Five Top Tips for the Journey to Cloud Malcolm Herbert, Director of Infrastructure Consulting, EMEA, at Red Hat shares his insight into the opportunities that open source software creates when adopting a cloud computing strategy and offers five top tips for a successful journey to cloud
A
comparison between enterprise IT and public cloud computing dramatically highlights the benefits of moving to cloud. Application deployment times can shrink from weeks in the traditional data centre to minutes in a cloud data centre; new application development time accelerates from years to weeks (or months at most); cost per virtual machine plummets from dollars to cents; server administrator ratios can explode from 20:1 to 300:1; while efficiency increases, with resource utilisation soaring from 20% to 75%. With measurable benefits like these, it’s no wonder that IDC expects that by 2015 the majority of the enterprise market will require integrated hybrid cloud management capabilities. Cloud computing requires new architectures at the infrastructure and application levels to benefit from all the value that it offers, such as agility and scalability of IT services. Therefore, the discussion on cloud computing provides a compelling reason to look at an open source strategy and the opportunities it brings. Despite the tangible advantages of cloud computing, it’s difficult to predict direction and trends precisely. The decisions you make on cloud computing today will directly affect your competitiveness over the next few years. You need a cloud
48 / HOSPITALITY BUSINESS MIDDLE EAST
44-48 Security Q&A.indd 48
JANUARY 2013
strategy that can adapt to changing business requirements...
Top Tip #1 – Know your destination What do you ultimately want to achieve from cloud? Moving to cloud must enable you to react with greater agility and speed to new requirements. Bear in mind that it’s not just about potential cost-savings. You need to look at whether an application will perform well, cover the needs of customers and be manageable within your existing processes and organisational structure. You cannot take these factors for granted.
Top Tip #2 – Know your starting point Doing an assessment of your existing in-house infrastructure is crucial to finding the best way to adopt cloud as an emerging technology. Don’t believe some vendors and analysts who advocate a ‘slash and burn’ policy: what could you recycle and reuse? In addition, there is little point investing time and energy in transferring imperfect solutions and processes into the cloud. It’s well worth reviewing existing systems and planning a migration to a common or standard operating environment (SOE).
Top Tip #3 – Don’t travel alone When it
comes to cloud, there is no need to do everything yourself and work in notso-splendid isolation. One of the strengths of open source software is that it is built on collaboration – it’s made for sharing. A DIY, not-invented-here attitude could mean you set off down the wrong track or end up taking ‘the scenic route’. Be ready to admit that someone else might have already done work that you can leverage, and quite possibly have done it better, too. Of course, in a collaborative world, you do have to prepare to share. You may be the passenger today, but could be the driver giving someone else a lift tomorrow. Open source has never been more relevant; it’s changed the face of the operating system market and will have the same impact in cloud.
Top Tip #4 – Don’t take a one-way street. Many CIOs are, understandably, comfortable with the status quo: handing over to a cloud services provider can feel like an abrogation of responsibility. If you want to fully grasp the benefits of cloud-like agility over private and public providers and want to link this to economic benefits for your company, you will no doubt realise that a new software architecture is needed. Open source can be the pathway to that new architecture, and offers a two-fold benefit... You’re able to run management toolkits that protect you from getting locked into a proprietary silo. At the same time, you avoid being locked out of the technical and commercial advantages that arise from cloud technology.
Top Tip #5 – Don’t run when you can walk There is no rush to adopt cloud computing; it should be evolution not revolution. Any cloud projects should be at a steady pace that feels comfortable to the adopting organisation. The flexibility inherent within open source solutions is ideal for this organic approach.
cpidubai.com
1/3/13 11:33 AM