Hey, hey, You, you: Get off of my cloud

So, McKinsey & Company came out with a report, “Clearing the Air On Cloud Computing,” that throws–at first blush–cold water on the benefits of cloud computing. McKinsey is a world-class consulting firm and their analysts certainly have earned the right to be listened to. Of course, that doesn’t mean they’re always right. It just means they’ve done some thinking on the subject and have drawn some conclusions from it.

If anything, the biggest splash of cold water they toss is that there’s a heck of a lot of hype around cloud computing. So much so, that it’s all a bit of “irrational exuberance”. Therefore, we should proceed with caution. After that dose of reality (as if we needed reminding), they then report, essentially, that cloud computing is no replacement for your data center. That it’s simply not cost effective.

Gee, really? That conclusion, in its own way, is a kind of anti-hype. I’ve not come across anyone saying cloud computing will replace an enterprise’s data center. Far from it. But, cloud computing sure can augment IT, and thus, the business broadly speaking.

McKinsey seems to be countering the benefits of cloud computing with a straight line examination of the price of compute cycles via Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Well, that tells a very small part of the story.

As John Foley states, in article, Cloud Computing Gets A Much-Needed Reality Check, “Here’s the flaw in McKinsey’s argument: Few if any major corporations are looking to replace their data centers with a cloud…The more likely scenario, and the one that’s playing out, is that companies of all sizes will use cloud computing to supplement their own IT infrastructures.”

Yeah, like I said: there’s hype on both sides of the argument. To  me,  it makes perfect sense for Fortune 500 companies, as well as, small and medium-sized businesses, to explore cloud computing rather than continuing to throw resources at existing problems and, or, struggle as they try to spin up resources for new projects. A balance is what’s needed. That’s all most of those on the pro-cloud side of the argument have been suggesting.

While, McKinsey’s report is great for debate and offers a counterpoint to all the positive news stories, it should be read just as critically–even if they’ve got a lot of brains and experience going for them. In the end, cloud computing is part of the business and IT equation. It doesn’t solve it completely. But, that was never really the intent.

Managing and Monitoring Cloud Services

An area of concern that comes up when talking about the merits of cloud computing has to do with monitoring and managing cloud services. There is a perception that doing so in the cloud is far more difficult than within the four walls of the data center.

Well, there are some real-world examples that turn that perception on its head. Robert Scheier, in his InfoWorld article, Can IT manage the cloud? These CTOs can, dissects the issues surrounding it by looking at how the choices one makes depends, in part, on the cloud model itself (i.e. software, infrastructure, platform), as well as, the availability of third-party tools (often open source), and the critical issue of data security.

For example, when it comes to software as a service, “you don’t have to trust the vendors’ reports to assess whether they deliver the service promised. IT pros can use anything from simple network-sniffing tools to open source monitoring software and enterprise-class management systems to see what they’re getting from the Web.”

On the other hand, when it comes to infrastructure as a service, where customers may have the greatest management needs, one “should ideally use “the same agents, the same tools, the same configuration, and management tools” as in their own datacenters to simplify and standardize administration, says Joseph Tobolski, a partner at Accenture Technology Labs. While there isn’t universal integration between such tools and the cloud service providers’ APIs, he expects such integration “pretty soon” because of the need for “some sort of control of the cloud.”

The following real-world examples show how IT pros are managing and monitoring their cloud services.

• OmniPresence, which sells videoconferencing and teleconferencing equipment and services, uses the Zenoss family of management software to monitor the equipment and services it provides to customers.

• For Agora Games, it was critical to have root-level access to the 60 to 70 virtual servers it runs at cloud provider Terremark Worldwide. Using Terremark’s cloud computing environment, Agora Games can just as easily manipulate their virtual servers as if they were in-house or at a collocation facility. A test environment for a new game can be built, then easily cloned for production, and then removed when the popularity of the game fades.

