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Cloud Computing - Been There, Done That !

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CIOL Bureau
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By Raj Asava, Perot Systems Corporation

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The Information Technology (IT) Industry and publications have lately been abuzz with …Cloud Computing. While some claim it is the next disruptive technology, others suggest it to be the harbinger of the diminishing role of the Systems Integrator. A closer examination reveals that it is neither. But whatever descriptor is finalized for Cloud Computing, harvesting its benefits will still require the guidance and direction of smart integration.

Cloud Computing de-mystified

While there are many definitions for Cloud Computing from credible sources…

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  • Gartner defines cloud computing as a style of computing in which massively scalable ITrelated

    capabilities are provided "as a service" using Internet technologies to multiple

    external customers.
  • Forrester defines cloud computing as a pool of abstracted, highly scalable, and managed

    compute infrastructure capable of hosting end-customer applications and billed by

    consumption.

…another way to look at Cloud Computing is that it is a highly automated, readily scalable, on-demand computing platform of virtually unlimited processing, storage and ubiquitous connectivity, always available to carry out a task of any size and charged based on usage! Audacious – though possible today in a limited manner – it is certainly poised to be as pervasive a platform like the internet, in the very near future.

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The origin of Cloud Computing

As a matter of historical fact, Cloud Computing has been around since the beginning of the IT Outsourcing industry. At its core, Cloud Computing is about utilizing idle/excess Cloud Computing – Been There, Done That! compute power (processing, storage, and connectivity) of one entity, to carry out the work of another. This is the value proposition based on which Mr. Ross Perot started the IT Outsourcing industry in 1962, when he rented idle computing power from one company (Southwestern Life) to carry out the processing needs of another (Collins Radio). Mr. Perot recalls that the staff consisted of just two individuals who worked diligently in leveraging the compute capacity that was idle, mostly during the night, to

process Collins Radio’s data, and turning it into a win-win situation for all. The organization that owned the computers monetized its down time; the organization that needed the compute power did not have to out lay capital; and Mr. Perot’s team, in the role of a Systems Integrator, ensured seamless delivery for a fee. This was the first instance of Cloud Computing.

Evolution of Cloud Computing

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Advancements in technology, coupled with declining costs, have disrupted traditional business models and a new category of companies has emerged: one that operates mostly over the internet based on  clicks” (e.g., Amazon, eBay, Google, etc.). The established businesses suddenly found that the development of this channel was critical for their survival against the new breed of companies, and started to offer a combination of “bricks and clicks” for the convenience of their customers.

The disruption of business models created a higher demand and dependence on IT. Also contributing to this dependence are “peaks-and-valleys” of IT capacity needs, tied directly to the nature of an organization’s business activity (seasonal, one time, quarter/year-end, day/night, etc.). To ensure consistent, stable operations and to virtually eliminate risks, businesses built their computing platforms at or above the

highest peak points of their IT requirements, no matter how infrequent that need might be. As a result, many businesses today are stuck with bloated computing platforms that are enormously underutilized for the majority of the time, taking up real estate, depreciating fast in value, and consuming significant amounts of energy and resources.

In response to this operational predicament, companies such as Amazon have started to commoditize their own idle capacity and monetize it under their EC2 and S3 labels. EC2, Elastic Compute Cloud, is a web-based service that allows any entity to buy and use compute capacity on an as-needed basis. The S3, Simple Storage Services, on the other hand, provides for web-based storage and access to data. The fact that both these services operate out of a standard browser and do not require any proprietary/licensed

software, make them extremely usable. While early adopters of EC2 and S3 were individuals and small businesses, innovative CIOs are giving them the attention they are due and have started to test out the feasibility of this emerging Cloud Computing platform. Starting with architecting a cloud-based processing environment for one time transactions that were non mission critical, they have experienced performance results.

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Cloud Computing – Been There, Done That!  and Capex/Opex savings significant enough to warrant the inclusion of Cloud Computing into their extended IT infrastructure.

Recognizing this phenomenon to be a viable business opportunity, hardware, software and internet-based companies with deep pockets are rushing to establish Cloud Computing environments to make available to businesses out of a utility-type, ondemand model. For hardware companies like IBM & HP, this is an opportunity to sell tons of hardware; for software companies like VMware & Microsoft, it is an opportunity

to sell sophisticated software that allows efficient load balancing of computing resources between tasks; and for businesses like Google & Amazon saddled with the need to have extensive IT infrastructure, this has become an economic engine that can be used to convert their unused compute capacity into revenue.

The expanding Role of Systems Integrator in the Cloud Computing World In order to understand the role of Systems Integrators, like Perot’s team, in today’s Cloud Computing world, we need to first review how their roles and responsibilities have evolved over time.

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The primary focus of Systems Integrators continues to be planning, optimizing, integrating, and managing clients’ heterogeneous compute environments. However, at times, they take on the responsibility of filling the gaps between the clients’ IT needs and the available compute infrastructure. At one point, Systems Integrators used to manufacture hardware as needed to run their clients’ systems efficiently, and even

wrote system utilities and applications down to the operating system level to fill in the gaps left by the software vendors. Gradually, as the hardware, software and networking companies matured, stabilized and more importantly innovated, the Systems Integrators were able to get back to their core business of integrating disparate systems.

