CLOUD COMPUTING

A Primer

A Mix of Voices •  The “incredible shrinking CIO” – CIO Magazine, 2004

•  “IT Doesn’t Matter”, “The cloud will ship service outside the institution and ship power from central IT groups to individuals and departments”, “each department or individual will be able to turn to the cloud to assemble the services they need” - Nicholas Carr, 2003

•  “Respondents (CIOs) reported greater confidence in their influence and strategic importance” – IBM Center for CIO Leadership, 2007

•  “What is the roll of the institution in a world where individuals are empowered to seek solutions anywhere in the Cloud?” – Richard Katz, 2008

A Mix of Players

What is the “Cloud” • Simply put – a metaphor for the Internet

• A style of computing where discrete technology services live entirely in the Internet

• Distinct from Web-based, Web-accessible or Web-enabled

• Software as a Service/Everything as a Service

What is the “Cloud” • National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

“A model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing

resources (e.g. networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released

with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”

What is a “Cloud” service? • An IT capability that is:

•  Standardized, On-demand, self-service •  Elastic •  Commodity-based – pay per use •  Delivered dynamically •  Broad network access •  Resource pooling

Strengths • Provides the opportunity for better management of

resources •  Hardware •  Software •  People

• Business drivers •  Reduced cost •  Refined usage of personnel •  Provides robust scalability

Practical benefits •  Do not have to know capacity (flexible capacity planning) •  Quickly implemented •  Pay by the drop •  Automation •  Scalable on demand •  Smaller infrastructure •  Less administration

Weaknesses •  Must have an Internet connection – The Bandwidth Bottleneck •  Security and Privacy •  Vendor operational problems

What services can be Cloud-based? • Almost any IT resource can be Cloud-based • Best candidates (due to characteristic weaknesses)

•  Discrete, standardizable technologies •  Smaller data transfer requirements •  Needs access anywhere •  Needs high availability •  Benefits from dynamic scalability •  Can use a high level of self-service

•  Found to be poor candidates •  Sustained processor or storage access applications •  Large data transfer requirements

Evolution of the Cloud

Underlying technologies?

Typical Cloud Service Models •  Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

•  Provisions physical hardware pools of CPU processing, memory, data storage, and network connectivity

•  Referred to as “Multiple tenants”

•  Vendor controls and maintains the physical computer hardware

•  Customer controls and maintains operating systems, server applications and application software.

Typical Cloud Service Models • Platform as a Service (Paas)

•  Vendor provides infrastructure, operating systems and server applications as a complete platform

•  Vendor controls and maintains the physical computer hardware, operating systems and server applications

•  Customer controls and maintains all programming and/or applications based upon the particular platform

Typical Cloud Service Models • Software as a Service (SaaS)

•  Vendors use their cloud infrastructure and cloud platforms to provide customers with software applications

•  Examples: Google Docs, Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce. com

•  Vendor controls and maintains the physical computer hardware, operating systems, server applications and software applications

•  Customer controls and maintains limited application configuration and settings along with customer data

What are the Different types of Clouds?

• Public Clouds •  Service provider owned and managed •  Access by subscription •  Delivers select set of standardized processes, applications and/or

infrastructure services on a flexible pay per use basis.

• Characteristics •  Standardization •  Capital preservation •  Flexibility •  Reduced time to deploy

What are the Different types of Clouds?

• Private Clouds •  Client owned and managed •  Access limited to client and its partner network •  Drives efficiency, standardization and best-practices while retaining

greater customization and control

• Characteristics •  Customization •  Efficiency •  Security and Privacy •  Availability

What are the Different types of Clouds?

• Others •  Hybrid Clouds – combination of Public and Private •  Community Clouds – Shared Services limited to a particular group

What issues should be considered? • Vendor lock-in • Reliability • Data security • Vendor stability • Sustainability • Cloud Computing Checklist

Cloud Integration Steps • Develop a Cloud strategy •  Focus on:

•  IT Governance •  Information management, practices and policies •  Key technologies and Enterprise IT Architectures •  Enterprise compliance controls •  Scholarly literacy •  The institution’s performance management system and analytics

• Manage: •  The institution’s online presence •  Digital spaces, environments and tools •  Talent and Intellectual property