Intel Cloud Computing Taxonomy and Ecosystem Analysis

•SinglecloudtaxonomyforuseacrossIntel

•Helpsunderstandthemarketandidentifykeysuppliers

•Providescommonterminology

AnIntelcross-organizationalgroupdevelopedacommoncloudcomputingtaxonomy

designedtomeetIntel’scomprehensiverequirementsbyclassifyingtheentirebreadth

ofexistingcloudtechnologies.Basedonthisclassification,diagramedinFigure1,we

createdanecosystemanalysisthathelpsidentifysuppliersthatmeetIntel’sneeds.

TodevelopasingletaxonomyforuseacrossIntel,webasedourworkonseveral

externallydevelopedtaxonomiesaswellasIntelITcapabilityframeworksthatdescribe

ourprimaryapplicationsandinfrastructureservices.

Thetaxonomyprovidesacommonterminologyandbaselineinformationthatcanbe

appliedtohelpdevelopcloudstrategiesbothforIntel’sITenvironmentandforIntel’s

productsandservices.

IntelITisusingthetaxonomyandanalysistofacilitateinternaldiscussionsandidentify

innovativecloudcomputingsolutionsthatdeliverefficiencies.

Software as a Service• Design Engineering• Marketing• Customer Relationship Management/ Partner Relationship Management• Order Management/Procurement• Supply Chain Management• Workforce/Field Service Management• Manufacturing• Sourcing• Finance• Content Management• Collaboration/Productivity• Office Applications• Business-to-Business/Business-to-Consumer• Business Process Management/Enterprise Resource Planning• Social Computing• Portals/Search• Digital Media• Utilities/Management• Context Awareness• Home/Leisure

Client Software• Data Software• Computing Software• Cloud Management Software• File Storage Software• Internal Cloud• Rich Internet Application Platforms• Cloud Platform Tools

Cloud Client• Rich Internet Application Runtimes• Browsers• Client Application Services• Context Awareness Services• Widgets• Personal Cloud• Plug-ins

Platform as a Service• Business Intelligence as a Service• Application Development as a Service• Web Hosting• Business Analysis Process as a Service• Open Cloud Platform• Custom Cloud Platforms

Infrastructure as a Service• Computing as a Service• Storage as a Service• Communication as a Service• Infrastructure Service Management

Service as a Service• Billing as a Service• Security as a Service• Metadata as a Service• Service Bus as a Service

Cloud Computing Taxonomy

Figure 1. Intel’s cloud computing taxonomy classifies the breadth of existing cloud technologies.

IT@Intel BriefIntel Information TechnologyCloudComputingFebruary2010

IT@Intel Brief www.intel.com/it

Background Thecloudcomputingmarketisevolvingrapidly,withafast-growingnumberofexternalcloudservicesandenablingtechnologies.ThiscreatesaneedfortoolsthatIntelcanusetobetterunderstandthemarket,defineinternalITandexternalcloudcomputingstrategy,andfacilitateadoptionofcloudcomputingservicesthatmeetourneeds.

Taxonomies,whichareclassificationsbasedonahierarchicalstructure,havetraditionallybeenusedtounderstandtechnologymarketsegmentationandgeographicbreakdown,evaluatesuppliers,andmappotentialusagetotheavailabletechnologies.Anotherimportantadvantageoftaxonomiesisthattheyprovideacommonterminologytofacilitateunderstandingandcommunication.

Fromtheperspectiveofcloudadoption,thecloudecosystem—includingserviceproviders,endusers,developers,andadministrators—hasanaturalevolvingorderthatcanberepresentedbytaxonomy.However,thoughseveralcloudtaxonomiesalreadyexist,noneofthemprovidesacomprehensiveanalysisoftheentiremarketthatcanbeusedbygroupsacrossIntel,includingIntelIT.

Intelthereforeformedacross-organizationalteam,includingmembersfromIntelIT,IntelSoftwareandServicesGroup(SSG),andIntelDataCenterGroup(DCG),todevelopasinglecloudcomputingtaxonomyforuseacrossIntel.

