Cloud Convergence
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Next reports reports.informationweek.com February 2014 $99 Cloud Convergence: 6 Standards That Matter While 39% of respondents say the goal of a fully converged datacenter guides their tech purchasing — and personnel hiring — decisions, just 7% say they’ve reached that ideal state. The No. 1 barrier? Insufficient budget, cited by 61%. Here’s how standards can help. By Kurt Marko Presented in conjunction with Report ID: R7601213 Previous Next reports Cloud Convergence: 6 Standards That Matter 3 Author’s Bio 13 Figure 8: Tighter vs. Looser Vendor vs. Proprietary 4 Executive Summary Standardization 30 Figure 24: Public Cloud IaaS S 5 Research Synopsis 14 Figure 9: Preferred IT Vendor List 31 Figure 25: Application Performance 6 Crack The Code 15 Figure 10: API Management Providers Interface 7 Bridging The Public-Private Cloud Chasm 16 Figure 11: Use of API Management 32 Figure 26: Job Title 10 Same Tune, Different Words Providers 33 Figure 27: Revenue 14 6 Standards That Matter 17 Figure 12: Success in Consolidating Skill 34 Figure 28: Industry 19 Conclusions And Recommendations Sets 35 Figure 29: Company Size 21 Appendix 18 Figure 13: Importance of Ability to Move 36 Related Reports Workloads 19 Figure 14: Formalized Standards 21 Figure 15: Technology Deployment Plans Figures 22 Figure 16: Technologies Deployed 6 Figure 1: Impact of FCoE and iSCSI SAN 23 Figure 17: Unified Storage and Data Deployment on Fibre Channel Network Plans 7 Figure 2: The Road to Full Datacenter Convergence 24 Figure 18: Number of Supported API 8 Figure 3: Reasons for Not Planning Datacenter Functions Convergence 25 Figure 19: Impact of Consolidation on IT NTENT 9 Figure 4: Top Drivers for Adopting Convergence Head Count Technologies 26 Figure 20: Use of Technologies for TABLE OF 10 Figure 5: Barriers to Achieving a Fully Converged Storage Connectivity Datacenter 27 Figure 21: Storage Connectivity 11 Figure 6: 2014 Budget Technologies in Use 12 Figure 7: Organizational Viewpoint: Standard vs. 28 Figure 22: Standardization Policies Proprietary 29 Figure 23: Personal Viewpoint: Standard CO reports.informationweek.com February 2014 2 Previous Next Table of Contents reports Cloud Convergence: 6 Standards That Matter Kurt Marko is an InformationWeek and Network Computing contributor and IT industry veteran, pursuing his passion for communications after a varied career that has spanned virtually the entire high-tech food chain, from chips to systems. Kurt Marko Upon graduating from Stanford University with a BS and MS in electrical engi- InformationWeek Reports neering, Kurt spent several years as a semiconductor device physicist, doing process design, modeling, and testing. He then joined AT&T Bell Laboratories as a memory chip designer and CAD and simulation developer. Moving to Hewlett-Packard, Kurt started in the laser printer R&D lab doing electrophotography development, for which he earned a patent, but his love of computers eventually led him to join HP’s nascent technical IT group. He spent 15 years as an IT engineer and was a lead architect for several enterprise-wide infra- structure projects at HP, including the Windows domain infrastructure, remote access service, Exchange email infrastructure, and managed web services. Want More? Never Miss a Report! Follow Follow reports.informationweek.com © 2014 InformationWeek, Reproduction Prohibited February 2014 3 Previous Next Table of Contents reports Cloud Convergence: 6 Standards That Matter SDN, big data, and scale-out storage architectures have increased the complexity of datacenter conver- gence projects since we last surveyed our readership on the topic. Hybrid clouds are on the horizon for 65%, but to get there, IT must sort out everything from server architectures (internal vs. network storage, blades vs. rack-mount) to storage protocols (FC vs. iSCSI vs. NAS) to network management and administration (includ- ing SDN) to virtualization and cloud platforms (OpenStack, CloudStack, vCloud). We decided to explore adoption of datacenter technologies that support convergence and how willing IT is to entertain proprietary specs versus waiting for standards bodies, to ward off lock-in. Some findings: >> 19% of the 214 respondents to our 2014 Datacenter Convergence Survey say they are not looking to converge. The top reasons: no perceived business advantage and other projects having a higher priority, both cited by 32%. >> 73% of those respondents with datacenter convergence plans say reducing costs is the top driver for adopting technologies that support convergence. The No. 2 response, building a private cloud, was selected by 30%. >> 68% say deploying an FCoE and/or iSCSI SAN allowed them (21%) or will allow them (47%) to eliminate Fibre Channel. >> 