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How to Take Advantage of the Cloud

Your Guide to Achieving


Value and Performance
an e-book by

Contents
Introduction: The advantage you need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Use the cloud to overcome your business challenges . . . . . . . 7


Achieve solutions through the cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Ensure compliance, performance, and optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Integrate the cloud into your IT infrastructure portfolio . . . . . . . 23

About Latisys

Latisys is a leading national provider of colocation, managed services, managed hosting, disaster
recovery and private cloud solutions to medium-sized businesses, enterprise customers and
high-density data centers across the United States, Latisys offers a scalable outsourced IT

RS
EA

government agencies. With a heritage of serving business customers since 1994, and multiple

RAIGHT Y
ST

infrastructure platform that provides customers with what they need, when they need it.

Latisys is quickly becoming the IaaS platform of choice for companies that demand more from
their IT infrastructure partner. All while optimizing clients return on investment. All while delivering
more_. For more information, please visit www.latisys.com.

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses,
governments and society. The worlds largest technology company, HP brings together a
portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the
convergence of the cloud and connectivity, creating seamless, secure, context-aware experiences
for a connected world. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.

00

As a client-centric company with state-of-the-art data centers across the United States

9 201

Key considerations when


adding cloud to your IT
infrastructure portfolio

Integrate the cloud into your IT strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

FIVE

THE CLOUD CHECKLIST

Welcome to the latest, most flexible


component of your IT portfolio
Beyond all the hype
about the cloud, some
companies are achieving
great savings. Some arent.
Whats the difference?
Whats the key to using
cloud computing to your
advantage rather than
following the crowds to an
overpriced, disappointing
non-event? How have some
companiesbig, medium-

In our experience, the smartest companies

companies, the cloud is not a fad (indeed,

address the cloud on their own terms,

they, like Wired magazine, find the cloud

incorporating it into an IT strategy that addresses

a tiresome phrase). Instead its a logical

the unique challenges facing their industry and

step in the evolution of their methods of

position. They identify the primary concerns

addressing cost control, agility, and scalability.

such as cost control, agility, or scalabilitythat


will drive the future improvement they need. Then
they study their existing workloads and capacity
to identify gaps the cloud can productively
fill. They listen to the concerns of both their IT
experts (well call these folks, lovingly, geeks)
and budget hawks (with equal love, number
crunchers) to achieve cost savings without
reducing performance or compliance. Then,
with specific objectives in mind, theyre able to
establish a long-term partnership with a smart,

In this e-book we will share those lessons


with you. Our goal is to help you make
smarter choices about IT resource
provisioningwhatever those choices may
be. Weve tried to enhance this e-book with
interactive features because we see it as
the beginning of a conversation. Wed love
to hear your reactionsfeel free to reach
out to us by Web, email, chat, Facebook,
twitter, or telephone (1-866-956-9594).

responsive cloud service provider. For these

sized, or smalldone it?

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1: Integrate the


cloud into your IT strategy
Todays World
Todays IT leaders are being

The demand for IT resources is ever-increasing.

is far less patient with lengthy development

People love rich media, such as videos, high-

processes. The company demands speed and

before. They must provide users

resolution photos and interactive content.

responsiveness not only from hardware, but

with complex systems that achieve

And without taking up any physical space, the

also from everything the IT department does.

collections of these materials are rarely purged

challenged to do more than ever

high performance in secure and

to make room for more. Rather, more storage

scalable environments. They must

to be able to access and use these files.

manage applications
and workloads
across multiple
platforms while
transforming legacy
applications and
processes. Oh, and
they have to do it for less money
4

than last year, and in less time.

is added and network capacity is increased

But how to meet that demand? Few CEOs


are willing to increase the percentage of
budget allotted to IT. Theyre wary of capitalintensive development efforts, mindful of a

Meanwhile, business users are increasingly

legacy of misspent investments in IT. (Anyone

dependent on IT services to accomplish their

recall this Gartner estimate that half of all

work. When email goes down, can anybody get


anything done? Suddenly this function has become
mission-criticalas have other formerly lower-

data warehousing projects fail? How about


Gartners equally gloomy predictions

for social CRM initiatives?) So if budgets

profile functions, such as business intelligence.

cant be expanded, maybe money could be

Mission-critical applications require outstanding

diverted from other existing IT expenses?

performance (so that users dont get frustrated

This has been a surprisingly productive

waiting for a query response) and disaster

approach for the past few years, as many IT

recovery (so they wont notice blips). And when

leaders have achieved consolidation savings

an application is mission-critical, a new version

through virtualizationbut most have already

needs to be available right awaymanagement

gone as far as they can with such efforts.


