Posts Tagged ‘Private cloud’

Use the Cloud to Strengthen Your IT Workforce

October 21st, 2010

There is no question the private cloud has become a powerful force in the It universe, a force full of wonder, danger, and mystery. Many IT experts agree the cloud provides almost limitless opportunities. It is not only changing the way technology is built, managed, and utilized but it is also changing the skill sets needed to handle such a force. Sanjay Mirchandani, Senior VP and CIO at EMC, believes this provides a chance for your IT team to sharpen their skills and expand their knowledge. He cites three ideologies aimed at achieving these objectives:

1. IT professionals will need a deeper understanding of their traditional core competency to apply it within a private cloud

2. IT professionals will also need a wider skill set to transcend the traditional IT silos

3. With the adoption of the private cloud, IT must be one with the business

Mirchandani recommends challenging your employees and giving them an environment where they want to work. EMC’s IT organization tries to provide a balance between their expectations and capabilities. Additionally, they provide extensive training programs specifically developed for a cloud transition to help their employees understand their new roles.

If you would like to read Sanjay’s article online, entitled How Private Cloud Shakes Up Traditional IT Roles, visit CIO.com or click HERE.

No comments »

Posted in IT Workforce

Tags:

Is The Cloud Ready For Primetime?

July 29th, 2010

Some interesting results came back from a recent survey conducted by TPI regarding cloud computing. According to the survey, which polled 140 corporate IT decision makers, nearly four out of five companies are considering cloud computing solutions. Three out of five however are actually putting them into action. How are these IT departments doing this you ask?

In an article by Stephanie Overby on CIO.com, she writes that they are easing into it with smaller, lower risk services. Companies are still cautious and Kevin Smilie, head of TPI’s cloud computing business solutions unit, believes they are not yet “convinced cloud services are ready for the prime time requirements of their core operations.” These services are simply too vital to trust to cloud computing in its early development. Those IT departments that have decided to risk their mainstream operations on the cloud are doing so for one reason according to Smilie and that is cost savings.

Most companies that have adopted such practices are selecting private cloud options because of lower costs with enterprise-class service levels and security. This is something they simply cannot receive in the public cloud space. As a result, IT service providers are trying to offer more in the private cloud sector to soothe the apprehension of many IT buyers.

To read Stephanie’s entire article, called “IT Departments Move Low-Risk Services to the Cloud,” head over to CIO.com or click HERE.

No comments »

Posted in Strategy

Tags:

Floating on private cloud computing

October 30th, 2009

 

Mark Everett Hall from Computerworld, wrote an article for CIO that discusses private clouds. Private clouds are environments which companies use automated tools provide virtualized serves to end users within their own organization’s infrastructure. According to Hall, “[private clouds] are gaining traction among IT leaders who want to deliver advance services at a lower cost.”

 

Hall states Gartner research that “expects by 2012 [that] IT shops will spend more than half of their cloud dollars on private cloud services because of improvement in cost and management efficiency.”

 

At Bechtel Corp. in San Francisco, there were 2,000 IT employees managing 20 data centers with 2-3 percent server utilization in 2005. Presently, Bechtel has reduced the number of IT employees by 900, reduced the number of data centers to 3, and has an average of 60-70% server utilization.

 

Challenges to private clouds include manageability issues, vendor lock-in risks, and slow adoption of internal cloud set ups.  One reason for this is the unclear definition of private cloud computing. Geir Ramleth, CIO at Bechtel, stated in the article that narrowly defining private cloud computing would limit what it can accomplish.  

 

However, other organizations are not so quick to adopt private cloud computing such as Hall’s counter-example, ING Financial services. Alan Boehme, senior vice president and head of IT strategy at ING, stated in the article that there are limits to present management tools. There is also with a concern with vendor lock in. Heavy reliance on one vendor is costly and inhibits changes to the infrastructure.

 

Hall states in the article that the biggest factor in weighing the pros and cons of private cloud computing is money. Because of the recent recession, budgets were reduced leading to reduction of IT spending. However, Hall states, “A private cloud lets IT get immediate dividends through self-service, automated provisioning and improved system utilization- all of which will have a big impact on IT operations costs.”

 

Next Thursday, November 5th, Dale Seavey, Director of Architecture, Design, and Engineering at Cisco, will lead an IMF web forum discussion around cloud computing. To learn more about the speaker and see details about this web forum please click here.

No comments »

Posted in News, Strategy

Tags: