The hitchhiker's guide to the cloud
Don't Panic! Following on from yesterday's bemusing story into the general public's view on cloud computing comes a slightly less ridiculous, but equally abstract offering from one of Gartner's ?Coolest Cloud Vendors of 2011?, US-based Abiquo, on how to create a private cloud. Let's just hope some of the respondent's from the survey get to read this. It might shed a little light on their theory of the cloud...
Creating a private cloud in 5 steps ? The hitchhiker's guide to the cloud
These five steps will help you create a private cloud - giving your users the on-demand resources they want, while maintaining security and compliance.
Understand the Fundamentals
Cloud computing is not just the latest trend, it is a fundamental shift in the way IT operates. IT pools resources, allocates them to a resource cloud, then the application groups can consume them on-demand. Provisioning time is dramatically reduced, IT responsiveness dramatically increases, and IT is now free to perform value-add activities like resource planning.
Build a Roadmap for your Needs
Do you really need more capacity? If your organization is like most virtualized enterprises, your existing servers are only running at around 35% efficiency. Cloud will enable your organization to improve efficiency up to 85%. This video will discuss best practices on building a cloud roadmap and which strategies and processes you will need to have in place.
Best Practices for Cloud Computing
What is the primary cloud driver for your organization's move to cloud? The priorities will define the scope and breadth of your implementation. Once the roadmap has been defined, your organization will need to define points of integration and assess the required process changes - how will this new operational model fit in your organization?
Successful Cloud Implementation Strategy
Now that you have created the strategy, you will need to implement it. Successful cloud strategies not only assess processes and organizational changes, they address security and compliance risks. Organizations using some form of public cloud resource, like Amazon EC2, are already at risk. While private cloud dramatically decreases the risks, governance issues like SOX compliance must still be considered.
Compare Available Solutions
The final layer in cloud is the management solution you will need to drive the whole operation. Common points of consideration include: multiple hypervisor support, ability to leverage existing virtual machines, support for multiple storage types, support for multiple physical locations, ease of use, and a means to control security and compliance risks.