Packaging up solutions into the right, bite-sized pieces that user businesses can rapidly understand and digest is an important step in helping them make the transition from exclusive on-premise operations to a cloud-based operation. This is the thinking behind the announcement by Platform Computing of the Platform ISF Starter Pack.
This is an adaptation of the Platform ISF system that was first introduced in June last year as an end-to-end private cloud management system to circumvent the need to select and integrate point tools from various vendors. It manages application workloads across multiple provisioning tools such as Red Hat Satellite, IBM xCAT, Symantec Altiris, and Platform Cluster Manager; and VM technologies such as ESX, Xen, KVM and Hyper-V. It also includes self-service, automated provisioning and chargeback capabilities.
Aimed at businesses looking to take the step towards building private clouds, the pack provides an out-of-the-box, end-to-end software and services packaging of these capabilities that aims to provide a low risk and low cost way to evaluate the private cloud model. The company claims it is possible for end user architects and IT managers to get a cloud sandbox environment up and running in less than 30 minutes.
At $4,995 it is by no means the cheapest option for creating an environment in which a business can evaluate possible cloud services, even with the included one-year licence for 10 sockets, plus support services on integration with on-premise tools and half-day session of training and consultancy.
The up-front cost has, however, to be set against the alternative process of selecting from a wide range of possible development tools currently available, and integrating them into a working service evaluation environment. According to Platform, some of these tools can cost $50,000 and require some 30-days of consultancy to exploit effectively.
This does open up an important area of choice for businesses looking to evaluate, and possibly build, private cloud services. There will be some where the in-house IT staff relish the challenge of the DIY route, but there will be others for which it holds fears and uncertainties, and will undoubtedly be a block on making such a move. There will also be business decisions involved, not least the speed at which an evaluation environment can be set up so that possible market opportunities can be met.
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