PRIVATECLOUDe-zine

Strategies for buildinga private cloud

VOL.1|N0.2|MAY2011

In this issue:

q TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTINGBy SearchCloudComputing.com Staff

q POLICING THE PRIVATE CLOUDBy Bob Plankers

q APPLICATIONS POSE CLOUD ADOPTION HURDLESBy Carl Brooks

q MOVING TO A PRIVATE CLOUD: UNVEILING THE MYTHSBy Mike Laverick

WHILE I.T. MANAGERS continue to eyepublic clouds warily, private cloudshave piqued interest. Those whowant greater self-service andautomation but worry about datasecurity now view internal clouds asa viable first step.According to TechTarget’s “Cloud

Computing 2011 Adoption Survey,”37% of respondents now use or areresearching private clouds. And38% say that the key drivers areautomation and self-service.Vendors also continue to brush

up their wares in the hopes of meet-ing growing demand. After languish-ing for some time, IBM says it’sready to take on the competition.Microsoft also recently unveilednew self-service and automationcapabilities in System Center. AndVMware has nurtured its own pri-vate cloud since mid-2010. But infact, these providers come at thecloud question differently. Somehave greater strength on the appli-cation delivery side, while othershave a better lock on lower levels ofdata center infrastructure. IT shopsmust weigh the relative importanceof these core competencies in theirown environments.

Of course, private cloud offeringsmay spark interest but not adoptionamong IT shops new to virtualiza-tion. According to the cloud survey,for example, 61% of respondents’environments are less than 50%virtualized, and many lack core pri-vate cloud attributes.So in this issue, we explore key

changes that IT shops must makein infrastructure and process tomature—and some of the potentialchallenges along the way. First, BobPlankers examines changing sys-tems and policies in the cloud andkey tactics to forward change.Next, Carl Brooks discusses lega-

cy applications that defy tidy, cloud-ready stacks. And finally, Mike Lav-erick explores the potentially diffi-cult changes in infrastructure provi-sioning, processes and personnelthat a private cloud requires.So, as we explore these areas

of transformation, take note: Thebuilding blocks of the cloud can beroadblocks as well. �

LAUREN HORWITZSenior Managing Editor,Data Center and VirtualizationMedia Group, TechTarget Inc.

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BUILDING BLOCKSAND ROADBLOCKS

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Cloud One on One

HELLO, CLOUD;GOODBYE, ENTER-PRISE COMPUTING?IT experts emphasize that the privatecloud model differs fundamentally

from traditional enterprisecomputing. Randy Bias—the founder and CTO ofthe San Francisco-basedcloud computing consul-tancy Cloudscaling—offers

the real deal on the private cloudmodel and its implications for howenterprise IT departments work today.

How does a private cloud modeldiffer from traditional enterprisecomputing?At the simplest level, it means emu-lating the way Amazon has built itscloud at all levels of the data center“stack.” The Amazons and the

Googles have redesigned that stack,and their model of delivering a serv-er at a very low total cost of owner-ship has really taken off. Cloud pio-neers have homogenized, standard-ized and made IT more like electrici-ty: a consumable, utility-basedresource.

What does this model look liketechnology-wise?At the bottom of this stack, youstart with a different businessmodel. The new model emphasizesdelivering cost-effective computingservices on demand. The next layeris data center design. Companieswith a cloud model take a very dif-ferent approach to power, coolingand facility design.Then above that is the hardware

stack. Cloud pioneers recognize thatthe x86 server platform is 100%commoditized and not a place toadd value. Anytime you try to addvalue to that hardware by adding

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T R E N D Sin cloud computing

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features, you actually destroy valueand create vendor lock-in.Then on top of that, there is a

layer of automation, plus virtualiza-tion and other abstraction to do[resource] pooling. Then on top ofthat, there is a cloud managementsystem that allows for on-demandself-service. Then on top of that areapplications that are designed towork with this stack; cloud opera-tors don’t retool legacy applicationsto accommodate the cloud model.They want applications to morph tothe way the business works so thatthey are low cost.

The other way around—the tradi-tional approach to IT—creates allthese silos per application, with sep-arate hardware, networking andstorage departments, all buyingtheir own disparate technologies.And the costs are extremely high.

What are the greatest challengesto introducing a private cloudmodel?Cultural change is the No. 1 chal-lenge. You can’t do it properly withyour current IT team; enterprise ITis too deeply siloed. At one client,

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PRIVATE CLOUD ADOPTIONFifty-three percent of respondents say they now use public,

private, or public and private cloud models.

21%We currently usepublic and privatecloud computing

where it makes sense

20%We currently use

private cloudcomputing where it

makes sense

17%We have no plans

to use private cloudcomputing in 2011 butmay consider in the

future

SOURCE: “CLOUD COMPUTING 2011 ADOPTION SURVEY,” TECHTARGET INC., MARCH 2011, N = 541 IT MANAGERS

16%We have no plansto use public cloudcomputing in 2011but may considerin the future

14%We have no plansto implement publicor private cloudcomputing

12%We currentlyuse public cloudcomputing whereit makes sense

we needed executive buy-in to buildan entirely new division, whichincluded business executives, tofocus on building a private cloud.Nothing less was going to succeed.So you can’t just buy a magical

cloud solution; you need a wholenew team and a whole newapproach. Only then can you startlooking at next-generation cloudvendors that have appropriate solu-tions for your architecture. If youdepend on your current strategicbuyers, that is also a path to failure.This also means that IT now has

to make decisions based on returnon investment, not political motiva-tions. Their business is about deliv-ering IT, which has to result in prof-itability. Transparency is also anissue. Few IT departments right nowcan say, “We know what we spendon IT, and we know what everyapplication costs to deliver and thebusiness value of that application.”Most IT departments have troubleeven identifying who owns whathardware.

