Later this week I’ll be presenting as a part of our EMC Live! webcasts on Building Strategies for Private Cloud Initiatives. I’ve been thinking more about what EMC’s Private Cloud vision means and how it is being implemented by our customers. The initial idea of Private Cloud being a destination, part of a linear progression does a bit of a disservice to the whole concept of cloud computing and the control and choice offered by these new models. Many companies are already thinking about Private Cloud as an approach to balancing their IT Service portfolio across internal and external resources based on criteria like cost and risk. In my opinion, and I think EMC’s strategy and approach on Private Cloud bears this out, Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) is what makes the Cloud private.
Organizations have had a portfolio approach to IT for quite some time, now the various components within that portfolio might have started out as Mainframe, Open Systems and x86 in their own data center, or it could’ve been App Dev/Test and Pre-Prod in their data centers and Production at a hosting facility, and many, many other permutations. Until recently there have always been pretty significant differences between those IT Services in the Portfolio and usually different management interfaces, organizations, reporting, etc. associated with each of them. I posit that an integrated GRC framework with a Unified Service Portal not only bind the portfolio together and provides commonality in terms of how IT’s customers provision, manage and report on their services, but that they provide the framework for efficiency, control and choice which are the hallmarks of EMC’s Private Cloud vision. This allows, as the portfolio matures and the GRC framework becomes more integrated, the CIO to deliver against the CEO’s expectations of cost reduction, the CISO/CLO’s expectation of a secure and compliant environment and his or her own expectation for more automation and transparency. The goal then becomes not having only one method of computing achieved via a linear transformation of IT, but rather a portfolio of services delivered via several methods that is balanced for cost and risk with the ease of consumption and transparency of the public cloud and all the security and compliance associated with the data center.
I’ve geared my presentation for Thursday to address some tactical approaches to implementing such a strategy with achievable early successes to build momentum for the adoption of the model. I’d welcome discussion, questions, another perspective via the comments, engagement via Twitter or on the webcast session.
Please feel free to register here and join in the conversation:
EMC Live Webcast:
Create an Architecture and Roadmap for Your Private Cloud
Thursday, May 6, 2010
8:00 am PT / 11:00 am ET / 15:00 GMT
The private cloud vision has captured the attention of enterprise IT leaders and strategists because it promises unprecedented economies of scale and dramatically improved business agility.
EMC Consulting experts can help you find the best path to the private cloud by leveraging virtualization, pooling enterprise resources, and adopting a service-oriented model.
Attend this webcast and learn how to:
- Identify the key attributes of a private cloud architecture
- Establish a business case for private cloud
- Develop a high-level architectural plan for private cloud
- Transform operations into a service-oriented, self-service model