SOLUTION BRIEF CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms how quickly can your private cloud support the increasing demand for business services and accelerate time-to-value for your Vblock platforms investment? agility made possible
You cannot support increasing demand fast enough with traditional tools, manual processes, and inefficient technologies. With CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms, you receive a self-service, fully automated publishing and delivery solution for Vblock platforms. Featuring out-of-the-box service offerings, and integration with EMC Unified Infrastructure Manager (UIM) and VMware vcenter to automate server provisioning, CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms provides the tools you ll need to charge customers for the services they use. CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms is the new standard for efficiently managing your Vblock platforms and increasing return on your infrastructure investment. 2
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platformss executive summary Solution Highlights Rapid virtual server deployment Pre-packaged service offerings from a multitenant catalog Ready-built workflows and connectors to Vblock platforms Adjustable resource utilization for reduced costs Challenge Businesses today are relying on cloud computing to provide services on demand, and maximize use of network, compute, and storage resources, all at reduced costs. To meet this need, IT organizations are expected to deliver new applications and provision servers rapidly and securely, while maintaining cost effectiveness to keep up with the speed of business innovation. In many areas IT has risen to the occasion, but there continues to be a growing gap between IT supply and the business growing demands. Development efforts to increase efficiency to bridge this gap are the motivators behind rapid implementation of virtualization and cloud computing initiatives. However, these initiatives introduce management complexities processing delays, support issues, and accountability which can quickly outweigh their benefits. Opportunity To address these complexities, CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms delivers virtual server offerings into the CA Service Catalog, providing end users a self-service means to manage the life cycle of virtual servers being delivered on Vblock platforms. The solution also delivers ready-built processes, developed on top of CA Process Automation, to automatically provision resources across the physical and virtual stack. Further, to deliver both subscription and usage-based pricing, CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms contains a set of mediation processes which collect utilization data from Vblock Infrastructure Platforms to utilize the accounting capabilities of CA Service Catalog to generate invoices for chargeback or showback purposes. Benefits CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms offers CIOs and service provider executives the flexibility and control needed to rapidly deploy private cloud services across their Vblock platforms. Your customers can expect faster IT service delivery. IT staff can be repurposed for more customerfocused, rather than technology-focused projects, and dynamically adjust resource configurations in-line with changing business conditions. Solution capabilities include pre-packaged services delivered from a multi-tenant catalog, ready-built workflows and cross-functional process support, and support for usage and subscription-based service pricing. 3
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platformss Fast Facts UIM and vcenter integration for ease of resource management Automatic provisioning of physical and virtual resources using CA Process Automation Self-service management of virtual server lifecycle using CA Service Catalog Subscription and usage-based pricing models CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms gives enterprise IT administrators the ability to quickly build value-added services using process automation, speeding delivery to help reduce costs. Customers enjoy fast and secure self-service access to the services they need, when they need them, and with insight into what they cost. This helps you standardize and effectively manage your Vblock platforms so you can: Accelerate time-to-value. IT can help reduce costly fire-drill activities using standardized services from CA Service Catalog coupled with CA Process Automation workflows. By extending these services to business users, IT can reduce cycle times; ensuring the right services are received when and where they are needed. Optimize resource utilization and reduce costs. By orchestrating the entire cloud service workflow checking resource availability, provisioning resources, validating configurations, and automating service activation and retirement service providers can reduce costs while improving service quality. Streamline provisioning of compute and storage resources. The consistent deployment of services, irrespective of technology, infrastructure, or functional boundaries, results in improved customer satisfaction. Gain financial insight. Exposing the business cost of private cloud services through financial metering, showback, and chargeback, encourages end users to consider how they consume services. Integrate with third-party solutions for improved operational efficiency and risk reduction. Built-in connectors that come with CA Process Automation automatically connect to other environments through a pre-built operator using a standard protocol or through a pre-built connector. Key features UIM integration. All Vblock platforms are shipped with EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager (UIM). CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms integrates with UIM offering ease of management of Vblock platforms, transforming IT into a more agile organization by managing the components of Vblock platforms as a single entity. It also automates critical functions necessary to rapidly establish a foundation for cloud computing, and increases virtualization ROI. Rapidly publish virtual servers. A standardized IT process is provided to publish new types of virtual servers as a service, integrating people, process, and technology. It interacts with service consumers, service producers, and physical and virtual stacks to help plan and publish server offerings. Self-service server provisioning & service publishing. A self-service portal via the CA Service Catalog allows end users to securely provision and de-provision resources and services on Vblock platforms without involving IT staff. Native multi-tenancy enables publication of standardized services across multiple catalogs. Alternatively, localized services can be published to multiple customers. Access to services is controlled using role-based permissions and workflows, regardless of business model. 4
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platformss Usage/subscription-based billing. Powerful financial management supports fixed or usage-based pricing and includes a billing and financial reporting engine that automatically associates service usage to departments, cost centers, or end users. Integrated chargeback gives you the ability to charge for services based on their true cost of delivery or as showback for informational reasons. Figure 1. This high-level process flow diagram illustrates how CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms is designed to work together with CA Service Catalog and CA Process Automation to help you deliver cloud services on Vblock platforms. How it works The upper half of the diagram describes a Publish Service scenario where a Tenant Admin is requesting a new virtual server service to be published to their Tenant catalog for their end users to consume. The lower half of the diagram describes a Consume Service scenario where an end user chooses from list of services published in the CA Service Catalog to request or manage the virtual servers. 5
