Page 4 - Customer context for Cloud Computing

 the reality for many companies is that the “as a service” nature of Cloud Computing, whilst
offering many advantages, also represents a paradigm shift that impacts many aspects of IT,
including critical administration and management activities, organisation, policies and controls.

THE PARADIGM SHIFTS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

To fully reap the advantages of Cloud Computing it is essential that companies take a holistic and
consistent approach to decision taking. Rather than focus purely on the benefits of their particular
Cloud service, providers should instead address the spectrum of factors that might impact the
customer’s ability to successfully deploy and adopt Cloud.

Experience gained from advising Multi-National Corporations on their IT and Cloud strategies,
indicates that the following factors feature as key areas of concern:

 Business/Commercial: Cloud is a disruptive force and must be aligned with, and
integral to, the overall IT strategy. Understanding the characteristics that make for
effective use of Cloud and the avoidance of un-regulated “Shadow IT” is essential.
The volatility and immaturity of the Cloud market necessitates frequent strategy
reviews and a flexible pace of adoption
 The paradigm shift is the transition from static “own and operate” asset-based IT
to a hybrid, coordinated environment that embraces dynamic “IT as a Service” as a
business enabler where appropriate.

 Enterprise Architecture: Enterprise Architecture (with responsibility for IT strategy)
becomes pivotal to the long-term success of IT and effective integration of Cloud with
other delivery mechanisms. This demands significant innovation: innovating new
approaches to enable new business models (eg. the Digital Enterprise) and driving
the transformation of the IT Operating Model through re-engineering key processes,
systems and functions
 The paradigm shift is from “architecting the technology landscape” to enabling the
Digital Enterprise and workplace.

 Infrastructure & Operations: traditional IT operations with technology silos and
localised/manual workflows contribute to a high Total Cost of Ownership and
constrain responsiveness. Increasing levels of virtualisation offer improved asset
utilisation with consequent cost containment, and promise agility - but demand cross
functional automation, a “service” mind-set and federated control (partnering with
the business)
 The paradigm shift is evolving from technical silos of IT operations to acting as a
service broker (rather than systems builder) through advanced virtualisation,
automation and orchestration.

 Service Management: Traditional Service Lifecycle Management processes are built
for enduring services delivered over allocated (and owned) infrastructure with
relatively low rate of change. Such processes are often inadequate for the dynamic
nature of modern business demand and externally source Cloud services. Significant
re-engineering of processes and tools becomes essential for effective service delivery
in a hybrid IT environment and to ensure the quality of support and user experience
 The paradigm shift is the transition from monitoring owned infrastructure assets to
orchestrating and managing dynamic, multi-sourced service chains.

Author: Mike Spink Cloud Computing – The Customer Context Page 4 of 7
Version 2.0 (final) A White Paper for Cisco by Innovise ESM Spring 2015