Ourgoalsweretoprovidecommon,standardterminology;helpunderstandtherapidlyevolvingmarket;andidentifykeysuppliersaswellasproductsthatmeetourneeds.Stepsincludeddefiningtheprimarycategoriesofcloudcomputingservice,segmentingtheseintosubcategories,andcreatinganecosystemanalysisofthesupplierswithineachcategory.

INTEL IT’S ROLEIntelITparticipatedinthisinitiative,workingwithotherIntelgroupstohelpensurethatthetaxonomycomprehendedanenterpriseITperspective.

IntelIThasdefinedanoverallcloudcomputingstrategybasedongrowingthecloudfromtheinsideout.Wearedevelopinganenterpriseprivate

cloudthatwilleventuallyextendto,andsupportinteroperabilitywith,theInternetorexternalcloud.Overtime,thisstrategywillallowInteltodynamicallytransferworkloadinandoutoftheenterprise,takingintoaccountconsiderationssuchascost,security,andcompliance.

Atthesametime,weareopportunisticallytakingadvantageofexternalcloudofferingsthatdelivervaluesuchasincreasedagilityandcostsavings.AnIntelcloudcomputingtaxonomycanhelpidentifyofferingsthatmeetourenterpriseneeds.

Cloud Computing TaxonomyWebeganbyreviewingseveralexistingtaxonomies.Weusedtheseasinputstoourowntaxonomy.Theyincluded:

• AnenterpriseIT-centriccloudtaxonomydevelopedbyacloudserviceprovider

• Alayeredcloudstackdevelopedbyresearchers;thisincludedarepresentationoftheinter-dependencybetweendifferentcloudlayers

• Asupplier-focusedcloudtaxonomydevelopedbyacloudplatformasaservice(PaaS)provider

WealsousedexistingIntelITcapabilityframeworks(seesidebar).Theseprovideasimplepictureoftheenterprise,identifyingprimaryITapplicationsandinfrastructureservices.Thoughnotdirectlyrelatedtocloudcomputing,theseframeworksprovidedastructurethatweusedwhendefiningcloudcomputingservicesubcategories.

DEFINING CLOUD COMPUTING Wedefinecloudcomputingasacomputingparadigmwhereservicesanddataresideinsharedresourcesinscalabledatacenters,andthoseservicesanddataareaccessiblebyanyauthenticateddeviceovertheInternet.Somekeyattributesthatdistinguishcloudcomputingfromconventionalcomputingare:

• Abstractedandofferedasaservice.

• Builtonamassivelyscalableinfrastructure.

• Easilypurchasedandbilledbyconsumption.

• Sharedandmulti-tenant.

• Basedondynamic,elastic,flexiblyconfigurableresources.

• AccessibleovertheInternetbyanydevice.

Intel IT Capability FrameworksIntel IT has developed several capability

frameworks that assist our planning

and decision making. These frameworks

provide important structure, which

promotes understanding and alignment

of top-level IT capabilities across

the enterprise and the supporting

ecosystem. We based our cloud

computing taxonomy segmentation

partly on these frameworks. Intel

IT uses three frameworks, each

representing a different area of focus:

Enterprise Capability Framework

(ECF) holistically describes all of

Intel’s business capabilities along with

corresponding IT capabilities, such

as design, supply chain planning, and

human resources.

Cross-Enterprise Capability

Framework (xECF) describes the non-

infrastructure technical capabilities

used across many business functions,

such as instant messaging or e-mail.

Infrastructure Services Framework

(ISF) describes infrastructure

capabilities, such as servers, data

centers, and laptops.

www.intel.com/it IT@Intel Brief

PRIMARY CATEGORIES OF CLOUD SERVICE Weidentifiedprimarycategoriesofcloudcomputingservice.Figure2showsthesecategoriesarrangedaccordingtotheirvalueandvisibilitytoenterpriseendusers.Thoughmostofthesecategorynameswerealreadyinusewithintheindustry,ourtaxonomydefinedtwonewcategories:cloudclientandserviceasaservice.Theseaddresstheareasofuserexperienceandinteroperability,respectively.

