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Planning for Cloud Computing

November 2010 | 153 pages | ID: P95F88744FEEN
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Introduction

Cloud computing promises to tackles two hitherto irreconcilable IT challenges: the need to lower costs and the need to boost innovation. However, it will take a lot of effort from enterprises to actually make it work. Instead of moving their IT mess for less somewhere else, the ill-prepared will end up with their IT mess spread across a wider area. This report explains why.

Features and benefits
  • The report help understand which benefits and risks relate to which type of cloud computing offerings
  • The report puts in context cloud cost, security, reliability, availability, scalability, service level agrements (SLAs) and governance issues
  • The report looks at the impact of Cloud computing on IT in general and IT service management in particular.
Highlights

Look to what the cloud can offer and where it might best be applied, rather than being so preoccupied with its shortcomings that you fail to recognize its value. Avoid the temptation to impose the full baggage of legacy IT expectations, requirements, and regulations on cloud services.Cloud computing as a term may have a use-by date, but the technical, operational, and commercial innovations behind it are here to stay. Cloud computing is a real innovation in the logic of how IT is sourced and managed and how services are delivered, and its use will grow steadily over the next 12 months.Adoption is a two-way street. It is not just about whether cloud computing is ready for you: it is, more importantly, about whether or not you are ready for it. The fact is that many enterprises are currently not ready for private or public clouds or any type of hybrid in between.

Your key questions answered
  • Why the public cloud market is more complex than expected. How private clouds are catching up with public cloud capabilities.
  • Why hybrid clouds are the next frontier for the enterprise.
  • Why public cloud pricing structures are evolving, but not always for the better
  • Why service-level agreements (SLAs) are key to cloud adoption.
  • Why security is the number-one cloud quality of service (QoS) concern and why reliability and availability are under increasing scrutiny.

SUMMARY

1.1 Executive summary
Catalyst
Key findings
Ovum view
Cloud computing is a multifaceted phenomenon
Benefits
Deployment and management considerations
1.2 Report objectives and structure
CHAPTER 1 – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CHAPTER 2 – CLOUD COMPUTING WILL BE HYBRID
CHAPTER 3 – CLOUD COMPUTING COSTS IN PERSPECTIVE
CHAPTER 4 – CLOUD COMPUTING QOS IN PERSPECTIVE
CHAPTER 5 – CLOUD GOVERNANCE: AN OVERVIEW
CHAPTER 6 – PUBLIC CLOUDS REQUIRE IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT TO ADAPT
CLOUD COMPUTING WILL BE HYBRID
2.1 Summary
Catalyst
Ovum view
Key messages
2.2 Cloud computing is controversial and important
It is early days for cloud computing
Evolution and disruption
Public, private, and hybrid clouds
2.3 The public cloud market is more complex than expected
Infrastructure-as-a-service
Platform-as-a-service
Software-as-a-service
IaaS, PaaS and SaaS interactions
Wider perspective
2.4 Private clouds are catching up with the public cloud Joneses
Cloud computing shifts to private clouds
The shift reflects the maturation of cloud computing
New twists and old trends
Two roads ahead
2.5 Hybrid clouds are the next frontier
From public to private clouds
A variety of hybrids
Complexity lies ahead
2.6 Recommendations
Recommendations for enterprises
Recommendations for vendors

CLOUD COMPUTING COSTS IN PERSPECTIVE

3.1 Summary
Catalyst
Ovum view
Key messages
3.2 Enterprises need to scrutinize and adapt to public clouds' cost characteristics
Public clouds have attractive cost characteristics
Public clouds turn capex into opex
Public clouds’ cost-attractiveness is not that straightforward
The transition to public clouds needs to be managed from a cost perspective
Practical considerations trump economics when it comes to public clouds
3.3 Public cloud costings evolve, but not always as expected or for the better
Evolution will not result in complete commoditization
From upfront license to subscription to PAYG, and back
Towards greater price transparency – within limits
Public cloud price diversification will be limited by IT systems
3.4 Private clouds put public cloud costs in context
Private cloud: a cost-centric notion
Private clouds: the larger, the more cost-attractive
Cost management is getting more complicated
3.5 Recommendations
Recommendations for enterprises
Recommendations for vendors

