IT professionals are concerned with the loss of control and security related to cloud computing. Private Clouds provide a handle for overcoming these ...
IT professionals are concerned with the loss of control and security related to cloud computing. Private Clouds provide a handle for overcoming these challenges.
As more of today's businesses contemplate the need for ever increased investment in their IT departments,
some aspects becomes clear: the need for effective ROI, increased security and more control of their resources, both internal and external.
It is the loss of control and security which keeps many enterprises IT professionals awake with concern for the safety and administration of their growing computing needs. Private cloud computing is a new set of technologies and services available to help address, and ultimately eliminate the worries and concerns of your IT folks.
From a public cloud perspective, most service providers are unable to relinquish the type and level of controls necessary to make network administrators satisfied with pushing proprietary data into the public domain. Even with the tightest security encryptions, concern for the flow and destination of applications, data, access have prevented large numbers of businesses from exploring the capabilities of cloud computing.
However, with private cloud computing, control is brought back in-house to your IT admins along with heightened security and the ability to flow data precisely where it needs to go, either to destinations on your internal networks or along secure external channels.
In order for businesses to cross the chasm from internal IT silos to the power and economy of cloud computing, they'll need to take 3 steps:
- Consolidate and Virtualize their applications: server, storage and network operations.
- Automate and Optimize their virtual operations.
- Enable federated access to resources on other public and private cloud operations.
Vast majorities of IT budgets are spent on upgrading obsolete hardware. With new and improved computers, routers, switches, etc. constantly coming onto the market, the five years to obsolescence occurs quickly. With ROI and profitability, when it happens, taking at least a year and a half or longer, keeping the infrastructure up to date and in place can be a challenge for the bottom line.
By consolidating operations, moving applications onto fewer sever sets and then creating virtual access to the resources, IT professionals are on track towards enabling their operations for private cloud computing.
It is important for the enterprise that they are not simply tossing away resources which may have useful life in them. By enabling the consolidation of current assets, they are able to maximize investment in their current set up. As they see demand increase for more storage, application and network interactions, they are able to move into the second stage of the transition.
By optimizing their operations, be it the freedom to increase hardware as needed, or provisioning applications and storage on demand the second stage is set. The enterprise now has the ability to increase hardware and provisioning when they need it. Whether set to automatically replicate services on demand or simply wrest control of decision making from cloud providers to the internal IT staff, virtual operations allow for the critical ability to make internal decisions for the betterment of the organization.
With control and security firmly in place, when additional resources are needed, federated access is the way to scale operations to virtual infinite levels. The industry is still developing the protocols and universal security measures that will elevate trust levels.
It is imperative that service providers continue to work together in order to enable interactivity. When your business needs to have access to on demand scaling of their web operations or research and development capabilities, being able to have unrestricted, pay as you go, federated access to deeper private clouds will allow you to compete at the highest levels. Your bottom line will also be affected by competitive service pricing and your company's ability to ensure secure access and delivery of data and application interface.
The migration from all internal IT departments towards some form of cloud computing is well on its way.