Software as a service (SaaS) isamodelofsoftwaredeploymentinwhichanenduserorenterprisesubscribestosoftwareondemand.SaaSapplicationsarebuiltwithsharedback-endservicesthatenablemultiplecustomersoruserstoaccessashareddatamodel.

Platform as a service (PaaS)isthedeliveryofacloudcomputingplatformfordevelopers.Itfacilitatesdevelopmentanddeploymentofapplicationswithoutthecostandcomplexityofbuyingandmanagingtheunderlyinghardwareandsoftwarelayers.PaaSprovidesallthefacilitiesrequiredtosupportthecompletelifecycleofbuildinganddeliveringWebapplicationsandcloudservicesovertheInternet.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) isthedeliveryoftechnologyinfrastructure—suchasnetwork,storage,andcompute—asaservice,typicallythroughvirtualization.Userssubscribetothisvirtualinfrastructureondemandas

opposedtopurchasingservers,software,datacenterspace,ornetworkequipment.Billingistypicallybasedontheresourcesconsumed.

Service as a service isthedeliveryofahorizontalservice,suchasbilling,asaservice.Theseservicescanbeused,usuallyonasubscriptionbasis,asacomponentwithinothercloudservicessuchasSaaS,PaaS,orIaaSofferings.

Cloud software ispurchasedorpackagedsoftwarethatisuniquelyusedtobuildandruncloudservices,forexamplecloudmanagementsoftware.Ourgoalwastoincludethemarketsubsegments,ISVs,andproductsnottypicallyfoundinatraditionalenterpriseorconsumerISVtaxonomy.

Cloud client containsclient-centricservices,runtimes,andruntimeoptimizationsthatcanimpacttheoverallcloudcomputinguserexperience.

Cloud Ecosystem SegmentationWeexpandedourcloudtaxonomybydividingthemaincategoriesintosubcategories,asshowninFigure1,basedontheIntelITcapabilityframeworksandexistingcloudtaxonomies.Thisprovidedanadditionallayerofdetail,whichenabledustoclusterandcompareISVswithsimilarcharacteristics,deliveredmarketinsights,andhelpedtoensurethatourtaxonomyspannedtheentirebreadthofcloudcomputingofferings.

Cloud Ecosystem AnalysisWemappedkeyISVstoeachofthetaxonomysubcategories,andthenaddedanalysissuchaseachISV’sstrategy,marketposition,revenue,andecosystemalliances.Ourgoalwastoidentifymarketleadersandfast-moving,potentiallydisruptiveinnovators.

Table1showsagenericextractfromourdetailedecosystemanalysisforseveralsubcategorieswithintheSaaScategory.

Using the Cloud Taxonomy and Ecosystem AnalysisIntelteamsareusingthetaxonomyandanalysisindiscussionsthatseektoidentifyavailableandemergingcloudcomputingsolutions.

Thehigh-leveltaxonomyformsthebasisforthesediscussions,servingtointroducecloudcomputingconceptsandcategories,definecommonterminology,andpositionourinside-outstrategy.ThemoredetailedanalysisisthenusedtofocusonacloudsubcategoryandidentifytopISVswithinthecategory.TheresultingISVlistcanbeusedincombinationwithindustryanalystreportsandotherpubliclyavailableinformationtodiscoverinnovativesolutionsforfurtherresearchanddevelopmentprojects,whichinturnmayinfluenceIntelITproductionroadmapsandIntel®platformtechnologyenablingstrategies.

Figure 2. Primary categories of cloud

computing service.

Serviceas a ServiceCloud Software

Softwareas a Service

CloudClient

Platformas a Service

Infrastructureas a Service

IT Administrator

Developer

End User

Users

–

Valu

e an

d V

isib

ility

to

End

Use

rs

+

Forexample,IntelITisalreadyusingavarietyofSaaSofferings.Aswethinkaboutthefutureofourapplicationportfolio,weareconsideringwhichapplicationsweshouldhostinternallyandwhichmakesenseintheSaaSmodel.WehavefoundthatgoodcandidatesforSaaSareapplicationswithindustry-standardworkflowsandwellstructureddataexchanges,whichdo

notinvolveintellectualpropertyorsensitivedata.OurecosystemanalysisspreadsheetmakesiteasiertoidentifySaaSsolutionswiththesecharacteristics;wecanthencomparethesesolutionswithtraditionalpackagedenterprisesolutionstoassesspossibleefficienciesandcostsavings.