The emerging Cloud Computing companies are proving to be yet another partner joining the hardware, software and network vendors in a typical Systems Integrator business model. The availability of a public domain computing platform (aka Cloud Computing) allows the Systems Integrators to extend their compute platform as needed, through lease type agreements as opposed to capital outlay or long term fixed costs.

Even Clouds Must be Grounded While organizations may be lured to the affordability and scalability that Cloud Computing offers, it is imperative that their environment is architected such that it provides these advantages without compromising on security and interoperability.

The role of a Systems Integrator clearly is integral to configuring the optimum (extended) computing environment such that it is dependable/reliable and operating at expected quality of performance for a particular client.

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The Future of Cloud Computing

The adoption of Cloud Computing is not without resistance or confusion. Torn between the appeal for cost savings and fear of loss of control, customers are struggling with how to take advantage of the cloud. How confidential will their data be? How will they handle issues around data privacy, intellectual property, regulatory requirements, and protection of “secret sauce” formulas? It is critical to understand that for most

businesses the cloud is not a panacea. Unlike the “electricity grid” where individual power generation units ceased to exist, not everything in IT will or should end up in the  cloud – at least not just yet. The strategy defining usage of the cloud should be on the CIO’s agenda. A trusted Systems Integrator should be involved in the strategic design of the architecture for how a particular company may optimally exploit the cloud.

The cloud trend today closely resembles the offshoring phenomenon. Just as the initial concerns and resistance to offshoring gave way to intelligently architected and governed models to protect the integrity of customer data while taking advantage of the lower cost options, a similar trend will emerge on the cloud front. It will start with resistance to the cloud, followed by the offering of a choice of cloud environments,

finally leading to Cloud Computing becoming mainstream and an integral part of the compute environment for most businesses.

The Emerging Conceptual Architecture

At the onset, the low cost and ready access to on-demand computing offered through a cloud environment will cause businesses to rethink what is truly core (mission critical, highly sensitive/secretive) to their business, and shift an increasing amount of non-core processing to a shared or cloud environment. Organizations will be well served to revisit the classification of each piece of processing and storage that was earlier assumed to be sensitive and mission critical -- in light of the high cost associated with running it inhouse through a dedicated infrastructure.

 

As CIOs develop reference architectures of their functions, processes and data based on the strategy of their business, seasoned Systems Integrators will help them configure their IT environment based on the following conceptual architecture made up of the interconnected 4–tiers.

Dedicated: The dedicated layer suggests a highly secure computing environment, where mission critical tasks will be processed and highly sensitive information will be stored. This represents the true core competency of an organization, leakage of which would give away the competitive advantage, or degradation of performance & reliability of its processing could prove to be catastrophic to the business.

This layer would typically require investment in a dedicated computing platform.

Private Cloud: This layer addresses similar needs as the “Dedicated” layer, and is used for developing, enhancing and testing out mission critical systems as well as carrying out critical research & development work. As such, it needs an environment that is highly secure like the dedicated layer.

Built on the principles of Cloud Computing, this layer will be designed to be readily scalable and sharable between IT systems and applications across the organization.

Shared Environment: A shared environment can be used to address the predictable compute need required to run regularly scheduled applications from inventory management to payroll processing. These systems typically represent a significant portion of the computing needs of an organization.

Important to the operations of a business, these systems can be carried out of an outsourcer’s facility where the computing platform is dedicated for the business but the ancillary processes and resources may be leveraged across multiple clients. Managed through well defined Service Level Agreements, this arrangement proves to be predictable, cost effective, and has in-built innovation from the Systems Integrator.

Public Cloud: Public cloud is an external cloud (like the EC2 and S3) that would be configured to operate as an extension to the computing platform of an organization to handle the spikes in its computing needs.

Due to the open nature of the public cloud, an organization must be able to disaggregate its system and parse out its computing needs into transactions that can be carried out in the external cloud without fear of exposing or losing its critical information.

As governance models and processes make Cloud Computing increasingly secure and user friendly, organizations may feel comfortable moving more and more of their data & processing to it, much like commerce has gradually shifted and become acceptable over the internet. It is envisioned, with time, some of the sensitive tasks processed in the private cloud will gradually be transferred to the public cloud as organizations become more comfortable with the security and governance models of this new computing

platform.

 

In today’s cost sensitive environment, Cloud Computing certainly holds the promise of

reducing a company’s total cost of IT ownership. For organizations to be successful, in

the emerging on-demand computing environment, they are best served to visualize and

architect their compute environment based on this 4 –tier structure.

Cloud Computing, How Real Is IT ?

Skeptics who believe Cloud Computing to be just another buzz-word or the “flavor of

the month” should remember that just a decade ago, the concept of offshoring IT work

also faced strong head winds from political, business and social fronts. However, in a

global economy, the benefits of offshoring in the form of reduced cost, high availability

of quality resources, and faster response time due to around-the-clock operations

caused most, if not all, businesses to cut over to some derivation of an offshore-based

model.

The advent of Cloud Computing makes the already level playing field even flatter. While its early benefactors may have been small-to-medium sized businesses, Cloud Computing is poised to benefit businesses of all sizes giving them access to affordable, on-demand compute capacity.

In conclusion, as the IT Outsourcing industry goes through another transformation driven by Cloud Computing, businesses will continue to depend upon the services of a skilled and trusted Systems Integrator partner to help them configure the right combination of computing environment that addresses their unique business needs.

 

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