five steps to successful integrated cloud management idc

8/4/2019 Five Steps to Successful Integrated Cloud Management IDC

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W H I T E P A P E R

F i v e S t e p s t o S u c c e s s f u l I n t e g r a t e d C l o u d M a n a g e m e n t

Sponsored by: HP

Mary Johnston Turner Robert P. Mahowald

May 2011

I D C O P I N I O N

IDC estimates that by 2012, 85% of net-new enterprise applications

will be specifically designed to be accessed in the cloud.

Cloud computing strategies help IT organizations reduce costs, improve service levels,

and increase business agility by dynamically sharing IT resources across multiple

applications and workloads. Although many organizations have started their cloud

journey by using software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings or implementing self-serveapproaches to virtual server provisioning, a small but rapidly growing group of IT

organizations are focused on using cloud to optimize more broadly across application

development, infrastructure operations, and day-to-day management processes.

A recent global IDC survey, sponsored by HP, examined the experience of this

proactive group of integrated cloud managers. These organizations are actively

integrating and automating application development, provisioning, security, and

management across public and private cloud resources as well as noncloud

application development and datacenter operations teams.

They are seeing many benefits, including faster application provisioning, lower

application development and maintenance costs, improved business agility, higherservice levels, and improved business and IT relationships. Their experiences also

highlight that success depends on cultural transformation as well as integrated and

automated management processes and tools.

An analysis of the experiences of these early adopters identifies five important steps

for successful integrated cloud management. Specifically:

! Define a plan that coordinates the organization's application modernization

strategy with its cloud infrastructure and SaaS agenda

! Assess current costs and develop benchmarks for application support,

provisioning, and ongoing resource consumption

! Identify opportunities to reduce costs and speed up service delivery via use of

automation for integrated application and infrastructure provisioning

! Implement systems to monitor and integrate application performance and real-

time capacity planning analytics with automated provisioning solutions

! Integrate security strategies and priorities across the application development,

release, and operations life cycle

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2 #228116 2011 IDC

IDC recommends that organizations begin the journey toward integrated cloud

management by targeting early pilot projects at developer teams and application

environments that can deliver quick payback to validate the business agility benefits

and operational efficiency improvements.

M E T H O D O L O G Y

This white paper discusses the results of a recent HP-sponsored IDC survey of IT

decision makers who are actively engaged in designing and implementing their

organization's cloud strategy. This global Web-based survey examined the current

use of various public and private cloud solutions among 9,410 IT decision makers

located in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia. From that group, 501 IT decision makers

were identified as being the most proactive when it comes to integrating application

development and operations priorities into their overall cloud strategy. To be included

in this most proactive group, participants had to be currently taking advantage of one

or both of the following application-centric cloud strategies:

! Private cloud management approaches that go beyond infrastructureprovisioning and virtualization to integrate automated application planning,

development, test, release, and/or runtime management processes and tools to

optimize application development, provisioning, and management inside a single

organization's firewall

! Public, Internet-based platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud solutions (e.g., Google

App Engine or Microsoft Azure Cloud) that can be used to simplify, integrate, and

standardize application development, provisioning, and management strategies

using resources accessed over the Internet and paid for via a subscription or

usage fee

The experiences of these 501 forward-looking organizations can provide valuableinsight for the broader cloud user community as it works to deliver the greatest

business and IT value possible from a rapidly expanding portfolio of traditional and

cloud-based infrastructure and application resources.

S I T U A T I O N O V E R V I E W

H y b r i d C l o u d E n v i r o n m e n t s E x p e c t e d t o

D o m i n a t e f o r M a n y Y e a r s

IDC's research consistently finds that most enterprises expect to rely on a mix of

physical, virtual, and cloud-based application and compute resources for many yearsand will need to integrate development and operations processes, policies, and

management tools across these diverse environments to meet fast-moving business

requirements, ensure consistent service levels, and hold down IT costs.

Among IT decision makers who are currently using cloud architecture and services,

most participants make use of multiple types of clouds, as shown in Figure 1.


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2011 IDC #228116 3

F I G U R E 1

T y p e s o f C l o u d S o l u t i o n s C u r r e n t l y i n U s e W o r l d w i d e

n = 9,410 current cloud solution users

Note: Multiple responses were permitted.

Source: IDC's Global Cloud Survey, sponsored by HP, March 2011

Private infrastructure clouds that automate the provisioning and management of

hypervisors, servers, storage, and network infrastructure resources are the most

widely used (59%) cloud approach. They are followed closely by public SaaS options

(54%) such as salesforce.com. Public infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solutions(16%) such as Amazon EC2, public PaaS solutions (16%) such as Microsoft Azure,

and private integrated application and infrastructure cloud solutions (14%) are used

by smaller numbers of organizations.

IDC expects that the number of organizations that will want to integrate cloud-based

application development and operations with infrastructure cloud solutions will

continue to grow over time. IDC estimates that by 2012, 85% of net-new enterprise

applications will be specifically designed to be accessed in the cloud, even as many

mission-critical applications that were not built for cloud continue to deliver business

value. For major enterprises, a complex Web of packaged and composite applications

will emerge that have in-house and external components running on hybrid cloud

platforms.

