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Why Building PrivateClouds Makes SenseThere are 2 approaches to build a Private CloudTop Down

approach, star t i ng f rom service management and governance, andmoving down toward virtualization; the Bottom Up approach beingvice versa

Enterprises today are looking at

cloud computing for various

reasonssome need to take

advantage of capex to opex

conversion while others are looking at

stream linin g IT Services support and

maintenance.

From a CEO's perspective cloud

computing can reduce time for 'Go-to-

Market' and eliminate capital expendi-

ture; on the other hand, for a CIO it can

provide quick scale-up and scale-down

options, savings from maintenance and

upgrades and enable self service and

increased control.

While cloud computing to some may

seem to be a magic bullet, certain areas

reveal difficulty and confusion when

scratc hing the surfac e. Few quest ions

that often linger in the minds of CIOs

wanting to adopt cloud are:

What will hap pen to my exist ing

assets?

Who ensu res adh ere nce to regula-

tion and compliance for my IT environ-

ment on Cloud?

How to ens ure secu rity and pri-

vacy of my data in the cloud?

While public cloud is one option

that provides easy and economical scale

up and down for com put e and platf orm

requirements, organizations have their

own reservations in adopting public

clouds that include accountability, SLAs,

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and compl iance. Publ ic Cloud SLAs and

contra cts are vague for which pr ov iders

can se ld om b e h e ld a ccou n t a b l e .

This leads organizations to look at

an a l t e rn a t e d e l i ve ry mo d e lP r iv a t e

Clo u d s , wh ere in en t e rp r i ses can h av e

more con t ro l and can enforce account-

ab i l i ty . What o rgan izat ions are look ing

from a p r ivate cloud i s par t ic ipat ion by ;

d i f f e r en t i n t e rn a l d ep ar tmen t s wh o can

su b sc r ib e an d p a r t i c i p a t e i n i t s u sag e .

Few things to note before adopting a

p r iv a t e c lo u d :

M a t u r i t y o f V ir t u a l i z a t i o n i n

t h e E n t e r p r i s e : More matur i ty leads

to easy a dopt ion . I f matur i ty i s less ,

organizations can leap frog with the right

ap p ro ach

M a t u r i t y o f I T S M P r o c e s s e s

I m p l e m e n t e d : Serv ice Catalog , F inan-

c i a l Man a g emen t , S LA man ag emen t e t c

I T O r g a n i z a t i o n C u l t u r e : A d o p -

t ion of p r ivate cloud essen t ial ly changes

how serv ices are del ivered in ternal ly .

Does the o rgan izat ion ha ve ser v ice

prov ider aspects to benef i t f rom pr ivate

c lo u d ?

Is the Organizat ion mat ure enough

to adopt the owners h ip m odel for p r ivate

c lo u d ?

Has t h e Ap p l i ca t i o n Assessmen t

been done for p r ivate cloud a dopt ion?

Ban d wid th i s a n eg l ec t ed p i ece

and should be taken care whi le es t imat-

ing costs

Executing the Big 'C'

Private cloud i s being seen as creat ing

the biggest impact on the way cloud will

sha pe in the comin g fu ture. I t i s ther e-

fore no sur pr ise that many h ar dwar e/soft -

ware vendors who on thei r own or jo in t ly

are b r ing ing thei r p r ivate cloud offer ings

to the mar ket . However en ter pr ises m ust

r ememb er t h a t t h e re i s a lway s an a l t e r -

nate to creat e one 's own pr ivate cloud

u s in g r e f e r en ce a r ch i t ec tu re .

Usua l ly there are 2 ap proa ches to

bu i ld a p r ivate clou dt he Top Down

ap proa ch , which s tar t s from ser v ice

man ag emen t an d g ov ern a n ce an d mo v es

down towards v i r tual izat ion and the

Bot tom Up appr oach , which beg ins f rom

vir tual izat ion and moves up to govern-

an ce an d se rv i ce man ag emen t .

No mat t er what approa ch you ta ke,

the most impor tan t quest ion to th ink

about i s the aspect o f serv ice governance

and IT ser v ice ma nagem ent on Cloud . Is

ITIL sti l l relevant in this new model? If

so in what shape and form?

Broadly speak ing , ITIL processes l ike

i n ci d e n t m a n a g e m e n t , ch a n g e m a n a g e -

men t , p ro b l em man a g emen t , r e l ease

and dep loyment , e tc work the same way

in cloud e nvir onm ent as they work in a

n o n -c lo u d en v i ron men t . Th e p ro cesses

most ly af fected in cloud env i ronm ent are

f i n an c i a l man ag emen t , s e rv i ce ca t a lo g

man ag emen t , s e rv i ce l eve l ma n ag emen t ,

even t management , and conf igurat ion

m a n a g e m e n t .

Another impor tan t quest ion i s around

moni to r ing and management o f IT

environm ent on cloud . Depen ding on

which del ivery model you even tual ly

choose , there wi l l be a d i f fere nce in the

way moni to r ing and management works

for the IT landscape. In publ ic c louds i t

i s the operat ing system and above that

needs to be taken care , in p r ivate clouds

i t i s hardware onwards that needs to be

t ak en ca re .

Th e idea l way to go ar ound this is to

have an on-demand model fo r moni to r ing

an d man ag emen t , wh ere in u se r s h av e t h e

opt ion to choose s erv ices f rom a ser v ice

cat alog. An opt ion for start an d stop of

these ser v ices as and when requ i red i s

also a desi r ed op t ion .

Cloud means d i f feren t th ings to d i f -

feren t people. One should have a wel l

def ined ob ject ive fo r adopt in g cloud . Go-

ing forward we will see more and more

organ izat ions adopt ing cloud . One of

the b iggest h indr an ces fo r pu bl ic c loud

adopt ion i s around secur i ty and comp l i -

an ce, which ma kes the cas e for bu i ld in g

publ ic c louds very s t rong . For en ter -

p r i ses l o ok in g a t e l imin a t i n g co n cer n s

a ro u n d secu r i t y an d co mp l i an ce a lo n g

with main tain ing con t ro l over thei r IT

set -up , p r ivate cloud in deed might be

the man na f rom hea ven!

WHILE PRI-VATE CLOUD IS

CREATING THEBIGGEST IM-PACT, ENTER-PRISES MUSTREMEMBERTHAT THEREIS ALWAYS ANALTERNATE TOCREATE ONE'SOWN PRIVATE

CLOUD USINGREFERENCEARCHITECTURE

KALYAN KUMAR

The author is the associate vice

president and head. CFS, HCL

Technologies

nu iildqin dia@cybem iedia.co.in

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