VIEW POINT Getting cloud management and sustenance right! It is not about cloud, it s about tomorrow s enterprise Soma Sekhar Pamidi, Vinay Srivastava, Mayur Chakravarty The dynamic technologies of cloud have taken the IT industry by storm. Today s IT organizations want business agility and on-demand resource utilization and cloud can offer all this and more. With the cloud, the sky is the limit for enterprise growth opportunities. However, managing cloud environments also presents several challenges. To maximize business value from their cloud investments, business leaders and decision makers need to look beyond the technology into post-adoption scenarios. Such scenarios are riddled with complexities owing to multi-vendor or multi-partner relationships and, hence, require effective management, seamless integration and comprehensive governance of cloud environments private, public or hybrid along with handling commercial, legal, security, and compliance issues. This paper aims to help enterprises that have commenced or are planning to start their cloud journey in understanding how to ensure proper integration and delivery of their cloud services. It marks the steps to transition from asset-centric IT to service-centric IT in a systematic and progressive manner. The paper also presents a robust Cloud management framework that, with the right implementation partner can help the enterprise reap a rich harvest of business benefits.
Cloud Sustenance Why enterprises want cloud? Over the past decade, small, medium and large enterprises have been part of a new trend consolidating their Information Technology (IT) infrastructure to a single or few centralized datacenters along with vendors and suppliers. While such datacenter consolidation has yielded performance efficiencies and cost optimization, there has also been exponential growth in demand owing to the evolution of cloud solutions. Compared to traditional datacenters and hosting, cloud services offer higher elasticity, rapid scalability, on-demand pay-per-use models, and other innovative out-of-the-box, ready-to-use services. Today s enterprises are entering a new world where: Ownership and decisions are restricted to the services they consume Businesses are experiencing better, faster and more efficient services Cloud providers are promising greater availability and on-demand resources to address volatile business demands Importantly, all these new capabilities are available in an operational expenditure (OPEX) based model
Challenges in cloud adoption Today s CIOs recognize that cloud technologies are transforming IT and business models. However, this opportunity comes with its own set of challenges. The increasing IT complexity makes it impossible to achieve desired benefits from a single cloud provider. Driven by extensive competition and innovation, today s cloud Service Providers (CSPs) offer diverse cloud services with best-in-class solutions as well as commercial model and scale. The demand for superior services is forcing businesses to opt for multiple CSPs, transforming the existing IT landscape into a complex, hybrid cloud ecosystem. This poses several challenges such as: Complexity in managing multiple contracts, pricing models and service level agreements (SLAs) Higher governance overheads Absence of single point accountability Absence of an integration workbench to assimilate services from multiple providers Lack of standardized processes, tools and reports Complexity in managing services with offerings from multiple CSPs under a single service catalog Lack of expertise to lead innovation, automation and continuous service improvement Lack of data security and single sign-on across the cloud ecosystem Changing business services availability owing to the shift from complete control to partial control IaaS? PaaS? SaaS? Private Cloud? Hybrid Cloud? Public Cloud? Enterprise Who & how to manage multiple CSP Contracts? Are offerings in line with business expectations? How to standardize tools and processes? Services are available over internet but is my data secure? Who ensures a single point accountability for service assurance? How to integrate various offerings & related SLAs into a unified service catalog? How to automate for faster and efficient fulfillment of services? Figure 1: Complexity and challenges of cloud adoption for enterprises
Overcoming these challenges is no walk in the park. Even with CSPs assistance, the increasing complexity of environments and need for effective collaboration cannot be handled in-house. Enterprises need a knowledgeable and experienced partner to manage and sustain cloud services, i.e., to be their one-stop-accountability for cloud. Such a partner - a Cloud Ecosystem Integrator can deliver constant innovation and value addition besides efficiently managing daily IT operations. Cloud vs. Traditional Services To understand the importance of cloud services management, it is essential to first understand how it differs from traditional hosting service management. TRADITIONAL HOSTING SERVICES Controlled environment Datacenters have dedicated hosting services providing enterprises with absolute control over the environments. Hosting providers cannot make changes/ upgrades and plan downtimes without the consent of the enterprise More control, governance effort Here, hosting environment and managed services ensure relatively minimum governance effort from businesses CLOUD SERVICES Elastic environment Cloud Service Providers can make changes/ upgrades and plan downtimes with a simple prior notification and without prior approval from enterprises. Organizations have to incorporate sufficient governance to cope with these dynamic situations and plan for business continuity Less control, governance effort Here, services are spread across and provided by multiple CSPs requiring more proactive governance and service integration coordination effort High hardware maintenance Managing traditional hosting services requires skill sets focused on physical network, storage and server management No hardware maintenance As Cloud Service Providers handle all hardware needs, enterprises need only focus on building skill sets that facilitate building and managing virtualization, automation, orchestration, service integration and end-to-end governance Reactive service assurance Manual provisioning, manual scale up/ down, manual change fulfillments Proactive/Predictive service assurance Automated provisioning, scalability, elasticity, and workflows triggering automated fulfillment of requests, allowing for constant optimization Traditional Hosting Services Cloud Services Service Integration Service Assurance Data Center Operations Minimum Governance Requirement Service Catalog Automation Billing/ Metering Cloud Orchestration Solution Service Assurance Cloud Governance Manage multiple CSPs, Ensure Service Integration, Enhance Cloud Partnerships, Service Portfolio Figure 2: Cloud management vs. traditional hosting services
Managing the cloud A Sustenance and Governance Framework As enterprises embark on their journey to the cloud, it is critical to understand that the adoption of cloud-related technologies is significantly different from managing a cohesive cloud ecosystem. Post adoption, enterprises may face several complexities that need to be factored in and addressed early to ensure smooth functioning of the ecosystem.
