Value Beyond Virtualization

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1 An Executive To-Do List for Moving from Virtualization to a Private Cloud Executive Summary To thrive in competitive times, there is no room for lag. This has CIOs steadfastly focused on driving IT efficiencies to enhance response time and performance, while keeping costs in line. Virtualization is a clear path, although it covers only about half the distance. Making the full journey to a private cloud provides the most value in the long run. Virtualization by itself undervalues the opportunity of the cloud, says Carl Eberling, vice president and general manager of virtualization and monitoring for Quest Software, a systems-management solutions provider based in Aliso Viejo, Calif. You may be able to optimize some of your capital expense spend, but you still have to deal with the same old management problems. Automation takes the private cloud to the next level, he says, allowing the company to get ahead of these management issues. This paper is a practical guide for CIOs, and provides five actionable steps toward a successful transition from a virtual environment to a private cloud and all of its promises of IT efficiency. 1 of 5

2 A Reality Check Virtualizing infrastructure from servers to storage and network resources has been a momentous step for many organizations. It enables CIOs to centralize and pool resources, while enhancing scalability and maximizing workloads. As a result, many organizations enjoy tremendous capital expense (CapEx) savings through consolidation, and there is even potential for operational expense (OpEx) savings through centralized management. Still, it s not without challenges, which inevitably start with sprawl. As it becomes easier to parcel out these environments, CIOs quickly lose sight of how these services are being used and how they re performing. As the number of environments multiply, discipline seems to go by the wayside. Consumers end up with more resources than they need, and performance ultimately takes the hit. Perhaps most alarming, warns Eberling, is that many companies actually experience an increase in OpEx in their effort to do more with less. Virtualization adds another level of technical complexity, and without the right management tools in place, it can be unwieldy and surprisingly pricey to maintain. Virtualization gives you expanded capacity and capabilities to spool-up an environment, but it doesn t really deal with lifecycle issues, Eberling explains. So you re left with the same daunting management challenges. Someone must ultimately be responsible for fulfilling a request, he added. Someone needs to monitor and manage the service to make sure the right users have access and expectations are being met, and someone has to be ready to reclaim it when necessary. Ignoring these lifecycle issues can prove problematic not just today, but as the environment evolves and grows. Mishaps in management, no matter where in the lifecycle, usually translate into poor performance against SLAs. There is still a lingering misperception that virtualization is the endgame, when businesses really should be working toward a private cloud. THE CLOUD RULES Many CIOs are implementing private clouds to enhance and extend existing investments in virtualization and datacenter automation. This model for automated consumption and delivery of IT services and infrastructure involves provisioning dynamically scalable and virtualized resources. Clouds can be public, where resources are served up by a third-party provider on a pay-as-you-go basis. The upside is that upfront capital investment is very low; but on the downside, CIOs give up control in important areas like security and manageability. A private cloud, on the other hand, emulates that environment on a private network. Although infrastructure investment and administration is required, this approach offers the benefits of shared hardware cost, capacity optimization and scalability, while sitting securely behind the corporate firewall and under the control of the IT organization. As the best of both worlds, the private cloud is proving to be the next evolutionary step in virtualization and datacenter management. This has CIOs reaching for the clouds, evidenced by a 2010 IDC press release, which predicts server revenue for the private cloud market will grow from $7.3 billion in 2009 to $11.8 billion in The real advantage of a true private cloud is that you get levels of automation that have previously been unavailable, Eberling explains. When transitioning to a private cloud, it s 2 of 5

3 important to focus on simplifying management to overcome the inherent challenges of virtualization, he added. Of course, there are several approaches, each of which are suited for different types of use-cases and IT organizations. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), for example, is a managedservice provider (MSP)-hosted application environment and includes popular applications for CRM and . SaaS fits best in smaller organizations with limited internal infrastructure. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is an MSPhosted application development platform, one of which is Microsoft Azure. PaaS environments, too, are better matched with smaller organizations and can be offered publicly, or as a private cloud implementation remotely managed by a third-party. For larger organizations with existing infrastructure and/ or security concerns, there is Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). This entails a full range of computing infrastructure services delivered by an MSP, or more commonly as an internal cloud. SaaS and PaaS offerings can, in fact, be built into the private cloud on top of an IaaS environment. Quest Software is leading IaaS innovation, along with Amazon, Terremark, and others. AUTOMATION CHECK LIST What to Look for in the Right Platform The key elements of an effective automation platform include: Self-service: Users need to be able to automatically provision their own computing capabilities such as server time and network storage from a library of services. Services must be securely accessible on-demand or reserved for the future, based on predetermined access rights. Service design: Administrators must have complete control over service definition, library maintenance and service-lifecycle management. That includes orchestration of physical and virtual infrastructure, service and automation, starting with design and development, through to testing and production. Operations: An operational dashboard should give IT administration the visibility and control they need to manage the infrastructure. From the dashboard, they need to be able to create, manage, and monitor everything from users and policies to shared pools of infrastructure resources. Automation services: Core capabilities include policy-based resource allocation, dynamic capacity management, IT service and infrastructure automation, and performance optimization. Virtually all infrastructure activities from workload provisioning to teardown should be automated according to specified rules. Integration: Comprehensive IT and application management tools and Web services APIs make it possible to leverage industry-leading components such as directory services, databases, ALM tools, etc. A completely agnostic approach is the only way to bring that flexibility to the infrastructure. Reporting: Robust measurement capabilities should be available to keep track of capacity utilization, service deployments, account-creation history, and user activity. While full utilization reporting offers much-needed visibility into what s being used and what isn t, a chargeback system is required to bill-out services. 3 of 5