2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Integrate the cloud


into your IT strategy

A Strategy for Tomorrow


So where to get the new resources that

be more: it must be a strategic player. IT leaders

particularly challenging today is that threats

business users need? Some users themselves

must study how external forces will continue to

come from two directions. On one side, as

think they have an answer: the cloud. (See

transform the business, and seek opportunities

weve mentioned, is the loss of relevance

Sidebar on page 6: What exactly is the

to move in the right direction (as hockey great

if your business users decide to get their

cloud anyways?) Thus the pressure from

Wayne Gretzky said, to skate to where the puck

IT from elsewhere. Yet on the other side is

management to force IT to move into the cloud.

is going to be). These opportunities will vary by

the loss of control if the type of cloud you

(Management also has its own motivations,

industryyou may want to move toward mobility,

move to results in a loss of performance,

influenced by the number crunchers.) In some

personal technology, or empowering workers

security, or the flexibility to change vendors.

companies, users are even bypassing IT to

with dataand they will vary with the firms

sign up for public cloud services such as

positionyou may need to improve utilization,

those from Amazon and Microsoft. Many IT

reduce capital expenditures, or improve agility.

leaders resist, citing concerns with security,

Your IT strategy is your conscious effort to make

vendor lock-in, performance, availability, and

the best choices to maximize those opportunities

integration. And although these concerns

while minimizing the associated threats.

are legitimate, users rarely find them

Negotiating these opportunities and threats


requires not just any strategy, but a good one.
Lets move to the cloud is not a very good
strategy. Of course, neither is We cant put
anything in the cloud. The savviest strategy will
obviously be unique to your company, but will

The business users are correct that cloud-

boil down to the classic challenge of seeking to

based solutions exist for many of their problems.

provide your business users with the services

Falling behind is not only an ugly,

The value of IT comes in knowing which of the

they need while optimizing your budget. The

unproductive debateits also the wrong

business problems and opportunities are best

cloud is merely one of many vehicles that will

one to get into. It implies that IT is merely a

served by the cloud, and making the appropriately

accomplish that strategy. Thus the first step

provider of services. But to be effective, to

strategic deployments. It also comes in knowing

in taking advantage of the cloud is knowing

deliver ongoing value to the company, IT must

how to avoid threats. What makes IT strategy

your strategy, so you know what you need.

persuasive. They accuse IT of falling behind.

What should I evaluate as


I look to add cloud to my
IT infrastructure portfolio?
Click here to find out.
5

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

According to the National Institute of

Standards and Technology (NIST),


cloud computing is a model for enabling
ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand
network access to a shared pool of
configurable computing resources

without investing in new infrastructure,


training new personnel or licensing new
software. The word cloud represents a
metaphor for the way IT resources need
not be tied to a specific physical location,
but can be shared over a network.

What exactly is the


cloud anyways?

(And why do they call it a cloud?)


(e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications
and services) that can be rapidly provisioned
and released with minimal management
effort or service provider interaction.
In short, cloud service is elastic (users
can consume as much or as little of a
service as they want at any time), soldon-demand, and fully managed by the
provider. More importantly, cloud computing
makes it possible to increase capacity
and add capabilities on-demand

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

You often hear about cloud categorizations


such as three service models (software,
platform and infrastructure), and four
deployment models (private, community,
public and hybrid). But if these distinctions
arent yet clear to you, dont worry: they
have arisen because of some of the
concerns and benefits of the cloud model
that youre about to learnso they should
be clearer after you finish this e-book.