The first step in addressing these complexities is to develop a cloud sustenance and management framework. This framework has four key components, as shown below: 1 Cloud Cloud Integration and Governance and Orchestration Compliance 2 3 Cloud 4 Cloud Automation Managed and Security Services Figure 3: The key components of a cloud sustenance and management framework 1 Cloud Governance and Compliance Public IT Service Contract/Partner Reports Private Cloud Governance A sustenance governance mechanism should be in place. Security Hybrid Communication/Escalation Figure 4: Effective cloud governance framework Performance Compliance, Risks & Audits In a multi partner cloud ecosystem, CSPs often come up with highly urbane and personalized solutions to which enterprises has minimum control. Hence, it becomes increasingly relevant for enterprises to have governance and service integration frameworks and processes. Different CSPs have different capabilities, strengths and service/cost models. The enterprise needs to make intelligent decisions around which service to be consumed from whom, promote contestability and moreover decide, how to integrate these services for a positive end to end service level and customer experience. The enterprise also needs to define ways of working for all partners to work together towards customer delight. 2 Cloud Integration and Orchestration Public Cloud Enterprises need to synchronize their services that reside on multiple clouds. Without such integration, services operate in silos creating inefficiencies and frittering away the benefits of a cloud solution. To ensure effective synchronization, enterprises need a cloud ecosystem integration solution for all offered services. Cloud Orchestration Solution Service Catalog Automation Billing / Metering Integration Service / SLA Figure 5: Cloud Ecosystem Integration and Orchestration Private Cloud Monitoring & Reporting Typically, a cloud ecosystem integration solution employs available application programming interfaces (APIs). These are offered by CSPs to ecosystem integrators. The essential components of cloud sustenance services are: Manage the integration solution Add/ remove/ modify integrations based on future needs Monitor and fine-tune integration performance Ensure appropriate authentication and authorization mechanisms are in place to manage information security It is important to note that there are several scenarios where integration services can be impacted owing to data volume fluctuations, technology upgrades and changes around integration points. Therefore, it is critical for organizations to constantly monitor and optimize performance of integration services as part of the cloud sustenance and management framework.
