Ongoing hype around private cloud computing is creating
misperceptions about private cloud, according to Gartner, Inc. To help reduce
the hype and identify the real value of private cloud computing for IT leaders,
Gartner explains five common misconceptions about private cloud.
"The growth of private cloud computing is being driven
by the rapid penetration of virtualization and virtualization management, the
growth of cloud computing offerings, and pressure to deliver IT faster and
cheaper," says Tom Bittman, vice president and distinguished analyst at
Gartner. "However, in the rush to respond to these pressures, IT
organizations need to be careful to avoid the hype, and, instead, should focus
on a private cloud computing effort that makes the most business sense."
The five misconceptions about private cloud and the
corresponding realities are:
· Private cloud is not virtualization
Server and infrastructure virtualization are important
foundations for private cloud computing. However, virtualization and
virtualization management are not, by themselves, private cloud computing.
Virtualization makes it easier to dynamically and granularly pool and
reallocate infrastructure resources (servers, desktop, storage, networking,
middleware, etc.). However, virtualization can be enabled in many ways,
including virtual machines, operating systems, or middleware containers, robust
OSs, storage abstraction software, grid computing software, and horizontal
scaling and cluster tools.
Private cloud computing leverages some form of
virtualization to create a cloud computing service. Private cloud computing is
a form of cloud computing that is used by only one organization, or that
ensures that an organization is completely isolated from others.
· Private cloud is not just about cost reduction
An enterprise can reduce operational costs with a private
cloud by eliminating common, rote tasks for standard offerings. A private cloud
can reallocate resources more efficiently to meet enterprise requirements,
possibly by reducing capital expenses for hardware.
However, private clouds require investment in automation
software, and the savings alone might not justify the cost. As such, cost
reduction is not the primary benefit of private cloud computing. The benefits
of self-service, automation behind the self-service interface, and metering
tied to usage are primarily agility, speed to market, ability to scale to
dynamic demand, or to go after short windows of opportunity, and ability for a
business unit to experiment.
· Private cloud is not necessarily on-premises
Private cloud computing is defined by privacy, not location,
ownership, or management responsibility. While the majority of private clouds
will be on-premises (based on the evolution of existing virtualization
investments), a growing percentage of private clouds will be outsourced and/or
off-premises. Third-party private clouds will have a more flexible definition
of "privacy." A third-party private cloud offering might share data center
facilities with others, could share equipment over time (from a pool of
available resources), and could share resources, but be isolated by a virtual
private network and everything in between.
· Private cloud is not only Infrastructure as a
Service
Server virtualization is a major trend and, therefore, a
major enabler for private cloud computing. However, private cloud is not
limited in any way to IaaS. For example, with development and test offerings,
enabling higher-level Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings for developers
makes more sense than a simple virtual machine provisioning service.
Today, the fastest growing segment of cloud computing is
IaaS. However, IaaS only provides the lowest-level data center resources in an
easy-to-consume way, and doesn't fundamentally change how IT is done.
Developers will use PaaS to create new applications designed to be cloud-aware,
producing fundamentally new services that could be very differentiating,
compared with old applications.
· Private cloud is not always going to be private
In many ways, Gartner analysts say that private cloud is a
stopgap measure. Over time, public cloud services will mature, improving
service levels, security, and compliance management. New public cloud services
targeting specific requirements will emerge. Some private clouds will be moved
completely to the public cloud. However, the majority of private cloud services
will evolve to enable hybrid cloud computing, expanding the effective capacity
of a private cloud to leverage public cloud services and third-party resources.
"By starting with a private cloud, IT is positioning
itself as the broker of all services for the enterprise, whether they are
private, public, hybrid or traditional," Bittman says. "A private
cloud that evolves to hybrid or even public could retain ownership of the
self-service, and, therefore, the customer and the interface. This is a part of
the vision for the future of IT that we call 'hybrid IT.'"
[This article was posted on September 25, 2012, on the website of ABA Banking Journal, www.ababj.com.]
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