cloud computing in the enterprise

1Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 12, 2008. Call in at 12:55 p.m. Eastern time

TeleconferenceIs Cloud Computing Viable For Enterprise IT?

James Staten, Principal Analyst

Forrester Research


Theme

Cloud Computing has the potential to disrupt IT

as we know it today.


Agenda

• IT implications of business at Internet speed

• Cloud computing defined

• Who is using it and how?

• Where this is headed

• What’s the enterprise IT play?


Agenda







Keeping up with the Jones’

Meet the new Mr. Jones.

He’s:

• Younger than you

• Faster than you

• More connected than you

• More global than you

• More flexible than you

• Investing more than you

• Didn’t used to be your competitor


What it takes to compete now

• Get to market faster

• Fail fast

• Do now, plan later

• Act below the budget line

If it succeeds:

• Build upon it faster

• Take it global fast

• Scale it fast (cloud scale)


What’s driving business to cloud-scale?

WindowsLive


The IT-business disconnect is growing

Business wants

• A place to experiment

• Fast integration

• Looser IT restrictions

• Responsiveness

IT wants

• Plenty of notice

• Predictability

• Stability

• Justification

Wham!


Who’s filling the gap?

Cloud computing


Agenda







Definition: cloud computing

A pool of highly scalable, abstracted infrastructure, capable of hosting end-customer applications,

that is billed by consumption.


Cloud computing characteristics

• Massive, abstracted infrastructure

» Components decided for you

• Dynamic allocation, scaling, movement of applications

• Pay per use

• No long-term commitments

• OS, application architecture independent

• No hardware or software to install


Cloud computing architectural fundamentals

Source: upcoming research, Cloud Computing: Not Ready For The Enterprise...Yet.


Cloud computing in use



Who are the cloud providers today?Company Offering Description

Akamai ApplicationPerformance

Services

Content-delivery network solution that improves edgeperformance application experience by moving cloud applications closer to target users

Amazon.com Amazon WebServices

Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) virtualized cloud infrastructure,Simple Storage Service (S3) cloud storage, various cloudimplemented application services

AretiInternet Virtual Hosting 3Tera AppLogic-based cloud hosting for small businesses

Enki Computing Utility 3Tera AppLogic-based cloud hosting and cloud-enabling services

Fortress ITX DynamicGrid 3Tera AppLogic-based cloud utility computing platform

Joyent Accelerator forApplications

Cloud computing platform built on OpenSolaris and JoyentAccelerators (virtual servers)

LayeredTechnology

GridLayer 3Tera AppLogic-based cloud utility computing platform

Salesforce.com Force.com Extendable cloud platform for Web-based applications

Terremark Infinistructure Cloud offering housed within Terremark collocation facilities

XCalibre FlexiScale Virtual iron-based cloud infrastructure with embedded clusterload balancing and HA services



Cloud computing: the latest evolution of hosting



Agenda







Cloud’s customers

• Startups

» Web-based business, SaaS, collaboration services, widget providers, mobile services, social networking

• Small businesses

» Online businesses, online presence, collaboration, enterprise integration

• Enterprises

» R&D projects, quick promotions, widgets, online collaboration, partner integration, social networking, new business ventures


The cloud value prop to enterprise

• Instant, easy access to resources

• No commitment

• Pay for it with a credit card

• Instant scale if you need it

• Try first, justify second

Source: http://open.blogs.nytimes.com


Agenda







Cloud advantages

• Massive scale yields economies of scale.

• Common infrastructure speeds innovation.

» Dynamic, automated infrastructure easier

• High utilization yields greater ROI.

• Success drives IT investment.

» IT is the business.

» If your customers succeed, so do you.


Where the advantages really show

• Internet scale — across megacenters

• Where applied to direct services and cloud customers

• Where a common business model can be deployed on a global scale


Who’s got next . . . most likely

Source:


Why this is so compelling: It’s a disruptive technology

• Doesn’t meet enterprise needs

• Isn’t easy for enterprises to control

• Doesn’t support general enterprise IT practices

• Good enough for startups and SMBs

• “Cheap” compute



Agenda







Recommendations

• Start experimenting with the cloud.

• Be prepared for your business to experiment with it.

• Let them know what you want.

• Leverage the cloud infrastructure internally.

• Build your own cloud.


Who are the leading enterprise cloud builders today?

Company Offering

Dell Dell Data Center Solutions offers Dell Cloud Computing Solutions for creation, optimization and management of enterprise clouds.

IBM Blue Cloud is IBM’s initiative to help enterprises, governments and educational customers build and deploy their own clouds

3Tera AppLogic is a cloud infrastructure software offering.

Sun Network.com is Sun’s first foray into this space and the model upon which SunPS is architecting clouds today

RightScale Helps enterprises leverage clouds



Cloud building blocks



James Staten

+1 650.581.3824

[email protected]

www.forrester.com

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Selected bibliography

• December 24, 2007, “There Are Three IT Architectures Not One”

• November 14, 2007, “Hosted eCommerce: An Interim Solution”

• August 15, 2007, “What Can Enterprise Learn From The Web Giants?”

• July 26, 2007, “Developing Enterprise Web 2.0 Applications”

• February 22, 2007, “Google Releases Google Apps Premier Edition”