3 Besides governance and integration, Cloud Automation the cloud sustenance and management framework includes a cloud service automation solution. Service Fulfillment Service Portfolio Service Catalog Automation Billing & Metering Monitoring & Reporting Template Creation & Updation Workflow Changes, Process Changes Rules Engine Administration SSO & Federation Integration Layer administration Day to day operations Typically, cloud automation solutions involve ensuring service fulfillment and managing cloud and operational activities. These include: Driving efficiencies into processes such as service procurement, provisioning and deployment Providing users with a self-service option through a portal that lists all available services within a service catalog Managing various automation workflows as well as metering and billing Updating/ modifying templates and operational activities to maintain and administer the automation solution Figure 6: Automation AUTOMATED MONITORING In contrast to the traditional way of monitoring where individual application and infrastructure components are monitored in silos, automated monitoring can ensure proactive detection of failure points by providing a single monitoring screen that displays the performance of all architectural components associated with the application impacted. For example, during a monitoring exercise, a particular application demonstrated slow performance. With the click of a mouse, the support engineer was able to draw up a performance monitoring analysis of all components associated with the application. This provided information on the failure point in the architecture. Such features are not available in traditional monitoring where data or alerts do not provide failure points. 4 Cloud Managed and Security Services Technical Services Hosted Applications Platform Tools Middleware Dev / Test Tools OS Virtualization V Server V Storage V Network Public Cloud Cloud managed and security services are responsible for providing proactive, predictive and reactive service assurance to the business and ensuring end-to-end security of the ecosystem. ITSM Incident / Service Request Problem Mgmt Change & Config. Release & Deployment Capacity & Availability IT Service Continuity Service Level Mgmt Unified Orchestration Solution Integration Figure 7: Cloud Managed and Security Services Security & Compliance Network Security Perimeter Security Endpoint Security Application Security IDAM SSL Security Vulnerability Assessment Information Security Corporate IS Policy Audit & Compliance Standards & Regulations Public Cloud This function involves ensuring quality of service (QoS) by: Monitoring application availability, system performance and resource utilization Conducting proactive security checks Ensuring proper identity and access control policies are in place Automation of operational activities such as backup services, event management, monitoring thresholds, security monitoring etc enables proactive and faster responses to potential issues and threats. This helps the organization adopt a servicedriven operational framework with minimum manual effort. By automating basic operations, cloud services deliver more than just operational efficiency. It allows organizations to shift their focus from enabling machine resource levels (CPU utilization, disk performance) to ensuring user service levels (application availability, transaction speeds, etc).
Conclusion Despite the benefits of on-demand provisioning, scalability and pay-peruse models that the cloud delivers, enterprises remain cautious about adopting cloud solutions for business transformation. This is because deploying cloud in a traditional managed services offering restricts the range of benefits. The scope of the traditional managed services model limits the enterprise from realizing the actual capabilities of Cloud such as self-service, deployment at the click of the mouse, cost comparison, etc. Services in cloud demand high level of integration and automation to be able to deliver business innovation. Thus, as more and more enterprises adopt cloud to drive operational efficiencies, there is a pressing need for integration among cloud service providers (CSPs). While employing multiple CSPs is a step in the right direction, enterprises need to partner with experienced cloud ecosystem integrators to ensure successful business transformation from Cloud transitions. Such ecosystem integrators can deliver the whole range of benefits through an effective Cloud management framework with capabilities such as governance and compliance, integration and orchestration, automation, and managed security and services models. The success of cloud management & sustenance lies in getting the orchestration and governance right! Author Profiles Soma Sekhar Pamidi Principal Technology Architect Cloud, Infosys Soma Sekhar Pamidi has over 17 years of industry experience on cloud and performance engineering. Many of the solutions he architected have delivered significant performance improvement on web-based and intranet applications. He has delivered cloud transformation consulting services to multiple clients. His focus includes financial services and insurance (FSI), manufacturing, telecom, and retail. He has been responsible for building cloud platform as a service (PaaS) and cloud sustenance practices that have delivered top-notch services to clients worldwide. Vinay Srivastava Principal Technology Architect Cloud, Infosys Vinay Shrivastava has over 17 years of experience in architecting cloud computing solutions. Over the last five years, he has perfected the cloud computing and big data practice at Infosys Australia. He also has many successful transformation program stories, for several clients, to his credit. Mayur Chakravarty Project Manager Cloud, Infosys Mayur Chakravarty has over the last ten years worked in several IT infrastructure management assignments and cloud operations and implementations. He has experience in designing and implementing IT service management processes for many clients as well as managing infrastructure and cloud service delivery. He was instrumental in building the cloud operations and sustenance framework for Infosys. About Infosys Infosys is a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing solutions. We enable clients, in more than 30 countries, to stay a step ahead of emerging business trends and outperform the competition. We help them transform and thrive in a changing world by co-creating breakthrough solutions that combine strategic insights and execution excellence. Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY), with $7.4B in annual revenues and 160,000+ employees, is Building Tomorrow's Enterprise today. For more information, contact askus@infosys.com www.infosys.com 2013 Infosys Limited, Bangalore, India. All Rights Reserved. Infosys believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date; such information is subject to change without notice. Infosys acknowledges the proprietary rights of other companies to the trademarks, product names and such other intellectual property rights mentioned in this document. Except as expressly permitted, neither this documentation nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, printing, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Infosys Limited and/ or any named intellectual property rights holders under this document.