Cloud Technology On The Rise

What do Amazon S3, Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Box.net, Microsoft 365, Sharepoint, Shopify and LinkedIn have in common?

• They are enterprise applications that are webbased.
• They can be accessed from devices such as IPads, Android phones, netbooks or desktops.
• They can be used by business users with different restriction levels but in a fundamentally open interaction that is defined by the user.
• They are fully or partly driven by cloudcomputing
• They define the new way of working

Fig. 1: The Cloud: What Is It?

The Cloud??

So: what is cloudcomputing? What impact does it have on my organization, processes and products? What are Saas, Paas? Iaas? Multi Tennant server environments? Virtualization? Why should I care? What risks and opportunities are involved? In the article below you will find some answers. In addition at the bottom of this article you will find a number of links to the full presentations cited in this article, all of them about cloud computing.

Fundamental Shift

I recently visited the IDC Cloud Conference in Amsterdam to get an overview of some of the major trends in cloud computing. Below you will find a synopsis of the trends discussed and some of the presentations given for a quick overview of the sometimes misunderstood phenomenon “cloud” , impact on your processes, and related technologies. As many collaborative and social functionalities are powered by cloud technology this seems a topic worth exploring a bit further. The figure below illustrates how IDC’s competitor Forrester also sees a huge long term growth scenario for cloud services:

Fig.2 : Cloud Market Expectation Long Term (Forrester)

Source: Forrester

Impact On Processes

Cloudtechnology, selfservice, online collaboration, social media and the proliferation of mobile and other devices among endusers put pressures on the enterprise IT environment. As the role of desktop PC’s and fysical servers are diminished, new fast and flexible architecture and processes are demanded.

Fig.3 : Forces At Work In Enterprise IT Due To Cloud – And Device Proliferation

Source: VMWare

There is virtually no IT process left untouched by cloud technology in the next few years:

Fig.4 : Processes Impacted By Cloud Computing

Source: Forrester

The Cloud And Web 3.0

The cloud is inextricably linked to developments that wil become known as Web 3.0 and new flexible ways to collaborate from anywhere on any device. This customer/end user centric approach to the way we consume, structure and analyse data will fundamentally change the way we work and will have a deep impact on IT organizations, budgets and architectures.

Fig.5 : Web 3.0

Source: Cordys

Cloud Technology: Market Development

IDC the organizers of the conference have done research into the question: how is cloud computing reshaping enterprise IT and how are businesses responding? These are some of their findings:

2011: Year Of The Private Cloud

2011 will be a big year for private cloud services adoption and spending will grow at over five times the rate of of overall IT spending. Virtualization and the next generation of enterprise software allow for better integration with the cloud and regulated consumption of public cloud resources from within the enterprise.

Fig.6 : Market Potential For Private Cloud

Source: IDC

Prominence Of Data Analytics

The proliferation of technology in the Do-It-Yourself generation has lead to an explosion in data. By 2014 50% of this data will be in the public cloud. Do-it-yourself processes in the on-and offline world as well as data analysis are the growth markets fuled by the rise of cloud computing. This places the “Who?” at the center of the latest cloud developments (see below).

Fig.7 : Cloud Technology: What? How? Who?

source: IDC

Decision Makers And Adoption

IDC asked numerous decisionmakers how they anticipated the adoption of cloud computing for their respective organizations would develop. Most enterprises seem to give more prominence to private cloud development in the middle long term and less to public cloud development.

Fig.8 : Cloud Adoption

source:IDC

Fig.9 : Priorities According To CIO’s

Source: Gartner

24 Month Predictions

Most enterprises agree cloud technology will become more and more important for their IT strategy in the next 24 months. However the majority of processes is still based on traditional inhouse IT at this time.

Fig.10 : Relative Importance Of Cloud

source:IDC

Public Cloud Resources

The use of public cloud is still limited. As enterprise environments open up to allow users to access specific and controlled access to public cloud resources the question is: which types of software do they use? The adoption of public cloud services vary for different types of software.

Fig.11 : Software Types Public Cloud

source:IDC

Developing/ Redesigning for the Cloud

Business and IT have different interests. External providers of cloud technology give the business side a new leverage. On the other hand this means a risk of developing an incoherent whole or “spaghetti” of applications, umanageable from an IT standpoint. Cooperation between the two sides (business, IT) is still very important. This does seem to mean however that business is taking the lead more and more in developing new services and processes that were dictated by IT restrictions before. The benefits and risks of the two approaches are sumarized below:

Fig.12 : Benefits and Challenges

source: IDC

Business Processes Leading

The fundamental shift from IT to business processes (and customers) has lead to major changes in software development. Business Process design is now leading and more complex integrations are becoming more easy to realize.

