We need a private cloud capability!
How many times have your heard this?
The truth is, your cloud maybe closer than you think!
If you have a mature platform virtualisation environment you are more than 50% of the way to having your cloud capability! (And perhaps also some good examples of vendor lock-in!)
By mature, I mean, a robust and flexible VM platform, an organised support structure, a scripted or automated approach to standardised builds, etc.
At this stage of your IT maturity you may already have these things in place:
1. A price book for your various offerings.
2. Your project delivery and development functions are becoming more “Agile”.
Network infrastructure virtualisation get’s you closer still.
You now have key elements of a PaaS and IaaS environment that potentially yield the greatest business value.
Add a business-focused function ( Eg a cloud services Account Manager, COE, IT services kiosk, or Cloud “Point Of Sale”) to market, sell, broker and evangelise a set of fit-for-purpose Cloud services, (wherever they may be hosted).
Create a business-savvy portal through which, your business customers can understand and access the benefits of Cloud. (This has the added benefit of assisting the infra teams with activities such as, lifecycle management, demand and capacity planning)
Focus effort on developing a DevOps approach (many organisations are doing this organically thanks to Agile) to drive value through speed to market, standardised approaches, re-use and shared knowledge.
The only obvious things missing are the pleasing knobs and dials and granular “showback” or “chargeback” tools. But, lets face it, how many organisations have the structures, culture or financial processes in place to support a genuine, internal, utility-based cost model?
The aim is to drive real business value in a cloud model by using existing tools.
with this approach, the external cloud tools and offerings can be folded in as the landscape matures.
Now, the business understands and can access the benefits quickly, The “C” suite can claim their “Private Cloud” and IT (wearing underpants on the outside) saves the day!