January 20th, 2010

MWD Advisors Survey: Cloud Computing is Fundamentally about Service Delivery & Consumption

The next survey on my list from MWD Advisors, a UK based IT Advisory group, specializing on issues concerning IT business alignment.  Neil Ward-Dutton was kind enough to share this premium report with me.  This survey was conducted in partnership with the IASA (International Association of Software Architects), and had a diverse sample (organization size and geography) of 358 architect-type respondents.  From the report overview:

“In September 2009, MWD worked in conjunction with our partners at the IASA to discover how IT architects view Cloud Computing – what the current challenges are, who is committed to using Cloud Computing – and to gain an insight into what is needed to make Cloud Computing compelling for organisations. The resulting study shows that there are strong levels of Cloud Computing activity being driven by IT architects – but at the same time, that some of today’s vendor marketing drives are missing the mark.”

Out of respect for the premium nature of this content, I’m going to limit this post to a few points.

First, the key findings point out the importance of IT architect involvement with cloud computing initiatives.  However, the reasoning differs from the Forrester findings.  The MWD survey emphasizes “cohesion between on-premise systems and those in the Cloud".  Cohesion includes “ensuring that applications are robust enough to deal with changes to the physical environment that may happen at any time.”  [This aligns with one of my 5 Enduring Aspects of Cloud Computing]

Second, despite the rampant hype surrounding cloud computing, only 9 respondents agreed with the statement: “Cloud Computing is all hype and no substance”.  The majority of the sample believes “Cloud Computing is fundamentally about service delivery and consumption, not technology”.  [So, for everyone who believes service management practices go away with the cloud, think again.]

Third, respondents perceive cloud computing’s greatest value to be “Access to scalable resource with no capital expenditure required – pay as you go”.  This differs from the Forrester survey results that ranked “Speed up application delivery” (63%) well over capex avoidance (30% for production, 28% for test).

There are many good insights in the MWD Advisors and Forrester reports.  Each paints a picture of cautious optimism for cloud computing, recognizing business benefits and risks, and the need for thoughtful adoption strategies.

 

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Tagged as: enterprise considerations, Forrester, MWD Advisors, Neil Ward-Dutton

Posted by brenda michelson at 5:30 pm in 100-days, adoption, Cloud Watch, enterprise integration, software architecture | Permalink | Comments(0)
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January 20th, 2010

Forrester to Enterprise Architects: Use Cloud Phenomenon to Boost Role as Business Advisor

Continuing the 100-day cloud watch, I’m working through my list of cloud computing surveys and papers.  Given my background and primary readership, I’m starting with the enterprise architecture focused research.  First up is the Forrester Report: EAs Are Seeing the Beginning of Cloud’s Impact On IT by Gene Leganza.  The paper stemmed from a recent Forrester Leadership Board (FLB) teleconference:

“A recent Forrester Leadership Boards (FLB) teleconference, attended exclusively by Enterprise Architecture Council members, focused on the impact of cloud computing on EA and the traditional IT structure.  We polled the 75 attendees, all enterprise architects, to determine their level of familiarity with cloud concepts and terminology, the degree to which these enterprise architects are engaging with the business and IT community to make decisions about cloud deployments, and the motivation for looking to the cloud for solutions.”

The report offers good information about why organizations are adopting cloud computing – include the different drivers of enterprise architecture and infrastructure professionals – along with enterprise architecture’s involvement in cloud computing adoption and implementation.  I’d like to focus on this last point:

“Of the 54 session attendees who responded to this question, 20% said they were aware of no cloud deployments in their enterprise.  Of the 43 who knew of cloud use, 26% said enterprise architects were involved in all cloud decisions, 58% said they were pulled in for guidance on possible cloud deployments some of the time, and 16% said their business or IT staff had licensed cloud services without EA’s involvement.”

Forrester surmises: “The ease of procuring cloud resources makes it likely that business project sponsors or IT development and support staff will acquire cloud services without engaging the standard technology governance processes where architects typically become engaged.”.  At the Gartner AADI conference, Eric Knipp referred to this phenomenon as the rise of “Citizen Development”.