4 IaaS clouds are appealing because they use a management platform on top of the hypervisor stack and deliver infrastructure as a Web service, rather than replicating server, software and network resources across the organization. Unlike a PaaS or SaaS models, which offer closed platforms or solution stacks for application delivery, IaaS builds open elasticity into the environment. CIOs choose their own building blocks, such as Web servers, application servers, databases, management tools, and more. Where PaaS locks you in to a specific platform, IaaS is geared toward maintaining control of layered software components, Eberling says. Though infrastructure management is required, the IaaS model provides more control for performance-tuning and suitability over time, allowing for environments to be scaled up or down, repurposed, and otherwise reengineered, he said. AUTOMATIC VALUE A strong management strategy and automation platform is the key. According to Eberling, automation is all about shortening the distance between the end user and the application. That distance can be the difference between making a sale or losing it to a competitor, or between revamping a business process to cut costs or throwing precious dollars away. In these competitive times, no one wants to wait for infrastructure whether accessing a new application, leveraging new capabilities in an existing application, or being relieved of a productivity-draining technical glitch. In fact, applications like Salesforce.com have set a fairly high bar for IT organizations. With this kind of SaaS application, business leaders can have a CRM solution up and running in less than 24 hours or implement new capabilities in a matter of minutes. This same request could take the IT organization months or longer. Manual processes require time and Quest for the Cloud Quest Software provides systems management products that deliver real value and cost savings whether for application monitoring, database management, Windows management or virtualization. Now, Quest brings this problem-solving technology innovation to the private cloud with an automation platform designed to help organizations create and manage Web-based infrastructure. For more information, please visit effort for any infrastructure change. Manpower must be allocated, resource capacity analyzed, decisions made. When it comes to introducing a new application, it starts from scratch: Thus, the lag. The process starts with the initial request: What datacenter should be used? What operating system does the application require? Must desktop support be part of the rollout? At the same time, CIOs must think about what needs to get done after going live: How should the service be managed? What kind of support is necessary? Who gets access? Can resources be reserved? How can performance standards be met? When does the service get torn down? If you can automate a significant chunk of all that, you can shorten that distance between the user and the application, Eberling contends, and meet the most important SLA, which is the user experience. So what does this mean in the world of the virtually-challenged? With an effective automation platform, a secure private cloud can be deployed in a matter of weeks, and the platform keeps on giving. Some CIOs have reduced hard-dollar outlays by as much as 75 percent in hardware, software and cooling; and as much as 67 percent in labor. As far as the top-line is concerned, organizations have realized increased customer retention rates through strong ser- 4 of 5

5 vice models, not to mention the ongoing business impact of faster time-to-market for applications and upgrades, and faster mean-time-to-repair for technical issues. FIVE ACTIONABLE STEPS TO SUCCESS Getting to this level of management efficiency can seem daunting. Below are five must-do steps for CIOs transitioning successfully to a private cloud: 1. Examine demand: The most important step is understanding the user base, and considering usecases throughout the application lifecycle. Which services are mission-critical? How will the service be used today? How will it be used in the future? What permissions are required? What are the service-level expectations? Try to build strong relationships with power users and get early buy-in. Factor-in things like company culture and executive support and always encourage ongoing feedback. 2. Optimize and consolidate infrastructure: Private clouds are all about driving efficiencies and cost reductions beyond virtualization. Virtualize key infrastructure components and pool resources for better capacity utilization. Be selective in bringing applications to the cloud. The best-suited services are standard, high-volume applications, not complex one-off applications. It s important to achieve early successes and repeat those successes while keeping close track of CapEx and OpEx spend. 3. Automate, automate, automate: Build as much automation into the environment as possible. Understand self-service requirements and incorporate the right capabilities. Create reusable building blocks, and libraries of available services. Simultaneously, develop a plan for self-managing the service lifecycle, so IT staff doesn t spend every waking moment tending to the environment. Define policies carefully and test their effectiveness. Most important, keep asking, Is there a better way to do this? If so, automate some more. 4. Build-in agility: Strive for a dynamic infrastructure and flexible service delivery. The private cloud offers new possibilities for IT deployment, but only by leveraging the right technologies for unique business and technical requirements. It s important to build the infrastructure to accommodate this. Above all, avoid being locked-in to any given set of components. Support a heterogeneous environment from the start, and stay on top of vendor roadmaps. 5. Future-proof investments: Start with a defined project, but always plan for growth and scale. Understand lifecycles, and incorporate the ability to expand pools of resources to meet evolving business needs. Identify scale points and limits early on. Create plans to execute on those pressure points. Use metrics to create milestones for reengineering tracking progress against user trends, capacity utilization, administrative needs, and SLA performance. THE RESULT With a properly implemented and automated private cloud, CIOs can expect dramatic returns. Administrators assume greater control over cloud resources, while freeing staff from tedious manual tasks. Users get what they want, when they want it. And the organization goes a long way toward meeting critical SLAs and getting the job done. Still, the return usually boils down to dollars and cents. A well-built, self-managed private cloud will allow you lower CapEx and OpEx spend, Eberling concludes. That s a pretty compelling result. 5 of 5