So it sounds as though privateclouds will ultimately look muchlike public clouds.Building a private cloud is just likebuilding a public one. If you followthat model, you’re going to have anAmazonWeb Services–style model,and you’ll be cost-effective. You’llhave a properly designed privatecloud that is cost-competitive, oper-

ationally competitive and inherentlycapable of delivering the ROIexpected from a public cloud, so itmust be designed like a commoditypublic cloud.If you go the other route—building

infrastructure to accommodate thelegacy applications you already haveand slapping some automation soft-

ware on top of that and labeling itcloud—you’ll use legacy vendors,and you’ll end up with five to 10times the Capex and Opex expenseof what you operate today.Enterprise IT wants to create

more choice for its users, which cre-ates greater complexity and an over-whelming diversity of requirements.But the Amazon model is all aboutproviding less choice, which makesits infrastructure more scalable,more modular and less costly. Oneof our clients, for example, wantedto build a private cloud. But welooked at the heterogeneity—thecomplexity—of their network topol-ogy and said, “No. You don’t get 10network interfaces; you get one.

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ENTERPRISE I.T.WANTS TO CREATEMORE CHOICE FORITS USERS ... BUT THEAMAZONMODEL ISALL ABOUT PROVIDINGLESS CHOICE.

And every virtual machine needsto look the same so that you canachieve the scale of an Amazon. Theydeliver an infrastructure—one way,one color, no choice—and the peo-ple at the application layer get thebenefits: it’s cheap, and it’s scalable.

What does this newmodelmean for enterprise computingin the future?We’re in a 20- to 30-year transitionof which maybe 10 years haselapsed. Salesforce.com was the ini-tial marker in this transition. TheASP [application service provider]

model that preceded Software asa Service still took an enterprisecomputing approach. But Salesforcesaid, “We’re going to rebuild CRM[customer relationship manage-ment] from the ground up. Thecompany has cracked the code ondelivering a successful IT serviceover the Internet, which meansless dedicated hardware for thatapplication.As this evolution develops over

the course of the next 10 to 15 years,you’ll have a situation where there isless migration of existing legacyapplications and more displacementof these applications with those

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PRIVATE CLOUD CHALLENGESWhen asked what can bring them closer to a private cloud, IT shops say they

still need greater degrees of virtualization and better management tools.

SOURCE: “CLOUD COMPUTING 2011 ADOPTION SURVEY,” TECHTARGET INC., MARCH 2011, N = 196 I.T. MANAGERS

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Virtualization andautomation of our servers

Management/provisioning tools,such as aWeb portal for users

A way to fit it into current monitor-ing and management procedures

Gaining internal staff skillsto support it

Additional hardware

Support from higher-ups

Other

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

46%

22%

7%

7%

6%

5%

7%

running on other people’s infrastruc-ture. Then IT becomes responsiblefor managing the IT supply chain,the governance, the process, not theinfrastructure itself.Now, there are exceptions to this

rule. Some part of a company’s ITbudget may be related to competi-tive advantage—a competitive dif-ferentiator for the company—and itwill continue to run that IT in-house.JPMorgan Chase has a day-tradingprogram that is a competitive differ-entiator, and they need a rock-starteam to deliver that. It may cost 100times what it would cost an Amazonto reduce latency; but there is aclear ROI to run this system them-

selves. But nondifferentiating, non-business–value-adding infrastruc-ture should be run by someone else.

What’s your most importantadvice for IT managers whowant to build a private cloud?Internalize the truth: Cloud comput-ing is a fundamentally disruptivechange to how IT is done today.Using a traditional enterprise com-puting model will not help you suc-ceed. You must understand this andhelp your senior management tounderstand this. Only then can youlook at the problem with fresh eyes.

—BY LAUREN HORWITZ

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DRIVING FORCES FOR PRIVATE CLOUDSUsers want the self-service and automation of a private cloud.

31%Private cloud allowsus to keep control

of IT

38%Private cloud

offers ourdepartments

self-service andautomation

SOURCE: “CLOUD COMPUTING 2011 ADOPTION SURVEY,” TECHTARGET INC., MARCH 2011, N =186 I.T. MANAGERS

27%Private cloudcomputing protectsour existinginvestment in IT

3%Private cloud offersjob security; we’rekeeping IT in-house

1%There is nothingcompelling aboutprivate cloud

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Checklist

BUILDING APRIVATE CLOUDBUILDING A PRIVATE cloud requiresyou to revisit so many existing sys-tems and practices that it can bedaunting. But this checklist by virtu-alization and cloud architect BobPlankers can help break down whatseems like overwhelming changeinto digestible steps.

1. Evaluate and Assess� Create a starting point, or baseline,with an inventory of current hard-ware and software, including exist-ing virtualization, network andstorage infrastructure.

� Assess existing vendor relation-ships for virtualization- andcloud-friendly licensing andsupport.

� Assess security and businessrequirements.

� Assess vendor roadmaps toavoid lock-in and ensure inter-operability.

2. Plan� Start with a specific, well-definedproject, with plans for scaling upand out following success.

� Include ample time in project plansto resolve technical and processissues as they arise.

� Ensure that every aspect of IT isrepresented, including change andconfiguration management so that

process challenges can beaddressed up front.

� Ensure that staff members fromkey technical areas—such as net-working, storage and the data cen-ter—participate directly in privatecloud design.

� Document availability, disasterrecovery, and performance needsin the form of a service-levelagreement, which will help definesuccess.

3. Deploy� Adopt an attitude that if it needsto be done more than once, itneeds to be automated.

� Create documented standardsand templates to ensure consis-tency.

