Archive for the ‘cloud computing’ Category

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Keynoting at CloudSlam ‘10

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Just a quick note to say that I’m honoured to have been asked to provide a keynote presentation at the upcoming CloudSlam ‘10 virtual conference being held from March 23-25.

My presentation is scheduled for 11am ET / 8am PT on March 23rd and is titled “Cloud forecasting: models, predictions, pitfalls and planning”. More details are available here. I’m also moderating a panel with some IBM folks at 4pm ET / 1pm PT on March 23rd, which should be fun (though it’ll be 9pm for me, so if I jabber it’s because I’ve had too much coffee ;-)

Last year’s event was a pretty big success by all accounts, so I’m really excited to be taking part. I hope to see you there!

In the meantime – if you’d like to see a preview of some of what I’ll be talking about (obviously I’ll be mixing it up a bit for CloudSlam) then you should check out our own virtual Cloud event, available on-demand here. It’s free – you only need Guest Pass access to our research library to access the content. I’d love to hear what you think about the research we’re doing in this area.

Posted in cloud computing, conference | No Comments »

From system integrator to service integrator

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

One of the themes we delve into in our free online framing a Cloud Computing strategy event is the emerging role of the Service Integrator. This is something I’ve been talking about for a while in discussions with clients but I thought I’d share it a bit more widely…

So what is a Service Integrator? Simply put, a Service Integrator relates to the SaaS/Cloud Computing world in the same way that a Systems Integrator relates to the on-premise computing world.

Right now we’re at a stage in Cloud computing development which is dominated by “early adopters”. Typically such companies are willing to go an extra mile to get the benefits of a new technology and technology model – things that many other companies would consider too complicated, risky or expensive.

Activities which fit into this category include integrating data and functionality (both between Cloud-based platforms and applications, and between Cloud-based and on-premise systems); encrypting sensitive data and securing communications; backing up and restoring data; replicating and managing resources to maximise reliability and availability; and so on and so on.

While today’s adopters of Cloud Computing may be quite happy to shoulder the technical burden of making remote resources “fit for purpose” within their enterprise, we should assume that most won’t. Particularly when you consider that a big part of the promise of Cloud Computing is that with this model, you’re delegating responsibility for managing technology. Why, if you’re so interested in a model of computing which is fundamentally tied to outsourcing – and particularly if you’re interested about using this model not just for one application but for a wide variety of purposes – would you choose to take responsibility for integration yourself?

If use of Cloud Computing is to move beyond tactical use in the early adopter community, there’s going to be a big opportunity out there for providers who can wrap multiple Cloud-based services and platforms up and deliver them as bundles of managed services.

So… duh… isn’t this the same thing as systems integration then? Well, maybe a little – but not completely. There are three distinct levels that a Service Integrator can work and add value at, which further blur the boundaries between “traditional” systems integration work and outsourcing/managed services provision work:

  • Technical integration. This is primarily “traditional” systems integration project work – delivering code to create and stitch custom and off-the-shelf application services together.
  • Management integration. This is managed services work that is focused on delivering seamless experiences to service consumers, to agreed levels of quality. Reliability, security, availability, break/fix, helpdesk services and disaster recovery all play here.
  • Contract integration. This level of integration work is about providing “one throat to choke”. The Service Integrator takes responsibility for all back-end contracts with resource and application service providers, and becomes the single integrated billing and payment point for the end customer, also creating a single point of liability for quality of service delivered.

Now of course many established Systems Integrators already combine work of different kinds (for example development/integration and application management) to create overall offerings for clients – but here, we see increased industrialisation of some the services provided (particularly as infrastructure providers like Informatica, Pervasive, and Cast Iron get in on the SaaS act at the technical integration layer), and also more focus on the economic benefits of the Cloud Computing model (rather than on “all-in” pricing for multi-year contracts). We’re already seeing a number of service providers stepping into this space, as well as new players springing up. Examples include (though there are many more):

Capgemini – which has created a specialised Cloud Computing centre of excellence and is providing advisory and integration services for its clients.

Accenture – which has created a set of services to help clients examine potential around Cloud Computing and SaaS.

CSC – which has launched two specific new offerings: Cloud Orchestration (principally operating in our technical integration layer) and Trusted Cloud (operating in our management integration layer).

Saaspoint – a specialist Cloud Computing/SaaS consultancy centred on delivering services based around Salesforce.com application service implementation, citing over 700 clients.

Bluewolf – which focuses on integrate a variety of services (often centred around Salesforce.com’s applications) for customers interested in driving change in marketing, sales and services processes.

