Teletimes April 2011.pdf

Bringing cloud computing
back to earth
Werner Knoblich, general manager EMEA for open source vendor Red
Hat considers the implications and opportunities for the channel as
cloud computing shakes up traditional computing business models.
Recent research from Gartner
suggests that by the
end of 2012, 20% of organisations
will have no IT assets.
What are the implications of
this on the wider IT ecosystem
of ISVs, SIs and OEMs? Their
traditional business model is
being challenged as technology
infrastructure moves out
of the data centre and into
the cloud. What strategic
decisions can vendors make
to capitalise on the cloud
trend? Who should be part
of their new alliance strategy?
With every major technology
player claiming to have a
cloud strategy or offering, how
can management teams cut
through the noise to decipher
the cloud conundrum?
Cloud: the basics
The National Institute of Science
and Technology (NIST)
defines the cloud thus: Cloud
computing is a model for
enabling convenient, ondemand
network access to a
shared pool of configurable
computing resources (eg.
networks, servers, storage, applications,
and services) that
can be rapidly provisioned
and released with minimal
management effort or service
provider interaction. In a
remarkably short time, cloud
computing has emerged as a
hugely important evolution in
the way that businesses and
individuals consume and operate
computing. It’s a fundamental
shift to an operational
model in which applications
don’t live out their lives on
a specific piece of hardware
and in which resources are
more flexibly deployed than
was the historical norm. It’s
also a fundamental shift to a
development and consumption
model that replaces hardwired,
proprietary connections
among software components,
and the consumers of those
components, with lightweight
web services and web-based
software access. For the
channel community, using an
open source methodology can
accelerate cloud adoption by
validating key cloud specifications
and sharing information
to build confidence in
cloud computing technology
as formalised standards are
made available. Whilst there
is no question that the role of
the traditional channel will be
significantly impacted by the
rapidly evolving on-demand
services market, there is still
plenty of room for innovative
channel organisations to operate.
There are also plenty of
opportunities for new channel
partners to succeed.
The burgeoning cloud ecosystem
Traditional value-added
resellers (VARs) and systems
integrators (SIs) that major
on legacy, onsite, and server
deployed technology are obviously
at risk from the flexibility,
cost effectiveness and
simplicity of cloud services.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
and cloud computing reduce
the marginal costs which
historically represented the
primary profits of traditional
VARs and SIs. With foresight,
there are still strategic
decisions which VARs and SIs
can make to overcome these
challenges and capitalise on
this revolution in technology
procurement and consumption.
Organisations still have
a need to asses and select
from the myriad of SaaS, PaaS
(Platform) and IaaS (Infrastructure)
vendors. There is
also a need to integrate existing
technology and processes,
as well as optimising performance
of their incumbent
technology and new systems,
and training end users.SIs
can adapt their businesses to
meet this need. By up-skilling
to close the gap between the
wide variety of cloud offerings
and the needs of specific
customers, SIs re-engineer to
add value in the cloud channel
ecosystem. SIs themselves can
also benefit from the cloud
as a testing ground for future
implementations and as a
repository for information. Extending
this concept further,
third parties can build their
own technology on PaaS offerings,
accessing fully developed
and advanced platforms for
the creation of customer or
industry specific offerings.
Finally, for a reseller, the cloud
ecosystem simply offers a new
market, and pent up demand,
on which they can capitalise.
As cloud offering move into
majority, vendors recognise
the need to build a solid
reseller channel to survive.
The investment needed to
maintain momentum through
a direct sales and support
function can be offloaded to
the reseller, regaining focus on
the technology asset. For the
reseller this provides a perfect
opportunity to partner with
cloud providers that pass on
added value to their end customers.
In contrast to legacy
technology, resellers can move
into the cloud market without
having to learn the intricacies
of development or maintenance.
ISVs & developers
For ISVs and developers looking
to move technology into
the cloud, a major consideration
is the ability to develop
applications that can be
scaled and developed within
the context of a cloud infrastructure.
Route to market
and quality of deployment are
all at the heart of successful
development, therefore any
cloud partner must provide
the tools and infrastructure
to on-ramp quickly within a
framework that ensures that
software can be developed
once and then rolled out
across environments from the
data centre to the cloud. Finally,
any technology partner
should eliminate barriers to
cloud development, providing
the tools to develop on any
platform. T
22 www.teletimesinternational.com
15Apr - 14May 2011