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AUTHORSHong Li PrincipalEngineer,IntelIT

Catherine Spence EnterpriseArchitect,IntelIT

Robert Armstrong SoftwarePlanner,IntelSoftwareandServicesGroup

Ricki Godfrey BusinessDevelopmentManager,IntelSoftwareandServicesGroup

Randy Schneider BusinessDevelopmentManager,IntelSoftwareandServicesGroup

Jake Smith AdvancedServerTechnologiesSpecialist,IntelDataCenterGroup

Rick White ServerPlanner,IntelDataCenterGroup

CONTRIBUTORSKhem Babbar, Sudip Chahal, Rekha Raghu, Brent Young

ACRONYMSCRM customerrelationship

management

DCG IntelDataCenterGroup

ECF EnterpriseCapabilityFramework

ERP enterpriseresourceplanning

IaaS infrastructureasaservice

ISF InfrastructureServicesFramework

PaaS platformasaservice

SaaS softwareasaservice

SSG IntelSoftwareandServicesGroup

xECF Cross-EnterpriseCapabilityFramework

Table 1. Extract from Software as a Service (SaaS) Ecosystem Analysis

Enterprise Line of Business Provider Description

Marketing

ISV-1 Hasasuiteofproductsthatprovidecoremarketingcapabilitiesformanagingcampaignsandcomplexmarketingmixes.

ISV-2 Providesfocusedsoftwareasaservice(SaaS)marketingproducts.Venturecapital-backedcompanywithlimitedcustomerpenetration.

ISV-3 Strongcustomerportfolioincludingairlines,financial,telecom,software,andretail;revenueincreasedsubstantiallylastquarter.

ISV-4 Targetsthefinancialindustryandretail/consumerpackagedgoodsmarkets.

ISV-5 Offersgoodbreadthoffunctionalityforbasicandadvancedcampaignmanagement,andforbasicandadvancedanalytics.Hastakentheleadonloyaltymanagement,whilemanyothervendorshavestillnotdisclosedfirmplans.

ISV-6 Stronghostedon-demandoffering,whichisattractingmedium-sizedbusinesseslookingforcosteffectivesolutions.

Customer Relationship Management

ISV-7 Fullsuiteofcustomerrelationshipmanagement(CRM)toolsdesignedforanysizecustomer,usedbyseverallargecompanies.

ISV-8 Strongcustomerportfolio,significantincreaseinrevenueformostrecentquarter.

ISV-9 LeadingSaaSCRMvendor,leveragingtheirexistingCRMsuiteforon-demandcustomerneeds.

ISV-10 Billedasthealternativetoafullenterpriseresourceplanning(ERP)suitebutwithsolutionsforsmallandmediumbusinessestolargercompanies.Strongcustomerbasewithasolidpartnerprogramsupportedaroundtheworld.Alsocontainsastronghumanresourcessoftwarecapability.

ISV-11 Manynewcustomersadded,manyofthemlargerthanpreviouslytypicalforthiscompany.Thecompany’sstrongecosystemhasassistedsales.

Partner Relationship Management

ISV-12 Revenuegrewmodestlyinmostrecentquarter.Strongcustomerbase.Salesslowlyincreasing;acompanytowatch.

ISV-13 Strongchannelsupportingtheircoreproducts.Europeancompanywithstrongtiestoallkeyback-endproducts

ISV-14 ProvideshostedservicesmodelusingWebservicescapabilities.Jointmarketingefforthasbeenverywellreceived.

Note:Forillustrationpurposesonly.Informationthatisconfidentialoruniquetospecificsuppliershasbeenremovedorchanged.