For me, one of the most interesting things here will be to what degree the flexible pricing and billing models that have become expected in the Cloud Computing space are offered on to customers when these intermediaries become better established in this market. Will service integrators find ways to make margin out of Cloud Computing providers’ pricing and billing arrangements (for example by pooling a set of back-end application service licenses across multiple clients, and “soaking up” some of the variable demand for capacity that way) but not passing these efficiencies onto clients, instead preferring to drive clients towards fixed-price multi-year contracts? Or will they start to adopt more granular pricing and billing practices? Indeed, will this become an area of differentiation between the established SIs and the upstarts?

I’d love to hear what you think… this is a topic we’ll be digging into more over the course of this year.

If you’d like to check out our Cloud Computing event, it’s available free and on-demand… just go here. You’ll need a free Guest Pass ID to access the content, but signing up only takes a few seconds and you also get access to an extensive library of written research.

Posted in ITSM, SaaS, cloud computing, integration | 1 Comment »

It’s time to start framing a Cloud Computing strategy. Are you ready?

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

It’s easy to dismiss Cloud Computing as just another IT industry hype bubble that will one day burst, showering everyone in a slightly stale-smelling mist. Certainly, as with all waves of technology advancement, there’s been an *awful* lot of hype about the potential and – just like any other technology advancement – Cloud Computing offers no silver bullet for anyone’s IT investment or management woes.

Nevertheless our research (including a survey of 350+ IT architects in 9/09) shows that many organisations are dipping their toes in the Cloud (if that’s not a heinous non-sequitur) and they are seeing success. What’s also interesting is that some of the most eager proponents of Cloud Computing and Cloud-based application use aren’t in those industries which are typically at the leading edge of technology adoption (financial services, telecom); they’re in industries like media, retail, utilities, pharma which are more generally thought of as conservative investors in IT. This is because Cloud Computing is not a model of technology ownership – it’s a model of service delivery and consumption.

2010 will see every major IT vendor and service provider moving to offer or enable Cloud-based infrastructure and services. You need to be prepared to reap the potential benefits while managing the potential risks – and this means having a solid awareness of how Cloud Computing concepts fit into the rest of your existing IT investment portfolio. Only then can you chart a course that makes sense for you (and which won’t be driven by the proprietary interests of one or more IT suppliers).

Here’s some questions to think about that can help you frame a strategy:

  • What are the ways that Cloud Computing can deliver value, and in what kinds of scenario? How does the value of a “private Cloud” relate to the value of a “public Cloud”?
  • How is Cloud Computing really related to SaaS? What does this mean for me if I’m considering using the Cloud as a strategic source of IT services? Where does SaaS make most sense?
  • What are the tradeoffs that I’ll experience on choosing a Cloud Computing platform, and what will be the downstream effects?
  • What’s the real story with security in a Cloud Computing environment? Is the security issue a show-stopper?

With all this in mind, yesterday we launched a two-part online event designed to help enterprises frame a Cloud Computing strategy. It’s made up of two on-demand webinars which you can view at any time – and it’s completely free of charge (you just need to register for Guest Pass access to our site first – which also gives you access to a big chunk of our research library for free, too).

The event is sponsored by Google Enterprise – and we’re very grateful for their support. Nevertheless we designed and created the content without any input from Google – it’s a completely independent piece of work.

We’d love to hear what you think of this event. We’re currently exploring a number of options regarding holding future events like this, so your feedback is crucially important to us. Once you’ve viewed the content you can provide feedback right from the event home page – or alternatively leave us a comment below!

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Posted in SaaS, Uncategorized, cloud computing, integration, strategy planning | 1 Comment »

Interview on IASA, the value of architecture, and Cloud Computing

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

While I was at IASA’s ITARC NYC the other week, Matt Deacon (day job: developer/architect evangelist for Microsoft in the UK; evening job: UK Chapter President of IASA) interviewed me about my thoughts on the value of architecture, the role of IASA and also about the talk I gave at the event.

The talk I gave was on a recent survey we completed in association with IASA – focused on architects’ experiences of, and views on, Cloud Computing. In the second half of the interview Matt talks to me about some of the early findings from that survey.

The video interview with Matt and me is about 21 minutes long, and it’s published on Microsoft’s Channel 9. I think the discussion turned out pretty well, though I say so myself… Matt has also published an interview with the SEI’s Len Bass from the same conference btw, and that’s worth a look, definitely.

The full survey findings will be published as part of our new Software Delivery advisory service, which we’ll be launching this month. If you’re an enterprise IT practitioner and you’d like to find out more about the service here’s something for you; if you work for an IT vendor organisation, here’s some information for you.

