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Introduction
While the main benefits of cloud computing, decreased cost and ease of management, started the widespread interest in this technology, its limitations, including security concerns and losing control over applications, made savvy IT professionals wary. This is rapidly changing as access to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings from providers who have an in-depth knowledge of how to best leverage infrastructure services for enterprise cloud applications becomes more widely available. From this experience four key themes have emerged for justifying moving to cloud services. They are: Enhanced Business Agility and Minimized Cost Streamlined IT Operations Seamless Integration and Customization Risk Management
Enhancing Business Agility means being able to respond faster and more efficiently to business changes. Giving companies the ability to expand and contract compute, storage and network capacity at-will dramatically reduces the time and cost required to develop new applications and deploy resources where they are needed, when they are needed. This also helps minimize the time and cost to scale existing applications in response to changing demand. Streamlining IT Operations by moving resources into the cloud helps the business focus on their core mission. This helps reduce the burden of maintaining compute, storage and network infrastructure in-house. Businesses need the ability to seamlessly integrate existing enterprise IT investments when moving to customized public and private clouds. Finally, managing IT infrastructure is about managing risk. Loss of control of resources and maturity of the resources being used introduce risk to the enterprise. Cloud technology consolidates resources onto shared infrastructure with shared management. Cloud providers establish control over underlying enterprise compute, storage and networking infrastructure. As a result, security, availability and performance are consistently identified as top CIO concerns. The pace of change in the cloud computing industry rivals the intensive change seen at the start of the Internet era. Cloud providers are innovating rapidly and new services and concepts are being announced daily. With so many complex moving parts, choosing the right enterprise cloud provider can be challenging. This white paper provides an evaluation framework for selecting an enterprise cloud provider for your organization. Because the cloud is a fully integrated and highly dependent part of the companys IT infrastructure, it cannot be evaluated as a standalone feature set. As a result, the framework takes a complete view of a companys IT requirements.
Unified Management
Enterprise Security Role-Based Management Cloud Consulting Services 24x7 Customer Support Service Level Agreement
Cloud Operations and Resource Allocation Elasticity and Bursting Cloud Automation Network Infrastructure Total Cost
Are they comparable in quality, security and reliability to what you implement today within your internal IT environments? Are the vendors and standards the enterprise cloud provider uses compatible with your own internal IT vendors and standards? If I were building this myself, what technology would I use? How well does this integrate into my technology?
Representative Evaluation Questions What cloud services do I need to solve my IT challenges? Does your cloud provider allow you to implement a global hybrid public/private enterprise-grade cloud solution including dedicated servers, managed services, colocation and customization? Which of these managed services do they provide: security, storage, backup, network, disaster recovery, server operating system and application? Are there other services that I would need in the future? How much of the total solution does your cloud provider own and control?
Unified Management
A comprehensive enterprise cloud provider can offer companies a full range of services necessary to leverage the full potential of the cloud. Whether a company needs to implement a customized
solution, dedicated servers, managed services or colocation as part of their cloud solution, a single management portal for all services is the most efficient way to manage the day-to-day aspects of a cloud implementation. Representative Evaluation Questions Does your cloud provider offer a single integrated portal or single pane-of-glass visibility to all of your services including cloud, dedicated servers, network services, managed services, integrated trouble ticketing, asset management and support? How easy is it to use this portal? How do I access this portal? Who can access this portal? What rights can I assign?
Enterprise Security
Cloud security is the top concern for CIOs today. An informal survey of the public cloud space shows a wide range of security maturity levels. For example, many enterprise cloud providers cannot implement a networkbased intrusion detection system. Some providers settle for unknown software-based access control with no logging or visibility, bypassing industry-standard and certified firewall systems. Most companies would never take such risk with their enterprise security. The same attention should be applied to a cloud security implementation. A comprehensive security approach to the enterprise cloud includes security visibility (logging, network-level security); innovative enterprise-grade tested and certified security components; reputable and recognized vendors; and the option to have security managed as a service. Representative Evaluation Questions Does your cloud provider offer enterprise-grade security appliances from vendors you rely on today ones that are tested and certified, and that you trust? Can you leverage intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and enterprise-grade hardware-based firewalls? Do you have access to audit logs and asset-based usage reporting? Does your cloud provider offer managed security? Encryption for virtual machine instances? Machine level security hardening?
similar environment as they would in their own data center. The enterprise cloud provider should offer a way to clearly and cleanly allocate cloud compute, storage and network resources to specific applications. This is the most effective way to control and predict application performance and cost. Representative Evaluation Questions Does your cloud provider provide you tools to organize servers into unique manageable groups that align with your application architecture? Can you execute cloud operational commands across those groups? Can you flexibly allocate compute, storage and network capacity for groups of servers? How quickly can you scale up those resources?
Role-Based Management
The enterprise cloud portal is a vital element of an enterprise cloud strategy. The management portal centralizes control over IT resources. Individuals within the IT organization with different responsibilities need to access the portal. A role-based management system allows permissions to align with the levels of responsibilities. Role-based management enables the systems to be tailored to allow or restrict access to cloud resources appropriately. For example, only certain users should have the ability to delete servers or access specific cloud resources. Representative Evaluation Questions Does the cloud provider support cloud role-based administrative accounts so that you can assign individual permissions to users? Can you limit control of specific cloud resources (servers, storage and networks) to specific users?