� Make training available to IT staff.� Communicate and be flexible sothat unanticipated issues can beaddressed quickly.

4. Manage� Anticipate adjustments as systemrequirements become knownthrough experience. Regularlyright-size virtual servers to avoidwasted resources.

� Monitor systems and workloadsfor adherence to service-levelagreements.

� Institute chargeback mechanismsto fairly and transparently accountfor resource use.

� Regularly review trends andcapacity with staff from all keytechnical areas. �

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Roadmaps to the Cloud

THE FOUR PHASESOF PRIVATE CLOUDMATURITYJames Staten of the Stamford,Conn.-based Forrester Research Inc.outlines four phases of virtualizationmaturity, from early adoption tofull-fledged automation, processimprovement and a shift in the ITmindset. These phases also trackwith companies’ development of aprivate cloud infrastructure.

1 Acclimation. This stage refersto the time it takes for an organ-ization to learn about virtualiza-

tion and how it works, test the tech-nology with simple applications, anddetermine where virtualization cansafely be applied throughout aninfrastructure.

2 Strategic consolidation.Afterrecognizing the value of virtu-alization as an agent of cost

savings and change, an organization

shifts from concept to strategic im-plementation of virtualization. “Atthis point, the case has to be madefor why a workload should not bevirtualized,” Staten emphasizes.Some refer to this mindset as a“VM-first policy.”

3 Optimization. By this phase,virtualization has empoweredprocess improvement and

organizations have gotten seriousabout lifecycle management of vir-tual machines and reduction of vir-tual server sprawl.There is also a fundamental shift

in thinking about IT infrastructure.“Thinking in the physical world willhurt you in the virtual world,” Statensays.

4 Automation. In phase four,companies are virtually cloud-ready. These organizations

grasp the importance of policy-based automation of a virtualizedpool of resources, which, explainsStaten, pushes them to share servic-es and treat a virtualization pool asan internal cloud service. �

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61%The number of IT shops that are less than 50% virtualizedFACT

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AT FIRST BLUSH, a private cloud mightsound like the next best thing in IT.But what does this model really

mean for organizations managinginfrastructure the “old way”? Canthey move from server virtualizationto a private cloud overnight? Moreoften than not, the answer is no.For IT departments that have his-

torically paid fixed costs for ITresources, the pay-as-you-go modelof private cloud computing can trig-ger serious anxiety. A private cloud’schargeback-based billing system islike a monthly phone bill, with vari-able-rate charges that can catch ITpros unaware if they lack the toolsto track this new way of consumingresources. Further, business execu-tives may buck a new system inwhich they have to pay for IT usage.“Why should we pay for servers thatused to be ‘free’?” they maydemand.Now add the complexity of infra-

structure resources—the hardware,the storage, the network—that are

virtualized and pooled. If any mem-ber of a company can fire up a virtu-al server at will, paying for the serv-ices and energy consumed by thatvirtual machine (VM) can get reallycomplicated. And that’s not to men-tion documenting and tracking therapid change of this cloud environ-ment. As one IT manager notes ofchargeback in this brave new virtualworld, “Where’s the visibility andcontrol?”So achieving the characteristics

of a private cloud—the scalability,elasticity, measured service, broadnetwork access, and a self-service,model—involves a contradiction ofsorts: IT resources are more elastic,dynamic and flexible. But the IT sys-tems that underlie the private cloudmodel need to be more transparentand better defined and managedthan they were previously.To achieve that visibility and

transparency in the dynamic privatecloud environment, you have tothink differently about how to man-

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POLICING THEPRIVATE CLOUDIT departments are accustomed to paying fixed costsfor IT resources. But with the chargeback practices and rapidchange of a private cloud, there’s a new sheriff in town.BBYY BBOOBB PPLLAANNKKEERRSS

age and control your infrastructurefrom the start.

SYSTEM PLANNING AND DESIGNFor years, IT shops have empha-sized the benefits of planning, butwith a private cloud infrastructure,design is a requirement. Unlike pub-lic clouds, with seemingly infiniteresources, private clouds are basedon finite resources, with corporateIT struggling to manage perform-ance and capacity. A private cloudstill needs server, network, and stor-age hardware underneath, which ITstaff members still need to acquire,install and manage. While cloudstypically have some excess capacity,if a project needs more than what isavailable, it may take IT the old-fashioned “weeks or months” to getmore capacity online. A good planning process and a

strong culture of documentation helporganizations gain better under-standing of their systems and allowIT staff to plan ahead for perform-ance, to avoid undesired oversub-scription, to monitor resourcesappropriately and to minimize VMsprawl. The system design phase is a

critical time to work out the use ofadvanced features available in cloudenvironments. VMware’s virtual-ization and management suite,vSphere, for example, offers highavailability, fault tolerance and busi-ness continuity features that can

positively and negatively affect sys-tem design, resource consumption,even the price tag of an application.Everyone who participates in de-signing systems for private cloudsmust know what is possible up frontto prevent surprises later on. (Formore, see “Tactics to Ease Planningand Design” on page 12.)

SERVICE-LEVEL AGREEMENTSWhile service-level agreements(SLAs) are more commonly dis-cussed in the context of publicclouds, they have a role in privateclouds as well. There SLAs are lessabout penalties for service problemsand more about formally document-ing requirements that have been laidout by the business. So after data center infrastructure

has been designed, the next step isto document an environment’s per-formance and availability require-ments and develop a rock-solid SLA.Of course, this task is easier saidthan done. In a cloud, service-levelagreements are particularly thorny,because it’s hard to measure thelevel of service a workload willreceive. Will the level of service be meas-

ured by resources used or by up-time? Will it be based on the tradi-tional CPU and memory metrics, orwill network and storage figure in aswell? Private clouds aren’t so muchabout getting maximum perform-ance as they are about getting the

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TACTICS TO EASE PLANNING AND DESIGN AS YOU START to build a private cloud, there are various ways to ease the problemsoften associated with the planning and design phases.