Chapter 2: Use the


cloud to overcome your
business challenges
Cost Control
Your IT strategy will

Lets say that, like many IT departments today,

identify one or more

are exploding. How are you going to avoid

business challenges

huge future capital outlays to purchase new


processors or storage devices? This issue,

that will define the

like so many well address in this e-book,

coming years. In this

and the number-crunchersbut in this case

chapter well take a

often elicits different reactions from the geeks

see a cool toy gathering dust. (Thanks to


virtualization, many of your IT assets are
more effectively utilized than previously,
but theres still room for improvement.)
A nightclub thats located next to a church
has an ideal opportunity to share a parking
lot. By filling it up on both Saturday night

The number-crunchers object to the way the

asset utilization. Likewise, taking advantage

look at three common


challenges and ways that

to operating expenses (OpEx), because that

to help address them.

utilization rates, because they hate to

they both point in the same direction.

new equipment would be paid for. Theyre

the cloud may be able

your compute and storage requirements

often wanting to shift capital expenses (CapEx)


shift results in significant improvements in
financial flexibility. The geeks object to the
way the new equipment would be used.
Theyre always wanting to increase asset

and Sunday morning, both entities improve


of somebody elses under-utilization is one of
the great promises of the cloud. After all, a
parking lot can serve only adjacent buildings,
but IT resources can be anywhereas long
as you can guarantee quality of service
(which well discuss in Chapter 4).

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Use the cloud to


overcome your
business challenges

Cost Control
People are just as important to utilize effectively

guarantee quality of service, you may want

as hardwaremaybe even more so. For

to ask if you can save money by outsourcing

example, many companies that run their email

this function to someone who specializes

systems on Microsoft Exchange know that

in it, and can take advantage of scale.

Exchange administrators are hard to find.


Likewise, you may have an application so old
and creaky that only one of your senior IT
people knows how to care for it. This employee
has more valuable (and rewarding) things to
do, but you cant simply get rid of the app and
its not worth building a new one. If you could
outsource such functions, you could reduce
your headaches and improve employee morale.
Granted, if were talking about Exchange, you
may hesitate to outsource an application as
critical as emailbut remember: email is not
your core business. (Electricity is critical to your
business as well, but you dont operate your
own power plant.) Again, as long as you can

Scale, utilization, and CapEx-to-OpEx can


drive significant savings for certain functions.
(See Sidebar on page 9: How much will I
save?) Plenty of caveats certainly apply, and
the effect on this years budget will probably
not be as large as the number-crunchers
were hoping for. (As you give them the
bad news, this article, The Truth about

Cloud Economics by two Gartner fellows


at the Harvard Business Review blog, may

help them understand that your situation is


hardly unique.) But when you think about
containing potential future cost increases,
the cloud can often be a valuable tool.

RETWEET THIS:
RT @Latisys: Using cloud
resources can control
future costs through scale,
utilization, and CapEx-toOpEx

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

What Not To Do:

If you have unelastic (steady) workloads


that run 24x7x365, putting them in the
cloud may generate little cost savings
compared to on-premise or off-premise
colocation or managed hosting.

How much
will I save?

The cloud is a particularly good moneysaving tool for the following situations:
For situations of bursting demand,
as discussed below.
To save on unique resourceswhether
hardware such as tape devices or personnel
such as people with specialties in particular
software applications, as discussed above.
When you need a fast path to revenues
provisioning infrastructure could take
months under traditional models and just
minutes with the cloud, as discussed below.
When you want to quickly add value
to business units. Developing a new
application for customer relationship
management or expense management
could also take months or even years
under traditional models, but can
be transforming your salespeoples
processes in weeks with the cloud.

How much you save will depend on your


situation. The good news: We know of
HP customers that have realized a Total
Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings of up

to 56 percent. The bad news: Weve


heard of other companies that actually
lost money. The problem with these other
companies was that they didnt have a
firm grasp of their workloads. Its like when
you got your first cell phone: if you didnt
know how many minutes you used per
month, and you chose a plan with too few
minutes, the overages could kill you.

We could go on, but you know these


situations better than we do. You understand
your strategy and what you need to do to
accomplish it. You know your workloads
and your current infrastructure. We can
tell you (wed be delighted to tell you!)
how and how much you can put in the
cloud, but in the end its your strategy
that will determine your savings.
What do we mean
when we say you know
your workloads?
Click here to read more

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Use the cloud to


overcome your
business challenges

Speed and agility


the solution is ready. Instead, many cloud

application or website, and you want the

service providers are now offering software-

upgrade to go smoothly, without disrupting

as-a-service (SaaS) applications to perform

operations, itd be nice to create a simulated

such functions. These applications have many

production environment for thorough testing.

associated with your IT resources.

