Moving Your Business to the Cloud (A Guide for Business People Shifting to eCommerce)

By Keith Foote

This is a business person's guide to negotiating and setting up a contract with Cloud providers. It explains the basic technical terms needed, the Cloud's culture and expectations, platforms, and software. The book describes the various strengths and features of different Clouds, and their pricing. It explores various options for selling on online. The end of cookies, and your options, are described, as well.

This book is about doing eCommerce through the use of Clouds. Depending on a business' needs, it may choose from a large variety of public and private Cloud solutions. Additionally, there are several options available for organizations choosing to build their own Cloud. There are a variety of open source (free) options, and many Cloud providers offer a variety of platforms in both public and private formats. For business purposes, it should be emphasized the goal of using the Cloud is about maximizing output, while minimizing expenses. Realizing this goal requires some knowledge and understanding of the Cloud. This book provides that knowledge.

It also has a section for Apps/Software development, and some tips on internet marketing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Keith Foote
• Release date: Jun 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9780970980113

Book preview

Moving Your Business to the Cloud

(A Guide for Business People Shifting to eCommerce.)

by Keith D. Foote

Copyright © 2021 by Keith D. Foote

ISBN 978-0-9709801-1-3

Published by Keith D. Foote

Cover art by EriWo

Image by EriWo from Pixabay

Moving Your Business to the Cloud

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1- Moving a Retail Business to the Cloud

1.1- Creating A Business Model for the Cloud

1.2 Who Makes The Decisions- The Decision Making Hierarchy

1.3 Business Goals and the Cloud

1.4 eCommerce

1.5 Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

1.6 Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

1.7 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Chapter 2- Databases and Your Needs (Basic Tech Stuff)

2.1 Relational Databases

2.2 Non-Relational Databases

2.3 Virtual Machines in the Cloud

Chapter 3- Doing Business With The Cloud Vendors

3.1 The Contract And The Fine Print

3.2 Paying for the Cloud

3.3 Storage and Scalability

3.4 Avoid Paying for Deleted Files

3.5 Cloud Contracts

3.6 Three Cloud Spending Blind Spots

3.7 Avoid Choosing the Wrong Service Level

3.8 Asking the Right Questions

Chapter 4- API Compatibility Issues

4.1 Application Program Interface (API)

4.2 Compatibility at the PaaS Level

4.3 Compatibility at the SaaS Level

Chapter 5- Private Clouds, Hybrid Clouds, and Multi-Clouds

5.1Prepping for the Cloud (Free Training)

5.2Private Clouds

5.3 Sources Of Private Clouds

5.4 Open-Source Clouds

5.5 Private Cloud Issues To Consider

5.6 Private Cloud Tips

5.7 Hybrid Clouds

5.8 Prepping for the Hybrid Cloud

5.9 Separating the Workloads

5.10 Latency Issues

5.11 Balancing Workloads Between Public and Private Clouds

5.12 Migrating in phases

5.13 Security

5.14 Maximizing the Hybrid Cloud

5.15 The Multi-Cloud

5.16 Problems with the Multi-Cloud Philosophy

5.17 Avoiding Vendor Lock-In!

5.18 Multi-Cloud brokers

5.19 Security In The Multi-Cloud

5.20 Centralization Problems

5.21 Public Cloud Controls That Should Be Evaluated

5.22 Multi-Cloud Management Platforms

5.23 Basic Retail Apps To Have In The Multi-Cloud

5.24 Choosing Public Clouds

Chapter 6- eCommerce SaaS Platforms

Chapter 7– Cloud Retail Businesses (eCommerce) and the End of Cookies

7.1 Warning! Data Management Platforms Are about to be Eliminated, or Altered Significantly!

7.2 Trust and the Competition

7.3 Preparing For The Immediate Future

7.4 Marketing and Third-party Data

7.5 What Is Actually Needed To Develop A Strong Repeat Customer Base?

7.6 Alternatives To Data Management Platforms

7.7 Master Data Management (MDM) Software

7.8 The Multi-Domain Competitive Edge

7.9 Integrating MDM with the Workflow

7.10 Data Security and MDMs

7.11 Artificial Intelligence and MDMs

7.12 A Word on Machine Learning and AI

7.13 Stibo Systems And Their New Multi-domain Master Data Management Solution

7.14 Some Other MDMs

7.15 Metadata Management

7.16 Octopai And Metadata Management

7.17 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

7.18 CRM Software

7.19 Open-Source CRMs

7.20 CRM Tips To Increase Sales

7.21 CRMs vs CDPs

7.22 Customer Data Platform (CDP) Software

7.23 CDPs with AI and Machine Learning

7.24 Warning! There are CDP imposters!

7.25 Accessing CDP Software

7.26 The Benefits of Combining an MDM with a CRM

7.27 The Benefits of Combining an MDM with a CDP

7.28 Security and the Cloud

7.29 The Cloud's Security Responsibilities

Chapter 8- Software &Apps Development

8.1 Agile and DevOps Philosophies (Software/Apps Development)

8.2 Software Copyrights

8.3 Protecting Your Ideas

8.4 Putting Together an Apps Development Team

8.5 Types of Software

8.6 Embedded Software

8.7 Various Kinds of Application Software

8.8 Before Developing Software

8.9 Determine the Cost of Developing the App

8.10 Different Models for Developing Software/Apps

8.11 Containers vs Microservices

8.12 Microservices

8.13 Tightly Focused

8.14 The Decentralization of Microservices

8.15 Maintenance of Microservices

8.16 Building Containers with Microservices

8.17 The Use of Containers

8.18 Data Persistence

8.19 Host-Based Persistence

8.20 Persistence Solutions From Docker

8.21 Kubernetes

8.22 Kubernetes and Docker

8.23 Docker

8.24 Container Orchestration

8.25 Restructuring Employees For Working With Containers

8.26 Virtual Machines Vs Containers

8.27 Tips On Containers

8.28 Kubernetes Basics

8.29 The Strengths of Kubernetes

Chapter 9- Cloud providers for DIY Apps Development

Chapter 10- Marketing on the Internet (Retail, Apps, Etcetera)