1 Every silo, or department in IT, needs to be at the table, including the networking,storage and virtualization groups.

2All members of IT should reach consensus up front on what IT will support. Designs that use Microsoft Clustering Service, for example, might not be able touse VMware’s vMotion, which may fundamentally affect how IT supports theseservices and the infrastructure.

3 Cloud designers should know which resources are available to them so that theycan install additional capacity in a timely manner. To aid this process, project man-agers should make IT aware of their resource needs as soon as they identify them.

4Application technologists should attend design meetings not with a physical de-sign but with an idea of what they need to accomplish. It’s helpful to know howmuch RAM and CPU is required, but knowing that an application must meet spe-cific performance numbers is critical.

5 IT managers should keep an open mind about clustering options and businesscontinuity needs. A proposed cluster might perform better or be cheaper to li-cense, such as by using more two-CPU virtual servers instead of fewer four-CPUvirtual servers. Perhaps business continuity can be handled at the virtual ma-chine or storage level instead of inside the application, using methods already in place.

6 IT managers should follow an iterative design process and need ample time totroubleshoot problems. It’s crucial to have buffers in a project plan so that un-knowns can be researched. �

right performance for the job. Sodetermining what is needed, how itis measured and what to do whensomething goes wrong are keypieces of building an SLA. Workingout these requirements up frontavoids misunderstanding and finger-pointing later on, especially during

outages. If everything has been doc-umented ahead of time, incidentresponse can be automated too,minimizing downtime.If drafting SLAs to reflect business

requirements sounds daunting, partof the solution may be to focus onthe services and workloads them-

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selves, letting IT determine howbest to meet those requirements.This is especially true for disasterrecovery availability requirements.There are excellent VM- and stor-age-level options for protectingservices that IT can manage itself.Successful SLAs also specify avail-ability and performance as well asavailability in terms of performance. Itisn’t enough to be 99.99% availableif the delivered performance doesn’tget the job done.

CHARGEBACKBecause a private cloud’s underlyinghardware is often centrally owned,many organizations need to imple-ment chargeback schemes toaccount for the resources used. But chargeback can be one of the

most daunting aspects of clouds:Different accounting methods cre-ate different user problems. Flatfees, for example, are great forbudget estimations. But they maynot be fair for varying sizes of virtualservers, because small workloadswill subsidize large ones. Modelsbased on resources used may seemmore reasonable, but they requiremore staff time and specialized soft-ware to implement. These costincreases can undercut privatecloud efficiencies.Then there are the politics of

chargeback. Many organizationssimply aren’t ready for IT to bill oreven account for services used. The

concept that IT will dictate theamount that a business unit shouldpay just hasn’t been accepted yet,some experts emphasize. Moreover,introducing chargeback and billingbusiness units for services can cre-ate a “charged relationship in whichbusiness units naturally second-guess IT departments’ pricing forservices,” especially in environ-ments where services were previ-ously “free.” The antidote to thisproblem is executive-level buy-in to the chargeback model to validatethe model as well as enforce its use.

CHANGE AND CONFIGURATIONMANAGEMENT At first glance, change and con-figuration management systems run counter to the dynamism andimmediacy of a private cloud. Butthey play an important role in en-abling communication and docu-menting completed work in a highlycomplex, virtualized environment.Good documentation also leads tovisibility into VM usage, which helpscombat VM sprawl and aids in per-formance troubleshooting andchargeback.Private clouds offer the opportuni-

ty to standardize virtual machineimages as part of building a servicecatalog. These template VMs helphomogenize the environment andprovide a consistent baseline onwhich to build services. Consistency

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helps with patching, problem reso-lution and security. It also speedsdocumentation, because you needto document only the differencefrom the baseline. Your supportedOSes become a known quantity toeveryone who uses your privatecloud.Once standard VM templates

have been put in place, having theright tool to configure and docu-ment those configurations is crucial.For many organizations, using con-figuration management systemsrepresents a dramatic shift in mind-set, though. Staff may see the stepof recording changes as redundantand time-consuming, while busi-ness-line executives may seechange management systems as anunnecessary expense. For a truecloud architecture, trying to managechange by maintaining separate,sometimes paper-based, documen-tation on a server’s configuration isa losing battle. A configuration management sys-

tem turns the documentation intothe system configuration itself, mak-ing it authoritative and keeping itrelevant. Want to change a system?Just update the configuration andapply it. Not only is it easy to seehow a virtual server is configured,but it is also easy to make anotherone just like it. Provision anotherstandardized virtual server fromyour service catalog, apply the con-figuration from the original, andyou’re done.

Your organization can movebeyond OSes and document appli-cation configurations this way, too.This is a real boon for testing anddevelopment, especially duringmajor upgrades, as well as a great

way to manage hundreds and thou-sands of virtual machines simulta-neously. On the downside, changemanagement processes often needto be adapted to the idea of masschange. Many organizations’assumptions about change startwith the idea of one server, onechange, and in the cloud that isn’tan efficient point of view. Another caveat is that many pop-

ular tools are fundamentally OS-level tools. Cloud-based tools arematuring; but even if they offer asingle pane of glass to view yourconfigurations, most cannot com-pete with open source options, suchas Puppet and Cfengine, on priceand features.

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STAFF MAY SEE THESTEP OF RECORDINGCHANGES AS REDUN-DANT AND TIME-CONSUMING, WHILEBUSINESS-LINEEXECUTIVES MAY SEE THESE SYSTEMS AS AN UNNECESSARYEXPENSE.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Chargeback in a Virtual Data CenterIn a virtual data center, managing chargeback can be difficult, with multiple company departments sharing server hardware.