drawbacks, including limitations in security

Under the old approach, you might have

One such process is the provisioning

and flexibility, but a huge advantage is the fact

needed several days to get a server up and

that they can be available in hours or even

running and loaded with the appropriate

minutes. This advantage (and the way some

data. Provisioning infrastructure-as-a-service

SaaS companies are marketing it) accounts

in the cloud, your new server can be ready

for much of the current hype about the cloud.

in hours. Then, when you roll the upgrade

The pace of business today is faster than


ever. Your IT department has to keep up.
And sometimes whats holding you back
are the long, bureaucratic processes

of software tools to your information

workers. Once upon a time, you could


consider investing years in developing
an enterprise resource planning (ERP) or
customer relationship management (CRM)
system that would be perfectly customized
to your business. To the extent that was
ever a good idea, its not today, because
the business is so likely to change before

10

Less hyped, less transformative, but often


boasting a bigger cost/benefit ratio is reforming

into production, you can de-provision the


test environment and stop paying for it.

the process of provisioning hardware. For


example, consider software development

testing. When youre planning to upgrade an

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Use the cloud to


overcome your
business challenges

Speed and agility


The same principle holds for the purchase
of new hardware. Some companies have
developed procurement processes that are
extremely complicated. Aimed at reducing
CapEx, these processes make the purchase of
new hardware a long, tedious slog. With cloud
infrastructure, you can provision CapEx-free

Depending on your situation, you

high performance) such as social

revenue and agility by using the cloud to

infrastructure (VDI), again without the

Expand into new customer segments

required for new hardware

may also be able to improve time-to-

media, gaming, email, or virtual desktop

accomplish the following:

commitment to capital investments


Quickly take advantage of multiple

Experiment with expansions of latency-

site deployment

sensitive applications (those that require

resources instantaneously.
Purchase Set up
Facilities
assets

Business selects
application

Load OSs

Patch VMs, OSs, Set approvals, Test and


applications Access controls quality

traditional IT infrastructure
cloud infrastructure

IT planning
meetings

Coordinate install
process

Set up
Install servers networks

RETWEET THIS:

11

RT @Latisys: Cloud resources


can make for a more agile
business with the speed to
respond to market changes.

Load VMs

Set up
storage

Deploy
application

Activate
service

Manage over
lifecycle

Just because you can deploy in hours doesnt always


mean you should: sometimes the need for an
enterprise-grade firewall outweighs the need for speed.
Click here to read more on prevention planning in
right-sizing your cloud.
2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Use the cloud to


overcome your
business challenges

Elasticity
Maybe the demand for your IT resources is

This scalability to react to customer needs

perfectly steady all day, all week, all yearand

is generally of huge benefit to your business

maybe every day you commute exactly 24.3

users. They can plan more confidently without

minutes home to where you and your 1.86

capacity restraints. They can easily expand

children eat dinner at 6:06 p.m. If not, if theres

to new geographies or markets, execute

any variation in demand, you can a) suffer from

promotional blitzes, or otherwise quickly

underutilization, b) crash regularly during spikes,

respond to market changes.

or c) take advantage of cloud resources that can


expand and contract with your needs.

RETWEET THIS:
RT @Latisys: Cloud is
ideal for variable, elastic
workloads but not for
predictable, steady state.
12

Because of these benefits, many business


units are tempted to do the cloud on their

For example, consider registration for the 2012

own, creating a sort of shadow IT organization

Marine Corps marathon, which filled 30,000 slots

by provisioning public cloud resources with

in less than three hours: that was some heavy

the swipe of a credit card. Centralizing such

website traffic, which probably wont be repeated

actions may improve economies of scale.

until next year. Does the event need to build its

But more importantly, centralizing in IT can

IT infrastructure to handle that traffic? Or could it

determine where security may be needed

burst to consume cloud resources on registration

(another topic well cover in Chapter 4) and

day? There are plenty of examples of bursting

achieve similar results with a hybrid

demand: when your monthly financial reports

cloud solution.

are due, after your product is featured on TV,


when your oil well is hot and needs to transmit
massive amounts of seismic data, or when your
daily web traffic peaks.
2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Chapter 3: Achieve
solutions through
the cloud
Disaster Recovery
In the previous chapter we looked
at big trends that may be shaping
your IT strategy, and how you

