Cloud Computing—Opportunities, Challenges, and Best Practices

​According to Knowledge Sharing author Lokesh Seramalanna, by 2014, the main drivers of cloud IT workloads will be​

​• redeployment of on-premise applications and business productivity capabilities​

​• migrating traditional workloads, collaboration infrastructure, and general purpose IT infrastructure to public and private clouds​

​Such IT transformation—particularly moving toward a cloud computing environment—requires strong project management leadership and technical expertise. Today’s IT professionals—developers/architects/PM/business analysts/testers—find themselves under pressure to acquire business skills to ease stakeholders and end users through the transition.​

​In his Knowledge Sharing article, Lokesh offers steps that organizations should take to reap the benefits of cloud projects, such as;​

​• defining strategic goals​

​• addressing risks​

​• monitoring progress through implementation and beyond​

​Following these vital project management steps will help achieve the greatest ROI in cloud computing and communicate that success across the organization.​

​This article provides insight on cloud computing, opportunity landscape, customer challenges, and best practices to be followed for cloud solutions. Tools and techniques such as Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), mapping key cloud areas to nine knowledge areas (KAs) of PmBOK, and patterns to be considered for organizations moving onto cloud are also discussed. The article also highlights key aspects to consider for team development and management during cloud adoption.​

​Read the full article.​