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Appliance Deployment Featured Article
August 02, 2011
Appliance Deployment - Are Your Ready to Transition to the Cloud?
By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor
A number of industry players have already leveraged the virtual appliance, but not all of these appliances are in the cloud. Given the benefits the cloud promises, making that move in the near future is a certainty for quite a few companies.
There are a few factors that must be considered before making this appliance deployment transition. According to this NEI (News - Alert) blog, there are four elements that are essential to making a successful move if you are an independent software vendor (ISV) or OEM.
The first element to consider is development. Virtual platforms have been proven to be more complex to develop than their physical counterparts. You not only need to select a hyperviser to run the virtual application, you also need to consider VM resources. In the process, you can make the right choice to meet the needs of your prospective customers when making your appliance deployment.
The good news is that moving your appliance deployment to the cloud does increase these choices. Each provider in the cloud computing space offers different infrastructures with different VM requirements. If you can easily adapt to different infrastructures while also minimizing your appliance footprint and increasing performance monitoring, you can help to drive successful appliance deployment in the cloud.
Provisioning is also critical in appliance deployment in the cloud. Customers operating in the cloud are unlikely to have large and dedicated IT resources to address issues such as setup or those that apply to the user-interface. Cloud solutions are often adopted as a result of their low cost and quick deployment. It may be necessary for you to adjust the installation and user interface to make it more compatible within the cloud platform and for users.
One of the advantages of the cloud environment is the reduced need for dedicated IT resources for end-users. As a result, the appliance deployment in the cloud must be maintained by you as the OEM or ISV. You do also have the option to outsource this element to a service partner.
The final element to consider for appliance deployment in the cloud is to make the latest version of your software quickly available to your end users. New customers will always start with the latest iteration of your offering, while existing customers expect to be kept up-to-date. You will have to decide if you will release a whole new revision that requires customers to save all settings and store all information, or simply deploy patches and upgrades to the existing version.
If you want to leverage the benefits of appliance deployment in the cloud, you need to be able to leverage all of the benefits offered in the cloud and extend them to your customer base. When you clearly define your strategy and include these four elements, you’ll be better equipped to make that move.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Jamie Epstein
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