Planning for business continuity is like planning for door locks in a 24hour convenience store. If everything goes according to plan, the store
will never be closed and the lock never used. You have to install a lock
because you know everything wont always go according to plan, but

can harness the cloud to stay

you sure hate to spend any more money than is absolutely necessary.

ahead of those challenges. In

Thus disaster recovery is often a great place to start when seeking

this chapter well get a little more


hands-on. As you go on your
cloud journey, you may want to
start by harvesting some lowhanging fruit in the form of certain

to take advantage of the cloud. Rather than buying additional onpremises hardware to back up a mission-critical solution, you can
back it up in the cloud. You gain flexibility and options and most
importantly, only pay for what you consume. Your cloud DR is
there waiting for when disaster strikes, but at minimal cost. More
than avoiding headaches, you avoid significant expense.

specific solutions, such as

13

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Achieve solutions
through the cloud

Disaster Recovery
The cloud backup is, by definition, in a different

than simply giving every employee a Dropbox

location, so youre protected against physical

account. Your disaster recovery must be

disasters in your datacenter. And if users have

appropriately architectedwe like to use

concerns about the performance of cloud

the phrase converged infrastructure,

resources, this is a good trial run: they probably

which involves integrated failover and fault

wont notice any failovers, so like the Molire

tolerance. You also want to structure the

character who was surprised to learn hed been

contract with your cloud service provider

speaking prose all his life, they will be surprised

so that you can spin up resources as you

to learn that they have already been relying on

need them (during the disaster) but not

the cloud. And on the off-chance that anything

pay for them until then. A good cloud

does go wrong, you havent risked your everyday

service provider will be happy to work

operationsyou can always blame the disaster!

with you on this. With these concerns

There are engineering concerns. Thats why


your company needs an IT department rather

met, disaster recovery can go a long way


toward meeting the cost containment
objectives (we discussed in Chapter 2).

RETWEET THIS:
RT @Latisys: For many IT
strategies, disaster recovery
is a great first step into
the cloud.

14

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Achieve solutions
through the cloud

Storage
(In Chapter 1) we talked about the importance of

Typically, cloud storage is really cheap storage

setting an IT strategy that addresses the growing

in that businesses can trade performance for

role of large files. Maybe this means that your

price if all they need is a place to store files.

company will be harnessing Big Data to better

The challenge is that cheap cloud storage is

segment your customer base or otherwise gain

one-dimensionalused to store flat files or

valuable business intelligence. Maybe it means

imagesbut not meant for applications with

youll be shooting and editing more promotional

real-time compute. Enterprise cloud storage

videos. But however its playing out, your

is available on-demand as you turn up your

storage needs will almost certainly increase.

virtual private cloud, and it is highly scalable

To meet that storage demand, you can build a


new datacenteror two, since you probably
need a true secondary site. Now youre talking
capital investments in power, cooling and
hardware. Youre also talking software licenses,
staff, and perhaps specialized equipment.
The cloud is an enticing alternative.

15

and elastic, so you consume as much as


you need and pay-as-you-go. But make no
mistake cloud storage / cheap storage is
very different from enterprise cloud storage
that comes with performance tiers and SLAs.

RETWEET THIS:
RT @Latisys: Cloud
storage can be cheap or
high-performance; the best
choice depends on
my needs.

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Achieve solutions
through the cloud

Bursting demand
As we mentioned in the previous chapter, the

environment, run the scrum through testing, and

cloud is a great solution when you have variable

then turn off the test environment as everyone

peaks in computing requirements. You may have

goes back to development.

a seasonal business, daily spikes in Web traffic,


or other cyclical capacity demands that extend
beyond your current infrastructure.

Note that there are multiple types of bursts. The


one people most commonly think ofbecause
it usually offers the largest cost savingsis

For example, if your software development

a simple burst to consume public cloud

efforts use scrum processes, your Quality

resources. But many companies with the need

Assurance function involves short intervals of

for tighter security have built an on-premises

intensive testing. You can turn on a cloud test

private cloud to accommodate bursting


demand. And some companies for whom the
private cloud is too limited have structured
a hybrid cloud that consumes public-cloud
resources using private-cloud security.

RETWEET THIS:
RT @Latisys: The cloud
can handle bursty,
variable demand in
compute requirements.