Representative Evaluation Questions Does your cloud provider allow you to burst beyond your purchased cloud capacity? Do they guarantee that burst capacity will be available to you when you need it? Is it truly guaranteed capacity or are you relying on the cloud providers oversubscription model? Can you reduce the resources without any penalty?
Cloud Automation
One of the most interesting and powerful benefits of enterprise cloud computing is the ability to control the cloud directly from an application (a cloud-aware application) or through IT automation tools. This requires access to a cloud Application Programming Interface (API) that is standardsbased with an emphasis on multiple security levels such as authentication, access control and other industry best-practices protection. Because the API is the entry point to cloud services, automating the security of the API saves time and mitigates risks for the enterprise cloud. Representative Evaluation Questions Does your cloud provider allow you to programmatically, via an API, control your cloud? Do they help you enable cloud-aware applications? What steps do they take to secure the API access to your cloud are they adequate?
Network Infrastructure
A cloud providers network infrastructure assets are fundamental to high speed, efficient cloud application accessibility and management. An enterprise-grade global network that is continually upgraded to offer competitive performance levels, and incrementally expand cloud applications is needed. An enterprise may require cloud integration with sophisticated private networking capabilities, such as MPLS, or a high-speed connection between data centers. A cloud providers expertise should include the ability to optimize content delivery through the network or leverage enterprise-grade hardware-based load balancers. Representative Evaluation Questions Does your cloud provider offer you world class enterprise networking capabilities including a Tier 1 global IP network, high speed data center interconnection, MPLS and VPN? Does your cloud provider offer hardware-based enterprise-grade load balancing? Does your cloud provider offer content delivery network (CDN) services? What type of networking options does your cloud provider offer?
network and server uptime but address latency and even support response times. Cloud providers with confidence in their solutions will provide monitoring software to ensure a company has visibility and control over both the promised performance and alignment with cost. Representative Evaluation Questions What is covered in your cloud service providers SLA? Do they guarantee 100% uptime? Does your cloud provider offer cloud performance monitoring and reporting, enabling you to understand the quality of the service you are getting within the cloud platform itself?
Total Cost
Understanding what your true cost will be in the cloud can be difficult if a cloud provider uses a complicated billing model that is onerous to decipher and track. Services should be clearly defined and easily measured to ensure an accurate TCO calculation. The cost of a total enterprise cloud solution encompasses not only the cost of compute, network, and storage, but the trade off with capital expenditures that would provide access to an enterprise-grade infrastructure. Representative Evaluation Questions Is the cloud providers pricing model predictable and easy to understand? Is it competitive when you consider all of your true costs in providing enterprise services? Once you determine all of the gaps so that you have a fully maintainable and operational enterprise cloud solution, what is your total cost?
Evaluation Area
Enterprise-Grade and Industry-Standard
Does your cloud provider allow you to implement a global hybrid public/private enterprise-grade cloud solution including dedicated servers, managed services, colocation and customization? NTT Communications is a global solution provider operating more than 30 data centers with more than 200,000 employees worldwide. As its US-based subsidiary, NTT America leverages all of NTT Communications infrastructure assets including a high-speed global network and international data centers. This allows you to integrate traditional dedicated servers, colocation, managed services and your private cloud infrastructure as part of a total global solution. NTT America will work with you to customize your solution to meet the unique needs of your business.
Evaluation Area
Unified Management
Does your cloud provider offer a single integrated portal, or single pane-of-glass visibility, to all of your services, including cloud, dedicated servers, network services, managed services, integrated trouble ticketing, asset management and support? NTT America provides a single integrated portal for all NTT America services to simplify the management of all enterprise cloud resources. The web-based interface allows real-time monitoring of services and several reporting options allow appropriate levels of detail for on-going management.
Enterprise Security
Does your cloud provider offer enterprise-grade security appliances from vendors you rely on todayones that are tested and certified, and that you trust? Can you leverage intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and enterprise-grade hardware-based firewalls? NTT America allows for enterprise-grade security devices, including, for example, Checkpoint Firewalls and Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS), to be placed in front of or within enterprise cloud solutions. These enterprise-grade solutions are tested and certified by organizations including the International Computer Security Association (ICSA). Do you have access to audit logs and asset-based usage reporting? NTT America maintains audit logs for portal usage and asset-based reporting, as well as firewall and IDS/IPS logging.
Evaluation Area
Does your cloud provider provide you tools to organize servers into unique manageable groups that align with your application architecture and to execute cloud operational commands across those groups? NTT Americas Enterprise Cloud offers an innovative approach to organizing cloud resources. A flexible model allows functional permissions to be assigned by user responsibility within a Virtual Data Center. A customers enterprise cloud is organized into one or more of these Virtual Data Centers, which can be cascaded to Virtual Rooms and finally Virtual Applications. Cloud operational commands can be issued against Virtual Rooms and Virtual Applications by users with the appropriate permission level, saving time and increasing security. Can you flexibly allocate compute, storage and network capacity for groups of servers? NTT Americas solution allows you to allocate cloud resources (compute, storage and network) to one or more Virtual Data Centers depending on current needs. Within a Virtual Data Center, cloud resources can be allocated to one or more Virtual Rooms. Within a Virtual Room, Virtual Applications can be allocated a portion of the Virtual Rooms resources. Within a Virtual Application, servers can be individually assigned compute, storage and network resources. This allows you to quickly adapt your cloud resources to short and long term requirements.