• Pathwork Diagnostics uses Amazon.com’s EC2 infrastructure to meet big spikes in demand for computing power whenever it acquires specimens of various types of tumors and must race competitors to create tests to detect those tumors. Pathwork only needs to monitor the virtual “compute units” it is using, as well as the amount of memory allocated to each, says Zoran Popovic, a senior software engineer. To do that, he uses Unix open source tools for both jobs.

• Dreambuilder Investments has built its key business applications on Salesforce.com’s Force.com platform, and it relies on cloud services from other vendors for its backup, accounting software, and even PBX, The company has built a few simple tools to monitor the quality of its Web connections, but it usually relies on the CRM giant to keep its applications running and provide updates on their health.

Of course, one of the biggest issues businesses face when considering cloud computing is data security. “For example, Agora could encrypt the data on each server but doesn’t, because of the likely drag on performance. The fact he has root-level control of each server means “we can prevent anyone else from getting access to the data,” says Brian Corrigan, CTO of Agora.

Moreover, “a number of other IT managers say that the use of virtualization and open source monitoring tools lets them do just as good a job, if not better, monitoring and managing virtual machines in the cloud as equipment in-house or in a collocation facility.”

So, what have we learned? Well, for one, you need to think strategically about what applications and services can be moved into the cloud. Secondly, you need to consider skill sets, whether it’s mission critical, and the needs of the business. Yet, the bottom line is that managing and monitoring cloud services can be done, often “easier than in a brick-and-mortar, in-house datacenter.” This is definitely evidence that, when done right, cloud computing can live up to its promise in terms of cost, flexibility, and speed.

The Importance of Infrastructure

When we talk about cloud computing we can define it across three levels: software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Each level has it’s own unique properties, value proposition, and implementation. Often the consumers of these services move between them. Each is critical in its own way. That is, the things that make up the service are relevant even if they are hidden or abstracted “in the cloud”.

So it is with the infrastructure components of the cloud. James Urquhart, writing for CNET in his blog, posed the (rehtorical) question: “The new cloud infrastructure: Do you care?” Well, according to James, you’d better. Here’s why: “What is happening in data center infrastructure is a complete rethinking of the architectures utilized to deliver online services, from the overall data center architectures all the way down to the very components that serve the “big four” elements of the data center: facilities, servers, storage, and networking.”

He then describes how Cisco’s Unified Computing System, Rackable Systems‘ CloudRack C2, and Google are changing the very fabric of infrastructure to meet the needs of services in the cloud. And, therefore, “whether you are a technologist or a business manager” you need to understand how infrastructure and the data center are changing because your service — your value and the revenue that goes with it — are dependent upon it. He also asks, “What I wonder is if (when?) the large cloud vendors will begin to fork their infrastructure designs as they gain more and more control over the data centers that host global IT.” Then he closes with a call for standards, as I have previously argued, to minimize risk and to ensure the evolution of the cloud.

I’d also like to point to Chris Hoff’s blog post, Does Cloud Infrastructure Matter? You Bet Your Ass(ets) It Does! because he’s written articles similar to James’ and because it give more evidence to the fact that infrastructure, while sometimes (usually?) not very sexy, it is still quite critical. You may want to check out Chris’ related blogs on this topic: The Cloud is a Fickcle Mistress and Cloud Catastrophes (Cloudtasophes?) Caused by Clueless Caretakers?

Better Cloud Performance, Amazon for Enterprise Apps, and Nicholas Carr on “The Big Switch” (to the Cloud)

Michael Healey, CTO of IT integration company GreenPages, wrote a report that discusses a five-step process for improving the performance of cloud applications. It’s worth your time, but if you want a summary go here.

An article in InformationWeek  argued that Amazon EC2 was a “superior alternative to SaaS” for hosting enterprise applications. Pentaho was referenced as a  vendor taking this route when it launched it Cloud Computing Edition.

Nicholas Carr, the author of “IT Doesn’t Matter” and “The Big Switch” gave a very interesting interview to Tom Sullivan of InfoWorld. The key take-aways were:

- Make no mistake about it: cloud computing is a natural evolution of computing in general; it is real and it will result in it becoming more like a true utility.