16

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Achieve solutions
through the cloud

The Whole Enchilada


Its surprising how many people familiar with cloud

In fact there are some companies for whom

computing say, If I was starting a company now,

such a strategy makes a great deal of

I wouldnt buy any IT resources. Id put it all in

sense. Many of them produce nontraditional

the cloud. Surprising because these people are,

applications customized for elasticity. For

after all, in the IT industryit almost sounds like

example, consider the developer of an iPhone

theyre dreaming of outsourcing themselves. Can

application or game. You build it and put it out

you imagine a teacher saying, If I was starting a

on the Apple Store without any idea how many

school today, I wouldnt hire any teachers?

people might be interested. The demand could

Again, however, it helps to remember that


deploying cloud resources for IT does not
represent displacing the IT function itself. (As we
discussed in Chapter 1,) IT is about the strategy
of empowering workers with informationthe

17

be huge and instantaneous, or it could build


slowly and then burst, or it might not do much
at all. Cloud resources help you meet that
demand with speed, scalability, and minimal
up-front costs.

cloud is merely the location of (some of) the

On the other hand, most enterprises today

physical resources to accomplish that strategy.

dont need the whole enchilada. They do

So saying Id put it all in the cloud represents

have legacy hardware and applications (and

dreaming of ultimate freedom in strategic choices.

competencies and talent and advantages!).

If I was starting a company today, I wouldnt

They do have some workloads that need to be

have any legacy hardware or applications to worry

on-premises. Rather than the whole enchilada,

about, and by embracing the cloud for all of my

they just needif youll permit us to extend this

needs, I could preserve that freedom and flexibility

metaphor almost beyond its breaking pointa

forever. Far from eliminating IT, this dream is

side of nachos. (See Sidebar on page 18: Is

more like making IT immortal.

the cloud the right choice for each application?)

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

In a word, no. You probably have meaningful


competencies and investments in missioncritical, latency-dependent, complex functions
that should absolutely stay on-premise or
within your current outsourced colocation or
managed hosting deployments. There may
come a point, in several years, when cloud
offerings evolve to become appropriate for
even these applications. But you should be

Of course, even in these cases its not quite


that simple. As weve mentioned, cloud
services come in multiple service models
and deployment models. You may then need
to ask if this particular application needs a
basic public cloud or a private cloud designed

skeptical of anyone who tells you were there


already.

Whats more, the cloud metaphor is often


used to refer to IT outsourcing in general,
whether or not the outsource destination
is literally over the Internet. The way we
see it, cloud computing is a subset of IT
outsourcing, and so the real question to
ask is not, Can I send this function to the
cloud? but Can I outsource this function,
and if so, where? Phrasing the question
this way helps identify the strategic goals
you want to accomplishfinancial flexibility,
redundancy, security, elasticityand then
lets the solution (cloud, managed hosting,
managed services, etc.) arise out of the
resulting profile of your needs.

especially for you. (Weve assembled a list of


such questions as a Checklist at the end of
this e-book.)

Is the cloud the


right choice for my
applications?
We are at the point, however, where you can
ask of each application: Is the cloud the right
choice for this? You may discover the answer
is yes for situations such as:
Truly variable workloads, as discussed above
Applications that weigh down your cost
structure, for example in software licensing
Applications that are giving you trouble,
because theyre temperamental, old, creaky,
crash-prone, memory hogs, user-unfriendly,
or otherwise apt to keep you up at night

18

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Chapter 4: Ensure
compliance, performance,
and optimization
Security and Compliance
So far weve been looking at some of
the benefits of including the cloud in
your IT infrastructure portfolio. But
there are challenges to making the
cloud workchallenges that should
not be taken lightly. We believe
that one reason theres been some
backlash against the cloud is that
cloud-hype often doesnt acknowledge
why issues like compliance and

Maintaining the security of your companys

designed to demonstrate the security of

intellectual property and other sensitive materials

your data. For example, if you use credit

has always been the number 1 priority of the

cards, youre subject to Payment Card

IT department. And it always will be, just like

Industry (PCI) data security standards; in the

maintaining the security of your childs home

medical field, there are standards associated

will always top every parents list. When people

with the Health Insurance Portability and

blithely talk of dumping entire IT infrastructures

Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA); if you

into the public cloud, abandoning years of

work with the federal government, there

security work, IT people rightly feel violated.

are new Federal Risk and Authorization

Such a move would not only be unwise, it could


also be illegal. Depending on your industry, your
company may face compliance requirements

Management Program (FedRAMP)


requirements. If you get busted for violating
those standards, saying, it was so much
cheaper not to is not likely to get you off.

performance matter. The geeks are


indeed raising important issues here,
and the number-crunchers need to
understand why theyre important
and what can be done about them.
19

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Ensure compliance,
performance, and
optimization

Security and Compliance


We didnt want to clutter up this e-book with all the
details on the SOC 2 reporting framework, but we do
think its important and you can find the details here.

