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Vendors have jumped into the private cloud marketplace full tilt. But forthe discerning IT consumer, only a few true cloud offerings are availabletoday. If you think your IT shop is ready for cloud prime time, read on.

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That hasn’t stopped big vendorsand bit players alike from jumpingon the cloud bandwagon with avengeance. Many providers have re-branded themselves as “cloud”offerings without changing a thingabout their services. To furthermuddle the market for the discern-ing IT consumer, there are but a few“true” cloud offerings availabletoday. Only a handful of establishedtools can help you build or operate a cloud, and most don’t come frommainstream vendors. In the realm of private cloud,

things get even more confusing.While server virtualization has final-ly taken root in many enterprises,the technology is far from universal.(Indeed, according to some studies,most enterprises are only about25% virtualized, and it takes agreater degree of virtualization to

build a private cloud.) The truth is,for private clouds, the use cases arefew, and that’s unlikely to changeovernight.But this shared-IT infrastructure

model can bring serious benefits,such as improved IT and businessefficiency, reduced costs, and dy-namically automated infrastructuremanagement. Still, a cloud almostalways requires reorganizing IToperations, often to deliver applica-tions, infrastructure resources andservices like an online shopping site.Some firms have begun to delve

into private clouds. Large high-techfirms such as Qualcomm run testand development software in pri-vate cloud environments, but theystill run scientific computing gridsseparately. Financial firms such asBank of America and The HartfordGroup are reportedly highly virtual-

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F YOU HAVE a heartbeat and work in IT, you’ve certainly heard the term cloud computingby now. Some of the hype stems from high-visibility success with new-world, massiveonline businesses that use Amazon WebServices (AWS) or the Rackspace Cloud todo some eye-popping things. But much of

the hype stems from vendor enthusiasm with amodel still in its infancy.

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ized. But again, cloud computing islimited to software developmentand in end-user applications such asvirtual desktops. These applicationsare well suited to a private cloudmodel.

But enterprises aren’t ready to runtheir mission-critical applications ina private cloud. They don’t run mas-sive enterprise resource planningsystems, latency-sensitive financialtrading applications or supercom-puting efforts in the cloud. So far,enterprises pick and choose what’suseful in the model and apply it inlimited ways. So while there is something worth

teasing out of the confusing rubble,enterprises still need to figure outwhere a private cloud is fruitful. Thegoal of this introduction is to helpseparate the wheat from the chaffand make better sense of what thisarchitecture can do for your IT shopand your company.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A PRIVATE CLOUDSo what is private cloud computing?First, it’s an operations model, not atechnology. Fundamentally, cloudcomputing is a new way to provi-sion, operate and deliver IT infra-structure. The National Institute of Standards and Testing (NIST)defines the cloud model this way:

1. on-demand self-service;2. broad network access;3. resource pooling; 4. rapid elasticity; and5. measured service.

Taken together, these characteris-tics constitute a new model of ITservice delivery. But what do thesecharacteristics really entail, and howcan they take shape in companyinfrastructure?

1. On-demand self-service. Theterm on-demand self service meansthat an end user (or IT administra-tor) has a simple, standardized andtotally automated way to operatecomputing infrastructure: by turningservers on and off, by allocatingstorage volumes, and by assigningand tracking network identity andusage. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is

the canonical example. Customerscan use the AWS ManagementConsole to remotely connect toAmazon’s network to create andmanage virtual machines (VMs),

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Fundamentally, cloudcomputing is a newway to provision, operate and deliver IT infrastructure. But enterprises aren’tready to run mission-critical applications in a private cloud.

which can also be done via the com-mand line. AWS uses SSH (orSecure Shell) and public key cryp-tography to create secure connec-tions from a company’s network toAmazon’s. If launching a server orgrabbing a few gigabytes of storagefor a VM involves (1) multiple staffor (2) staff having to get up fromtheir chairs to manage servers, it’snot cloud computing.The Coppell, Texas-based Con-

tainer Store Inc. put self-serviceprinciples into action by switchingto an online procurement system.Instead of entering data into Excelspreadsheets and emailing them tocompany headquarters, store man-agers now order stock online fromdistributors. Over the long term, thischange in process may enable thecompany to reduce trucking anddistribution operations by 75%.