- We’re at the beginning of a 10-15 year transition period; while the hype may be ahead of reality, “the uptake of cloud services over the last year has moved faster than I would have expected.”

- Economics will outweigh the social and political challenges that arise as an enterprises, and executive management in particular, weight the benefit of reducing IT costs and improving profitability against the disruption within the IT department.

- Cloud computing will enable a whole lot more experimentation and innovation because the previous constraints on IT — the upfront infrastructure costs — will be dramatically reduced.

- A handful of big companies are buying about 20 percent of the servers sold today.  The implication is two-fold: it represents a confirmation that “more and more computing is done in central datacenters”; and, it demonstrates how much activity happens in the cloud and the changing nature of how we access content and services.

- The most significant thing enterprise IT needs to realize is the things that accounted for most of their spending and hiring “are going to go away…[and]  move out to the utility model over time.”

What Cisco’s Data Center Push and IBM’s Overture Mean for Cloud Computing

By now you’ve read about Cisco’s ambitious push into the data center with the Cisco Unified Computing System, which integrates “network, compute, and virtualization resources in a single system.” By combining Cisco’s IP with partners like EMC, NetApp, and BMC they have just made it easier, in theory, to launch a cloud computing system for enterprise consumption.

On the other hand, with each passing day it looks more and more likely that IBM will make an official offer to buy Sun Microsystems. As The Economist put it, “part of the attraction of Sun is that it has some assets, such as networking gear and data-centre software, which would beef up IBM’s ability to build private clouds.” IBM also gets its hands on some crown jewels: Java, MySQL, and further entree (and legitimacy) into open source communities.

Of course, one shouldn’t forget HP’s acquisition of EDS, which at the time looked a bit circumspect if only for the daunting task of incorporating one giant into another. But, given the speed with which cloud computing has taken hold, Cisco’s bold move in the data center, and IBM’s aggressive move to buy Sun, it appears that HP had certainly been just a prescient. HP gained a leading integrator with years of experience in building and running data centers.

So, what can we take away from these recent moves? Certainly, we’re witnessing convergence on a strategic scale, as demonstrated by the fact “that companies that used to be allies, or in totally different markets, are now starting to compete with each other.” It shows, emphatically, that the next wave of computing is at hand driven by economics, technology, and social aspects of how and why we we utilize computing to get things done. Cisco’s move demands that we look at them differently–as more than a networking company. IBM shows that it intends to lead by providing the most complete systems approach to the market–whether packaged as public or private clouds–wrapped up and delivered by IBM Global Services.

In short, Cisco’s push and IBM’s overture both demonstrate that cloud computing has come of age. Yes, there are hurdles, which I’ve talked about in other posts. But, the fundamental point is that the big boys of IT are not sitting on the sidelines, while upstarts like Amazon, Google, and Salesforce attempt to set the cloud computing agenda. With far more history, experience, and firepower the giants of IT are finally ready to act.

Cloud Computing: Becoming the Fabric of IT

A couple of recent articles offered insight into how IT will evolve in the next two-three years. One was based on comments from datacenter professionals and the other was the result of new services launched by Cisco. In turn, it represents another set of data points for the ways cloud computing is becoming part of the fabric of enterprise IT.

InfoWorld published an interview between Afcom CEO Jill Eckhaus and InfoWorld Editor at Large Tom Sullivan, just ahead of Afcom’s (the association of datacenter professionals) Data Center World conference this week in Las Vegas. Survey results that Afcom had conducted showed that “some 77 percent of datacenter administrators are not planning to increase their use of cloud computing.”  More importantly was why? Eckhaus posited the reason for this was because “they don’t have just one clear definition of cloud computing.” Another insight came with the agreement “that business units, rather than IT” might drive adoption with the danger of bypassing IT altogether because of realities like time to market and ease of use. Ideally, both the business and IT will work together to lay out plans and policies for adoptiong cloud computing within the enterprise. As a result, those of us in the industry and in the media have a critical role to play as educators and as conductors of the conversation.

