Cloud computing is the industry’s favorite buzzword and despite seemingly excessive hype, industry watchers say there are solid benefits and potential pitfalls to be found in the cloud.
Cloud computing could be a lifesaver to many in IT, but not without them first understanding the governance, management and security changes they might have to make to ensure the buzzed-about technology delivers on all its promise.
Fortunately many analysts, pundits and high-tech industry watchers are providing information on how to best put cloud computing to work inside IT organizations. For instance, this week The IT Governance Evangelist focused his blog on cloud computing and its impact and importance to IT governance. Like other technology instances, cloud computing intensifies the need for solid governance and PPM (Project and Portfolio Management) strategies, according to blog author Steve Romero.
“I believe that IT Governance or PPM are even more critical with the advent of cloud computing. Cloud computing provides more technology provisioning options and faster provisioning options to the business,” Romero writes. “These attributes of cloud computing make it easier and more tempting for the business to bypass IT.”
Essentially, the ease with which cloud services can be ascertained could cause issues for an IT organization lacking sufficient IT governance policies, which help companies keep business units in line with IT and helps IT better serve those business units. Romero’s blog last week also provided insight into defining cloud computing as it is becoming more obvious that many in the IT industry define the technology differently.
As for managing services in the cloud, that is the current brass ring for vendors but it remains unclear which software maker or services provider will take the lead. Beth Schultz writes in Network World’s Network/Systems Management Alert about CA Technologies’ Nimsoft and its Nimsoft Monitoring Solution (NMS), which enables IT to monitor services residing within the corporate firewalls or elsewhere such as a public cloud environment.
Chris O’Connell, director of product marketing for Nimsoft, is quoted in the newsletter: “We’re seeing a supply chain of IT, where an enterprise might get VoIP from one provider, cloud from another, and run different internal data centers too, growing over the next three to four years – there’s a real true breakup of IT coming. We want to be right in the middle of that, to let enterprises be able to connect to different service providers and still get a seamless view of the supply chain.”
Aside from monitoring, IT organizations must also consider security. The idea of putting corporate, potentially customer, data on the public Internet could hinder adoption of such services, but many IT leaders are working to get at least a private cloud strategy established in their companies. According to an article in Network World, cloud security continues to be a nascent area, with data security practices challenging traditional methods but remaining unproven at this point. Robert Stroud, vice president and IT Service Management and IT Governance Evangelist at CA Technologies, also touched on cloud security concerns in a recent blog post about how the technology can help IT organizations not able to plan for maximum capacity become more dynamic, or elastic, via cloud services.
According to industry watchers, a strong strategy is required for cloud to be a success in environments. Randy Heffner, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, wrote in a blog post about creating a strong focus on cloud and how it can best benefit your organization.
“The point of a strategy is to enable good decisions over the long term. With cloud, one’s evolving decision framework should put the decisions to be made at the center, arranging options – pure cloud, cloud-like, virtualized, traditional – around the business decision. This is what a good architecture strategy does, and the best way to develop a strong approach to cloud is to integrate cloud as an option into broader strategies,” the blog post reads.
The fears or misunderstanding or lack of education causing IT organizations to hold off on adoption cloud computing makes some cloud watchers a bit impatient, but also helps them realize much more education must take place for enterprise IT organizations to realize how their companies in particular could benefit from cloud computing. Take Jay Fry, vice president of business unit strategy for CA Technologies (who joined the company when cloud computing start-up Cassatt was acquired). He learned that lesson after presenting, yet again, his introduction to cloud computing at a recent industry event.
“People are hungry for basic cloud computing information. And those of us working in the space should try hard to make sure they can get it. And to portray what’s going on with cloud computing in a realistic, hype-free way,” Fry wrote in a recent blog post.
What’s your take on cloud computing? Is your company investing in any of the technology? Please leave a comment here or let me know directly via e-mail at Denise.Dubie@ca.com.
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