Customers of cloud computing need to understand how exactly the end user will use the cloud; in other words, they need to understand the workflow as well as how the provider’s underlying infrastructure performs and affects this experience if they will be buying into a cloud service that they will be patronizing for a long time. Cloud computing, despite its
obvious merits and promises of being a cheaper alternative, is still a considerable investment on the part of the organization, so it is of the utmost importance that you as a customer know and judge for yourself that you are actually getting your money’s worth.
Cloud management platforms (CMPs) are massive software suites that include man- agement, automation, evaluation, provision, and orchestration solutions that are set up on top of a virtual infrastructure that may include other cloud environments. Cloud management solutions also allow customers to see exactly how their system is performing and how it affects their slice of the cloud as well as the performance of their own virtual cloud environment. These solutions provide real-time operational intelligence and allow for the following:
■
■ Monitoring of system usage and performance, uptime, and various other metrics
■
■ Fast root-cause analysis of system problems and failures through integrated active monitoring and report systems
■
■ Generation of complex yet easy-to-read reports and graphs for various operational metrics like end-to-end throughput and response times, successful and failed transac- tions, and message queue lengths
Cloud management systems are able to harness generated machine data from the cloud infrastructure and applications in order to provide visibility and insight into operational capacity, problems, and outages and failures as well as performance and security issues.
The criteria for selecting a cloud management solution is plentiful and may differ depending on the organization. But here are a few key basic things to look out for:
Governance This is one of the biggest aspects of your management platform because it gives you total control over your cloud environment. Access controls limit access to specific resources for certain users or user groups. Financial control allows you to set limits on the provisioning of resources to keep the operation within budget and prevent overspending.
Security controls with key management and encryption would allow you to segregate roles and define access rights and privileges in order to impose a separation of roles.
Automation Automation is one of the core features of cloud computing’s value proposi- tion. It allows for quick and reliable deployment of resources and for elasticity and scal- ability in ever-changing conditions. This helps to realize the reduced costs and agility being offered by cloud computing. Cloud management platform providers should be offering a myriad of tools for automation that more than meet the demands of a growing enterprise.
If this has taken a backseat, take a step back from that provider.
Integration Your cloud management platform should not integrate with just the larg- est and most prevalent cloud service providers; it should be able to integrate with the smaller ones as well. It is the smaller providers that are often more creative in their offerings and may offer more value in a specific area, so sometimes it’s smart to work with a few different ones to leverage their strengths in different areas. This creates frag- mentation, however, and it is the job of the cloud management platform to tie all of this together seamlessly.
Policies and Procedures 97
Service-Level Agreements
The service-level agreement (SLA) is the most important document that exists between the service provider and the customer or user. It defines all of the levels of service that the pro- vider is promising to provide to the customer in exchange for their compliance with some policies and, of course, for their hard-earned cash. The SLA will highlight the offered services in measurable terms like these:
■
■ The percentage of uptime for a service
■
■ The amount of user traffic that can be served at one time
■
■ The data rate and bandwidth limitations
■
■ Performance and capacity of resources
■
■ The schedule of notifications for events like planned maintenance and outages
■
■ Help desk response times and scope and limitations
The SLA serves as a binding contract that a customer can use for litigations whenever those promises are constantly missed. It provides assurance to the user that they will get their money’s worth.
The SLA can be a good tool for evaluating a provider because you know exactly what you are getting. And if the provider cannot make good on its promises or deliver the expected level of service, the customer can look to the SLA to see what kind of compensation is offered. It is often in the form of refunds or discounts for the period in question.
Aside from the usual details like bandwidth, security, privacy, and availability, you should look at the provider’s exit strategy. You must always avoid vendor lock-in because the business environment is constantly changing, so make sure the service provider offers a way for you to get out.
Also, see if the provider has other availability zones where you can offload some of your pro- cesses and even use as backups just in case your main availability zone fails. If the provider is just rebranding the bigger cloud providers, you have to ask if you have access to the availability zones of their larger partner. And as an added bonus, it would be good if the provider offers some form of help in the area of disaster recovery.
Policies and Procedures
Policies and procedures are the core elements of an organization; they are the epitome of the term organize. The hardware and software and their respective configurations are the tools that enable a business to drive the functionality they desire from their IT services. Policies and procedures enable the development, implementation, maintenance, and ongoing support for those functionalities.
Policies are the rules that everyone in the organization, including the users and admin- istrators, abide by, and methodologies are the set procedures that these same individuals
follow in going through their daily work routine. In the IT environment, the methodolo- gies are the activities carried out based on the defined policies.
Policies govern how an organization will create its procedures and go about its work. For example, a Japanese company might value cleanliness and orderliness in the workplace, so they make it a policy that the workplace must clean, orderly, and clear from distractions. It follows that the procedures are built around this policy, so the company might implement a
“no talking in the hallway” rule or require a specific uniform, or employees may be required to bow to any superior who happens to pass by, as is prevalent in Japanese custom. Maybe there is a prescribed time for employees to tidy up their own workspace so that everybody does it at the same time and no one leaves before 6 p.m. These procedures and methodolo- gies are made with direct regard to the policies and morals the organization holds.
On the other side of the world, in the United States, policies and procedures may be entirely different. One policy, for example, might be to ensure that employees are happy as possible because studies have shown that a contented and happy employee is less likely to quit, taking valued skill sets with him. Distractions, decorations, and horsing around might be encouraged to foster creativity.
The same goes for an IT organization that may be thinking of deploying a cloud com- puting solution. For example, if the organization has a customer-focused policy, then it will follow that most of its procedures and methodologies will be centered around the happiness and satisfaction of the customer.