Define the System Goals and Requirements

All IT projects should begin with a specification of requirements. Cloud-based solutions are no exception. As you begin to define your solution’s requirements, consider the following common issues:

• Data security and privacy requirements

• Site capacity plan—What resources will the application initially need to operate?

• Scalability requirements—What measurable factors should drive scaling events?

• System uptime requirements—A cloud provider must be able to match your site’s up-time requirements.

• Business-continuity and disaster requirements

• Budget requirements

• Operating-system and programming-language requirements

• Type of cloud: public, private, or hybrid

• Single- or multitenant solution requirements

• Data-backup requirements

• Client-device requirements—What devices, such as a desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone, must the application support?

• Training requirements

• Help-desk and support requirements

• Governance and auditing requirements

• Open-source software requirements—Some companies believe that open source–based cloud solutions reduce the risk of vendor lock-in.

• Programming application-program-interface (API) requirements

• Dashboard and reporting requirements

• Client-access rights requirements

• Data-export requirements—Make sure the cloud provider lets you export all of your data in the event that you need to cease operations or move the solution to a different cloud.

After you define your application requirements, discuss each in detail with potential cloud-solution providers. Make sure you clearly define all of your system requirements within the service-level agreement (SLA) you make with your cloud-solution provider.