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James Staten IT Forum Keynote
Posted by James Staten on June 24, 2010
In case you weren't able to join us at our Forrester IT Forum in Las Vegas last month, here is the video of my keynote session on how enterprises should be thinking about incorporating cloud computing into their IT strategy. Bottom line: consider cloud a new part of your overall IT portfolio and something that can help you cost optimize your business.
I welcome your feedback on this content and learning how you are incorporating cloud into your strategy and how we can help you take the most advantage of this important shift in the IT landscape.
My thanks to the team at Animoto for their contributions to this presentation. Look for a case study on how they are built on the cloud in Q3 2010.
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Comments
Thanks for posting this!
Hi James, excellent presentation with some great insights and examples. Will forward it to my peers. CU Christian
Clouds...
James, very good analysis of the current state of the universe and the best I have seen from any of the analysts or pundits out there. You "get it".
There are a few points that I believe need to be embellished a bit more to complete your analysis.
continued
(sorry about that...continued from last post)
1. There is a lot of discussion about VM and server virtualization but the main event in today's infrastructure world is storage and storage virtualization. To mature your internal cloud you need virtualization at both ends. Thin provisioning, automatic tiering of storage, etc are essential to complete your internal cloud model. Too many people out there leave this important ingredient out.
2. Cost Model. In order to complete your internal cloud, a new cost model is required. How do you charge your internal customers? Who pays for your excess capacity? You cannot do internal infrastructure as as service w/o a charge back system or methodology. Server and storage virtualization are easy compared to this (in my view). VMware's new charge system is immature and very costly. I have seen nothing effective at all for the virtual storage marketplace. Internal customers (users and departments) need to pay for what the use or the internal model falls flat.
3. You touched on this but just to reiterate what is required to make your portfolio complete, Solutions as a Service (SAAS) is critical when evaluating how to deliver your IT services. If there are solutions that can be delivered as a utility - why offer them internally or build them externally when a packaged service is already available? Email; Voicemail; CRM; Collaboration; etc are all offered and available. What I have seen lately as roadmaps, especially from Cisco, is impressive.
Internal clouds, SAAS clouds, and IAAS clouds make up the paradigm. You are indeed 100% spot on correct in your portfolio approach. One size does not fit all, and each of these platforms has it's own costs, benefits, appeal, and maturity model. Sorry I missed your conference.
re: Clouds...
Great feedback and insights, Bruce. You are right about storage virtualization being a key to operating infrastructure as a service. My colleague, analyst Andrew Reichman is all over this issue. Look for his reports and insights here on our blog and in his reports.
As for the new cost model, you are spot on. See my report, "Charging Back for Your Virtual Infrastructure" (http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/charging_back_for_virtual_infrastru...) for some best practice advice about this. Welcome your feedback on this report as well.
Not sure I agree with the term Solutions as a Service but do agree that the more our IT departments leverage service catalogs and enable standardization of services and easy provisioning the better off we all will be.
Thanks for your comments.