Security? Privacy? Compliance? They are all legitimate concerns when it comes to public cloud computing. That being said, the public cloud has undeniable benefits. As a utility service, public clouds offer easy and inexpensive setup, scalability for growing needs and a pay-per-use model that eliminates waste.
The public cloud simultaneously solves three resource bottlenecks: power, data processing and access to software-as-a-service (SaaS) without ownership costs. The public cloud essentially becomes a boost for your regular systems, offering additional power when needed and the ability to process large amounts of data that traditional file systems cannot handle.
But back to the cons. There are certainly some very important issues to consider before using a public cloud.
1) You can’t move data between service providers. Companies therefore must ensure that they have selected a public cloud service provider that has a good reputation and the ability to scale based on their needs. Switching providers at a later date is not a viable option.
2) As public cloud computing is available to anybody, the risk of a security breach is much higher. The data may be stored in different locations or even different countries, making it difficult to ensure that private data stays private. Companies must therefore limit the access of individual users and strongly enforce password policies.
3) When using an external service provider, there is always the chance of service outages. If your public cloud goes offline, how long can you survive without it?
Even with all these issues, the economies of scale put public cloud computing at a clear advantage and service providers realize that. It is in their best interest to address key customer concerns and work towards creating a secure and reliable service.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings are finished applications that companies rent. SaaS applications are delivered via the Internet and priced based on consumption (number of users or “seats”). While you cannot modify SaaS applications, it is possible to make small customizations. Some examples of software-as-a-service are online social media monitoring tools such as ScoutLabs.com and CRM tool Salesforce.com.
The cost to use an SaaS application ranges from $0 to $500 per user per month depending on the application, use, and addition of supplementary modules.
When we talk about the maturity of the various cloud computing offerings, SaaS, which has been around as a technology solution for more than 10 years, is at a higher level of maturing than most other cloud services that have fewer than three years on the market.
According to Forrester, SaaS has become an established software delivery model for certain segments of the market. Forrester survey data shows that 20% of enterprises and small-to-medium size businesses have implemented or are piloting at least one SaaS solution. All major enterprise ISVs have SaaS offerings, and all major SIs are building large SaaS practices.
That said, software-as-a-service still has room for growth. Not all applications are suited to SaaS delivery, and not even all implementations of SaaS-suited software are appropriate for a SaaS delivery. SaaS does, however, have the potential to significantly increase corporate efficiencies and productivity.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) refers to software and product development tools hosted on the provider’s infrastructure. You pay the host for the use of their platform, but may also pay someone else for other software or services. A good example of PaaS is Google Apps.
According to Forrester Analyst, James Staten, PaaS is a “build-deploy-manage environment. These cloud services provide a framework and a software system for application developers to create new services and rapidly deploy them on the Internet. They typically support a particular type of programming language or environment and provide cloud-implemented services that the developer can integrate into their application. It’s becoming common to see PaaS offerings designed specifically for the enhanced use of a SaaS service. For example, Force.com is primarily
used to create new applications that directly leverage the Salesforce.com CRM service.”
The biggest challenge with PaaS is how limited it is in terms of applicability. Many PaaS platforms are focused on a particular class of developer or application, which means that applications will not run on other platforms. The “lock-in” that PaaS provides is therefore a big downside. According to Staten, PaaS will take 3 – 5 years to reach the next stage of development because “significant function build-outs are still needed, as well as maturity of the platforms and greater enterprise adoption.”
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is often referred to as Utility Computing because it offers a “pay-based-on-what-you-use” model for data storage. Via IaaS, Cloud Computing enables companies to only pay for the storage capacity that they need and use. IaaS is, in essence, an on-demand virtual hosting environment.
IaaS is used to deploy Web service, VM- or SOA-based applications to the Internet. Examples of vendors using IaaS are: Amazon, AT&T, GoGrid (ServePath), Rackspace, Savvis, Terremark and Verizon. Estimated cost to implement IaaS starts at $0.10 per CPU hour.
As Forrester Analysts, Jennifer Bélissent and James Staten, state in a recent whitepaper, “despite the overwhelming buzz of cloud computing, few firms worldwide have adopted a pay-per-use, self-service model of computing, based on virtual service at a public service provider.” Adoption varies from region to region; IaaS clouds are local and so are their implications.
Forrester’s data shows that IaaS adoption is slower in North America and Western Europe than in other emerging markets such as Latin America and Asia. Data security and privacy concerns are certainly top of mind for IT professionals in North America considering cloud computing as an option.
The physical location of the cloud data center is important because of data protection regimes. Customers need to understand where their data will be transferred, processed and stored. According to Forrester, “Rather than merely claiming that data is in the cloud, tech vendors must be prepared to identify the location of data and provide location guarantees (at a premium) if required. The implications of local legislation necessitate a greater degree of transparency than that currently offered by some cloud providers.”
