Look before you leap:

What to Consider Before Deploying Private Cloud

An increasing number of organizations are taking advantage

of private cloud solutions to drive a paradigm shift in their IT

strategies. Using private cloud and OpenStack can completely

change the way in which business workloads are handled.

When correctly deployed, an OpenStack-based private cloud

can provide increased agility, innovation, reduced costs and

improved flexibility. Yet, in order to ensure a successful

private cloud deployment, businesses must carefully consider

the following five points prior to implementation:

Clarify Business Requirements1Before implementing a private cloud,

organizations must clearly define their

business requirements. Once these have

been established, IT will be able to paint a

clear picture of exactly what the company

needs from the cloud deployment. Deciding

on a range of factors—from technical

requirements, project constraints,

service-level agreements—to profiling who

the cloud users will be and what they will

need will ensure that the private cloud

project’s success can be clearly scoped,

defined and measured.

These decisions need to be made at the

very start swiftly followed by a process to

obtain stakeholder buy-in. Involving

stakeholders in the process from the

beginning ensures that once a private cloud

has been deployed, IT can rely on

organizational support. This a critical

upfront activity to reap the full rewards of

private cloud at a later stage.

Align Business Processes

57% of companies see

agility and innovation as key drivers

for change when implementing a

private cloud*

This technology speeds up the delivery of

IT services, greatly increasing business

agility. Unfortunately, many business

processes today are not designed to be this

fast and flexible and may end up inhibiting

progress instead. As an example,

automated private cloud technology can

provision a virtual machine in several

minutes, but the approval process can last

for several days or weeks.

For an organization to maximize the value

of their investment in a private cloud, the

business must fully embrace the cloud and

3

2 Choose the Right Workloads

Not all use cases are an ideal fit for the

cloud: some applications and services may

be more suited to a traditional data center

environment. For instance, dynamic

workloads which scale-out and require

agility are typically easier to implement in a

private cloud than a monolithic, scale-up

legacy application. More important, they

may also deliver more value. Before

deploying a private cloud, IT needs to

explain the capabilities of the cloud to

users and discuss which services and

workloads would provide the most value in

terms of time, cost and return on

investment when deployed in the cloud.

Recent SUSE research* found that 99

percent of large companies would use a

cloud solution for business-critical

workloads, with a private cloud being the

preferred solution. This means that while

OpenStack is the ideal environment for

developing and deploying new web-based

applications, many customers are also

considering what other core business

workloads could be a good fit for their

private cloud. Using our 20+ years’

experience of building hardened open

source solutions and including built-in high

availability features, SUSE OpenStack Cloud

is the ideal foundation for these

business-critical workloads.

When deciding which workloads to shift to

private cloud, businesses should also

consider the benefits of a “bring your own

hypervisor” (BYOH) approach. Many

OpenStack distributions support only one

hypervisor option, meaning that they are

only suitable for new workload development.

Uniquely, SUSE OpenStack Cloud supports

the widest range of hypervisors available,

including KVM, Xen, Microsoft Hyper-V and

VMWare vSphere, in addition to IBM z/VM.

This means a wider choice of virtualized

workloads can be moved to a private cloud,

making cloud migration smoother and

ensuring that the right workloads can be

transferred to deliver greater value.

any resulting changes to established,

suitable business processes.

Carefully considering current processes and

identifying those which impede agility is a

key initial step. Once this has occurred, a

business can gain real value from deploying

private a cloud and maximizing the value of

their investment.

4 Define the Price of Self-service

Prepare for Widespread Use

57% of companies see

agility and innovation as key drivers

for change when implementing a

private cloud*

This technology speeds up the delivery of

IT services, greatly increasing business

agility. Unfortunately, many business

processes today are not designed to be this

fast and flexible and may end up inhibiting

progress instead. As an example,

automated private cloud technology can

provision a virtual machine in several

minutes, but the approval process can last

for several days or weeks.

