Episode Summary

iland Director of Cloud Market Intelligence Brian Knudtson is joined by guests, and current cloud customers, Galen Lechner, Steve Broeder, and Ryan Laverdiere for a conversation about how to overcome concerns with the cloud. They discuss their experiences in the cloud thus far, the role planning plays in achieving success, how that differs from planning on-premises, and how IT professionals should be positioning themselves to excel through the cloud’s new dynamics instead of fearing them. Sit down, and relax. Season 2 wraps with a much-needed therapy session.

Panel

Cloud Conversations

Topic 1

[03:46] While we can plan for potential outcomes, there will always be surprises. How can a lack of due diligence go wrong in the cloud and what kind of contingency plans should customers develop to help reduce risk?

Topic 2

[12:33] Planning has always been key to success for on-premises and cloud projects alike. However, have you witnessed any nuances that make you think the planning process for the cloud should be different? Or do you approach it the same way you always have?

Topic 3

[23:21] What kind of new dynamics should IT professionals be prepared for when they adopt the cloud? And how can they position themselves to truly excel through these changes instead of just fearing them?

Cloud Bites

[01:09] “Overcoming the fears for me has been about wrapping my head around how the cloud can better my company and add more resources to a small IT staff.”  — Galen Lechner 

[05:53] “We are just now digging ourselves out of the hole that we got ourselves in from our lack of testing products.” — Galen Lechner 

[07:28] “So I think that’s a very real struggle that everyone faces when they’re starting to really price out cloud and consider those pros and cons of going and the risk of signing long term for the better deal or not.” — Steve Broeder

[10:47] “Of course, we don’t want any downtime. But, you know, is it worth the really expensive insurance policy to combat being down for an hour or two?” — Steve Broeder

[13:53] “I think if you really do that kind of homework and talk to management and figure out business goals and principles and ideas and challenges and what they expect out of cloud, that will make the actual cloud implementation a lot easier and smoother.” — Steve Broeder

[15:26] “It’s business wide planning, too. It’s not just planning for IT.” — Ryan Laverdiere

[19:39] “We also need to be cognizant of the fact that it’s not just moving what we have today. It’s also potentially moving or having an archive of yesterday.” — Ryan Laverdiere

[23:34] “I think the big thing is to be ready for rapid change and modern thinking.” — Ryan Laverdiere

[27:14] “See it as an opportunity to improve operations and hopefully operate in a more streamlined environment.” — Ryan Laverdiere

[27:48] “It gives you more opportunity to actually learn the applications and how you can better the business that way. I think that can be a real nice added benefit.” — Galen Lechner 

[28:25] “It’s given us the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the big picture that we didn’t necessarily understand before. In IT we’re always infrastructure focused and now we kind of get a more complete picture of how day to day operations run, and we can focus on finding efficiencies that can help everybody.” — Ryan Laverdiere

[28:52] “The cloud itself, it’s changing so rapidly and so quickly. It’s growing up. It’s maturing right in front of our eyes.” — Steve Broeder