MOVING TO THE CLOUD

PEDRO ALEXANDER ROMERO

Cloud Computing

Cloud Security

Agenda- Considerations

- Technical- Internals- Externals

From: www.rackspace.com/cloud/cloudu

Moving to the Cloud

Reasons to Move

Benefits:Virtualization – The ability to increase computing efficiencyDemocratization of Computing – Bringing enterprise scale

infrastructure to small and medium businessesScalability and fast provisioning – Bringing web scale IT at

a rapid pace Commoditization of infrastructure – Enabling IT to focus

on the strategic aspects of its role

Moving to the Cloud

Technical Considerations (1/7)1. Which applications?

The prime candidates to move are:

• Have significant interaction with external applications or services

• Are not a point of differentiation between the organization and its competitors

Moving to the Cloud

Technical Considerations (2/7)2. Security Considerations

Organizations should be aware that security is a partnership between the vendor and the user.

Must be a clear definition:

Which aspects of security are the responsibility of the Vendor and which are the responsibility of the User.

Moving to the Cloud

Technical Considerations (3/7)2. Security Considerations (Cont.)

Moving to the Cloud

Technical Considerations (4/7)3. Compliance Considerations

Depending on the type of industry, there are a number of different compliance requirements which may need to be met.

Examples of these include: PCI: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard

HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (USA)

SOX: Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

IFRS: International Financial Reporting Standards

Moving to the Cloud

Technical Considerations (5/7)4. Performance Considerations

It is important to accurately assess the performance requirements the organization may have.

In particular for applications with: High database transfer rates Very high CPU or RAM requirements

May be either difficult, or cost prohibitive, to move to the Cloud.

Moving to the Cloud

Technical Considerations (6/7)5. Migration Strategy

Cost and time it takes to move an existing workload to the Cloud.

Specific topics:The bandwidth cost of moving significant amounts of data

to the CloudThe time taken to transfer data in the migration process In the case of an application, the business process

involved in a migration (downtime, business continuity, training etc.)

Moving to the Cloud

Technical Considerations (7/7)

6. Architecting for the Cloud

To realize Cloud Computing benefits, the applications need to be architected to take advantage of the scalable nature of Cloud Computing.

Legacy applications may not be able to truly leverage Cloud benefits, without significant re-architecting.

New applications, should be built with this in mind.

Moving to the Cloud

Internal Business Considerations 1. Planning for Shifting IT Responsibilities

2. Lack of Formal Certifications

3. Dealing with Objections

A move to the Cloud changes the face of corporate IT.

Recommendations: A proactive approach to professional development and

training. Motivate personnel to explore new areas as: application

customization and agile development.

Moving to the Cloud

External Business Considerations (1/3)

1. Dealing with Sunk Cost

Considering previous capital expenditure:

New applications or excess capacity delivered from the Cloud can be seen as appropriate.

2. Costs and Planning for Variability

With proper controls, when compute resources are being used, they are adding value, unlike traditional IT investments that continue to be amortized even if sitting idle.

Moving to the Cloud

External Business Considerations (2/3)3. Vendor Lock-in

Organizations should look at a number of different factors: Does the vendor use industry standard APIs or proprietary

ones? Does the vendor provide quick and easy data extraction in

the event that the customer wishes to shift? Does the vendor use open standards or have they created

their own ways of doing things? Can the Cloud Computing service be controlled by third

party control panels?

Moving to the Cloud

External Business Considerations (3/3)4. Choosing a Vendor

Billing capabilities – Flexible billing to meet variability. Fixed costs – Should be variable and related to usage Minimum charges – Avoid vendors who seek to set a

minimum charge for compute or storage as it impacts upon the flexibility of the offering

Performance – Service Level Agreements and performance dashboards should give users certainty and transparency over the availability and performance of their vendor

Support – A vendor who provides high levels of support may prove a significant benefit and simplify a move to the Cloud.