CMDBs and Service Catalogs in the CloudGiven automation and self-service in private cloud environments, the rate of changerequires a more efficient approach to configuration and change management.

IT Chargeback: A Central Part of the Cloud Takes ShapeWhat metrics can IT departments use to charge back business units for cloud services?

Private Cloud 101: Is Your Data Center Ready?You can’t just declare your existing data center a private cloud.

The Politics of ChargebackChargeback’s real problem isn’t technology; it’s politics. Most organizations simplyaren’t prepared for this brave new world. �

INEVITABLE CHANGE For many organizations, managingchange in the cloud is a mind-bend-ing shift and a serious change in theway IT does business. Whereas vir-tualization saves on hardware costsand time-consuming manual tasks,private clouds drive processimprovements, making IT morecommunicative; better documented;and more efficient in all the people,process, and procedure aspects ofinformation technology. Organizations need to embrace

process change and implementgood tools to document and man-

age configurations. They need todocument performance and avail-ability requirements with solid SLAs,and curb VM sprawl and managecapacity with chargeback mecha-nisms. They need to monitor theirsystems well and learn how to talkto one another so planning andproblem resolution become effi-cient. And they need to automateand standardize so they can focuson the bigger strategic problemsthat their companies face. �

Bob Plankers is a virtualization and cloud architect at a major Midwestern university. He is also the author of The Lone Sysadmin blog.

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AS WE MAKE the cognitive leap frompast ways of doing IT to new meth-ods in a private cloud, a consistenttheme has emerged: It’s all aboutthe applications.IT professionals have begun to

recognize that, while data centerconsolidation and virtualization areoften necessary to improve IT oper-ations, application delivery is thestar of the private cloud show. It’ssometimes circumvented, butnonetheless, it’s often the elephantin the room.As part of the transition to cloud

computing, companies are movingto a binary model where cloud plat-forms serve some IT needs but notothers. Most client/server applica-tions can be virtualized to somedegree. But others, such as massivedatabases running financial sys-tems, were designed before virtual-ization was mature. Given perform-ance issues, these apps cannot be

virtualized.“We have virtualized everywhere

it is appropriate,” said Dmitri Ilkaev,the VP of enterprise architecture atThermo Fisher Scientific. The Wal-

tham, Mass.–based company was“opportunistic in its use of virtual-ization,” he said, deploying the tech-nology where it made sense. Butsome of the company’s core businessapplications did not fit into tidy,

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WHILE DATA CENTERCONSOLIDATION ANDVIRTUALIZATION AREOFTEN NECESSARY TO IMPROVE I.T. OPER-ATIONS, APPLICATIONDELIVERY IS THE STAR OF THE PRIVATECLOUD SHOW.

APPLICATIONS POSE CLOUD ADOPTIONHURDLES Developed prior to virtualization maturity, legacy applications can pose serious roadblocks to private cloud adoption. In the end, it’s all about the apps. BBYY CCAARRLL BBRROOOOKKSS

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standardized and virtualized stacks.As a maker of largely digital and

highly complex scientific instru-ments, the company has moved intolaboratory services and softwarethat supports its equipment. Ilkaevsaid that an initial impetus for cloudcomputing–style IT automation wasthe ability to sell internal applica-tions as a service.Ilkaev called private clouds a nat-

ural extension of the consolidationand virtualization that the companyhad already begun. So too, the com-pany already used Software as aService (SaaS) products such asSalesforce.com extensively. Even forthe VP of enterprise architecture,ultimately it would primarily beabout delivering applications andsupport in a hybrid cloud model.

BANK IS TEPID ON PRIVATE CLOUDOther enterprises take a more conservative approach. Sherrie Littlejohn, who heads the enterprisearchitecture and strategy group atWells Fargo, said that the bankinggiant considered cloud infrastruc-ture but found no pressing need forit. Plus, the bank’s outlook on IT isdominated by security.“We have a gazillion servers,

processes up the wazoo in how youget one, and security is definitelyNo. 1,” she said.Littlejohn said that Wells Fargo

could envision a point at which itmight want to place some business-

critical applications in a cloud serv-ice, but it already operates layerupon layer of fairly advanced man-agement systems and virtualization

for its infrastructure. Turning to thecloud provided little competitiveedge, she said.Along with several external serv-

ices to operate its websites andonline services, Wells Fargo usesSalesforce.com. But Littlejohn saidthat the security implications werepretty straightforward. When WellsFargo is ready to build a privatecloud—which would essentiallyinvolve giving internal users moreleeway in provisioning their ownIT—the company will do so in adeliberate manner, Littlejohn said.She said delivering business servic-es and security took precedenceover new technology.“I don’t see us jumping into this,”

she said. “We will test and learn aswe go; for banks in general, we’regoing to be very cautious.”

“WE HAVE ...PROCESSES UP THEWAZOO IN HOW YOUGET [A SERVER], AND SECURITY IS DEFINITELY NO. 1.”

—SHERRIE LITTLEJOHNenterprise architecture andstrategy, Wells Fargo

FACTORING APPLICATIONS INTO THE CLOUD MOVEOf course, for organizations thatwant to redo IT with an eye towardcloud’s benefits, applications are abig part of the problem.The U.K.-based Honeywell Inter-

national is retiring 12 TB of data in amainframe it doesn’t need becausethe company is, almost literally,

burning money operating its datacenter. “Can you imagine the serverload? The backup requirements forthat?” says Sai Gundavelli, the CEOof Solix Technologies.Gundavelli sells data manage-

ment tools and manages the datamove from ancient hardware tocloud storage for Honeywell. Hesaid that “application cruft” isendemic; it’s often the result ofnumerous acquisitions or cowboycoding. It is often also the first thingan IT organization stumbles acrosswhen undertaking a large-scalereorganization, such as shifting tovirtualization or the cloud.“A lot of times when you run a

data center across the globe, youend up with a surprising number ofapplications,” he said. “It’s like whenpeople buy a garage, they keep put-ting things in, putting things in. Theynever take them out,” he said. Henoted that German manufacturerBombardier Inc., another client, hadidentified nearly 2,000 applicationsit wanted to retire in the process ofvirtualizing and modernizing itsinfrastructure.

