If you are a business owner or manager responsible for getting your company to the cloud, read these tips before making the commitment.

Anyone who has been working for more than a decade understands the cyclical nature of the economy. Prosperous times are followed by market corrections, and a downturn is no time for stifled investment in innovation. As a result, cloud computing is on everyone’s mind and a topic in every boardroom–promising lower costs, robust scalability and an independence from typical IT support and services.

Any company considering a move to the cloud must understand that the benefits can be short-lived without a plan that places cloud computing in the context of its overall business strategy and affects security, performance, and connectivity.

In particular, organizations will need to be able to integrate cloud computing into existing IT systems and applications. Very few organizations are ready or willing to start from scratch and most will not move all of their business processes to the cloud at once. This makes it essential to plan for the integration challenges ahead.

In fact, there may be business processes and applications that never move to the “cloud”. This means the business may always need to connect to local resources when in the office and be able to connect with the cloud as well. This can add some complexity to integrating existing systems with those on the cloud. With most businesses increasing freedom from in-office servers and computers that limit access and innovation, businesses are demanding simplification. With this in mind, let’s look more closely at realistic issues that should be considered when looking at the cloud.

Best Practice #1:

Create a strategy and a set of (realistic) goals upfront

Some businesses are jumping in without articulating a long-term cloud strategy and how it relates to their overall business. As with any project, establish realistic goals and priorities, a clear budget and deadline, as well as a shared understanding of what resources are available for implementation and maintenance. Although cloud computing promises significant advantages (both financially and efficiently) — keeping complexity and cost to a minimum requires planning and strategy.

Best Practice #2:

Learn from the mistakes of those who came before you

Early adopters took a standalone approach to cloud computing. The services were readily available, easy to consume, and economical. Implementation challenges were few. However, for most businesses where traditional IT infrastructure often served as a core business operation, the “detached” cloud delivered only short-term value and required additional re-implementation and migration of hardware and software.

Best Practice #3: Avoid large upfront costs

One reason businesses turn to cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) is to mitigate risk. With a pay-as-you-go model, you can simply turn the system off if it is not working for you, and you only pay for what you use. Be sure not to jeopardize return on investment with overly expensive migrations — your eventual solution, like every other part of your cloud computing investment, should use a flexible pay-as-you-go model.

Best Practice #4: Get serious about the Do-It-Yourself approach

The implementation of in-office applications has traditionally required IT specialists who have had a deep understanding of underlying application hardware and software processes. Cloud applications are designed to be managed by less-than-expert users – who should be able to set-up systems and users quickly and easily connect data with users throughout the company. Cloud adoption should complement the model by minimizing development, implementation, and maintenance resources, allowing users to focus on their core business.

Best Practice #5: Address security concerns

According to analysts, nearly 75 percent of CIO and IT executives cite security as their number one concern when it comes to cloud computing. Because integrated cloud computing involves moving sensitive data between the cloud and on-premise networks, guaranteeing security is vital. When investing in an integrated solution, determine which standards are needed for securing the data while being transmitted. Keep in mind that as businesses move more processes to the cloud, the volume of sensitive data flowing to and from the cloud increases.

Best Practice #6: Ensure performance and availability of the data

Today, popular cloud computing services provide levels of availability and performance that outperform internal infrastructure, in many cases 99.9 percent uptime or better. When looking at your cloud strategy, identify the needs and importance for each system and determine the amount of internet bandwidth that will be needed to support all of the business users. Success depends on ensuring information will not be lost if the cloud or on-premise source goes down. Yes, even the cloud needs a backup plan, and a backup internet source is strongly recommended.

Best Practice #7: Maximize connectivity options

Cloud computing has become a loose definition for services on the Web: everything from Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and Platform-as-a-service (PaaS), to Web-based utility and storage solutions, and emerging groups like Google Docs, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Research indicates that by the end of 2010, one-quarter of business process improvement plans will include integration of information from social computing solutions. Connectivity requirements will continue to evolve beyond common applications, older systems, and databases, to modern Web services and the newer Web 2.0 platrorm.

Solving the Integration Puzzle

Current economic conditions are driving businesses toward cloud computing, and with good reason. No one can argue that the cloud doesn’t deliver value. It is already proven to be a disruptive force. However, the cloud’s “Achilles heel” is a lack of integration with the rest of the business world. Realizing its full potential relies, for the foreseeable future, on integrating data in the cloud with in-office applications and databases.

Today’s enterprise cloud initiatives require decoupled data systems working together — without the need for personnel and other resources to set up and maintain them — making the integration from traditional office to the cloud the real key to success. Most companies cannot and will not abandon their previous IT investments to make the leap to the cloud all at once. Instead, there is more likely to be a gradual shift in business processes to the cloud over time – proof of concept will be the norm as businesses make the transition.

If the cloud delivers on its promise, more processes will be shifted, complexity will be diminished and businesses will see the true financial and process advantages of the “cloud”. To state it very simply, integration needs to be a forethought, not an afterthought. (Ready to learn more? Sign up for our free email newsletter for updates and information on cloud computing.)

Are You Ready For The Cloud?

Not every business is ready to make the transition to the cloud, but many are. DuraLogic is offering a comprehensive evaluation of your company’s IT infrastructure to determine if and when you might make the most out of transitioning some or all of your technology to the cloud. This Evaluation is provided at NO COST TO YOU. This offer is valid for new or existing clients.