Fig.13 : 5 Tier Architecture

Source: Cordys

Jan Baan (former CEO of Baan software (ERP) and now CEO of Cordys) for instance, illustrates how he had to come up with a completely new solution to prolong the lifecycle and prominence of traditional ERP software (his core expertise and the core product of his former company) to enterprise processes on the one hand and enable the strategic use of cloud computing on the other.

Fig.14 : Traditional 3 Tier Architecture

Source: Cordys

New Flexibility

In order to do so he had to adopt a completely new mindset and implement a fundamentally different approach to architecture that would accomodate a vast array of flexible processes and solutions.

Fig.15 : Traditional Prominence Of ERP

Source: Cordys

Traditional data is structured, contained in silos, i.e.: fragmented and inflexibly integrated with other applications and UIs.

Fig.16 : Traditional Vs. Flexible Architectures

Source: Cordys

With the use of SOA architecture, the unstructured data of cloud applications can accomodated and the prominence of business processes over the limitations of traditional IT overcome.

In effect in his new product he has bridged the gap between the old systems-, PC-, and network centric approaches to enterprise IT and the service centric architecture realized in his new product (Cordys).

Fig.17 : Unstructured Vs. Structured Data

Source: Cordys

Lifecycles, Processes, Synchronization

One of the main problems in traditional enterprise IT was the difference in lifecycles of different processes. For instance the average infrastructure layer has a lifecycle of upto 10 years, where as business driven processes such as strategy and organizational changes have much shorter cycles. By adopting more flexible solutions, webbased applications, mashapps and a flexible environment to quickly build and deploy them for the cloud while maintaining a traditional layer for ERP and other systems, flexible business objectives and long term IT investments can be combined.

Fig.18 : Rapid App Deployment In The Cloud

Source: Cordys

In addition the demands of corporate users to access both the web and the internal systems using devices such as IPads, smartphones are accomodated.

Cloud: Security And Virtualization

More and more (larger) companies are using virtualization technologies to minimize server loads, hardware investments, and downtime during maintenance. One advantage is that an application contained in a virtual machine (VM) can be moved from one actual server to another so that downtime can be avoided.
It also accomodates applications intended for different operating systems within a single, centrally managed environment. Virtualization is also closely linked to cloud architecture since services provided by virtualization technology providers such as VMWare can provide private clouds and controlled environments for interfacing with the public cloud.

Fig.19 :Virtualization= The New Normal

source:IDC

Cloud Adoption Inhibitor Nr. 1: Security

One of the main concerns surounding adoption of cloud technology is security. The impact of security is perceived to depend on ownership, accesibility and the location of data storage. For instance some companies would prefer not to store data in the USA because the Patriot act gives the federal government almost unlimited access, where as cloud services for companies such as Amazon are moving data around to servers in different locations all over the globe.

Fig.20 : Increased Security Concerns/ Level Of  Cloud Adoption

Source: TrendMicro

One way to limit security risks is to create a private cloud environment instead of utilizing public cloud providers:

Fig.21 : Public Cloud/ Private Cloud

Source: VMWare

Adoption Driver: Flexibility

Business needs to respond quickly to changing needs in the marketplace. IT wants to be able to respond with agility to these needs. Virtualization can help address both needs and speed up the deployment process.

Fig.22 : Cloud/ Business Needs

Source: VMWare

Adoption Driver: Lower Costs

Another advantage of server virtualization is a reduction in costs. Interestingly IDC’s research does not indicate a positive correlation between the cost factor and adopting cloud computing. So the flexibility factor is more important as it is decisive for your organization’s ability to respond to the needs of your customers.

Fig.23 : Virtual Server: Advantages

Source: VMWare

Virtualization, Applications, Platform

Virtualization can contribute to your organization’s adoption of cloud technology while addressing the following concerns/ issues:

• Giving endusers acces from different devices to the right content in a secure manner.
• Making the applications portable and your platforms more manageable and flexible.

Fig.24 : Virtual Infrastructure/Type Of Cloud

Source: VMWare

Process Driven Architecture

By applying virtualization and different levels of control for different cloud applications you can achieve a truly flexible and process driven management environment that allows agile response to market needs and rapid deployment of new solutions and maintenance schedules.

Fig.25 : Virtual/ Cloud Process

Source: VMWare

View Full presentations

IDC Presentation: Entrerprise Cloud
VMWare Presentation: Virtualization
Trend Micro Presentation: Security And The Cloud
Cordys Presentation: Traditional IT And SOA Architecture
Groeneveld Presentation: Implementation Case Salesforce

(Dutch) Eurocloud Presentation: Voor en nadelen van cloudcomputing voor uw bedrijf

Resources

On the Cordys site you can signup for a free 30 day trial to build flexible applications for multiple devices.