APPLICATIONS’ EVER-PRESENT IMPACTAnd as often as not, even a success-ful implementation of private cloudcan simply miss the mark when itcomes to applications.During a closed presentation,

Christian Reilly, an IT professional at a large multinational, recalls thatfive years ago it took 42 days todeploy an application. Even as hisorganization felt its way into thecloud, the monumental shift to con-verged infrastructure, worldwidecommunication, workspace virtual-ization and even an iPhone app forone popular business application (atime sheet for agents in the field)didn’t touch business as usual.“Anyone want to guess how long ittakes now? Forty-two days,” he said.What went wrong? Well, nothing.

Infrastructure is solved; they’velearned the lessons of massiveonline service delivery from the likesof Google and Amazon. They’re

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WHEN ORGANIZATIONSWANT TO REDO I.T.WITH AN EYE TOWARDA CLOUD’S BENEFITS,APPLICATIONS ARE A BIG PART OF THEPROBLEM.

doing quantitatively more with thesame IT budget, but no one canafford to rewrite the apps overnightfor a private cloud.That’s where the actual work

takes place, Reilly said. “Virtualiza-tion is a great foundation for cloud,but it’s absolutely not a panacea.”More than 90% of Reilly’s IT

organization is virtualized, but it’snot automated in a way that mattersto application delivery. What ismissing is how to tie those applica-tion services together at a levelwhere resource provisioning “justhappens.” He’s looking at servertemplates, preconfigured stacks,anything that can make cloud moreuseful than simply turning on a server.Reilly said his application portfolio

was the first thing he had to workaround when trying to get consoli-dation moving. He went afterclient/server applications first, stan-dardized the virtualization platformon Xen and eventually broughteverything under one centralauthority, which he called critical totaming security.He noted that you either have

control over the user or control overthe back end, and it was clear whereIT could be more effective.“You can’t really have both in our

experience. If you have the WildWest in the front end and the WildWest in the back end, you’re goingto have the Wild West in the mid-dle,” he said. “That’s got to be avoid-

ed, or there won’t be any cloud inyour enterprise.”The fact that users have access to

all sorts of high-powered technolo-gy delivered as Web services meantthat they were more than ready to

see the same in the workplace. Reil-ly said most enterprise IT is woefullybehind the times, and enterpriseapplications reflect that.It’s unclear what has to change to

make the enterprise applicationlandscape catch up to the consumerexperience. It may just take timeand continued examples of busi-nesses getting more done with lessmoney. Most likely, we’ll see thesame trends: SaaS feeding the shiftin how users think about IT at theirjobs, leading to small efforts andeventual transformations. So it’s notunreasonable for it to take anotherdecade for the IT landscape totransform. �

Carl Brooks is a senior technology writer atSearchCloudComputing.com.

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MORE THAN 90% OF CHRISTIAN REILLY’SI.T. ORGANIZATION ISVIRTUALIZED, BUT IT’SNOT AUTOMATED IN A WAY THAT MATTERSTO APPLICATION DELIVERY.

AS I.T. MANAGERS embark on building aprivate cloud, they may have to con-front past assumptions and prac-tices. Some of the prevailing wisdomthat has defined their data centerinfrastructure may not be valid in acloud. And while vendors often pro-fess that cloud automation and man-agement is relatively turnkey, thoseon the front lines can attest other-wise.A private cloud resides inside a

company’s data center and offerscontrol of IT resources. It automatesworkflow and eliminates manualconfiguration tasks, such as shiftingworkloads to setting up firewall rulesand configuring routers. Some thusrefer to the cloud layer as a “manag-er of managers” of sorts that allowsdata center operators to move appli-cation workloads; reallocate memo-ry, storage and other IT resourceswhere they need the most oomph;and consolidate data and manage-ment in a single “location.”

For most data centers, though, aprivate cloud’s “nirvana state” ofautomated management requiresretooling of existing infrastructureand processes. You can’t just slapcloud management software on topof existing servers, storage and net-works and call it a private cloud. Norwill your infrastructure work the wayit’s supposed to. So let’s examine some general

misconceptions about virtualizationinfrastructure and consider thechanges required for a private cloudenvironment.

VM AUTOMATION IS SIMPLEBusinesses withadvanced virtualization

techniques have now taken the nextlogical step: building a private cloudso users can dial up virtual machines(VMs) without requiring a team ofpeople to create and define them.