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms Contributing administrative roles in the cloud service provider organization which help complete the solution process include: Business Analysts who select pricing strategies for the services Infrastructure Admins who manage the technical aspects on the Vblock platform Approval Managers who approve end-user requests In the picture below, the Application Development Manager (ADM) of Forward Inc. wants to roll out a new mobile app system based on management requirements. The ADM realizes that his team of developers will need immediate availability to more back-end database servers. The ADM contacts Forward Inc. s Tenant Admin, with details of the requirement. The Tenant Admin logs into CA Service Catalog to begin the process of requesting a new service. (Figure 2) Figure 2. Requesting a new service 6
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms Once a request is submitted, the Business Analyst at MSP Inc., receives a notification and logs into CA Service Catalog to review the request from the Tenant Admin. The business analyst selects a cost plan and determines either a fixed or usage-based subscription rate. Once the pricing model is assigned, CA Process Automation automatically routes it to the Tenant Admin for approval. (Figure 3) Figure 3. Routing request for approval 7
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms Next, the Infrastructure Admin determines the best fit for the new service on Vblock platforms and enters the information needed for physical provisioning via Vblock platforms Unified Infrastructure Manager (UIM) to support the requested service. (Figure 4) Figure 4. Physical provisioning 8
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms When the infrastructure Admin completes the task, CA Process Automation automatically interfaces with Vblock platforms UIM via the CA Catalyst UIM connector to initiate and orchestrate all the required tasks. Once all the physical and virtual components are assigned, CA Process Automation populates the service in the CA Service Catalog. The Database Manager from the Application Development group is notified of this update, and logs onto the Forward Inc. s Tenant catalog and sees the new DB server service is available to proceed with the request. (Figure 5) Figure 5. Availability to proceed with request 9
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms The Database Manager selects the service to provision development, test, and production servers, and is automatically provided the DB servers from a pre-allocated pool of resources thus saving precious time and cost across the application development lifecycle. In addition to speed and efficiency, this solution delivers complete financial transparency. At Forward Inc., the Tenant Admin can showback costs that are being accumulated, helping teams better manage resource usage. While at MSP Inc., the Business Analyst has comprehensive insight into charges incurred by the customer. (Figure 6) Figure 6. Comprehensive view of changes 10
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms Implementation support Innovative cloud computing technologies, such as CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms have a profoundly positive impact on IT service delivery, continuity, and cost. But with any transformative technology, the adoption can be greatly influenced by an organization s preparedness with a view on business agility, service delivery, and support. Is your IT organization prepared to successfully leverage the transformative impact of cloud computing on IT service delivery? CA Services and our Global System Integrator (GSI) partners are available to help you overcome barriers to adopting and expanding your cloud computing infrastructure by leveraging CA Cloud Consulting Services. By combining service management expertise with the solution, CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms, CA Services, and CA Technologies can help your organization advance through the physicalto-virtual-to-cloud journey by employing a pragmatic and proven approach that incorporates people, process, technology, and architecture. The CA Technologies advantage CA Technologies has over 30 years of recognized expertise in enterprise-class IT management software, so helping organizations to deliver cloud services is simply business as usual. Whether you want to transform your existing environment to a private cloud, deploy a turnkey private cloud immediately or dynamically move workloads to private or public clouds as demand changes, CA Technologies offers a comprehensive, integrated solution for building, managing and securing cloud computing system for Vblock platforms. CA Technologies solutions are designed to help accelerate the virtualization-to-cloud journey, so that organizations can fully realize the agility and operational benefits that can be derived from next generation IT infrastructure. To help accelerate your transition to automated service delivery, CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms offers pre-integrated workflows that are designed specifically to support best practice private cloud use cases, right out-of-the-box on your Vblock Platforms. By accelerating time-to-value and delivering services quickly and efficiently, organizations can increase revenue and achieve differentiation from a customer satisfaction perspective. CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms can help reduce costs by enabling highly repeatable services and by improving visibility to actual services costs to help make more informed decisions about choosing the most cost effective infrastructure. CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms is designed to reduce risk by helping to create a computing environment that is agile, flexible, and responsive to business demands. CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms coupled with other solutions support a complete lifecycle of private cloud service delivery; Model, Assemble, Automate, Assure and Secure. To find out more about how CA Private Cloud Accelerator for can help your organization, please visit ca.com/vblock or speak to your sales representative. 11
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platformss About VCE VCE, the Virtual Computing Environment Company formed by Cisco and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel, accelerates the adoption of converged infrastructure and cloud-based computing models that dramatically reduce the cost of IT while improving time to market for our customers. VCE, through Vblock platforms, delivers the industry s first completely integrated IT offering with end-to-end vendor accountability. VCE s prepackaged solutions are available through an extensive partner network, and cover horizontal applications, vertical industry offerings, and application development environments, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating and managing IT infrastructure. For more information, go to vce.com. CA Technologies is an IT management software and solutions company with expertise across all IT environments from mainframe and distributed, to virtual and cloud. CA Technologies manages and secures IT environments and enables customers to deliver more flexible IT services. CA Technologies innovative products and services provide the insight and control essential for IT organizations to power business agility. The majority of the Global Fortune 500 rely on CA Technologies to manage their evolving IT ecosystems. For additional information, visit CA Technologies at ca.com. Copyright 2012 CA. All rights reserved. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. This document is for your informational purposes only. CA assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information. To the extent permitted by applicable law, CA provides this document as is without warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement. In no event will CA be liable for any loss or damage, direct or indirect, from the use of this document, including, without limitation, lost profits, business interruption, goodwill, or lost data, even if CA is expressly advised in advance of the possibility of such damages. CS2034_0112