I’d love to get feedback from you if you have time to sit through the interview… what did you think?

Posted in IASA, architecture, cloud computing | No Comments »

Building trusted Cloud APIs: Sonoa and apigee

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

The other day I got a business update from Sonoa Systems, sparked by the arrival at the company by Sam Ramji – former Senior Director of Platform Strategy at Microsoft. Sam is now the VP of Strategy at Sonoa.

As you can see in our report on Sonoa, the company is making significant inroads in a critical area of service management, focused on assuring the quality-of-service delivered by APIs. The company started out selling its core technology, ServiceNet, as a service management platform for SOA implementations – but recently it’s expanded its focus to delivering enabling technology that helps media companies, SaaS providers, telcos and other service providers – as well as traditional “bricks and mortar” companies like Guardian Life which want to offer some of their internal capabilities as wholesale services – ensure that the API consumer experience is reliable and that quality can be guaranteed. MySpace, Warner Music and MTV Networks are all customers.

Now, Sonoa sees its ultimate value as enabling enterprises that want to jump “into the Cloud” – but that also need to continue to comply with policies and governance requirements – to make the leap; principally by driving up the level of API-quality trust and visibility that can exist between service providers and consumers.

In the context of this goal, the recent launch by Sonoa of a freemium-model, self-service, hosted implementation of the core ServiceNet technology under the brand “Apigee” (see www.apigee.com) is a smart development. The idea is to enable API providers, and developers consuming APIs, to quickly set up and use value-added API management services. There are already 250 customers live – evenly split between API providers, API consumers, and those who both consume and provide APIs.

We know from our research that although there’s very significant interest from organisations in the potential flexibility, time-to-market and cost profile that Cloud Computing and SaaS models can bring, security and trust remain the top concerns for those many companies that haven’t yet dipped their toes in the water. It’ll be fascinating to see if and how companies like Sonoa can drive broad, mainstream adoption of the “remixable services and data” Web 2.0 promise that has so much potential value.

Posted in Sonoa Systems, cloud computing, governance | No Comments »

Notes from CloudCamp London #5 – what would stop you from using Cloud?

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

On the fifth attempt, I finally managed to attend CloudCamp London earlier in the week. I’m glad I went – the “camp” format isn’t for everyone, but it works well for topics like Cloud Computing where most of the value is in networking and hashing out ideas/arguments.

The latter part of the evening was given over to sponsor talks and side discussions, and I proposed a session on “what might stop people from using Cloud Computing?”. I thought it was only fair that I also stuck my hand up as a volunteer to moderate the session, and hey presto.

It probably makes me way uncool to admit this, but this was my first ever “camp” – so I wasn’t really sure what to expect in these sessions. What kind of moderation do people want/expect? At the end of the sessions, does everyone just disperse and forget what was discussed? So I decided to just play it old-skool – write notes and promise to write them down so that everyone could read them afterward and comment if they like.

Hence this post – a record of what was discussed in the session. It’s a bit sketchy – reflecting the state of my notes!

If you were at the session and think I’ve missed or misrepresented anything or have any fun insights to add that you’ve noodled on since, please comment! Also, it would be great to get feedback from other readers who weren’t there – are there any other points you’d add?

Thanks to all those who came – I thought it was a really enjoyable session.

General discussion of barriers

We pretty quickly decided that it only made sense to discuss “barriers to use” in the context of perspectives – IT practitioners are likely to have different concerns than business decision-makers, for example. These are the main points we discussed:

  • IT practitioners – They’re likely to have concerns about the ultimate impact on their jobs and the potential of Cloud to take power away from the IT department. Uncertainties regarding processes around platform change management and dependencies. Concerns about security. Concerns about integration, latency and lockin.
  • Business decision-makers – Is Cloud really just a cost-cutting proposition or is there more business value there? Can Cloud help us make money as well as save it? [The point was made that when new opportunities arise that are to an extent poorly understood, people tend to want potential benefits to outweigh potential risks by a significant margin - say 10x]. It’s still too early to say what ROI looks like for particular scenarios. Regulatory compliance risk and legal uncertainties rear their heads.

Other factors relating to potential for Cloud adoption

We quickly moved on to talking more broadly about IT and business environments and how particular factors might affect the attraction of Cloud Computing.

Something that came up pretty quickly was that the “barriers” at the forefront of people’s minds would be very different depending on whether an organisation was looking at a tactical entry into Cloud use, or making a strategic entry. The type of entry point will drive significantly different perspectives.

