Managing cloud computing: A life cycle approach

Cloud computing has the promise of significant benefits that include reduced costs, improved service provisioning, and a move to a pay-per-use model. However, there also are many challenges to successfully delivering cloud-based services; including security, data ownership, interoperability, service maturity and return on investment. These challenges need to be understood and managed before attempting to take advantage of what the cloud has to offer. In this paper we introduce a nine-step cloud life cycle that can be used for both the migration and the ongoing management of public, cloud-based services. A consortium of organizations using an open-innovation approach developed the life cycle. This paper describes each step of the life cycle in terms of the key challenges faced, and the recommended activities, with resultant outputs, needed to overcome them.