2. Broad network access. Cloudcomputing is managed online, soyou can access and manage infra-structure from almost anywhere.Today, if IT shops so choose, theycan manage networks of hundredsof servers and storage from smart-phones and iPads. For a cloud operator, broad net-

work access can manifest in differ-ent ways. You may want a cloudonline, but only behind a company’sfirewalls or in specific locations.Public cloud operations are open to the public via a Web portal orapplication programming interfaces;

private clouds are not (for more on the difference between public andprivate cloud models, see “PrivateClouds vs. Public Clouds” on page 5and “Cloud Computing Models:Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid”). Allcloud models use online manage-ment systems. If you have to call ahosting facility to get somethingdone, it’s not cloud computing.

3. Resource pooling. According toNIST, in a cloud computing archi-tecture “computing resources arepooled to serve multiple consumerswith a multi-tenant model.” One ofthe central principles of cloud com-puting is to homogenize the infra-structure management view, whereuniform, consistent building blocksof infrastructure can scale in tandem. Thus, systems that perform the

same basic function can be man-aged and distributed together evenif they are different brands or tech-nologies. In a private cloud model,this means that multiple depart-ments can share IT resources fromone centralized, pooled location.

4. Rapid elasticity. The premise ofcloud computing is to provide theillusion of near-infinite computecapacity. For an enterprise IT shop,some of the extreme examples ofpublic cloud consumption provide aglimpse into the potential of privatecloud computing as well. Companies whose foundational

architecture is cloud computing,

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PRIVATE CLOUDS VS. PUBLIC CLOUDSNO INTRODUCTION TO cloud computing is complete without a distinction betweenpublic and private clouds. Public clouds are large-scale, open-to-all providers, suchas Rackspace and Amazon.com, which any customer can pay for and use, as well as Software as a Service providers such as Google Apps and Salesforce.com. Yourbusiness data sits cheek by jowl with other companies’ data, and the service pro-vides the illusion of isolation.Private clouds, on the other hand, are run by an organization and designated for

use only by members of that organization. It may be a mix of technologies and ap-plications, and it may serve many different parts of the business; but it’s not open to the public.Private clouds can be external to a company’s data center, such as Terremark’s

Enterprise Cloud, which securely walls off a section of its public cloud infrastructurefor a unique customer. Compared with traditional virtualized data centers, both private and public clouds benefit from automated management (to save on manuallabor) and homogenous hardware (for lower cost and greater flexibility).

—JO MAITLAND

such as the San Francisco-basedgaming company Zynga, adjust thesize of their operations by literallythousands of servers—sometimesseveral times a day—to meetincreased demand. This way, Zyngapays only when it needs to anddoesn’t carry substantial overheadby paying for in-house infrastructurewhen it can simply “dial up” addi-tional capacity instead.Zynga’s use of resources is tailor-

made for cloud computing, anddemonstrates how adding resourcesshould work in a cloud model. Whilemost enterprises don’t have userswho need 5,000 servers per day,the flexibility of the cloud model has turned Zynga into a multibillion-

dollar business.A user should be able to get more

resources and turn them on and offas necessary and without hassle. Ifdecommissioning fully functional ITinfrastructure involves more than afew clicks or a few commands, it’snot cloud computing.

5. Measured service. For a truecloud, you need a way to trackevents in your infrastructure in anaccurate, dynamic and automatedway. You also need to track theseevents as they happen, not after the fact. Large enterprises that usebudgeting techniques such aschargeback and internal billing canmeter and monitor (tasks that are

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automated, of course) cloudresources to justify IT usage. Thosewho do not use chargeback or inter-nal billing still need visibility intotheir environment, because it is sohands-off and automated. Mostcloud platforms and public cloudservices offer an easy way to displaythis information up to the minute orhour. So if you need to wade throughlog files or manually track down helpdesk tickets to find out why Ted andAlice each run 40 VMs but Bob can’tget any, it’s not cloud computing.While most of these elements of

the cloud model aren’t new, thedelivery model is new. And thishigh-octane systems managementarchitecture is also more beneficialfor some use cases than for others.For a potential private cloud opera-tor, the cautionary tale is this: Youdon’t take existing apps and data enmasse and park them on a cloud.You’ll either spend so much moneythat you’ll go broke, or it’ll be an epicdisaster. Ten years ago, outsourcingsuffered this fate.Los Gatos, Calif.-based Netflix,

for example, is a poster child for thecloud model. The company began to use Amazon’s Elastic ComputeCloud (EC2) and Simple StorageService for the transcoding and stor-age of its growing library of stream-ing video content. In a mere twoyears’ time, Netflix has retooled itsentire infrastructure for the cloudand grown by $1 billion. That’s anextreme example of the kind of

transformation possible with a cloud infrastructure.To accomplish this, Netflix re-

wrote or invented nearly all its mis-sion-critical applications and infra-structure with mostly open sourcetools and lots of engineering talent.