One discussion that was particularly interesting to me was around the cultural dynamics within organisations – competition and power struggles between different IT functions, between different business functions, and between IT and business functions – and how Cloud Computing and Cloud-based applications could easily exacerbate these turf wars. Without clear leadership and governance structures in place the turf wars that invariably exist will prevent effective strategic entry into Cloud use, and will also likely severely hobble the value that can be obtained from tactical entry.

We also noodled on the potential value of sector or community-specific Cloud propositions – whether delivering specialised Cloud environments would make potential customers’ objections easier to identify and deal with and the value of Cloud clearer. We didn’t really come to a clear agreement – the overall feeling seemed to be that the potential advantages might be offset by economy-of-scale disadvantages (for example).

Other observations and talking points

“Cloud Computing is the new Microsoft Access”. Will it lead to IT chaos, fragmentation? What do we need to do to prevent this? [See the governance discussion above]. Is there a danger that Cloud could be like crack – highly addictive, easy and cheap to explore and dangerous? It seems that certainly for strategic entry into Cloud use, solid enterprise architecture and IT governance practices will be important pre-requisites.

“All the benefits relate to processing; all the risks relate to data”. This was a fascinating thought that bubbled up (sorry, I didn’t note who mentioned it – let me know in the comments!). I’m not sure I entirely agree (some use cases for Cloud are more around collaborative information and knowledge work, and these are very different from the “Cloud as Grid Computing 2.0″ use case which is definitely about processing).

This quickly led to a discussion around regulation and how it typically drives a focus on the stewardship/protection of data – but how it also lags behind actual risks present in the environment. We talked about how – if regulation was of no concern – there would be real merit in considering that a large Cloud platform provider is likely to be able to manage data security risks better than your average IT department – because the existence of their business depends on it. Regulation, however, has the power to curtail that train of thought pretty quickly.

Posted in business value, cloud computing, compliance, privacy | No Comments »

I’m with Werner

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Regarding public vs private Clouds: what he said.

I have a real problem with the positioning of infrastructure that you buy, install and own yourself as “private cloud” – even if it is the kind of infrastructure that Cloud providers might install in their own data centers. The problem I have is that Cloud computing *has* to have edges around it that we can point to, that clearly show where Cloud ends and other computing models begin. Otherwise we end up with a situation, probably at some point in the not-too-distant future, where “Cloud is everything”.

I think the only place where it makes sense to draw that line is around the product v service distinction. Namely that Cloud Computing is a model of service provision and consumption, and of provider-ownership and provider-management. And namely that Cloud Computing is expressly *not* a model of technology product ownership. If you’re buying products then you’re buying “Cloudy infrastructure” – you’re not “buying Cloud”. The technology is the enabler, but it’s not sufficient.

Where this leaves us here at MWD regarding the distinction between “public cloud” and “private cloud” is that the difference relates to accessibility: public clouds deliver resources that are universally accessible; private clouds deliver resources where access is restricted to those with the right authorisation.

I’m with Werner on this one.

[Now, of course, you can imagine in a very large organisation - within national Governments, for example - situations where shared services units might purchase "Cloudy infrastructure" and then deliver computing platform services to numerous Government departments, charging them for resource usage. There, those individual departments will be using a private Cloud. But again, the model is about utility-billed service provision.]

Posted in cloud computing, hype | No Comments »

What are IT architects’ experiences of Cloud Computing?

Friday, September 11th, 2009

We all know that the general level of industry interest in Cloud Computing is high – but how much is Cloud Computing being actively considered and pursued by “enterprise IT” organisations, as opposed to software-as-a-service startups and professional ISVs moving to the SaaS model?

To help support the launch of our new Software Delivery advisory service – which at launch will feature several advisory reports focused on the potential impact of Cloud Computing – we decided to ask the members of the IASA what they’re thinking and doing about Cloud Computing.

As I’ve mentioned before we have an ongoing research relationship with this not-for-profit global association of IT Architects (which today has around 25,000 members across a variety of industries). As in our summer BPM study, we’ve worked together with IASA to carry out a web-based survey – and although all IASA members have now been invited to take part, I wanted to make sure that you had a chance to take a look and offer your thoughts, too. If you’re in an IT architecture role, or know someone who is, we’d be delighted to have your involvement: you can find the online survey here.

Once the survey is complete, we’ll create an in-depth report drilling into the survey findings and correlating them with findings from our other Cloud Computing research work. Everyone taking part in this survey will be eligible to receive a free copy of the report. We’ll also create an IASA-only webinar, based on the survey results and adding other best-practice insights. All IASA members will be able to access this webinar free of charge.

