Successful cloud deployment requires not only good strategic, technical, and financial decisions; it also requires significant change management and governance. The real-time data presented in this single view contains solution options from multiple providers and some very interesting insight that NeBu Systems can use to not only support decisions but also help promote effective change management and establish governance.

NeBu expressed interest in being near Chicago, IL. Truly, it was a desire to be in the Midwest to avoid many of the potential disasters associated with the higher-profile cities and regions in the US. NeBu also required good connectivity options, as clients would be accessing from several locations across the country. Resiliency was important, along with controlling costs and gaining as much performance as possible for money invested.

Data shown within Bustorm has been automatically normalized so that it can be compared in real time. One of the largest challenges with architecting cloud solutions is gathering and normalizing relevant data. Designers, architects, strategists, and stakeholders must gather, normalize, and compare data for the current state in various forms. Current state billing data is a fairly common starting point. Billing data is compared against deployed information, which is then also compared to actual consumed detail and ultimately compared to potential future state options.

NeBu Systems chose to start greenfield as strategically there was not enough value in trying to repurpose or up-cycle what has already been deployed. Current state still needed to be considered, normalized, and compared. Starting with a new environment does not mean current state is completely ignored. In many cases, current state must be evaluated as an option until it is proven to be less than desirable.

Architecting cloud solutions is about alignment and balance. Successful solutions require risk to be offset by economics. Technology helps accomplish strategy requirements, with strategy influencing technology choices. At times, technology choices can also dramatically impact economics while economics can certainly influence technology choices. In the solution results side of the design board, a greater than 300% difference in price can be seen from low to high. There is a 50% difference that separates the three lowest-cost providers. The request was the same; why are the prices so different? Is it performance difference? Resiliency? Location? Size of infrastructure? Brand value? There are many factors that can affect cost. Many of these questions will be answered in the next chapter as we dive deeper into the insight needed for successful design and architecture.

Another interesting insight the data presents is that none of the three lowest-cost providers (Google, AWS, and Azure) are in Chicago. If NeBu Systems' requirement was to be in Chicago, CenturyLink and Rackspace become the only options available. Data also shows AWS to be the highest performing of the solutions available based on the components requested. Performance is a big requirement for NeBu Systems. Quickly spotting that detail is covered in depth in the next chapter.