So any move to the cloud must account for

providers will give you a resource in a single

security and compliance. The best way to address

pool with many other customers. Depending

this is to work with a cloud service provider that

on your security and compliance needs,

understands these issues. Perhaps its a provider

that may not be a problem. However, you

who has worked in your industry and knows the

may need a private cloud service provider

ins and outs of your particular flavor of alphabet

with a three-tier architecture that meets

soup. Perhaps its a provider who deals with many

the SOC 2 reporting framework.

different types of compliance regimes across


many customers and industries, thus giving a
macro view of compliance issues. Perhaps its
a provider with an architecture that allows for
simpler compliance testing. Perhaps its a provider
who can even sit down with your auditors and
confirm that youre following best practices.

RETWEET THIS:

20

RT @Latisys: The best way


to achieve compliance in the
cloud is to work with a
cloud service provider
that understands
your needs.

Obviously no cloud service provider can


assume responsibility for your compliance.
But you may find that some providers
understand what it takes, and can organize
themselves to support your efforts to achieve
that compliance. If providers lack these
skills, that puts more of a burden on your IT

This is where talking about the cloud can

departmentand isnt reducing that burden

get dangerousbecause there are so many

the whole point of moving to the cloud?

types of clouds. Many public cloud service

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Ensure compliance,
performance, and
optimization

What does a high-performance


architecture with enterprise-grade
components look like?

Performance
The very notion of the IT department is based

But again, not all clouds are created equal, and

thats not optimized for multi-tenancy: the Yugos

on control. A company gives its IT department

one may have the silver lining youre looking

of the cloud. But you can rent a Civic (or a

complete control over the user experience with

for. Some private cloud providers offer tiered

Toyota Sienna minivan or any number of other

technology, to make the most of those experiences.

services where you pick the quality of service

cars) that can meet your performance needs.

And in response to user demands, IT has invested

level you need. You can choose differing

You just need to choose a cloud provider that,

heavily in performance levels, especially for mission-

performance levels for different applications.

for example, uses a converged infrastructure

critical applications. IT knows that its users want


impeccable quality of service, and it wants as much

based on HP enterprise-grade components.

destination where all of the rental car companies

Leading private cloud providers build their

deployed only Honda Civics, you might think, I cant

platform using brand-name servers, blades,

rent a car because I need a minivan. But what if

firewalls, and load balancers that are built for

youd been misinformed by the hype? You can rent

multi-tenancy and provide greater security and

a minivan. Its not as cheap as a Civic, but it serves

isolation. And when it comes to brand names,

Its not just theoretical: many IT departments have

a different set of needs. Some cloud providers allow

HP happens to have the fastest Transaction

tried running an application on, say, Amazon Web

you to choose quality of service levels and assign

Processing Performance Council (TPC) benchmark

Servicesand they report (perhaps with sadness,

resources to otherwise independent workloads.

scores of any product in the storage market.

control as possible over its attempts to meet those


needs. When people blithely talk of dumping entire
IT infrastructures into the public cloud, abandoning
that control, IT people rightly feel helpless.

perhaps with glee) that it runs maybe half as fast


as it does on-premises. In most cases, users
wont put up with half-as-fast. They tend to start
complaining at about 96-percent-as-fast. If the
cloud is saving money only by lowering quality,
then forcing IT into the cloud is like forcing a
carpenter to build your house out of cardboard.
21

If you were vacationing with a family of six at a

Now imagine a vacation destination where some


of the rental companies deploy Yugos. You might
think, I cant rent a car because I want to go
more than 35 miles per hour. Sadly, some cloud
providers use generic hardware, or hardware

RETWEET THIS:
RT @Latisys: One
size cant fit all. The
performance you need
for test and dev is not
acceptable for production
apps in the cloud.