For an organization to maximize the value

of their investment in a private cloud, the

business must fully embrace the cloud and

Cloud computing is often about enabling

end-user self-service. End users can receive

on-demand access to resources through an

automated portal and services catalogue.

As a result, even users with little experience

can easily carve out their own

infrastructure. While the IT department has

traditionally been responsible for

provisioning, maintaining and then

de-provisioning service requests, the

cloud’s position as a complete self-service

environment shifts these responsibilities,

freeing up important IT resource.

Recent SUSE research* found that around

two thirds of organizations have adopted

private cloud solutions for financial reasons.

To ensure a smooth private cloud roll-out

and guarantee a reduction in costs,

businesses must take a firm decision on

how to implement and manage self-service

and billing capabilities. IT costs may

previously have been allocated by business

unit, but the metering capabilities of a

private cloud mean that usage can be

directly assigned and charged to the

end-user’s department. Ensuring a billing

strategy is in place from the start allows IT

to control costs and demonstrate business

value. While these self-service and billing

processes may require a cultural shift in the

organization, they are vital considerations

when planning a successful private cloud

deployment.

595%

of large organizations

see software-defined infrastructure

(SDI) as the future of the data center.

It’s no surprise that private cloud adoption

is growing quickly, and this trend will

undoubtedly lead to further use cases. In a

short time, IT departments will see their

cloud solution being utilized for far more

purposes than were initially requested than

were initially requested as they use more

and more software-defined services. While

this will demonstrate great user buy-in, it’s

vital that IT ensures that initial success is

delivered before expanding the use of

private cloud within the business.

Rushing into an expansion of cloud use

cases can be risky. However, once the

workloads initially deployed in the cloud

are successfully set up, running smoothly

and delivering results, IT can consider

where to expand cloud usage. While this

expansion is inevitable, the cloud should

only be opened up to further workloads

once the value of IT’s investment in the

cloud has been proven.

Private clouds are the future for many

enterprise workloads. Careful preparation

and consideration prior to implementation

is critical for businesses wishing to

maximize the value of their cloud

investment. Private cloud and OpenStack

offer the opportunity to change the way

business is done.

By considering the points above, IT can

correctly position themselves for a smooth

and successful private cloud deployment

strategy, changing the way employees

interact with IT, as well as creating new,

more effective business processes to drive

business innovation.

any resulting changes to established,

suitable business processes.

Carefully considering current processes and

identifying those which impede agility is a

key initial step. Once this has occurred, a

business can gain real value from deploying

private a cloud and maximizing the value of

their investment.

95%of large organizations

see software-defined infrastructure

(SDI) as the future of the data center.

It’s no surprise that private cloud adoption

is growing quickly, and this trend will

undoubtedly lead to further use cases. In a

short time, IT departments will see their

cloud solution being utilized for far more

purposes than were initially requested than

were initially requested as they use more

and more software-defined services. While

this will demonstrate great user buy-in, it’s

vital that IT ensures that initial success is

delivered before expanding the use of

private cloud within the business.

Contact SUSE to learn

more, or visit us online at

www.suse.com/cloud

* Source: SUSE Global Cloud Research 2017

Rushing into an expansion of cloud use

cases can be risky. However, once the

workloads initially deployed in the cloud

are successfully set up, running smoothly

and delivering results, IT can consider

where to expand cloud usage. While this

expansion is inevitable, the cloud should

only be opened up to further workloads

once the value of IT’s investment in the

cloud has been proven.

Private clouds are the future for many

enterprise workloads. Careful preparation

and consideration prior to implementation

is critical for businesses wishing to

maximize the value of their cloud

investment. Private cloud and OpenStack

offer the opportunity to change the way

business is done.

By considering the points above, IT can

correctly position themselves for a smooth

and successful private cloud deployment

strategy, changing the way employees

interact with IT, as well as creating new,

more effective business processes to drive

business innovation.