Role-Based Management
Does the cloud provider support cloud role-based administrative accounts so that you can assign individual permissions to users? The NTT America Enterprise Cloud portal supports specific roles that can be assigned to individual users. These users and their roles can be assigned to specific Virtual Data Centers. Can you limit control of specific cloud resources (servers, storage and networks) to specific users?
Evaluation Area
Does your cloud provider allow you to burst beyond your purchased cloud capacity? NTT America guarantees that 100% of the cloud resources you have purchased (CPU, memory, network and storage) will be available to you. NTT America does not oversubscribe the resources you have purchased you are guaranteed to receive them. This provides exceptional performance and availability service levels and assures you receive the services that you have paid for. Do they guarantee that burst capacity will be available to you when you need it? NTT America guarantees that you will have an additional 25% of burst capacity available to you beyond that which you have committed to at a given point in time. This burst capacity is automatically made available to you to assure you achieve your service level objectives. In addition to burst capacity, at any given time an NTT America customer can request increased committed cloud resources. Is it truly guaranteed capacity or are you relying on the cloud providers oversubscription model? NTT America does not oversubscribe your cloud resources. You are guaranteed to receive the cloud resources you have purchased.
Does your cloud provider offer you comprehensive cloud consulting services from strategy through implementation? NTT America offers a comprehensive cloud consulting framework from strategy through implementation. NTT America consultants can help you develop a comprehensive public and private cloud computing roadmap. NTT America can assist your organization in articulating the unique business benefits of the cloud including increased competitiveness, improved ability to respond to change, reduced one-time and recurring IT costs, and increased visibility and control over IT resources. NTT America can also help you build a single cloud management approach and platform for the public cloud and any private clouds you may develop now or in the future.
Evaluation Area
Evaluation Area
Cloud Automation
Does the cloud provider give you 24x7 phone technical support staffed by human beings? NTT America provides 24x7 technical phone support staffed by experienced engineers and technical support representatives. Who exactly handles support and where are they located? NTT Americas 24x7 operations centers are staffed by NTT America employees or employees of NTT subsidiaries. NTT Americas operations centers are located in the United States. NTT-managed services offered by NTT subsidiaries may offer global follow-thesun technical support staffing with multilingual support. What is the support model? All NTT America Enterprise Cloud customers are provided 24x7 technical phone support for cloud infrastructure. Additional technical support services, based on the total customer solution, may be offered for managed operating system support and managed security.
Evaluation Area
Network Infrastructure
What is covered in your cloud service providers SLA? Do they guarantee 100% uptime? NTT America provides a service level agreement of 100% cloud resource uptime (compute and storage) and 100% customer portal availability. Does your cloud provider offer cloud performance monitoring and reporting, enabling you to understand the quality of the service you are getting within the cloud platform itself to confirm that you are getting what you paid for? NTT Americas Enterprise Cloud portal includes direct performance monitoring and uptime monitoring of cloud resources. Visibility is provided for overall CPU performance, memory usage, network performance and server uptime, including graphical display and flexible reporting options.
Evaluation Area
Total Cost
Does the cloud provider reveal the architecture, technologies and infrastructure used within the cloud to deliver your services? Do they provide real-time visibility into the underlying infrastructure? NTT America provides transparency and visibility to customers in how it architects its cloud service and the underlying technologies, vendors and approaches used. The company also provides transparency and visibility into how it operates its cloud platform including operational processes and procedures to support the customer. NTT America invites enterprise customers to tour its data centers and learn more about its approach to enterprise cloud computing and overall solutions. When you pay for cloud computing capacity, are you sure you are getting what you paid for? NTT America provides reporting and visibility into how the customer receives and consumes compute, storage and networking resource allocations, assuring that the customer can validate they are getting what they have paid for and are not oversubscribed.
Conclusions
The evaluation and selection of an enterprise cloud provider should include a comprehensive look at all aspects of a total enterprise solution. The enterprise cloud provider should be transparent in how they meet your security, performance and availability objectives. A customized solution should allow you to streamline IT operations and seamlessly integrate in order to meet the unique needs of your business. NTT America offers a comprehensive enterprise cloud solution and as a trusted advisor and business partner, has provided this cloud evaluation framework to help you carefully select your enterprise cloud provider. NTT America is committed to meeting the true needs of your business and welcomes the opportunity to talk more about how the NTT America Enterprise Cloud can be part of your total enterprise solution.
Learn more about NTT America Cloud services at http://www.dedicatedserver.com/cloud-hosting/ Twitter: @ntt_america Email: hosting@nttamerica.com Phone: (888) 341 7867