Overcoming Nephophobia:  Case Studies

Kari Robertson�Chief Technology Officer�University of California (UCOP)�Kari.Robertson@ucop.edu�

Why is it so hard?

Cloud benefits well published

Infrastructure is invisible to most

Change is hard – people fear loss of:

• Understanding
• Control
• Stability
• Employment

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The ability to influence without direct authority requires creativity

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(and sometimes a bit of mischief)

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Why Is It So Hard?

I do not condone violence�…ever

…but sometimes carrots don’t work, �and we must move on to other forms of persuasion

Nephophobe

Cloud Leader

IT Leaders

…even when you feel like this

How can thinking like a bartender, lawyer, and Steve Urkel

help to advance your cloud migration goals?

Evaluation Criteria

Termination Factor:

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Avoid people in the hallway; conduct mischief

Explicit conversations about termination

Go Team! We are in this together

Cloud excitement and support

“You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here”

- Bartenders everywhere

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Case Study: Data Center Capacity Constraint

Termination Factor:

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4

Impetus: Data Center overcommitted, priority to support research

Resistance:

• I don’t want to be your guinea pig
• The cloud is not secure
• I’m too busy, leave me alone
• My application won’t work in the cloud

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Persuasion Tactics:

• Solidify secure cloud posture, CISO support
• Fund migration with Data Center refresh funds – no cost to business
• Start migration work with critical application owned by IT
• Prove it works, then migrate at scale

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Resistance Factor:

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3

Case Study: ERP Eviction

Termination Factor:

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4

Impetus:  Current Managed Service Provider (MSP) required re-platform

Resistance:

• We should do exactly what the MSP tells us to do
• We are not satisfied with current hosting, but scared to change
• It could get worse
• This can’t fail, can you guarantee it will work?

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Persuasion Tactics:

• If not now, when? Think long-term strategy
• Migrate to cloud with a different Managed Service Provider
• Prove cloud is possible with external resources (safety net)
• Provide institutional knowledge with internal resources
• Use internally owned cloud account for easy transition when ready

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Resistance Factor:

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5

- Lawyers everywhere

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“If you want us, here are the terms”

Case Study: Evacuation of Primary Data Center

Termination Factor:

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4

Impetus:  Data Center hardware refresh required

Resistance:

• My legacy application won’t work in the cloud
• Go away, this is not my priority
• We talked about this 5 years ago, I’m using ‘X’, it can never move

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Persuasion Tactics:

• Better security, tools, standards, efficiency in cloud
• 62% Infrastructure already in cloud, don’t want to leave you behind
• Legacy applications with out-of-date components create large security risk
• Staying in physical data center will be very expensive

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Resistance Factor:

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3

Case Study: ERP Infrastructure Acquisition

Termination Factor:

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3

Impetus:  Required transition from existing Managed Service Provider

Resistance:

• It will only work in the same cloud service provider
• If our current Managed Service Provider struggles, why won’t you?
• We don’t have any documentation

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Persuasion Tactics:

• If you want us to do it, it must be where we are familiar
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) allows quick (and consistent) builds
• Full testing already required
• Form comprehensive team with help from cloud service provider

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Resistance Factor:

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2

• Steve Urkel, Family Matters

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“Did I do that?”

Case Study: Small ERP Needing Upgrade

Termination Factor:

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2

Impetus:  Desire to explore cloud migration with existing ERP

Resistance:

• What are you doing?
• I need the upgrade, I don’t care about the infrastructure

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Persuasion Tactics:

• Paired cloud migration with required upgrade
• Unable to stop critical business functions
• Full sign business sign off, pending security approval

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Resistance Factor:

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1

Case Study: Evacuation of Secondary Data Center

Termination Factor:

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3

Impetus:  Secondary Data Center hardware refresh required

Resistance:

• I don’t care what you do as long as Disaster Recovery works
• Will it cost me more money?
• I don’t have time to conduct a Disaster Recovery test

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Persuasion Tactics:

• Inform business eliminating Data Center, IT decision
• No changes to recharge model
• Minimize churn, quietly move workloads
• Business not required to perform Disaster Recovery test, but encouraged
• Improve overall Disaster Recovery feature set

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Resistance Factor:

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1

Case Study: Critical ERP Struggling Under Peak Load

Termination Factor:

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5

Impetus:  Application performance not meeting demand during peak load

Resistance:

• We don’t want to change anything, it is too risky
• This application won’t work in the cloud, the migration will take too long
• It will be too expensive

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Persuasion Tactics:

• It is already broken; we need to do something different
• If we are responsible for the infrastructure, then we are doing this our way
• Disaster Recovery test validated system will work (oops!)
• IaC produced very quick build times during ongoing debate
• Massive oversizing for peak load

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Resistance Factor:

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5

remember these faces

The next time you feel blocked from reaching your cloud goals…

THANK YOU�

Kari.Robertson@ucop.edu�

Abstract

Drama, Intrigue, and Passion…Migrations from a traditional data center to the cloud can create apprehension for all involved. There is no one size fits all approach, but there are some proven strategies that can help in even the most cloud-hesitant culture. Review real world case studies from different institutions that some might consider ‘creative’ or even ‘mischievous’, but were successful in the end. Caution: None of the case studies result in termination, but similar results cannot be guaranteed.