Technology-centric approach to Enterprise Cloud Computing doesn’t work

There is a lot of Internet chatter and conversation on Cloud Computing.  Since 2007, Google Trends shows growing increase in Cloud search keywords:

Majority of these articles and posts though are primarily focused on technologies (i.e. virtualization, dynamic provisioning, security, management & automation, metering & chargeback) that enable building a Cloud infrastructure or platform.  Technology decisions and effective implementation are absolutely necessary, but building, operating, offering, and managing a Cloud transcend technology. 

Cloud Computing doesn’t arrive in a box of CDs.  It is an evolution in IT competency and operational model (i.e. Incident Management, Asset Management, Configuration Management, Change Management, Performance & Capacity Management, SLA Management).  A technology-centric approach to Cloud Computing does not address IT operational gaps.

One of the fundamental requirements for Cloud transition is IT standardization.  Standardization is key to IT simplification and cost reduction, and requires an analysis of both IT and application portfolio.  In this regard, an analysis of the various workloads, performance characteristics, HW/SW compatibility & infrastructure requirements, application strategy such as any decommissioning, re-hosting, or outsourcing plans,… and review of enterprise architecture are necessary to establish standard configuration templates.  Without such an analysis, it would be very difficult to determine the right set of services to offer in the enterprise.  A technology-centric approach to Cloud Computing does not address IT standardization.

As I said in a previous post, there are different entry-points to Cloud Computing.   There are a couple of implications here.  First, organizations choose different strategies and approaches for IT cloudification based on their priorities.   Second, organizations are at different levels of IT maturity.  Some may have experience building and running CoEs. Some may have experience operating & managing shared services centers. Finally, some may already be running a Cloud (or have already implemented an on-demand and utility-based shared infrastructure way before the term “Cloud” was in vogue.) So, there is a lot of considerations in terms of organizational maturity, alignment, change management that are essential to a successful Cloud transition. These are not addressed by a technology-focused approach to Cloud Computing.

These were just some examples.  So, next time when you get a visit from a vendor, showing you a quick demo of 1000-node cluster, with dynamic scaling may be including spillover to EC2, a nice management interface, etc, a question to consider is how do I operationalize this? 

The enterprise has to deal with a mixed bag of virtualization vendors…

A couple of weeks ago, I was at Oracle Open World and attended a good session on JRockit (JRockit: What’s new & What’s coming).  The presenters were from JRockit lab in Sweden, and they presented many things from  new features, JVM performance, JRockit Mission Control (JRMC), JRockit Real Time (JRRT), and JRockit Virtual Edition (JRVE).   JRVE is a JVM that sits directly on bare metal hypervisor (it eliminates the OS layer, thus offering better performance, and simplification in terms of installation, configuration and maintenance).

Back in the BEA days, they showed a prototype of WLS VE running on JRVE at VMWorld in 2007.   That version was running on VMWare’s ESX.  With this version, it only supports and is certified on Oracle VM… Not a big surprise, if you think about it.  Since Oracle’s acquisition of Virtual Iron, Oracle has been optimizing its stack on its own virtualization infrastructure…

I was talking to a customer the other day to ask them about their Virtualization strategy.  This is large company that has deployed different types of servers and OS for different kinds of workload.  Currently, for Microsoft platform, they are using VMWare (when I asked him about Hyper-V, he said no plans yet).  For Linux, they are standardizing on RHT Enterprise Virtualization (KVM)… Oh, not to forget, on the mainframe, they are using zVM.

It occurred to me there is already a myriad of different virtualization tools and technologies deployed in the enterprise.  With Oracle’s solution strategy, there will be compelling reasons for many to deploy yet another virtualization technology in their environment (i.e. Oracle PaaS).  Furthermore, in addition to virtual machines and appliances deployed within the enterprise, many enterprises that adopt Cloud computing (hybrid clouds) will have to deal with additional virtualization infrastructures (i.e. EC2), their set of provisioning APIs and other management interfaces… 

The good news is that major virtualization vendors already support DTMF standardization efforts (i.e. OVF, VMAN) in their solutions or plan to support it.  There are also new standardization efforts around open APIs (i.e. vCloud) to abstract the virtualization technology, and provide a standard programming model to provision and consume virtual resources as well as support those interoperability use cases in the hybrid Clouds…  On the other side of spectrum, there is a growing number of virtualization vendors with provisioning solutions to facilitate packaging, grouping of related VMs (i.e. vApp)  for multi-tiered applications.

So, I don’t think most enterprises can standardize on a single virtualization vendor.  The trick is to figure out a virtualization management strategy that provides unified visibility and control in terms of asset & configuration management as well as infrastructure operation and governance.  Let me know what you think…

A quick overview of Cloud Computing

Here is a presentation that I recently shared with a group of IT managers:

Cloud Computing overview and case study

View more documents from babakh.

An adoption approach to Cloud Computing in the enterprise

Cloud Computing offers a great deal to the enterprise in terms of better utilization of IT assets, operational efficiency, flexibility, and lowering IT costs. Interest in Cloud Computing rose sharply since last year, as organizations in all sectors pursued cost reduction strategies to deal with the economy.