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

Ensure compliance,
performance, and
optimization

Optimization
Everyone knows horror stories of companies

hear what they imply about how the critics see

But in taking the cape off the cloud, you

that have done a sudden about-face. A new top

the companys traditional strengths and future

necessarily set it on the shoulders of your IT

executive decides that the company should enter a

challenges. The results of that conversation

decisionmakers. These leaders must decide

trendy new business segment or reorganize along

can beshould beoptimization.

which applications to move to the cloud,

a trendy new management theory. The initiatives


become horror stories when they are neither rooted
in the companys traditional strengths nor properly
faced toward its future needs. When people blithely
talk of dumping entire IT infrastructures into the
public cloud, abandoning history, IT people rightly
check their calendars to see if today is Friday
the 13th.
Cloud computing is a trendy topic right now,
and so it needs to be resistedby people who
dont want to live through a horror story or overhyped non-event (Y2K anyone?) In responding,
advocates of cloud computing need to listen to
the critiques, and the rationales behind them, to

22

By optimization we mean right-sizing your IT


infrastructure to fit your strengths and needs. You
should use the cloud to complement your existing
infrastructure as you plan for the future. The
cloud should supplement rather than supplant
your existing competencies and capabilities.
When you seek to optimize, you take the
superheros cape off of the cloud. This is a
good thing, because the cloud cannot leap

how to balance security and cost savings,


performance and elasticity, power and flexibility.
Such decisions are hardly impossibleindeed,
theyre similar to decisions that IT has been
making for decades: how to deploy and
consume, how to secure and manage, and
when to build vs. buy. But making these
decisions does require that your IT people
have brains. It isit has to bethe wisest
strategy, but it is certainly not foolproof.

tall buildings in a single bound. Its powers are


mortal onesthey just happen to differ slightly
from the powers of the rest of your team. Which
makes the combination potentially powerful.

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

The cloud checklist

Key considerations when adding cloud to


your IT infrastructure portfolio:

Fill out this form online

What are my workloads?



Purpose
q Production
q Proof of Concept

q Test & Development


q Disaster Recovery


Compute and Performance requirements
q Storage Capacity
q Storage IOPS
q Networking
q RAM
q CPU
q Physical vs. virtual
q Application type
q Core to business q Ancillary

Ask your
organization


Elasticity
q How do my peak needs compare with my average needs?
q How much do I need, how quickly do I need it, and for
how long?
q Variable? q Cyclical? q Seasonal?


Are there specific compliance requirements?

q PCI q HIPAA

q FISMA
q SSAE16 / SAS70

q SarbOx
q GLBA

q FedRAMP
q Other

 ow does this environment relate to


H
the rest of my IT infrastructure?




q In one office

q Spread

out in remote locations


Is the application:
q Public-facing

q Internal

only

q Interoperability?
q On-Premise vs. Outsourced?
q Core to business vs. Ancillary?
q Geographic considerations where is the data
stored? Where are the VMs housed?

What resources and capabilities do I


require for:

q Who needs to access the applications?


q Where are users located?
q

2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.


Are there specific security requirements?

q Network Firewall
q IPS

q Web application Firewall q Anti-Virus

 hat kind of access do we need to


W
these applications:

23

What level of security is required?

q Solution design
q Migration planning
q Ongoing support

Integrate the cloud into your

IT infrastructure portfolio
In this e-book we have sought to
empower your ability to make IT
resource investments by showing
how to base those choices in a
comprehensive IT strategy. While not a
substitute for that strategy, the cloud
may be a valuable vehicle for you to
accomplish strategic goals,
such as cost control and
business agility.

You may be able to use cloud solutions to save


money on disaster recovery and storage, and
to scale to meet bursting demand. If you can
do so while ensuring security, compliance, and
performance, then the cloudor perhaps other
IT outsourcing optionswill help you right-size
your on-premises infrastructure investments.
Developing this strategy is a highly individual
exercise, specific to your company. It will arise
out of conversations between your geeks
and your number-crunchers, between your
leadership and your on-the-ground personnel,
and between your company and one or more
cloud service providers. Weve compiled a
checklist (See sidebar on the previous page. The
Cloud Checklist.) to help you with that third type
of conversationand wed be honored to be a
part of it. If youre interested please feel free to

reach out to us by Web, email, chat, Facebook,


twitter, or telephone (1-866-956-9594).

24

14-LACL032_14.0 2014 Latisys. All rights reserved.

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