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Cloud consulting refers to the implementation of industry-specific consulting services that enable full-fledged deployment of cloud computing solutions. An effective cloud consulting framework allows firms to transform their IT processes to the cloud with an ease in transition.

Cloud consulting providers, as part of their services, develop an economic and infrastructure model that would help and assess the planning and expenditure, among other challenges required to implement different type of cloud solutions: Private Cloud, Public Cloud and Hybrid Cloud.

Cloud Types
Private Cloud refers to the model created and maintained by an individual enterprise, Public Cloud is maintained independently by a third-party provider who will be owning and managing computing resources to be used by the cloud user over the network.

Hybrid Cloud, a combination of both, involves hand-in-hand collaboration between private and public cloud infrastructures. Here, public cloud acts as an extension to the private cloud forming a single uniform cloud.

Major Driving Factors
Traditional one-server-one-application model has resulted in challenges in the functioning of data centers across IT firms. Addressing this concern was a major challenge for many firms, especially the smaller ones. Managing complex and expensive infrastructure facilities eventually resulted in firms looking for better solutions that speed up their processes. Cloud Computing appeared as a solution by ensuring ease in infrastructure management, maximizing asset utilization, saving power and reducing costs. To ease the processes for firms, consulting providers emerged assisting organizations in successful implementation of the cloud computing model.

Operational Efficiency
Cloud consulting services help firms in creating create roadmaps to restructure their IT functionalities for achieving overall operational efficiency and good Return on Investment (ROI). Cloud consulting providers ensure a dynamic technology environment through proper planning, configuring and testing storage, technologies and servers. Cloud Consulting involves a wide range of services including Value Assessment, Planning and Building Strategies, Solutions and Technology Consulting.

Cloud Value Assessment
It involves assessment of cloud value, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), compliance, regulatory constraints and adaptation assessment.

Cloud Strategy
Involves assessment of information and workloads classification, cloud migration, IT strategy restructuring in line with cloud inclusion and exit strategy.

Technology Consulting
Involves all assessment of technology-related decisions, compliance and security consulting, checking frameworks, building blocks and solution architecture, among others. Overall, cloud computing consulting services address the complexities associated with optimization of data centers through customized strategies based on targeted cloud offering to the client.

In a nut-shell, cloud consulting services ensure

 * Roadmaps for easy transition to cloud within a minimal downtime
 * Effective assessment of Cloud TCO with quantitative and quality-oriented assessment
 * Phase-wise transformation without affecting business process
 * Value-driven Engagement with Maximized ROI and Timely Execution
 * Effective Asset Utilization
 * Ease in Infrastructure Management
 * Cloud Assessment, Planning, Strategy and Execution
 * Restructuring of IT Infrastructure with Effective Cloud Models
 * Optimized Performance

Cloud computing consulting is the industry and the practice of helping organizations use cloud computing to meet their business objectives.