Suggested Reading

Moving Your Business to the Cloud

By Keith D. Foote

Introduction

There are many ways to do business on the internet. Depending on a business' needs, it may choose from a large variety of public and private Cloud solutions. Additionally, there are several options available for organizations choosing to build their own Cloud. There are a variety of open source (free) options, and many Cloud providers offer a variety of platforms in both public and private formats. For business purposes, it should be emphasized the goal of using the Cloud is about maximizing output, while minimizing expenses. Realizing this goal requires some knowledge and understanding of the Cloud.

I've attempted to cover the basics a business person (and, perhaps an apps developer becoming a business person) would need to know when doing business with Cloud providers. The book offers some sense of what to expect. Some information is repeated, with the goal of reinforcing it in your memory. The Cloud, as an overall industry, is size huge, with each Cloud having its own unique characteristics, which are constantly changing and evolving.

The initial steps in migrating to the Cloud involve researching the Cloud, signing the contract, configuring the account, and listing the staff approved to use it. Some Cloud providers walk clients through the installation process, while others – Google and Amazon, as examples – offer online introductory guides.

Moving to the Cloud can have a significant impact on a business. For one thing, it can now expand to a world wide market. The impact includes opportunities to discover or create new innovations. It also means changes in the business' culture, organization, and in staffing. Access to the Cloud brings the flexibility necessary to stay competitive and to meet changing market demands. The benefits of moving to the Cloud, and using it appropriately, include:

Improved performance

Increased agility and flexibility

The improved meeting of customer expectations

Reduction in costs

Immediate (automated) business responses

Cloud scalability

Downsizing IT

The development of new apps

Public Clouds are organized systems of computing that offer lots of storage, an interesting selection of development tools, useful software, and servers. To access a public Cloud, an organization requires use of the internet. Public Clouds use a variety of payment models, depending on the services being used. User-friendliness and monetary savings have contributed significantly to the growing popularity of public Clouds.

Shifting an organization's computer and internet workloads to the Cloud can provide useful business tools, such as graph displays and data storage. A steadily increasing number organizations have shifted some, most, or all of their computing technology to public Clouds. Some have the goal of using them to develop hybrid Cloud strategies, or to use them for the bulk of their computing needs. Dan Fallon, a senior director of the Nutanix Cloud, stated The main trend is, agencies want out of the hardware business.

Public Clouds have become a popular a solution for many projects involving Big Data research, Business Intelligence, analytics, and other specialized projects, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Cloud vendors normally provide significant scalability and several user-friendly tools. Migrating to the Cloud is generally considered a cost-effective step, making it an excellent option for organizations and businesses of any size. Redundancies built into the Cloud's operating environment means they are resilient and offer data availability guarantees that private, in-house systems cannot support.

Public Clouds can be especially useful to cash-strapped startups. It is much less expensive to rent the services of a Cloud, than to purchase and maintain the hardware needed to accomplish the same goals. A business no longer has to invest in purchasing equipment, ongoing computer maintenance, or the the hiring and training of a large staff to support it.

Unfortunately, the Cloud can become quite expensive for the inexperienced. For example, choosing the wrong vendor can be a painful and expensive learning process. And some are surprised to find simply removing data from the Cloud can become expensive, as it varies, depending on how much data is being handled. Wasting time on the Cloud, as in leaving the work for ten minutes to get a cup of coffee, is essentially a form of giving away money. (I recommend limiting work in the Cloud for not more than an hour, until you/staff get used to it.) Without constant and close attention, and the development of good work habits, public Cloud costs can become unnecessarily high, and devastate a well-planned budget. Unlike a stable monthly access fee, the Cloud fees can vary widely from month to month, depending on usage.

RightScale surveyed 1,002 tech professionals from a variety of industries in January of 2017. These people reported using as many as eight different Clouds, on average, to optimize Cloud costs and maximize efficiency (the multi-Cloud strategy). The University of California decided to adopt this strategy of using the Cloud first, for financial reasons. They retired three (older) mainframes, and shifted as much data processing as possible from their own systems to public Clouds. The multi-Cloud philosophy applies primarily to apps developers, but businesses offering the sale of products or services (eCommerce ) may only need one primary Cloud, with a backup Cloud for emergencies.

While long-term savings and efficiency can be achieved by using public Clouds, large, established businesses typically do not migrate to a public Cloud, casually. It can be expensive for large businesses to migrate to a Cloud environment, and the decision to migrate is normally made when faced with with the expense of needing a new data center or starting a new online store. Large organizations migrate to the Cloud when they are faced with significant technological upgrades to their own equipment. Moving to the Cloud makes more sense, long term.

Public Clouds provide a variety of services, with different Clouds offering different services. The operations available range from designing and building applications to gathering Business Intelligence. The three top Cloud providers are Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google. Each of these can be described as multi-purpose Clouds, and offer a broad range of useful tools, applications, and services. Some of the smaller, more specialized Clouds can also be quite useful, and may be a better deal for certain businesses. (And, there are those who simply don't want to support massive corporations).

Security is often the the biggest concern in using public Clouds (and much of that has to do with your own security, and passwords). While the various public Clouds have steadily improved their security over the past decade, start-ups (and established organizations) can, and should, take their own steps in developing good security. Clouds can be accessed from anywhere, and if a stranger accesses your Cloud account, the question becomes, How did they get your passwords?

There are several reasons a single