AUTHOR: JJ Digeronimo
Who? . . .The IT consumer that is, that can now shop around. For years, IT consumers (a.k.a LOB, Developers) believed there were limited sources (THE IT department) for what they needed to get their job, project or release complete. IT Department alternatives are creeping more and more into their landscape. What many of these consumers used to call servers is now more commonly being termed, compute.
So what really is cloud?
If you peel back the hype, could cloud be access to timely, relevant, effective compute?
- Timely – I can get it when I needed it
- Relevant – the horsepower seems to be what I need to facilitate a task
- Effective – It works the way I expect it will
And could we throw in a 4th descriptive . . .cost effective?
- Cost Effective – I am comfortable paying the price of this compute based on the variable above for a particular duration
The compute landscape today is much different than even two years ago. Internal IT departments are experiencing more applicable competition than many want to admit. These outside IT compute sources seem to be offering their customer (a.k.a. LOBs, Developers) a service that meets many of the criteria once only supplied internally. IT teams often argue that these outside sources are not as secure. This is an important point, notice that security is not on the list above on often not on the consumer of IT’s list either. So although a critical criteria and priority for IT, it is often over looked when demands are high and compute is a 6-12 week in-waiting reality.
Acknowledging this as a reality now is a must. If your consumers of your IT offering are not yet going outside your datacenter for compute, I promise they will. If fact, if you cannot detect this easily just think about the SAAS applications (formerly ASP offerings) quickly creeping into the mix. They are often more cost effective and have many of the attributes listed above. This is happening and likely faster than most IT departments can complete a server refresh.
So what do I suggest IT department to do? Make the investment now to build a on-demand compute pilot so that you can easily showcase IT’s ability to be timely, relevant, effective and secure. Yes, there will be some investment needed but what group does not have to invest in their people and offerings especially when competition is on the brink of creeping in. Make the invest in your people and processes now, showcase your staff, skills and ability to offer what seems now to be required thanks to app stores, mobile devices and dev clouds.
The good news is that there are easily definable business agilities metrics when IT departments automation mundane activities and work with their business departments to identify, implement and measure efficiencies in the operations. We know this because VMware is working hand-and-hand with hundreds of companies across all industries to develop and implement their cloud *YOUR CLOUD* offering with measurable business agility metrics. What are you waiting for?
White Paper – Business Agility and True Economics of Cloud Computing