Another item that caught my attention was Michael Vizard’s blog in eWeek regarding Cisco’s announcement of a new set of managed e-mail security services from it’s IronPort division. These new services give customers the option of paying as you go or utilizing their managed services. The upshot is that it’s that this is further evidence of mainstream, global vendors recognizing the value proposition of cloud computing for customers. Vizard goes on to explain how “corporate customers are rethinking their approach to acquiring IT”, from treating IT as a capital expense to treating it as an operational expense. Thus, big up front expenditures are limited, if not eliminated, as well as the staff to run them. He sees this as a trend that is going to last beyond the eventual recovery, as IT “morphs” into a general contractor of sorts for “IT that are actually fulfilled by a host of sub-contractors.”

Weekly Roundup

Well, we’ve got less than six days of shopping to go before Christmas, as we wind down the final two weeks of the year. But, that hasn’t stopped the tech industry from churning out interesting news and things to consider for 2009. So, let’s recap the week:

Oracle and HP made came out with a bang today with their world record benchmark running Oracle Fusion Middleware on HP Integrity server blades. Oracle showed a 30% improvement over the previous champ, IBM. Get the details here…

Oracle CRM On Demand appears to be gaining momentum and big name customers like Fidelity, The Economist, and 3M Taiwan among many others. Could a remark from Salesforce.com’s Mark Benioff be far away? Read more…

There’s more detail emerging about Cisco’s upcoming blade server–code named California–that will join Cisco’s Nexus 5000 switch, Intel’s Nehalem processors, and VMware’s virtualization management software. Read more here…

Sun released a new update of xVM VirtualBox, its desktop virtualization software. Better performance across platforms–Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris–on any PC hardware is the thrust of the 2.1 release. Here’re the details…

On the data center front, you might want to check out this article on IronScale, which promises to bring data center automation to small and medium-sized businesses. Read more here…

Amazon has been busy building strategic relationships an effort to boot it’s EC2 services. The goal is to push into the enterprise with the help of partners like Sun, Red Hat, Capgemini and more niche players like Elastra and RightScale. Here’s a great analysis that includes a focus on Capgemini and their practice around AWS…

Well, that’s about it for the week. Now back to shopping…

Weekly Highlights: What you need to know

Another week and another flury of announcements and commentary. With all the turmoil in the markets it’s reassuring, to some degree, that the technology sector is responding with innovation and business value. Here’s what really made news this week.

If you must cut costs, make sure you do it with discrimination. Baseline provides 13 ideas on where and how to cut IT costs. More>

Thinking about virtualization. Of course you are. Want an idea of where it’s going in the next five years? Check out eWeek’s five-year roadmap. More>

There’s a good analysis and set of guidelines for planning the next-generation data center, again by eWeek, that’s shouldn’t be missed. More>

Sun Microsystems unveils JavaFX 1.0 with immersive media capabilities targeted at the market’s 800 million Java powered desktops. More>

The open source invasion of the data center continues this week with an Apache Tomcat Java application server offering from SpringSource. More>

VMware View 3 addresses key pitfalls that have slowed virtualization on the desktop. More>

Intel will be the sole supplier of NAND flash memory technology for Hitachi’s high-end solid-state drives for servers, workstations, and storage systems. More>

Interesting news from Google in the cloud computing space with the Google App Engine. More>

Microsoft plans to integrate RSA data-loss prevention technology into its products to enable security managers to monitor sensitive data and block unauthorized use. RSA is EMC’s security division. More>

What You Can Learn from HP’s IT Transformation

HP just released the results of its three-year IT transformation and they’re impressive and instructive. The transformation focused on five key initiatives: next generation global data centers, portfolio management, workforce effectiveness, building a world-class technology organization, and building a next generation enterprise data warehouse.