On July 19th, Evolving Solutions was pleased to welcome Forrester Analyst, James Staten, to our annual customer event. Staten delivered a presentation on Cloud Computing, including the challenges and the benefits.
According to Staten, the biggest challenge with Cloud Computing is understand what it really is. Forrester defines cloud computing as “a standardized IT capability (services, software, or infrastructure) delivered via Internet technologies in a pay-per-use, self-service way.”
Over the next 7 weeks, we will be posting a series of blog posts introducing you to the various types of Cloud Computing:
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas)
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Private Clouds
Public Clouds
Combined Private & Public Clouds
Is the Cloud Right for You?
Check back next Wednesday (August 4th) for a post on Infrastructure-as-a-Service.
Evolving Solutions is pleased to share a recent solution success story about a rapidly growing construction and agricultural equipment provider that needed a high performing, flexible datacenter that would expand with them.
Evolving Solutions overhauled the existing datacenter and conducted an enterprise-wide IT infrastructure redesign using JD Edwards ERP software. We helped implement and configure the ERP solution, as well as migrating data from legacy systems.
Evolving Solutions designed a storage infrastructure using the IBM XIV storage system, X86 and IBM system p Bladecenter. This solution sets the company up for uninterrupted growth up to 79 terabytes and can be easily updated if more storage is needed later.
The solution also included virtualization and disaster recovery components. We implemented an IBM System p Blade center appliance, which allows the customer to run five diverse workloads inside a single architecture. Their virtualized environment allows them to move running workloads between servers to maximize availability and avoid downtime, as well as dynamically adjusting server capability to meet changing workload demands.
With the company’s location prone to flooding, backing up files and moving the tapes off-site is extremely important. They cannot risk their data being lost. We therefore implemented a Tivoli Storage Manager disaster recovery solution to act as their insurance policy.
Summary of Benefits
Consolidation – Streamlining and integration of disparate systems
Scalability – Room to grow without having to implement a “forklift upgrade”
Enhanced Performance – Virtualization has increased server utilization
Network Connectivity – Fast and remote access to company data
Cost Savings – Savings in systems maintenance costs following AS400 decommissioning
Managed Services – Scheduled healthchecks to monitor system performance
Evolving Solutions is happy to announce the launch of our new, value-added service – the Customer Asset Management Portal (CAMP).
CAMP is designed to to provide IT staff and asset management personnel with a single source database for managing multi-vendor technology assets. Now our customers can access the IT information they need – when they need it.
Our mission is to make it easier for our customers to access and track IT assets under contract. CAMP was created to significantly improve IT efficiencies.
Going green has gained a lot of attention recently, especially with the introduction of an energy tax credit for companies that demonstrate energy savings.
As you can imagine, being able to demonstrate that your data center has significantly reduced energy consumption is easier said than done.
Evolving Solutions is now offering a cutting edge service to its customers to measure real-time energy consumption on an ongoing basis. Temperature sensors are attached to cabinets in your data center and smart power strips that are IP enabled are used to measure how much power is being drawn. All of this data is pumped into a Web portal along with a CAD drawing of the data center layout. The output is a map of the data center with a data overlay showing which appliances are hot. All of this happens in real time, which allows you to tactically see what’s happening in your data center and what you need to do to reduce energy consumption.
Some companies that are actively tracking energy consumption in this manner have also uncovered discrepancies with SLAs billing them too much. They have the exact amount of energy consumed readily available and understand exactly how much they should be paying.
Contact Evolving Solutions to discover how you can increase energy efficiencies within your data center.
At this point, most companies have dabbled with virtualization in some shape or form and it is becoming more accepted as a viable platform. As virtualization matures, it will become less about hardware and more about how to efficiently manage a virtualized data center environment that has impact company-wide.
Companies need to start viewing virtualization holistically. They don’t fully understand the implications of deploying virtualization and that there are software and security considerations in play. From a business standpoint, when everything is running on one virtualized server, how do you account for the cost internally? There is a need to revisit internal charge codes and develop protocols for cost allocation and accounting. The same goes for troubleshooting. Which department should assume responsibility for addressing any technical issues that arise? Many companies currently separate IT and datacenter line items, but implementing virtualization will require them to be folded into one cost.
The evolution of virtualization, therefore, is as much about managing maturity as it is about technological innovation, which paves the way for managed service providers.
Using virtualization for disaster recovery is an emerging concept that is gaining a lot of attention. In the past, it was expensive to get one server to replicate to the other because those two servers had to be basically identical for complete replication. In order for them to be identical, you needed the same hardware in both the primary and backup locations. With virtualization, those hardware costs are significantly less because of the ability to host several machines on one server.
If your server environment is already virtualized, you have all the hardware and software you need for an effective and inexpensive disaster recovery solution.
Our last blog post in this disaster recovery series will summarize the DR options available and assess benefits versus cost to answer: Is emerging DR technology worth the investment?
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