Twenty-twenty vision

In this series of Industry Insights, I have gone through the stages that typically characterise the journey to cloud. In this final Industry Insight, I would like to pull some of those ideas together so that users can create their own cloud vision.

Cloud also offers a new opportunity to improve service delivery.

Gareth James is solution strategist at CA Southern Africa.

A service in the context of cloud computing is typically an application, or a group of applications, that fulfil a specific need for the end-user. What is most often emphasised about cloud is its potential to reduce the cost of services; cloud also offers a new opportunity to improve service delivery. By taking a service-oriented view, the slate can be wiped clean, and it starts with the question - how can I best deliver this service?

When deciding on how to utilise cloud computing in an organisation, the company doesn't have to limit itself to one delivery mechanism or platform. Examine each service in terms of business criticality, complexity and data sensitivity, and decide on the best fit. For example, some cloud mechanisms provide very high service up-times, but data sensitivity may preclude the company from using them. A hybrid approach is most commonly adopted. Low complexity application can easily be moved to a cloud platform, and even some components of complex multi-tiered applications can be migrated.

The various stages of strategise, design and build that I discussed in my previous Industry Insights describe a cycle rather than a linear process. Once an organisation has targeted the low-hanging fruit - meaning services they could easily and quickly move to a cloud platform - they will move on to other services that could be optimised in a similar manner.

Remember that strategically, the cloud should be driven by the business, which will allow it to extract the maximum benefit from the cloud services it decides to adopt. Business-focused staff will find it easier to understand the financial benefits of cloud, and can thus prevent the tendency of the cloud strategy to become another technology optimisation project. In terms of design, remember to start small and scale up hardware and software as required. The design team should also have complete clarity on what defines cloud for the organisation. In order to build and run the cloud platform as efficiently as possible, the company should take a holistic view of the entire platform - bearing in mind that the platform is now shared and optimising each component to benefit the whole.

In my first Industry Insight, I stated - cloud is not a destination, it's a vehicle - and I would like to unpack that statement a bit further. What users are trying to achieve is a cloud platform that can be used in such a way as to abstract the entire infrastructure layer. I have heard cloud referred to as object-oriented infrastructure, and I believe this is a good explanation of the modular type of approach companies should take when building a cloud platform.

The cloud vision should consequently not be defined by a single application or service, but rather it should be broad enough to provide that re-usable cloud platform that users are aiming for. That is not to say that a single application, or a small number of applications, won't enable the adoption. Many organisations are looking to a service which they can use to justify their initial investment. Just be cognisant to keep a broader vision in mind.

Cloud computing has finally reached a level of maturity, where adoption is no longer bleeding edge and CIO/CTOs are scrambling to identify how this could benefit their organisation. The market has responded by “cloud washing” its various offerings to give buyers the impression that they are not being left behind. I know of many automation products that offer virtual machine automation that have been “cloud washed” and now have cloud somewhere in their name. The discerning buyer sees through the marketing and will realise that while automation is undoubtedly required for cloud, one component does not make a cloud any more than one swallow makes a summer. Cutting through the hype will require that users read widely on this topic.

Most CIOs believe that cloud computing, in some shape or form, will indeed be a significant component of the way in which they deliver IT services to their users. Cloud computing was given a firm nudge into the mainstream of service delivery by none other than the US government. The US government has adopted a cloud-first strategy whereby cloud becomes the default delivery mechanism. A quarter of all federal agencies have already moved at least one application to the cloud, and a full quarter of the entire IT budget has been targeted for spend on cloud solutions. The US government will reduce its number of data centres by 30% - 1 200 data centres will be closed by 2015 as they shift their services to cloud.

Does this, and other examples of how cloud is accessible today, affect the rest of the market? I certainly believe it will have a knock-on effect.

Where do you see your IT infrastructure in three to five years' time? How does cloud computing feature in that picture? And lastly, does the trajectory of your current initiatives line up with your future perfect vision of your infrastructure? If you can answer these questions, then you are ahead of most of your peers, and if you can'tanswer them, then this isn't a bad place to start.