In the report, Leganza suggests that instead of “falling victim to an end run by the business”, enterprise architects need to embrace the role of business advisor.  Specifically, Leganza recommends:

“Get proficient in cloud-related issues and terminology. If IT in general and architects in particular are to position themselves as trusted advisors to the business — thus playing a role in the IT-to-BT transition rather than being a victim of it — architects should be the ones to recommend cloud services when they are appropriate rather than let the business position cloud as a way to get IT services without the IT department. To be in a position to advocate cloud-based solutions, architects must have a thorough understanding of the facts, subtleties, hype, and misinformation surrounding cloud computing, and they must develop a practical model for which of their workloads are appropriate for the cloud and which must be deployed internally…”

“Look for ways to improve IT services with cloud-based offerings. Work with subject matter experts in infrastructure and application engineering to see where cloud-based services can provide hosted solutions that are more cost-effective and flexible than in-house scenarios without introducing undue risk…"

“Consider cloud services when brainstorming business solutions. Create a cloud cheat sheet — your own customized guide listing criteria that identify a workload appropriate for the cloud — for use in early-stage architecture reviews or when discussing possible solutions to business problems. Any flexible and cost-effective hosting arrangement that does not introduce risk can translate to technology-enhanced business capabilities with no increased support burden on internal IT, which is a win-win for both IT and its business stakeholders.”

“Provide a context for solution decisions with an integrated view of architecture. …Providing an easy-to-understand high-level graphical view of business, information, and applications — such as in a capability map — can enable informed discussions about possible cloud-based solutions that don’t ignore integration requirements.”

Todd Biske, a seasoned enterprise architect and renowned SOA Governance expert, also speaks to the EA as Business Advisor in a recent post.

Tagged as: enterprise architects, enterprise considerations, Forrester, Gene Leganza, Todd Biske

Posted by brenda michelson at 2:07 pm in 100-days, adoption, analyst positions, Cloud Watch, enterprise architecture, enterprise integration | Permalink | Comments(0)
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January 14th, 2010

100-day Cloud Watch: Surveying the Cloud Computing Surveys

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I’m dedicating 100-days worth of research sessions to explore “enterprise cloud computing considerations”.  My first topic is adoption trends:

  • What are organizations doing, or planning to do, with cloud computing? 
  • What types of cloud computing environments are being used, considered and/or ignored?
  • What industries are leading and lagging adoption? 
  • What use cases are being fulfilled, in part or in full, by cloud computing offerings? 
  • What are the major drivers and expectations?

To get started, I’m surveying the cloud computing surveys.  Certainly, I expect to see security noted as a big concern, and operating expense versus capital outlay as a driver.  In fact, I’ll cover each of those points in later days, as business risk and economic considerations, respectively.   What I’m looking for in my survey of the surveys are observations, trends and even predictions, beyond the headlines.

[Written hours later]  Admittedly, one thing I didn’t factor in was the time consuming survey weeding process.  I’ve narrowed the body of work by date, source and depth of available information.  As a result, I’ll be reviewing the following surveys/papers:

 more >>

Tagged as: enterprise considerations

Posted by brenda michelson at 5:22 pm in 100-days, adoption, Blog | Permalink | Comments(2)
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January 12th, 2010

100-day Cloud Watch: Enterprise Cloud Computing Considerations

To date, I have applied a wide lens to my cloud watching to get a good feel for the entire space.  As a result, I published my "cloud-o-gram" and numerous posts on developments, perspectives and conversations that caught my attention.

For the start of 2010, specifically the next 100 days, I’m going to narrow my cloud watching lens to enterprise cloud computing considerations.  My plan is to apply 2 – 5 research sessions to each enterprise consideration and publish my findings along the way, via elemental cloud computing cloud watch entries and blog posts.

At the end of my list, or 100-days, whichever comes first, I’ll summarize my findings in a research report. 

Reviewing my current calendar, the 100th research day is May 21.  Like all good (former) developers, I’ve buffered with Saturday mornings.

In additional to my standard categories and tagging schemes, I’ll use the “100-days” category and “enterprise considerations” tag.

My starting list of enterprise cloud computing considerations follows.   more >>

Tagged as: enterprise considerations

Posted by brenda michelson at 1:05 pm in 100-days, adoption, Blog, fundamentals | Permalink | Comments(0)
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