CLOUD COMPUTING QUALITY OF SERVICE IN PERSPECTIVE

4.1 Summary
Catalyst
Ovum view
Key messages
4.2 SLAs are key to cloud adoption
Enterprises are adapting to public clouds’ QoS
Public cloud providers need to manage the gap between QoS hype and SLA reality
Public cloud SLAs will standardize and diversify
SLAs are central to the notion of private and hybrid clouds
4.3 Security is the number-one cloud QoS concern
Trust in public clouds is growing, but security concerns fuel interest in private and hybrid clouds
Public cloud security needs more work
Public cloud security begins at home
Compliance is more of a concern than security
The public sector is a key participant in the security and compliance debate
4.4 Reliability and availability are under increasing scrutiny
Reliability and availability are growing public cloud concerns
Reliability and availability are private and hybrid cloud objectives
4.5 Scalability underpins cloud computing's elasticity
Scalability is public clouds’ number-one feature
Scalability is a goal for private clouds, too
4.6 The road to scalable and reliable private clouds requires new thinking and skills
Public clouds open up new avenues
Public and private clouds will converge, within limits
4.7 Recommendations
Recommendations for enterprises
Recommendations for vendors

CLOUD GOVERNANCE: AN OVERVIEW

5.1 Summary
Catalyst
Ovum view
Key messages
5.2 Cloud governance builds on IT governance
An IT governance driver, among others
A shared and service-centric IT driver, among others
An IT governance federation member, among others
Like IT governance, cloud governance needs to identify the right objective(s)
5.3 Cloud governance relies on the same ingredients as IT governance
The Ps of governance
People are the main ingredients of cloud governance
Policies, plans, performance monitoring and processes are the backbone of cloud governance
Cloud governance relies on paraphernalia in the form of systems, tools and technologies
5.4 Cloud governance, like IT governance, is a work in progress
Governance efforts need to improve
Best-practice frameworks are missing for cloud
5.5 ALM governance needs to expand to the cloud
ALM has migrated to the clouds
ALM and cloud governance should be woven together
ALM governance in the cloud can help weave ALM and ITSM governance together
ALM governance in the cloud must live up to the challenge of cloud-centric applications
5.6 Cloud governance builds on SOA governance
Cloud computing is SOA-centric
Cloud governance helps SOA governance
Interfaces are the link between SOA and cloud
5.7 Recommendations
Recommendations for enterprises
Recommendations for vendors

PUBLIC CLOUDS REQUIRE IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT TO ADAPT

6.1 Summary
Catalyst
Ovum view
Key messages
6.2 Public clouds are changing the IT function
The IT function is dead, long live the IT function
Public clouds change IT departments
6.3 Public clouds are changing the ITSM landscape
Some ITSM issues are traditional, others are new
Public clouds require the same ITIL-espoused ITSM disciplines as internal IT
Relationship management becomes critical
Financial management puts public clouds in context
People policies will need to reflect the risk of IT service procurement within the cloud
6.4 ITSM technology has a big role to play in managing public clouds
Managing service availability will be more complex in the cloud
Service catalogs can be leveraged for cloud provisioning
Consider the management of the end-user interface and experience
6.5 Recommendations
Recommendations for enterprises
Alternative views

GLOSSARY

Glossary
Cloud computing
Infrastructure-as-a-service
Multi-tenant architecture
Platform-as-a-service
Private cloud
Public clouds
Software-as-a-service

APPENDIX

Further reading
Methodology
Author(s)
Ovum consulting
Disclaimer

FIGURES

Figure: The emergence of hybrid clouds
Figure: Not quite a stack
Figure: IT governance federates a variety of governance efforts
Figure: IT governance underpins IT asset lifecycle management
Figure: The Ps of governance
Figure: Strategic and tactical governance
Figure: IT governance connects strategy with projects
Figure: Impact on the IT organization
Figure: OGC/ITIL service lifecycle
Figure: Service costing overview


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