22% will devote more than 20% of their fiscal-year 2014 budgets to achieving datacenter convergence, virtualization, and private cloud; 7% will devote more than 30%. >> 20% have consolidated personnel with networking, storage, and server skill sets into one integrated unit versus 30% with separate teams. In our 2012 poll, 28% had consolidated. In this report, we’ll examine survey findings, discuss cloud specs to watch and six places to standardize now, and provide four steps to forward convergence goals. EXECUTIVE Respondent breakdown: 41% have 5,000 or more employees; 35% are over 10,000. Government, financial services and IT vendors are well represented, and 44% are IT director/manager or IT executive management (C-level/VP) level. SUMMARY reports.informationweek.com February 2014 4 Previous Next Table of Contents reports Cloud Convergence: 6 Standards That Matter ABOUT US Survey Name InformationWeek 2014 Datacenter Convergence Survey InformationWeek Reports’ analysts arm business technology Survey Date December 2013 decision-makers with real-world perspective based on qualitative Region North America and quantitative research, busi- ness and technology assessment Number of Respondents 214 and planning tools, and adoption best practices gleaned from Purpose To gauge the adoption of datacenter technologies that support convergence experience. Methodology InformationWeek surveyed business technology decision-makers at OUR STAFF North American companies. The survey was conducted online, and respondents were Lorna Garey, content recruited via an email invitation containing an embedded link to the survey. The email RESEARCH director; [email protected] invitation was sent to qualified InformationWeek subscribers. Heather Vallis, managing editor, research; [email protected] Elizabeth Chodak, copy chief; elizabeth.chodak@ ubm.com Tara DeFilippo, associate art director; [email protected] Find all of our reports at reports.informationweek.com. SYNOPSIS reports.informationweek.com February 2014 5 Previous Next Table of Contents reports Cloud Convergence: 6 Standards That Matter Crack The Code In some ways, the cloud is becoming a stan- 19% of those using or planning to use the tions and managing it all in a unified manner. dard in its own right. Accenture forecasts that public cloud aren’t going to supplement that Sounds to us like a call for standardization. cloud services will grow at seven times the usage with a private cloud setup. Yet the world of cloud technology is like the rate of in-house IT between now and 2016, at Our take: In 2014, enterprise IT teams will be Wild West, with few rules, little enforcement, a which time 46% of all IT spending will be tasked with integrating public cloud services “just make it work” attitude, and a breakneck cloud-related. A KPMG survey finds that for 14 with on-premises infrastructure and applica- pace of change. Meanwhile, the word “stan- major enterprise functions, from email and of- Figure 1 fice productivity to HR and supply chain, 60% to 90% of respondents will be using cloud Impact of FCoE and iSCSI SAN Deployment services within 18 months. Has your deployment of FCoE and/or iSCSI SAN allowed you to eliminate Fibre Channel from your environment? While the public cloud garners the most at- tention, enterprises will deliver most IT ser - Yes vices from private and hybrid clouds for the No, we still need FC 21% foreseeable future. In our 2012 Information- 32% Week Private Cloud Survey, 21% of respon- dents had built private clouds, with an addi- tional 30% starting projects. Our 2014 Private Cloud Survey shows 47% of respondents with private clouds in production for some or most of their applications and 30% testing or start- 47% Not yet, but that’s the plan ing private cloud projects. Those shops tend to want to integrate private and public cloud Base: 78 respondents at organizations with FCoE or iSCSI SAN deployed in production R7601213/7 services in a hybrid architecture — in fact, just Data: InformationWeek 2014 Datacenter Convergence Survey of 214 business technology professionals, December 2013 reports.informationweek.com February 2014 6 R Previous Next Table of Contents reports Cloud Convergence: 6 Standards That Matter dards” evokes images of combative commit- as-a-service, on full display at Dreamforce 2013, In this report, we examine standards and lay tees taking six months to decide where to with its more than 130,000 attendees. Most or- out guidelines for designing a hybrid cloud hold a meeting and then letting dominant in- ganizations will integrate cloud services with that can evolve with both industry changes dustry players steamroll superior technology. internal infrastructure and applications. A well- and your own needs. Vendors blamed delays with the 802.11n spec considered design