The year of 2012 has clearly established private cloud as the preferred implementation for enterprises, so the next task for CIOs is determining the shape that their own private clouds are going to take, how these clouds will ultimately pay off, and the lessons they’ve learned so far.
Here is what we already know:
Business executives are in love with private clouds. In fact, the love affair is reminiscent of the one we saw when mobile devices first began to gain traction in organizations. Those of us who were standing in the corporate halls then witnessed CEOs talking with other C-suiters, each with his or her own bragging rights to the mobile device he was using. The mobile device frenzy created a security nightmare for IT, which was rushed into trying to implement post-facto security measures for devices that C-level executives had already purchased from neighborhood technology stores.
Private cloud is much the same way. Every CEO likes to tell his or her peers that the organization has “its own private cloud.” The message here for the CIO is that private cloud in most organizations is currently in its “honeymoon” phase. Few business executives are asking the hard questions yet about metrics and whether the cloud can pay for itself. This gives CIOs some “hang time” before those questions begin getting asked.
The best private clouds are driven by tangible business cases. If an engineering company’s workload is characterized by collaborative projects where many different pools of people across the globe need to actively work with each other, a powerful case can be made for a private cloud that allows them to interact and share a common data repository and toolset that is available 24/7. The savings in videoconferencing and long-distance costs alone -- coupled with faster project deployments, more projects completed, and more revenue into the business facilitated by a 24/7 work stream -- can easily justify private clouds. IT needs to think in these terms -- and not just about economizing the IT infrastructure, which almost no one but the CIO and the CFO cares about.
More organizations want to monetize their IT investments. If IT creates a private cloud where employees can take online training in core technologies that the company produces, why not extend this private cloud into an end client application where clients can pay for the same online technology training?
Great private cloud implementations are characterized by A-plus service. Once the private cloud honeymoon period is over, C-level executives and other organizational business leaders are going to expect the same level of service from IT that they can get from outside providers. IT will be measured against these service level standards. Higher service level expectations for IT with cloud are already here -- but really great service is still an elusive (and difficult) goal for IT to achieve.
It is hard to say how many CIOs factor these emerging private cloud trends into their thinking, but one thing is certain: There is a golden opportunity now to move forward on what we have already learned -- before the novelty of having a private cloud wears off and the hard questions begin to be asked.
To begin to answer some of those questions, I'll be participating in an Internet Evolution live chat on Monday, April 30th, at 1:00 p.m. ET. Please be sure to join us here: Answering Key Questions on Cloud.
One of the biggest flaws that I have seen over the years is that once a benefit is realized the process stops. Taking the time to explore all aspects that can be affected can dramatically affect the overall benefit/savings for an organization.
@hounhosp: I think you're conused between virtualization and virtual desktop. Virtualization is related to servers whereby one physical server may act as multiple virtual servers. In a cloud environment, you may have virtual servers and/or physical servers.
Virtual desktop, on the other hand, will let you access a remote server and use the processing power of the remote server as if you're using your own machine. This is often referred to as desktop virtualization.
@Cvargas: I agree that a cost-benefit approach is very important to build up a business case and getting approval from the top-management. It's fairly easy to compute the cost-side, but when it comes to the benefits, it's a very difficult job to put a dollar value to the expected benefits that the business will reap out of the project. Even considering Mary's example of how private clouds will allow users to share "common data repository and toolset", it's a great challenge for CIO to compute the benefits out of it in dollar value.
Before the C Levels within an organization decide to move forward with the expense of having a "private cloud" they should (which many times they don't) evaluate the business case which justifies the expense. Equally important is to determine the overall SLA associated with the "private cloud" as this typically affects the immediate pricing of it as well.
Having a private cloud is great, fine, and dandy. But justifying it from a cost perspective is another avenue. Cost verses return can be very diverse initially and long term. If the initial cost and implementation can be quantified and the return on the application deployment or dynamically allocated resource (training, CAD models, etc) show the return in an effective amount of time then it is worth it. Equally if the new private cloud can serve as an additional launching platform for company applications to keep information centralized and reachable from anywhere in the world then it is justified as well.
But if the projects never become implemented and the applications fail to be produced, then the justification is lost and the company needs to be able to hold the CIO liable for being able to not fully implementing the project(s) or programs as according to the strategic initiative that justified the private cloud in the first place.
Virtualization and private clouds are two different components. However you can virtualize a server (or several) into a cloud environment. Equally stated, companies can utilize there own "private cloud" through various internet portals that they may have in which they operate their own servers in a cloud environment. These servers need to be physical in presence but can house many virtual servers within the hardware that is existing in their "personal cloud".
It seems to me that many use to be confused about virtualization and private clouds. In my opinion private clouds and virtualization are two different things even if they share some common features. Am I right? Or am I the one who is confused?
I'm often struck with the, "more things change, the more they stay the same," reality in our lives.
For instance, in the end, ecommerce sites that allow us to order something and have it delivered aren't much different from the myriad of catalog opportunities that existed 20 years ago. Obviously, the whole concept is amped up, but it's not a revolutionary shift.
Likewise, private clouds feel the same to me as VPNs or even email servers in a central location that are accessed by employees in various buildings or around the country.
Aren't they private clouds? Isn't an organization's website a private cloud? Ususally, websites are stored on several servers, mirroring each other for redundancy and to limit the chance of hackers impacting the data.
I think the assessment of any network and storage approach should begin with what is trying to be accomplished and how it can be accomplished in the most efficient way possible, with efficiency tied first to business needs and, secondarily, IT needs.
If that, then, lets the CIO feel swarthy by dropping the "private cloud" phrase, great. But, overall, I think the assessment always has to be, "are we the most effective." That, then, makes an assessment of private clouds routine.
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