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Greetings Inner Circle readers and Happy 2009. For my first-of-the-year letter I wanted to discuss a topic that many in the industry are buzzing about: cloud computing. Google the term "cloud computing" and you'll get over 7 million results. That alone should support both the contention that "buzz" is certainly happening and that definitions vary widely.
What's behind the cloud?
Cloud computing is a style of computing or massively-scalable IT-related capabilities that are provided as a service across the Internet to multiple external customers. "Customers," in this case, could be defined as employees, contractors, partners as well as traditionally defined customers. From there, the cloud can be divided into two contexts: the private or enterprise-computing cloud and the public computing cloud.
A key attribute of cloud computing is how it changes economics. You only pay for what you use, and rates are typically lower than the equivalent cost of building and supporting these services internally.
Clearly, the cloud isn't a new concept. In fact, some would argue that cloud computing is just a new phrase for shared tenancy computing that was the hallmark of mainframe computing back in the 1960s. I'd argue that while the general premise of tenancy is similar, the evolution of the technologies we're using — such as advanced virtualization software — make today's "cloud" an important topic to consider as we look to drive costs down for enterprise computing. Cloud computing is inclusive of a number of services including software as a service, platform as a service, infrastructure as a service and storage as a service — all of which can be delivered through either public or private clouds.
Why do cloud computing?
One of the obvious reasons is to get better utilization out of the computing resources you have. A key attribute of cloud computing is how it changes economics. You only pay for what you use, and rates are typically lower than the equivalent cost of building and supporting these services internally. Another benefit is flexibility in testing. A cloud affords the opportunity to leverage a virtualized infrastructure to test at a scale that you would otherwise not be able to build at the same cost. The cloud also leads to a lower barrier to entry for new projects and activities and adds value by contributing to a greener computing environment.
Public vs. private clouds
While public cloud computing may not yet offer all of the services you want, as an enterprise you don't want to miss out on the benefits provided through virtualization. This gives rise to the creation of a private cloud environment. Within Sun IT, we are creating a private cloud to take advantage of the properties of cloud computing by deploying our private services into it.
A private cloud is set up by your IT organization and is owned by the enterprise. Services are consumed by employees and/or authorized partners/suppliers directly from the Internet. From an IT perspective, it's important to rapidly deploy services into the cloud and have these services be nonstop operating services, trusted and secure, and be scalable both horizontally and vertically. Private clouds are typically created when public clouds don't offer the service needed, shared tenancy won't work, or the public offerings can't provide the scalability, security, reach, touch, or reliability that an enterprise requires.
The public computing cloud however, derives its efficiency from the shared tenant model because multiple customers share the same computing resources to maximize delivery of their computing platform. Security controls are a consideration, but as time moves forward and the public clouds become more available, more secure, more geographic, and more enterprise-ready companies will move away from personal private clouds and toward public, shared clouds.
Are you ready?
So how do you know if your IT organization is ready for cloud computing? From a technology point of view, it's pretty straightforward. Every time a new project comes up, you ask whether the task can be done in the cloud or whether you can get the service from a software as a service provider.
So how do you know if your IT organization is ready for cloud computing?...Every time a new project comes up, you ask whether the task can be done in the cloud or whether you can get the service from a software as a service provider.
The cultural part of readiness is getting past the mentality of doing everything yourself. Most large IT organizations are skilled at doing things themselves, fostering a culture of "we can do it faster, cheaper, better." But the fact is, you can subscribe to a cloud service much faster than you can build one. And the more specific the application, likely the better it will be from the cloud. Online payment applications or backup services are good examples. Why build it yourself if you can use something built by specialists via the cloud?
There is also a skill shift from building everything yourself to learning how to inspect what others have built. When you build something yourself, you know the strengths and weaknesses. When acquiring a service in a cloud, inspection skills are emphasized to ensure the app meets your needs for security, reliability, etc.
Our CTO, Greg Papadopoulos, has noted that whenever he talks to universities or startups, everybody is either doing cloud computing or looking into it. Venture capitalists don't like to give out money for people to buy hardware today, but they will give you operating expenses to pay as you go.
What's on the horizon
So cloud computing is here and it's for real. We will continue to see the build-out of services in the cloud that are more enterprise-ready. We already see this in areas such as CRM, ERP, HR and others. As this market continues to grow (and it will — the economics are too good), the number and depth of clouds will grow as well. As this happens, IT will have to work with the business differently. In the classic scenario, IT builds or acquires solutions for the business. As services become more available, businesses will have opinions about subscribing to needed services. The CIO and IT will need to partner with business units differently. You'll see a requirement for the CIO to develop business skills, relationships and partnerships, and become not just the technology CIO, but the business CIO.
In the near term, we'll likely see continued growth in the private cloud space, fueled by the need for services that do not exist yet or those that have not overcome security or trust concerns. Billing models will also evolve as both providers and consumers of cloud services mature and expectations change. Harking back to what the Internet is about, it is a network of networks, and in my mind, that's truly what cloud computing is.
Sun is currently building its vision of cloud computing and has created a new business unit dedicated to delivering cloud computing technologies and capabilities. More about that soon. In the mean time, you can get more information about Sun's cloud computing capabilities at: http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/features/2008-1209cc/index.jsp. For developers, get more information and resources here: http://www.sun.com/third-party/global/cloud/,
and for our government and other public sector customers, visit: http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/sunfederal/cloud_computing.jsp.
Happy New Year. I look forward to our ongoing dialogue in 2009.
Bob Worrall
CIO, Sun Microsystems
cio@sun.com
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