There is a lot of information on the Web about Cloud Computing from analysts, vendors, service providers, early adopters, etc… Despite a large body of information, questions still remain as to how to get started.

In this post, I am going to describe a high-level approach to enterprise adoption of Cloud Computing. In this context, Cloud Computing generically refers all types of Cloud services and instantiations (i.e. Public & Private Clouds). I won’t start with basic terms and concepts, so if you’d like some background information, please have a look at this short video from InfoWorld.

Before I begin, it is important to understand the key value proposition behind enterprise Cloud Computing. In short, the main objective is efficient IT service delivery, and effective balance of IT demand and supply. It is not just about implementing a set of technologies (i.e. virtualization, Grid). It also involves a set of principles around solution design, implementation (i.e. patterns, tools, frameworks, programming model), modification to existing IT management processes (i.e. capacity planning, configuration management, release management, change management), and governance (i.e. deployment, usage management, billing, SLA, exception management). For many organizations, adoption of Cloud Computing is simply a natural progression of existing initiatives (i.e. SOA).

So, let’s get started…

Step 0 – Cloud Computing awareness

It is hard to determine relevance or identify potential opportunities for Cloud Computing without some basic understanding of the trends and technologies. So, if you are new to Cloud Computing, I would highly recommend taking the time to learn about terms and concepts including different types of Cloud services (infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service), respective value proposition, usage patterns, implementation, integration, operations and management issues, risks, vendor landscape & service providers, etc.

This will help lay the foundation for further elaboration and analysis.

Step 1 – Business Value Assessment

In this step, the main idea is to establish if a business case exists for investment in Cloud Computing.

First, IT issues and challenges (aka IT hotspots) should be identified and prioritized. This can be done by reviewing key IT management practices, and analyzing operational metrics around IT service management and delivery (i.e. Demand Management, Capacity Planning, Service Level Management).

Next, the benefits of Cloud Computing should be mapped against IT hotspots (value mapping). For example, a typical IT hotspot (and a common business complaint with IT) is high cost and delay in getting any projects started and delivered. This is often due to the time and resources required to do infrastructure sizing, procurement, setup, configuration, performance testing, etc… And, the cycle repeats every time there is a new project.

A Cloud Computing approach can deliver benefits in fulfilling such IT demands rapidly and efficiently (i.e. pre-configured images based on reusable infrastructure patterns, provisioning of IT resources from external service providers.)

Finally, the benefits should be scored financially for ROI calculation and business case justification.

Step 2 – Readiness & Planning

In this step, the focus is determination of when (and where) to engage in Cloud Computing to maximize benefits.

At the end of a BVA, there should be sufficient information and analysis to develop a vision (i.e. select Cloud services –> full-blown self-service, dynamic infrastructure and on-demand business services), and reach a decision about adoption approach. There are several possibilities:

• Treat Cloud Computing as a standalone program of its own and make others comply - Personally, I wouldn’t recommend this approach, because I think organizational change management can get tough and derail adoption.
• Link Cloud Computing to existing enterprise initiatives – Such an alignment would be good, but it may delay the rollout to the enterprise.
• Blended approach – Select the right candidate projects, create a roadmap, identify gaps, and incrementally implement and roll-out towards the vision.

A blended approach would be a good way to get everyone engaged.

There are different entry points to Cloud Computing:

Readiness, gap analysis, and planning should be examined in the context and relation to other enterprise programs. This would ensure proper sequencing of related activities and timely investments to minimize impacts on the organization.

It is also necessary to understand requirements and scope for tweaking some of the existing IT management practices (i.e. Project Portfolio Management) as well as governance for codification and operationalizing the solution.

At the end, a planning and transition document should be developed that explains the approach, gaps, activities, program milestones, etc that aligns with the vision and strategy identified in BVA.

Step 3 – Cloud Computing Analysis & Modeling

In this step, we need to analyze the requirements in more detail and create a specification model for Cloud Computing.

A key objective of Cloud Computing is effective balance of IT demands and supply. So, it is appropriate to analyze and classify different types of demands, workloads, usage patterns, risks, and expected service levels:

In the diagram above, on the left we have a set of input to Cloud Computing Analysis and Modeling. In the middle, best practices & IT Governance are applied to guide and filter decisions. The result of the analysis is a set of models to describe infrastructure, workload, risk, policy, SLA, etc.

Step 4 – Cloud Computing Implementation

In the step, the analyses from the previous steps are used to make a set of decisions about implementation and technologies:

As I mentioned earlier, Governance is a key issue in Cloud Computing. There is a set of considerations around solution design and implementation as well as self-service provisioning, deployment, and SLM…

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I am very curious about what customers are doing in this space and how these technologies are being used. So, if you stayed with me up to this point, I thank you first and invite you to share your experience or any comments about this post here.

Also, I am posting a short survey here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Ou9oVB9Qq3cFGVmyGqxirQ_3d_3d

7 questions + you don’t have to enter any contact information :-)

It will be great to hear your comments & responses.