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MOVING TO A PRIVATE CLOUD: UNVEILING THE MYTHSSome think moving from a virtualized data center to a privatecloud requires just a little management software here and someautomation there. It’s not quite that easy. BBYY MMIIKKEE LLAAVVEERRIICCKK

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Application owners should be ableto dial up a virtual machine from theprivate cloud on demand just as theycan with an external provider. Thatway, administrators won’t getbogged down with the day-to-dayoperational issues of the virtualiza-tion layer and will eliminate the pos-sibility for human errors when provi-sioning new VMs. But creating, provisioning and

managing virtual machines in thecloud differs from existing data cen-ter management practices. In a virtu-al infrastructure, existing changemanagement routines dictate theprocess of creating new VMs, andthese processes often strive to elimi-nate VM sprawl. In a cloud environ-ment, however, the challenge is todevelop a user-driven environmentwithout augmenting sprawl. Addi-tionally, VM templates—which pro-vide standardized hardware andsoftware settings to create newVMs—likely include only a base OS,service packs and other patches.Given their fear of performanceproblems, most organizations havesteered clear of installing full-blownapplications and services into thesetemplates. In a private cloud cloud, however,

one goal is to allow end consumersto create new applications and serv-ices on demand. When end con-sumers log in to a cloud portal, theyexpect a service catalog to offermore than a couple of virtual appli-cations that contain merely a base

OS build. They want a completeservice or application. So you need to confront the

assumptions and procedures of thepast. In the case of templates, thismeans going “up the stack” andinstalling services and applicationsinto VMs. You need to work closelywith the stakeholders who tradition-ally manage these applications and

gain approval for VM configuration.And before they can be included in aservice catalog, VMs need consider-able testing and verification. So youneed proper controls to ensure thatVM sprawl in a virtual infrastructuredoesn’t become VM sprawl in thecloud. It’s going to take considerablebalancing to empower end userswith these new freedoms while alsomaintaining corporate standards. One way to allow that freedom is

to offer pre-packaged services thatend consumers can use off the shelfwithout the need for excessivetweaking and customization. Youcan also simplify the configuration

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IT’S GOING TO TAKE CONSIDERABLEBALANCING TO EM-POWER END USERSWITH NEW FREEDOMSWHILE ALSO MAIN-TAINING CORPORATESTANDARDS.

and provisioning process by creating“classes” of virtual machines—suchas platinum, gold, silver and bronze—in the automation engine. By des-ignating such classes, IT managerscan pre-establish various VM tem-plates from which to choose, andusers can get access to templateswith a range of applications andservices. A tiered approach helpscontrol performance and consump-tion and creates realistic expecta-tions for departmental units abouttheir resource consumption. Tieredmodels limit the amount of CPU ormemory and help set the stage forchargeback or showback policies.

qA VM-first policy. While the moveto a cloud-based model doesn’texclude physical servers, the morevirtualized your existing infrastruc-ture, the easier the transition to acloud will be. If you haven’t done soalready, adopt a “VM-first policy,” inwhich new services and applicationsare virtualized by default. Then, onlywhen it’s demonstrated that theseservices cannot perform well virtual-ized, deploy them on dedicatedphysical servers. Additionally, it may be time to

rethink physical servers that wereoriginally excluded from the earlyphases of virtualization. These physi-cal boxes may have been perform-ance-sensitive servers that wereconsidered too tricky to virtualize.With the major advances in hypervi-sors, it’s time to push these systems

out of the nest and into the virtual-ization layer. Finally, it’s time to review the poli-

cies and change management rou-tines that have been enforced onVMs. Are they still valid, or are theya throwback to how things weredone in the physical world? Nowthat virtualization has proven itsmettle with production workloads inthe data center, a more aggressivepolicy is required.

PROVISIONING STORAGE IS SIMPLEIn a cloud-based environ-ment, provisioning ade-

quate storage is acknowledged as acentral pain point. In a private cloud,storage is multi-tenant, but thismodel can create technology prob-lems and IT turf wars.

qArchitectural differences. Servervirtualization and enterprise-gradestorage technologies have evolvedon separate paths. As a result,attempts to marry the two and, thus,gain the benefits of a cloud environ-ment are often a kludge. An enter-prise running a decent-sized storagearea network (SAN) appliance, forexample, must have direct access tothe appliance even to set up a stor-age pool to boot a single VM. Com-pare that with a standard virtualizedserver, which is a single-image filethat runs with virtual disk spacealready embedded in it and assumes

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a user operates on a host that iscapable of processing instructions(i.e., CPU) and talking directly toonboard storage. The ideal host envi-ronment for virtualization is a mas-sive single server with as manycores, RAM and direct-attachedstorage as possible. But that’s nothow infrastructure with individualservers and a SAN work. This is notto say that high-level, expensive,safe storage and virtualization can’twork together, though.So it’s important for private cloud

architects to take a long hard look athow storage interacts with overalldata center architecture. Chancesare that even if your storage pool isbest of breed and virtualized, it wasset up to work for day-to-day needsand you don’t need to manage itmuch. When you link virtualizedresources together into infrastruc-ture-agnostic pools with broaderaccess, your storage managementinterface isn’t going to “just work”with VMs seamlessly.

q Storage access. In traditional vir-tualization environments, access tostorage is strictly controlled, and vir-tualization administrators mayengage in weekly or daily battles toget necessary storage. In a cloud,with a mere click of the mouse, endconsumers can access many giga-bytes or even terabytes of costlystorage with less oversight than theyhad previously. So the challenge istwofold: shepherding cultural and

technological change.The job of the cloud administrator

is to present storage in a way that iseasy to consume yet also reinforcesthe concept that there is no freelunch. As end consumers select

items from a service catalog, thebest cloud automation softwaremakes them aware of the cost ofstorage through chargebackprocesses. Today, a raft of storage manage-

ment plug-ins for virtualization plat-forms such as VMware’s virtualiza-tion suite, vSphere, allows admins toprovision new storage directly fromVMware’s management console.These plug-ins save a huge amountof time and automate processesthat, even with the help of scriptingtools, are time sinks. Still, while plug-ins are a boon, storage teams mayhesitate to allow virtualizationadministrators the rights to usethem, as broadening access reduces

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CLOUD ARCHITECTSSHOULD TAKE A LONGLOOK AT HOW STORAGEINTERACTS WITH OVERALL DATA CENTERARCHITECTURE. EVEN A BEST-OF-BREEDSTORAGE POOL MAY BE SET UP FOR DAY-TO-DAY NEEDS.

their iron-fisted control over storagearray consumption.