And the results are in: IT operating costs cut in half; cost savings of more than $1 billion; more reliable and better availability of information; the creation of a more simplified and dependable IT infrastructure. Oh, and they did this while adding more than $25 billion in revenue over the same three year period.

Randy Mott, HP executive vice president and chief information officer, ran the show after previous stints at Wal-Mart and Dell. As he says, “HP’s IT transformation was not just a technology initiative within the IT organization, it was a business strategy adopted throughout the company.”  The goal of course is to make HP more nimble in responding to business opportunities, while doing a better job of investing in IT where it matters—in the area of innovation and new projects targeted at the bottom line. It was essentially a dramatic shift to literally get revenue out of IT, by changing the focus to new project development, rather than support and maintenance.

If you’re interested there’s more detail in an InfoWorld article with on Mott’s strategy, results, and the implications for enterprise IT. Mott went “all in” and felt there was no other way to do it. He didn’t feel he could “pick-and-choose” because, as he warns, “the parts you don’t do will undermine the parts you do.”  He quickly cautions that executive support is paramount to success and without it you’re likely to miss your goals or fail. There’s also a bit more on the importance of revenue of IT and it shows how those “figures have credibility with execs because they’re based on a cost-benefit analysis agreed to by business unit leaders and their controllers, so they’re finance numbers, not IT department numbers.”

Of course, it’s great to see HP succeeding and leading by example. But you do have to wonder how likely it is for other companies to take such an all-or-nothing approach. Careful planning and commitment are what’s really needed to shift IT’s strategic value. I would’ve like to see a little more detail into alternative paths that could be taken to lighten the load as projects are reprioritized. Perhaps, this is where things like cloud computing and pay-as-you go infrastructure and software will have a bigger role to play. In the end, it is all about becoming more valuable and more nimble. HP looks to be on their way to setting a new benchmark.

Going Green: It’s about Strategy and Planning

I thought I’d kick-off the post-Thanksgiving, Black Friday, pre-Christmas rush with some interesting news and analysis in the area of Green Computing. I mean this time of year—especially in these trying economic times—is all about getting the best deal for your dollar. And, when it comes to IT that should mean looking at your energy efficiency plans and systems effectiveness. These are two hallmarks of going “green”.

In a recent eWeek blog, Michael Vizard comments, “Green Computing is about 80% process, followed by another 20% of random product upgrades related to eliminating obsolete equipment that already costs more than it’s worth.” He goes on to refer to a Forrester Research report that shows only 35% of those companies surveyed had any real type of green computing strategy and that 20% had no plans. Yikes. That leaves a whole lot of people in the twilight zone.

Obviously, the benefits are clear, especially in these difficult economic times. But, it also requires “the need to spend money to save money.” So, the bottom line is that green computing requires strategy, planning, and tactics just like any other key initiative. Luckily there are a lot of resources available to make your green computing initiative a likely success. Again, Michael Vizard gives some advice by pointing to new ideas from Sun and HP. There are interesting server concepts from Sun that go beyond the usual consolidation tactics to include:

•    Examining application processing power requirements, with an eye toward how developers will create more event-driven applications
•    Pushing more application load to the server and installing more thin client systems that need less energy and power than PCs
•    Sun’s new generation of Flash Memory products that are inherently more energy efficient like their new Amber Road storage products (Sun Storage 7000 product line)
•    Move to more energy efficient Ethernet networks that will come with the transition to 10GB Ethernet

Meanwhile, HP is attacking energy efficiency in a place that is probably often overlooked: all those printer assets scattered across your enterprise. HP has created a Green IT Action Plan, that includes simple things like printing on both sides of the paper, to creating scripts that can automatically turn off printers at night, recycling cartridges, and replacing old printers with multi-function devices.

In short, the concept of Green Computing provides tangible bottom-line results in terms of efficiency and cost. As such, it deserves the proper strategic assessment and planning that you’d bring to any key initiative. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to implement it from both a process and product standpoint. Once again, it’s a situation where trying times can provide an opportunity to improve Enterprise IT. Go for it.