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2012 – The Year Cloud Moves from a Buzzword to Reality

Contributed Article by Edwin Yuen, Director for Virtualization and Cloud Strategy, Microsoft

2011 was the year that Cloud became a defined goal - not just for vendors, but for IT departments.  We're shifting away from the "What is cloud?" conversations and people are starting to understand what it can do for them and how it's much more than virtualization. This transition was, and still is, critical to moving towards cloud computing.  

This will lead to change in 2012. The type of change where cloud - private, public, hybrid - stops being a buzzword, or a future goal and becomes a part of your plan, today.  With this fundamental shift, there are a few things all IT departments should consider when implementing a private cloud or even a hybrid cloud scenario.

• Plan first, and then deploy: For many companies, virtualization became a technology where deployment was often prioritized over planning. Building a private cloud isn't about just virtualizing more servers - it's about shifting from a resource-centric environment to an application-centric IT world. Thus, companies should plan out their deployments, target the right workloads, and begin testing their architecture. By planning now, you can understand how you will deploy cloud (private, public, hybrid), how you will use it (what applications work best in the architecture), and the requirements needed (new hardware, software, and the cost model, both capital and operational).
• The value of management: As soon as your organization starts the private cloud planning process, you should start evaluating what your management suite can do for you. Is it ready to help you deploy an app-centric private cloud? Cloud computing requires strong, deep management capabilities. You need the right tools to manage and understand the resources in your private cloud along with the applications and workloads deployed on it.
• A private cloud should save you money, not cost you more: Do the cost analysis now, including the upfront investment price and costs over time. Unlike existing datacenters, private clouds have different cost models that can vary greatly by vendor. A private cloud solution should allow you to reap the economic benefits of the cloud through greater efficiency and density. Choosing a solution that provides the most value both now and over the long term is critical to the success of any private cloud deployment and your business.
• Move at your own pace, but don't lose sight of the future: For many companies, private cloud is the best next step and they will start making this transition now. Others may not be there, but should be evaluating their options to ensure when the time comes, they are ready. No matter where you are in this journey, you should keep present business needs in mind while also planning for the future. The best scenario will allow you to begin building on your current infrastructure today while also allowing you the flexibility to expand your private cloud to a public cloud one day, creating a hybrid environment. There are two things that are critical to this success: 1) Choose a vendor that can manage heterogeneous environments and avoid what some call vendor lock in. 2) Even if you're not interested in a public cloud now, you should make sure you have a single design point across private and public clouds so if the times comes, you can leverage both scenarios seamlessly. Most importantly, companies should go at the pace that is right for them.

So what does this all mean?  It means 2012 is the year you should make the cloud real.  Cloud computing is about delivering the greatest benefit with the resources available.  It doesn't mean a radical departure from what IT departments are doing today.  Rather, private cloud can be the driver that allows IT departments to deliver even more than they can today.  It should give you the opportunity to focus less on managing infrastructure and more on what drives your business.  The key to making this real is moving from "What is cloud?" and "Should I be deploying one?" to "What can I do with cloud?" and "How do I get there, on my terms?" If we can get that done in 2012, then cloud really moves from the future to the now.

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About the Author

Edwin Yuen is the Director for Virtualization and Cloud Strategy in the Windows Server and Management team at Microsoft. Edwin came to Microsoft with the July 2006 acquisition of Softricity. Prior to joining Microsoft, Edwin was one of the Services Engagement Managers of Softricity for six years, leading most of the initial Softricity implementations. Edwin has 15 years of technical consulting experience in both the commercial and federal space, and holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University.