But this kind of infrastructure re-tooling requires a degree of in-house expertise; not every enter-prise can lay claim to these skills.For companies with data privacy

concerns, Sarbanes-Oxley Act com-pliance requirements or entrenchedbusiness processes, cloud comput-ing can introduce new challenges. For Stuart Radnidge, an infra-

structure architect at a multination-al financial services firm, for exam-ple, company red tape ultimatelyderailed a private cloud project. Eventhough the company’s cloud wassupposed to allow users to dynami-cally provision virtual machines ontheir own to access applications, it took weeks before a new work-load could be brought online giveninternal business process hurdles.“When a person wants to provisiona new app, they have to submit it

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While most elements of the cloud model aren'tnew, the deliverymodel is.

THE THREE PILLARS OF THE CLOUD1. Infrastructure as a Service is a pay-per-use service wherea cloud computing provider offers storage space, softwareand network equipment as consumable resources. IaaS offer-ings include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (or EC2), GoGridand the Rackspace Cloud.

2. Software as a Service is a software distribution model thatprovides applications to customers via the Internet. As themost commonly used form of cloud computing, SaaS contin-ues to grow alongside the maturity of Web services and service-oriented architecture. The top purveyors of SaaS are NetSuite, Adobe and Salesforce.com.

3. Platform as a Service is a cloud computing model in which a computing platform is delivered to users via the Web. PaaSis often used for the development, deployment and hosting of applications. PaaS offerings include Microsoft Azure,Force.com and Google App Engine.

INFRASTRUCTUREAS A SERVICE

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SOFTWAREAS A SERVICE

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PLATFORMAS A SERVICE

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to an internal infrastructure reviewboard,” Radnidge recounted. Thesedelays are antithetical to the dy-namic provisioning and easy accessof true private cloud environments.

TAKING THE LONG VIEWStill, some may wonder, “Why builda cloud environment if I alreadyhave a truckload of servers and sys-tems running? What’s the point?The answer is that cloud computinghas immediate, easy use cases youcan implement with little hassle andsubstantial benefit—but also a limit-

ed number of uses within the enterprise. Over the long term, however, the

cloud model will probably affectalmost everything in IT—even appli-cations and systems that seem likepoor candidates for cloud comput-ing. It’s a good idea to try smallimplementations now and, as op-portunities present themselves, getready for more. The simplest way toget started is to sign up for AmazonWeb Services—and spend the mere$5 to try it out.During the first wave of experi-

mentation, the obvious candidates

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for cloud-based resources are Web-based services and software devel-opment. If you’re an online business,it’s likely you already use AWS insome capacity. According to Cloud-Sleuth.com, for example, more thanone-third of the world’s Internettraffic ends up in Amazon WebServices. Online, scalable, Web-based clouds are a no-brainer fordelivering content and services.Similarly, if you’re a technology ven-dor, clouds are a cheap way to getdevelopment resources. But even for companies unwill-

ing or unable to use a public cloud,there are candidates for cloud com-puting. The first is software testingand development environments,where the delay in getting IT re-sources has long been a sore point.And these environments need notbe complicated or secure. Easy-to-use, low-cost software packagessuch as Eucalyptus and Nimbus aredesigned with this goal in mind. Youcan start with one physical serverand add more incrementally. If you run Web applications from

inside an enterprise, the same prin-ciples apply. While the smart moneyis on using public clouds for Weboperations, there’s no reason youcan’t repurpose existing Web serversoff physical machines and into virtu-al machines that can be turned offto save power or expanded to meetdemand much more easily than cantraditional procurement.Cloud computing requires a fair

amount of planning and standardi-zation as well. That’s one reason it’sa long-term strategy instead of aquick fix for existing problems. Avending machine works only be-cause its candy bars are about thesame size. And similarly, to operatea cloud, you first have to create asmuch commonality in your existinginfrastructure as possible or bring innew hardware that can be easilystandardized. While your infrastruc-ture doesn’t have to be cookie cut-ter, the further apart the technolo-gies that you pool together, theworse the performance hit whenyou abstract, or virtualize, the hard-ware layer.