So – if you’re an IT architect or know someone who is – we’d love to hear from you! And if you’re interested in the IASA webinar we’re creating – it’s easy to become an IASA member…

Lastly – if you’re interested in finding out more about the new Software Delivery service we’re readying for launch, please take a look at the brochures featured on our home page.

Posted in IASA, architecture, cloud computing, survey, webinar | No Comments »

Seven elements of Cloud value: public vs private

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

In last week’s post on the seven elements of Cloud computing’s value, I said that the simple model I put forward looked like being a nice way to compare different Cloud approaches and offerings and see what’s really being offered. There’s a lot of people jumping on this particular bandwagon, and a lot of the time it’s not easy to see what’s really going on.

In this blog entry I want to use that model I introduced last week to try and clearly demonstrate the difference between “public” cloud offerings (third party owned and managed, remote installations that you rent capacity from) and “private” cloud offerings (infrastructure that you install and own, but that implements many of the technology platform features found in large “scale-out” server farms run by public cloud providers). I’m not diving into the technology detail here, but rather showing how the value you get from each type of offering is different.

In the diagram I’ve drawn lines around each of the “cloud value element”. Thicker lines mean that more emphasis is placed on that value element; where the value element appears fainter, the value element is de-emphasised or missing.

So, in a nutshell: public cloud offerings typically major on the strategic and economic value elements, and quite often – although the architectural value elements can be there – they’re not talked about quite so much. Private cloud offerings, on the other hand, are *all* about the architectural value elements – virtualised resources, management automation, and (in some cases) self-service capacity provisioning.

Another slightly simplistic way to think about private cloud offerings is that they’re basically like 21st Century mainframe computers. Built using commodity hardware, yes – but layered with virtualisation, sophisticated SLA-driven management, capacity management, billing/chargeback… this looks awfully like a mainframe (again, from a value perspective, not from a deep technology perspective).

So: public and private cloud offerings: “like chalk and cheese” (as we say here in the UK). That’s not to say that one is better than the other: just that they’re different, and it pays to understand the kind of value you’ll receive from each.

Just like I said in my last post: I don’t pretend to have all the answers here, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Please let me know what you think!

Posted in SaaS, business value, cloud computing | 2 Comments »

The seven elements of Cloud computing's value

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Last week I was invited to speak as part of the London leg of TIBCO’s NOW roadshow, which focused primarily on Cloud computing and TIBCO’s new Silver offering (you can see what we think about that specifically in this report).

My job was to talk about “articulating the value of Cloud computing”. This was a fun challenge: so much of the talk about Cloud today starts by arm-waving at the 30,000ft level – and then zooms right down to the level of “virtualised compute resources” and “dynamic scalability”. What I hadn’t seen so much of was an attempt to map out more of a big picture of the value that Cloud computing can potentially deliver in the context of other approaches to consuming IT infrastructure resources.

So after reading countless blogs, conference proceedings, customer stories and news articles, I sat and stared at a blank piece of paper for a while, thinking about how I could pull all the different perspectives together to show one picture that captures all the different ways in which Cloud computing can potentially deliver value. This is what I ended up drawing and presenting in my talk:

You can see that there are seven elements of value I’ve highlighted, and they fall into three “value types”: economic, architectural and strategic.

  • The economic value of Cloud is largely about being able to align the timing and size of the investments you make with the value you receive – variously referred to as “pay as you go”, “pay as you grow”. You don’t pay $millions for infrastructure that only delivers value months or years later; you pay for what you actually need, when (or soon after) you use it. And you don’t purchase an asset that then depreciates (like crazy).
  • The architectural value of Cloud is about having an simple, consistent abstract environment presented to developers and operations folks that hides a lot of complexity, making it much quicker and easier to develop and deploy applications.
  • The strategic value of Cloud might be easily conflated with the economic value, but I think it’s different. It’s this: Cloud platforms help you focus on what makes your organisation more effective and different, and leave all the other stuff to a third party that is dedicated to doing a great job for a competitive price. This is about focus and it’s also about avoiding having to train people to do things that fundamentally don’t add value to your organisation (think “Lean IT” if you like.)

Have I captured all the potential elements of Cloud computing value? I’m 90% sure I have – but if I’ve missed something please let me know! Either way, the discussions I’ve had around this picture so far make me think that it’s a useful model for exploring different Cloud propositions as stated today and comparing them. What do you think?

Next up: I’ll post another version of this picture that contrasts the value of “private” and “public” Cloud propositions. Both types of propositions have value – but it’s important to be clear about what that value actually looks like in each case.

Posted in SaaS, TIBCO, business value, cloud computing | 3 Comments »

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