Cloud Computing is still at the stage of promising the world and still riding the crest of the hype wave that so often pushes new technology developments along. This is the view of Marc Wilkinson, the director of HP's Cloud global practice within the solutions and software division. It is, he feels, time for businesses – and their IT departments in particular - to start asking themselves some serious questions about what they really want, and why.
There is, of course, the potential to cry 'he would say that, wouldn't he', coming as he does from one of the largest traditional systems vendors. As a group, these companies are having to come to terms with some significant changes to both their markets and their business models. But he does have a point, in that turning the promises and hype surrounding Cloud Computing into a functioning, manageable reality may be, for larger enterprises in particular, a less than trivial task.
"The Cloud has created an opportunity for businesses to run amok like a spoilt child," he said. "The Cloud is, in practice, the business/IT alignment we have all talked about for so long, but it raises expectations alarmingly. And those expectations need to be managed correctly."
This does mean that every business moving towards the Cloud needs to both set and manage its expectations far more effectively than at present. Wilkinson is of the opinion that most companies looking towards the Cloud as their next move fall into this category, expecting 'Cloud services' to be a Pandora's Box of perfect and instant solutions.
"But for many larger enterprises with on-premise resources the IT department still really does not know what services they actually offer to their users within the business," he said, "so they can't even have a proper conversation about what services they need from Cloud, or can move to the Cloud within the IT department, let alone have such conversations with the business itself."
In his view, the core, fundamental question IT departments need to ask themselves is 'what are the real requirements we are setting out to meet?', and it is a difficult question to answer if they cannot be sure of what they already do for or offer to the business.
Part of Wilkinson's job is to talk some of these questions through with users looking towards the Cloud as an option. He outlined some of the typical general questions he asks, indicating that the way users answer them can be important.
"For example," he said, "one question is 'where would you place a function like email? In the 'vital but general' bucket or in the 'core and mission critical' bucket?'. If they talk about 'email' then we know it can be in the general bucket, but if they talk about 'Exchange' we know they view that particular email platform as critical."
Other typical questions IT departments need to ask themselves include 'what do they think they mean by IT 'services?', 'what are the governance issues?', 'where do they need their data?' and 'what is core to their business?'
The last two Wilkinson sees as useful debating points, for where they need their data usually raise the issue of security. "In practice that is more FUD (the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt of 'I want my data where I can see it') whereas the real issue is that with the Cloud they can compromise business security unwittingly through poor management and poorly thought-out processes."
It can also be very useful for both IT and business managers to work out what applications or services are actually core to their business. "Many will say that email is core to the business, and it can be a vitally important function, but it is rarely the function that differentiates the business in the marketplace, and that is the real issue."
According to Jamie Erbes, VP and CTO of HP's solutions and software division, the long-term goal for IT departments, particularly in larger enterprises, has to be a move from being just a provider of IT resources to become the broker of business services, whether they are sourced from on-premise resources or from third parties through the Cloud. "It is a move from a world of Design:Build:Run to one of Source:Integrate:Manage."
Erbes is aware that this change pushes IT staff in to areas of management that are new to them but which are the early precursors to that 'service broker' role. "There is a growing trend towards shadow sourcing, where business staff will sign up for services in their own right," she said. "Services like Survey Monkey, for which all you need is a credit card to sign up for, is a good case in point. To ensure proper management and governance, IT now needs to be able to spot the use of these shadow-sourced tools, manage their use and block their use if necessary, all without appearing to be dictatorial.
"So they will have to change from being managers of technology to being managers of services, where the key concept they will need to consider is Policy Federation."
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