CONFIGURINGNETWORKS IS SIMPLEFor your infrastructure tobe cloud-ready, networksalso need an overhaul.

While private clouds mask underly-ing differences at the infrastructurelayer to allow for scale anddynamism, this homogeneity createsnew network bandwidth and provi-sioning challenges.

q Bandwidth. Even if your network ishumming along, with 1 Gigabit Ether-net bandwidth and a handful of solidlinks to serve everyone’s needs, youmay still have bandwidth problemswaiting in the wings. So get ready toinvest in tools for monitoring net-work congestion. If you virtualizeeverything you can and start servingall these resources from the net-work—and users have access to doso themselves—the bottlenecks willarise relatively quickly. If VM sprawl is an issue for your IT

shop, a private cloud will pose evenbigger problems. You might have ateam standing up handfuls of serverssimultaneously and creating massiveloads that disrupt other operations.Now imagine them doing it fromhome and clogging your entire oper-ation’s Internet connection until youcan corral them. If you’re also plan-ning virtual desktop infrastructure or

workspace virtualization, the head-aches are ever-present. Client/serverdesign means that work takes placeon both ends of the network andinformation is exchanged; cloudcomputing means that most of thework takes place in the data centerbut is communicated continuouslyto the user.To combat these issues, consider

reallocating and expanding band-width to resource-hungry usersbefore implementing cloud strate-gies. Many IT shops have a kind of

“fairness doctrine” in place, where allparts of the organization have anequal share of company networkresources whether they need it ornot. But plan on careful segregationof different kinds of users and havethe headroom in place to accommo-date this allocation of resources. A virtualized environment that

consolidates numerous physicalservers into a smaller number won’tnecessarily add to network traffic,and that hasn’t been a big considera-tion in terms of resource allocation.But revamping your data center into

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WHILE PRIVATE CLOUDSMASK UNDERLYING DIFFERENCES AT THEINFRASTRUCTURELAYER, THIS HOMOGEN-EITY CREATES NEW NET-WORK CHALLENGES.

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private cloud means delivering moreservices, and yet more services overyour network to users who come andgo when they please. Consider yourbandwidth needs and think hardabout an upgrade.

qVLAN tagging. Virtualized net-works also need a separation of VMsto ensure data privacy of one tenantin the cloud from another. So theyneed mechanisms to ensure thatthese networks can share the samephysical network link without com-promising or leaking informationbetween networks. To allow access to a physical net-

work, most cloud automation soft-ware uses the virtual local area net-work (VLAN) tagging model. Thisapproach requires a network team topre-create pools of VLAN IDs on aphysical switch. When a new VM orvirtual application is created, a cloudend consumer eats up these VLANIDs without having to ask the net-work team to set them up. But VLANs defined on a physical

switch are not “free.” Most physicalswitches support only a certainnumber of VLAN definitions, and thename space for VLANs can be con-sumed at a much faster rate thanexpected. The biggest change here isconvincing a network team that cre-ating VLANs up front—which may ormay not be used—is a good idea. Insome respects, it flouts a generationof best practices that counsels ITmanagers to configure only what is

needed to protect resources from be-ing hijacked by nefarious intruders.

qVirtual switches. IT managersneed a bulletproof strategy for thelogical configuration and manage-ment of virtual Switches (vSwitches)that provide VM connectivity. Virtu-alization admins may need to re-examine their default settings, whichoriginally may have been created fora server consolidation project. Mostvirtual switches, for example, have aset number of “ports” into which a

VM can be “plugged.” Think of it as a conventional physical device, suchas a 48-port switch. Of course, in thevirtualization world, you can have amuch greater number of “ports” thanyou can in the physical world. Mostvirtual switches use a static modelfor assigning ports to VMs. This poolof static ports can quickly becomedepleted, so a virtualization adminis-

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VIRTUALIZATION ADMINS MAY NEED TO RE-EXAMINE THEIRDEFAULT SETTINGS TO ALLOW FOR A MOREDYNAMIC MODEL. SET-TINGS MAY HAVE ORIGI-NALLY BEEN CREATEDFOR A SERVER CONSOL-IDATION PROJECT.

trator has to look closely at vSwitchsettings to allow for a more dynamicmodel or for an approach that cre-ates and destroys ports on vSwitch-es as they are needed or discarded.

PRIVATE CLOUDS ARE SIMPLEWhile vendors are on amission to “cloudify”their services and tout

the path to a private cloud as simpleand easy (with their help, of course),IT managers should take heed.Reflect on your experience withother IT projects—a software migra-tion or a legacy hardware upgrade—and the technology change and per-sonnel upheaval it takes to get there.A private cloud infrastructure is no

different. A true private cloud modelmeans rethinking all the infrastruc-ture elements that make up yourdata center—and the people whomanage those IT resources. Don’t beafraid to roll up your sleeves andchallenge the vendor take. It’s goingto take a whole lot of change—andchange management—to get there. �

Mike Laverick is an IT instructor with 17 years ofexperience in technologies including Novell, Win-dows and Citrix Systems. Since 2003, he has beeninvolved with the VMware community and is aVMware forum moderator as well as a member ofthe London VMware User Group Steering Com-mittee. He is the owner and author of the virtual-ization blog RTFM Education, where he publishesfree guides and utilities for VMware users. He isalso writing a book on building a cloud withVMware vSphere as the foundation.

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Jo MaitlandExecutive Editor

Steve CiminoSite Editor

Lauren HorwitzMichelle Boisvert

Senior Managing Editors

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Associate Managing Editors

Linda KouryDirector of Online Design

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Marc LaplantePublisher

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