Time to Lay the Groundwork for the Private Cloud

Grazed from ITBusinessEdge. Author: Arthor Cole.

The enterprise is fast approaching a critical juncture in the development of virtual and cloud architectures – the point at which public, private and hybrid infrastructure starts to meld into a unified data architecture. But while the idea of a fully seamless environment in which applications and data can burst across internal and external infrastructure at will is still a little fuzzy, the fact remains that cloud computing will soon become the norm for the enterprise, rather than the exception. And that means the pressure is on to convert existing silo-based infrastructure into a private cloud.

Too bad we don’t have a magic pill to make it happen. Instead, enterprise executives are forced into a soup-to-nuts evaluation of existing infrastructure, followed by a detailed plan as to how they intend to convert it into something that is still largely undefined. Industry-wide, however, the knowledge base is steadily increasing, and a quick scan of what some early adopters have learned can make the cloud transition a lot easier for all…

According to Allstate’s Jim Ditmore, the enterprise needs to take four key steps to prepare legacy infrastructure for the cloud. First, the entire application stack – from hardware on up – needs to be standardized, with no more than 20 server images on tap. After that, a clear-cut catalog and ordering process must be implemented, followed by a fully automated provisioning and deprovisioning platform that enables server images to be created within a few minutes. And finally, undertake a cost and allocation assessment in order to tailor the system to real, rather than anticipated, user requirements. Firms like JP Morgan Chase and Fidelity are already seeing 50 percent IT cost reductions through private cloud deployment…

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