What Cloud Computing Can Do for Your Enterprise Lessons from the Second Generation of Cloud Adopters
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
What cloud computing can do for your enterprise Lessons from the second generation of cloud adopters Written by Phil Wainewright Commissioned by Appirio What cloud computing can do for your enterprise : Lessons from the second generation of cloud adopters Contents Stair steps to the cloud ...................................................... 4 Why take to the cloud? ...................................................... 5 What the cloud changes. 7 Expected changes . 7 Unanticipated change . 8 IT managers . 8 Developers . 9 Business managers . .10 For users . .10 A blueprint for cloud success ................................................. 11 Lead from the top . .11 Get the requirements right . 11 Don’t underestimate the business impact . .11 Invest in change management . .11 Plan for support . 11 Cloud-enabled enterprise .................................................... 12 About the Author Phil Wainewright is one of the world’s foremost authorities on emerging trends in business automation. He is a prolific writer with a ZDNet blog on Software as a Service, the Loosely Coupled website on enterprise adoption of services architecture, and a series of influential analyst reports to his name. He serves as CEO of Procullux Ventures, a London-based strategic consultancy to leading business automation vendors and their customers. Daily software as services weblog: http://blogs.zdnet.com/SaaS/ Procullux Ventures: www.pcxvs.com Detailed biography: www.philwainewright.com © Procullux Limited, 2008 2 What cloud computing can do for your enterprise : Lessons from the second generation of cloud adopters Readers of this paper are likely curious about the contribution cloud computing can make to both cost savings and business agility . That curiosity may be especially strong in today’s tough economic environment, where business managers and IT functions alike are being asked to excel even while they control and cut their costs . Cloud computing is seen by many organizations as a less costly, more agile alternative to installing, running and maintaining their own servers and software . But it often feels like a huge leap of faith for those that have traditionally operated computing on their own premises . Fortunately, the reports Cloud pioneer: coming back from pioneers who have made that early journey Kevin Weiss, into the unknown is encouraging . They have mostly found CEO, Author the benefits to be even greater than they imagined, while the Solutions barriers have proven less daunting than many feared . Author Solutions The findings presented in this white paper are based on research used the and interviews with a cross-section of customers of Appirio, a Force.com leading on-demand products and professional services company . platform to These customers, some large, some smaller, have all begun develop a making the transition to cloud services . They include examples complete custom ERP system for its from manufacturing, health services, publishing and technology . publishing business, as a replacement And while some have moved all their computing to the cloud, for three separate legacy systems others use just one or two cloud applications . that result from three separate business acquisitions. The system was This paper explores some of the common themes emerging from developed from scratch in four months, their stories and outlines the benefits and the challenges, both deployed in a few weeks and delivered expected and unforeseen, that enterprises have encountered improved business performance within on this journey . They have found that the transition to cloud the first month of operation. computing not only yields reduced implementation time, risk and cost . It enables them to align application development with business outcomes in a way that transforms their overall business . This is a blueprint for how it’s done . © Procullux Limited, 2008 3 What cloud computing can do for your enterprise : Lessons from the second generation of cloud adopters Stair steps to the cloud Most organizations adopt cloud computing one step at a time . For those used to running computing in their own IT facility, that first step is often hesitant . But confidence grows with each subsequent step along the typical journey to cloud computing . There are several routes into the cloud, which are covered below . Not included here is the option of simply relocating applications from an on-premise facility to a third-party hosting center or even to a cloud-hosted virtual server . No matter which route one takes, it’s important to remember SaaS is more than simply a deployment choice . Conventional packaged software can’t deliver many of the most transformational benefits of moving to the cloud because it’s not designed to make the best of the cloud environment . Software designed from the outset to live in the cloud uses technologies such as multi-tenancy, metadata-driven business logic and service-oriented architectures that, taken together, deliver a step-change in the business results you can achieve . Organizations embracing this new model of computing typically take one or more of the following steps: • Cloud applications – the most common first step into cloud computing is when an enterprise adopts a single or multiple software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications or business services . For example salesforce automation and customer relationship management from salesforce com,. or email and documents from Google Apps . • Cloud platforms – another step is to use a provider’s cloud infrastructure as a platform for building and running custom-developed applications . These platforms may provide raw computing services, such as Amazon com’s. EC2 processing and S3 storage services, or they may be more tailored application development platforms such as Google AppEngine, or Force com. by salesforce com. • Integrated cloud services – as enterprises extend their use of cloud resources, they begin to ‘mashup’ applications and services . This combines the strengths of each provider’s platform, taking advantage of service-oriented interfaces that are easier to use and more flexible than the brittle, proprietary integration that’s typical of on-premise applications . The result is more productive, end-to-end business automation . • Serverless enterprise – some organizations take the ultimate step and migrate all of their computing to the cloud . Going ‘serverless’ works well for smaller enterprises, especially those starting out with little or no existing infrastructure . The majority of enterprises today are not yet ready to go completely ‘serverless’ – and for some it will never be wholly appropriate . Many enterprises may choose to continue operating their own infrastructure in order to provide services to customers . For example, large multinational banks providing on-demand transaction services, and of course, cloud providers themselves such as salesforce com,. Google and Amazon com. But for many of their other operations, these same organizations will choose cloud services . “ I was looking to use technologies and platforms that are infinitely more scalable than anything we could do here,” said Author Solutions’ Kevin Weiss. © Procullux Limited, 2008 4 What cloud computing can do for your enterprise : Lessons from the second generation of cloud adopters Why take to the cloud? Organizations make their first move into cloud computing for a different set of reasons from those that later influence them to expand their use of the cloud . There are a well-known set of perceived benefits that any organization anticipates as it embarks on its first significant cloud computing project: • Lower upfront costs – Instead of buying everything you need in advance, you pay as you go for what you consume . This is a huge benefit for projects or processes that may start small but need the ability to scale quickly . With the infrastructure in place, developers can focus on delivering business results instead of getting the technology working, which reduces implementation costs . • Shorter time to go-live – The provider’s cloud infrastructure is already up and running, providing a range of off-the-peg services such as access management, security, scalability and reporting . Unlike on-premise software that requires these baseline functions to be built to order over and over again, developers and users can just get on with application design and delivery . • Reduced ongoing overhead – Support and maintenance Cloud benefits checklist costs are lower because staff and resources aren’t tied up keeping Implementation: basic infrastructure in place and running . Unobtrusive upgrades o Lower cost are a regular part of cloud services instead of being infrequent o Shorter timescale and disruptive re-engineering exercises . o Reduced risk • Scales without effort – The cloud provider’s infrastructure Infrastructure: already supports hundreds or thousands of other customers (and o Always on often millions of other users), so it’ll easily sustain whatever is o Reliable thrown at it . o Always up to date o Highly scalable up or down More powerful, however, are the unexpected benefits that only become apparent once an organization has deployed cloud resources . Although Integration: less well known, these secondary effects have a far more transformative o Always online impact on the organization’s approach to business automation: o Real-time updating • Infrastructure freedom – It’s only when you no longer Development: have to keep the technology infrastructure up-to-date that o Rapid prototyping