A Cloud Methodology

Although this was published in June, I just saw it and felt it was to good not to repeat:

A Methodology for Cloud Computing Architecture

• Peel off the applications individually, to detangle the appliance mess (use case analysis).
  Categorize applications as batch, online, heavy transactional, or reporting – where the former two indicate likely cloud apps.
• Think of cloud computing as a way to load balance your application demands across different grids of available resources.
• Slide the clouds across different grids depending on costs, scheduling needs, or failover capacity.
• Take the hit to replicate critical data across different grids, to have it ready for a cutover within minutes; that's less expensive than buying insurance.
• Run your own multiple data centers as internal grids, but have additional grid resources ready for handling elastic demands (which you already have, in quantity).
• Reassure your DBAs and sysadmins that their roles are not diminished due to cloud computing, and instead become more interesting – with hopefully a few major headaches resolved.