Initiating a Cloud Hosting solution is a multi-faceted endeavour that requires the IT and business-oriented wings of an enterprise to operate in tandem. Optimizing the advantages gained through the strategy, to a specific business and deployment and making sure that the transition produces the least amount of operational disruption requires both technological and business expertise to shape decisions.

Digital Transformation is emerging as a pre-requisite to remaining relevant in the emerging economy. Cloud Hosting in Dubai, as elsewhere, is being driven by enterprises becoming cognizant of the inherent advantages. A leaner, agiler and vastly more efficient business model is the crux of the motivation to adopt the strategy. The region is undergoing an evolution in its economic model and the UAE – in particular – is in the midst of a concerted and vibrant reinvention on the basis of innovation and technology.

The uptake of Cloud Hosting solutions in the UAE is among the most rapid in the world and the trend is only likely to gather momentum. Several concerns need to be accommodated, once an enterprise has committed to the approach. Identifying the model of Cloud Hosting, the applications that will be migrated first, identifying the right Cloud Hosting company to engage and creating a master plan that will address all the diverse facets of the transition – including team-specific tasks and responsibilities, ensuring the involvement and initiative of senior stakeholders and addressing concerns around legacy processes and infrastructure.

The culture, size, nature and other specifics of an organization – logistics, regulations and operational complexities, among others – need to inform all decisions around the transformation. A coherent and comprehensive plan that anticipates and accounts for the challenges can be the difference between a successful and smooth transition and a flawed implementation. Here are some considerations that can help to streamline the process:

• Creating Cohesion and Synergies: Stakeholders across the entire business – as well as the external entities involved – need to pull in the same direction, for a transformation as fundamental as this, to succeed. While it is natural for all concerned to have good intentions, these can prove inadequate if scuttled by a lack of planning. Clearly identifying the roles of individuals and teams, from hands-on involvement to crucial tertiary contributions, need to be identified and conveyed clearly.
• Enhancing flexibility and optionality: It is simplistic to expect a one size fits all Cloud Hosting solution. The very nature of the strategy is best utilized in a customized and enterprise-specific manner. The rollout should take into account the options within the solutions itself – such as Public, Private and Hybrid models and other configurations – and also keep options open for future requirements.
• Integrating components and accommodating legacy infrastructure: Any successful Cloud Hosting deployment must take care to integrate all its components – including platforms, applications, vendors and locations – in a fashion that optimizes them. Comprehensive control through an intuitive interface, interoperability and accommodating legacy components must be planned for.
• Retaining existing advantages: From hierarchy and structure to process and workflow, organizations put a great deal of effort and experience into evolving into what works for them. While Cloud Hosting is a departure from a pre-existing norm, it should be employed to further enhance existing efficiencies, rather than replacing them thoughtlessly. 

• Defining expectations and taking responsibility: Several technologies, numerous devices, possibly multiple vendors and diverse components make up the IT infrastructure of a modern business. Transforming an existing IT ecosystem across to a Cloud Hosting solution will be likely to involve and affect each one of these variables. Such diversity is nearly inevitable within an organization of reasonable size that has existed for even a few years. In the interest of a successful transition, however, it is advisable to engage a single competent and capable Cloud Hosting service provider for the end to end process. It is essential that goals, expectations and service quality are clearly defined and responsibility apportioned to the relevant stakeholder before the transition begins.