cloud vendors want to win the big workloads that are moving out of enterprise datacenters and into the cloud. That’s likely to be good news for customers and prices could still fall further, as there remains a hefty margin in even the most commodity areas of cloud infrastructure services, like provision of virtual machines.

What is the future of cloud computing?

Cloud computing is still at a relatively early stage of adoption, despite its long history. Many companies are still considering which apps to move and when. However, usage is only likely to climb as organisations get more comfortable with the idea of their data being somewhere other than a server in the basement. We’re still relatively early into cloud adoption — some estimates suggest that only 10% of the workloads that could be move have actually been transferred across. Those are the easy ones where the economics are hard for CIOs to argue with.

For the rest of the enterprise computing portfolio the economics of moving to the cloud may be less clear cut. As a result cloud computing vendors are increasingly pushing cloud computing as an agent of digital transformation instead of focusing simply on cost. Moving to the cloud can help companies rethink business processes and accelerate business change, goes the argument, by helping to break down data and organisational silos. Some companies that need to boost momentum around their digital transformation programmes may find this argument appealing; others may find enthusiasm for the cloud waning as the costs of making the switch add up.

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Cloud computing case studies

There are plenty of examples of organisations deciding to go down the cloud computing route: here are a few examples of recent announcements.

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PREVIOUS COVERAGE

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Source :- https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-cloud-computing-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-cloud/

The business case has been made and you’ve appointed your project resources for cloud migration. It’s now time to scope and plan your migration. Far too frequently, organizations do not take the time to plan how they will migrate from an on-premises or hosted infrastructure environment, onto a cloud platform.

This is a fundamental misstep often made by IT decision makers. Because without proper planning, the cloud will not deliver its full value and will likely extend the time required for a successful migration. Cloud migration is not an infrastructure refresh in which you are ripping out old hardware and replacing it with new. It’s an application landscape redesign that will change not only the way IT administrators interact with your systems, but also how your applications interact with one another and are delivered to your end users.

There are many factors which need to be taken into account when moving enterprise applications to a cloud environment. Some are obvious, while others are not. Below are a few guidelines to consider when undertaking an application migration to the cloud.

Don’t overlook these steps when moving production applications to the cloud.

Moving production applications to the cloud requires careful thought and an openness to the re-architecture of not only the application space, but surrounding processes and policies. Various providers may recommend a cloud-only approach, but this may not always be the best solution for all your applications. A careful design that accounts for all IT environment factors and business outcomes may instead yield a hybrid solution.

Many businesses are finding that an infrastructure that delivers cloud at the core, but is flexible to continue to cater for some workloads on physical infrastructure is the best solution.

Source :- https://www.synmatixit.com.au/migrating-from-old-hardware-into-the-cloud/