In the cloud and beyond..

In the cloud and beyond..

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

12:18 PM

 Blog by Anirban Basu.

The world is abuzz with cloud computing and virtualization nowadays. Wherever you go you come across someone or the other who is either offering some kind of cloud based service or some kind of platform or application over the cloud. A few years back I met people who were considering a move towards the cloud, or people who were trying to get an understanding about virtualization- the technology that powers cloud. But today the scenario is completely changed.

The question is no more about whether one should move towards cloud computing. But it is about how soon one can embrace cloud computing to start saving on their IT expenditure. The question is how soon one can virtualize his IT infrastructure, so as to get a more efficient, easy to manage and if possible self-serviced mode of deploying new IT requirements.

Advantages of Cloud Computing:

1. Better utilization of IT hardware/ Infrastructure/ Network resource.
2. Easy to manage and deploy.
3. Implementation of virtual clusters ensure 100% uptime of virtual Servers or machines.
4. Lower cost of regular maintenance including lower electricity bills and cooling charges.
5. Freedom from getting stuck to one platform or hardware/ Operating System Vendor.

Cloud Computing is a rapidly accelerating revolution within IT and it is well on its way to become the default method of IT delivery. Organizations would be well off by beginning a move to the Clouds sooner, rather than later.

Cloud : Public or private !!

Just like every Organization is different in terms of size, industry, work culture and demography, there is no "One size fits all cloud computing solution" for everybody. Thus whether it is Public or Private cloud for you or still better Hybrid cloud (Often referred to as Cloudburst by IBM), will depend on a lot of factors.

To start with, we can consider the size of your organization. The larger your organization the more organization specific applications you may be running and thus larger maybe your existing IT Infrastructure. On the other hand if you are a small and medium business, You might be having a very limited few applications for your day to day usage.

Do you go for application virtualization or Software as a Service (SAAS), or should you go for Infrastructure as a service (IAAS) and thus virtualize your Server Hardware and manage your own applications on those virtualized infrastructure ?? The options are many and require thorough pre-planning to ensure that you eventually choose the right model.

Do remember that you can go for an IAAS model irrespective of whether you are choosing a public cloud or a private cloud(Cloud on your own premises). The only major difference will be that if you are signing up for a IAAS on the public cloud you will be hiring your Infrastructure as a weekly/monthly/ yearly service from an established Cloud service Provider like Rackspace or IBM Softlayer or even your local telecom service provider. Whereas if you choose to go ahead with IAAS on a private cloud, your existing IT infrastructure is practically virtualized to form a Cloud platform that can be deployed, utilized and managed by the various departments and end users in your organization in a much more agile manner leading to a more efficient IT environment where you truly leverage the power of your investments.

The other major difference between a public and private cloud offerings may be the Capex factor. In a truly Public cloud you only have operating expenditure. However in a private cloud you have some Capital Expenditure (Capex) as well as some Operating Expenditure(Apex).

What if, you are already using a cloud on your own premise(Private Cloud) model and now need even more resources. You can hire this additional resource from a public cloud and thus your model becomes a combination of Private and Public Cloud or what we call as a Hybrid cloud.

Following are some of the guidelines that will help you determine the right model for you:

• Do you use Applications where extremely fast processing of real time data is required. If so then, it may not make sense to virtualize your applications on a public cloud.
• Are you using Applications where legislation or other regulation does not permit data being hosted externally or 

are you in a business where your audit requirements limit your ability to host data outside.

• Do your IT users have volatile demand – any time there are significant spikes and troughs in terms of demand on            the infrastructure
• If you are a new organizations do you have enough capital to invest in hardware.
•  If your organization is growing rapidly and you feel scaling hardware in near future would be problematic
•  If there is pressure to limit capital expenditure on your IT Infrastructure and to move to operating expenditure.

It's Cloud all the way…

At the end of it all remember, this is  a trend that has taken the IT industry by storm. No matter what you do, you cannot ignore  it. Also considering the mostly positive advantages that are being derived out of it, plus the fact that environmentally this is a movement that will lead to more and more efficient usage of your IT resource and thus save a few oil wells from getting dried earlier or contain the destruction of our Ozone layer, I don’t see the point in not going for it.

As per Gartner predictions for 2013 "As cloud computing continues to mature and becomes an integral part of IT, IT organizations will increasingly look to evolve in ways that demonstrate value in a cloud world."

Taking an analogy from our daily lives, we saw the explosion  of Consumer Electronics industry at some time in the past, but what was the driving factor behind that ? The fact that you can buy electricity on demand by just turning on a switch, or the fact that you can get clean water by just twisting the head of your tap. In the developed world at least, the availability of household electricity and water supply are being considered as "take it for granted resource", and no one can imagine  day to day life without it.

Similarly Cloud computing is a revolution that can provide big advantage to millions of businesses, provided they are able to access these services through the internet. For businesses to really take advantage of these services, we need high speed internet access – and not just in the major cities.

As per Peter Groucutt (MD of Databarracks, UK)- "Like water or electricity, cloud computing should now be considered a key utility and therefore should be available to all. It allows businesses to succeed as it enables them to exactly align technology expenditure with business requirements. It can be argued that this technology has the potential to do for today’s business what the Industrial Revolution did for mass production."

So it is imperative that this is not something that can be achieved by an individual or a single Organization. But this is an initiative that has to be taken by the Industry as a whole as well as the governments to ensure that they invest adequately behind an on demand, cost effective and easily available high speed Internet backbone, that can be accessed at every nuke and corner of the planet i.e. the earth. The availability of high speed internet with such ease will eventually push cloud computing to the next stage where all services can be accessed on demand. Till then…Chow