THE C-LEVEL ELEVATOR PITCHIf you already use virtualizationtechnology such as VMware,chances are you’ve introduced tech-nology that resembles some of thecloud principles discussed. The shiftto a cloud model often begins as adata center consolidation, where the cloud is the next logical step.If you want the 60-second eleva-

tor pitch for cloud computing, con-sider this: The cloud is essentially a vending machine: an automation-oriented, self-service approach to IT. It focuses on delivering infra-structure services so that a userworks only with the end result—notinkering with hardware, no logis-tics, minimal procurement process,no operations support.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION on cloud computing, click on the content titles listed below.

� Why Is Cloud Computing So Hard to Understand?Cloud computing covers a wide swath of technology and business requirements.As a result, many different definitions are acceptable and fall within the overalltopic.

� Cloud Computing Models: Public vs. Private vs. HybridThis podcast outlines the three major models of cloud computing, how they differ and the major vendors that exemplify each model.

� Red Tape Derails a Private Cloud ProjectFor a large financial services firm, red tape and entrenched processes derailed on architect’s efforts to build a private cloud.

� How Cloud Computing Is Changing ITHow has this “disruptive” model moved IT beyond the walls of your company?

� Cloud Computing Is Here to StayWhile detractors predict a failure for the cloud model, an expert prognosticatessuccess based on cloud computing’s answer to business problems.

� Cloud Management BasicsThis podcast outlines why IT shops might need cloud management tools and outlines the cloud management vendor landscape.

� How Cloud Pricing WorksAn expert discusses the licensing structures associated with cloud technologies. �

In his book The Big Switch, NicholasCarr discussed the long-term im-pact of cloud computing. Accordingto Carr, we are moving from self-powered IT solutions to a utilitymodel, where we want and expectto consume all IT resources just aswe pay for water or electricity.

In effect, your IT shop is going tobecome an electrical transfer sta-tion for your organization’s comput-ing needs, instead of the in-houselaboratory and custom tool shop thatit is today.For the enterprise IT manager, the

variations of cloud models are end-

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less. They are also not one-size-fits-all solutions. Nothing you can buy orimplement can “get you the cloud”in a way that is fully tied into yourexisting business operations. Youcan experiment freely with smallamounts of resources, and someuses are clearly mandated for cloudcomputing, such as a company web-site or e-commerce operation. Youcannot simply shovel everything youdo in IT onto a cloud platform andhave it work right away. Such turn-key operation isn’t possible, and thatshould be the key takeaway forpotential private cloud operators.Of course, you don’t have to run

a perfectly open AWS-style cloud,you can institute only some of theseconcepts or mix and match Infra-structure as a Service with Platformor Software as a Service (see “TheThree Pillars of the Cloud,” page 7). One thing is certain. The cloud

model is about making businessesmore agile—and without the alba-tross of the overhead associatedwith traditional IT infrastructure. As technology author Peter Fingarnotes, “Businesses are becomingmore like the technology itself: moreadaptable, more interwoven andmore specialized. These develop-ments may not be new, but theadvent of cloud computing willspeed them up.” �

Carl Brooks is a senior technology writer forSearchCloudComputing.com. Write to him atcbrooks@techtarget.com.

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Cathleen GagneEditorial Director

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Jo MaitlandSenior Executive Editor

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Lauren HorwitzSenior Managing Editorlhorwitz@techtarget.com

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RESOURCES FROM OUR SPONSOR

• From Secure Virtualization to Secure Private Cloud

• Building Secure Private Clouds with VMware vCloud Director

• Your Cloud, Your Business: Perspectives from Verizon and VMware

About VMware, Inc.:VMware(NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to thedatacenter. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses,ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2007 revenues of $1.3billion, more than 100,000 customers and nearly 14,000 partners, VMware is one of thefastest growing public software companies. Based in Palo Alto, California, VMware ismajority-owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) and on the web at www.vmware.com