How do you implement IaaS?

When looking to implement an IaaS product, there are important considerations to make. The IaaS use cases and infrastructure needs should be strictly defined before different technical requirements and providers should be considered. Technical and storage needs to consider for implementing IaaS include:

• Networking. When focusing on cloud deployments, organizations need to ask certain questions to make sure that the provisioned infrastructure in the cloud can be accessed in an efficient manner.
• Storage. Organizations should consider requirements for storage types, required storage performance levels, possible space needed, provisioning and potential options such as object storage.
• Compute. Organizations should consider the implications of different server, VM, CPU and memory options that cloud providers can offer.
• Security. Data security should be of paramount importance when evaluating cloud services and providers. Questions about data encryption, certifications, compliance and regulation, and secure workloads should be pursued in detail.
• Disaster recovery. Disaster recovery features and options are another key value area for organizations in the event of failover on VM, server or site levels.
• Server Size. Options for server and VM sizes, how many CPUs can be placed onto servers, and other CPU and memory details.
• Throughput of the network. Speed between VMs, data centers, storage, and internet.
• General manageability. How many features of the IaaS can the user control, which parts do you need to control and how easy are they to control and manage?

During the implementation process, organizations should closely consider how the technical and service offerings of different providers fulfill business-side needs, as well as the business's own specific usage requirements. The market for IaaS vendors should be carefully evaluated; with considerable variance of capabilities within products, some may better align with business needs than others.
Once a vendor and product are decided, it is important to negotiate all service-level agreements. Thorough negotiation with the vendor will make it less likely for your organization to be negatively affected by fine-print details that were previously unknown.
Furthermore, an organization should thoroughly assess the capabilities of its IT department to determine how well equipped it is to deal with the ongoing demands of IaaS implementation. In the IaaS model, in-house developers are responsible for the infrastructure's technical maintenance -- including software patches, upgrades and troubleshooting. This personnel assessment is needed to ensure that the organization is equipped to maximize value on all fronts from an IaaS implementation.