As a result, IDC expects that the majority of enterprise organizations, and many smaller

organizations, will rely on hybrid environments spanning public, private, and noncloud

resources for a number of years due to the unique infrastructure and operational

requirements of different applications being used by the organization. Differing IT

philosophies toward sourcing external services as well as security/governance postures

unique to a specific business or industry will also drive long-term reliance on hybrid

architectures.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Unsure

Private integratedapplication/infrastructure cloud

Public PaaS

Public IaaS

Public SaaS

Private infrastructure cloud

(% of respondents)


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4 #228116 2011 IDC

Each enterprise will make its own decision on the set of resources, security, and

management strategies it will use depending on its specific business and

application requirements. However, it is important to note that customers consistently

tell IDC that the needs of the applications in terms of performance, security,

scalability, and cost dictate the type of cloud or noncloud environment that will be

used to support them.

I n t e g r a t e d A p p l i c a t i o n a n d I n f r a s t r u c t u r e

M a n a g e m e n t S t r a t e g i e s E m e r g e a s a C r i t i c a l

C l o u d C o n t r o l P o i n t

Applications are where IT is converted to business value, and the effective

development, deployment, operation, and security of applications are IT's highest

priorities. Making decisions about how to best use cloud solutions requires IT

organizations to have a solid understanding of application performance, security,

costs, and utilization requirements. The cloud decision makers who participated in

this survey have opted to make the integrated management of application

development and operations a priority across their cloud environments. They havechosen this strategy due to a number of challenges involving both application

development and ongoing operations. With regard to application development, the

major challenges they seek to overcome are shown in Figure 2.

F I G U R E 2

M a j o r A p p l i c a t i o n D e v e l o p m e n t C h a l l e n g e s T h a t C a u s e

O r g a n i z a t i o n s t o I m p l e m e n t I n t e g r a t e d C l o u d S o l u t i o n s

n = 501



0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Embed security in static code

Improve access to development/testresources

Application modernization to supportcloud

Need to rapidly refresh applications

LOB pressure to cut costs

(% of respondents)


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2011 IDC #228116 5

Specifically, they identify the following important application developmentrelated drivers:

! Line-of-business (LOB) pressure to reduce application development costs

! The desire to modernize applications to take advantage of cloud infrastructure

architectures

! The need to rapidly and continually refresh applications

! The need to more quickly provide access to development and test resources

! The need to embed security information into static code during development

With regard to day-to-day management and operations (see Figure 3), these decision

makers are aiming to reduce business risk, improve application performance, and

hold down costs.

F I G U R E 3

M a j o r A p p l i c a t i o n M a n a g e m e n t C h a l l e n g e s T h a t C a u s eO r g a n i z a t i o n s t o I m p l e m e n t I n t e g r a t e d C l o u d S o l u t i o n s

n = 501



Specifically, they note the following management drivers:

! The need to better protect critical data and improve disaster recovery

! IT budget constraints driving the need to reduce application management costs

across the development/operations life cycle

! The need to more consistently and automatically enforce security policies

! The need to overcome increasing management complexity

! Problems with effectively monitoring the performance of applications hosted on

public cloud resources

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Problems monitoring public cloudSLAs

Increasing management complexity

Need to enforce security polic ies

IT budget constraints

Data protection/disaster recovery

(% of respondents)


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6 #228116 2011 IDC

C l o u d R e q u i r e s N e w T y p e s o f A p p l i c a t i o n a n d

I n f r a s t r u c t u r e M a n a g e m e n t C a p a b i l i t i e s

Survey participants were selected because they have hands-on experience in

integrating application development and operations activities across private, public,

and hybrid cloud environments. Less than half of the survey participants (47%) thinkthat their existing application performance and availability management processes

and tools will be effective in addressing their organization's requirements for

monitoring and managing applications across public and private cloud environments

on a consistent and seamless basis in the future (see Figure 4).

F I G U R E 4

E x p e c t a t i o n s f o r H o w W e l l E x i s t i n g A p p l i c a t i o n M a n a g e m e n t

P r o c e s s e s a n d T o o l s W i l l B e A b l e t o A d d r e s s R e q u i r e m e n t s

A c r o s s P u b l i c a n d P r i v a t e C l o u d s


More than half feel that their existing application management and tools will be

ineffective (44%) or are unsure (9%). The most experienced customers tend to have

the lowest levels of confidence in the ability of current precloud management tools

and processes to address the full set of application life-cycle management

requirements in the cloud.

Two areas of particular concern are:

! The need for increased automation of application provisioning

! The ability to embed security across the full life cycle

Effective (47.0%)

Ineffective(44.0%)

Unsure (9.0%)

n = 501


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2011 IDC #228116 7

As shown in Figure 5, a strong majority (70%) believe that automated application

provisioning is important to the success of their overall cloud strategy.

F I G U R E 5

I m p o r t a n c e o f A u t o m a t e d A p p l i c a t i o n P r o v i s i o n i n g t o O v e r a l l

C l o u d S t r a t e g y


The ability to rapidly and consistently provision applications, as well as the underlyingmiddleware and infrastructure that support them, is a central element in integrated

application/infrastructure cloud strategies. Automating standard implementations

helps reduce errors and deployment time. It also makes it easier to maintain versions

and patches and to implement a self-service portal to allow end users the ability to

request and provision the application themselves. Automation is needed to ensure

optimal use of resources and to make sure that unused resources are reclaimed and

reused as soon as possible.

Similarly, these integrated application and infrastructure cloud users recognize the

importance of identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities in static code across all

phases of the life cycle (see Figure 6). Rather than rely exclusively on development

teams to address application security concerns, these IT decision makers recognizethat highly dynamic cloud architectures require security to be managed proactively at

every stage across the application's development and operations life cycle.

Important(70.0%)

Useful (16.0%)

Unsure (14.0%)

n = 501


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8 #228116 2011 IDC

F I G U R E 6

P o i n t i n t h e C l o u d - B a s e d D e v e l o p m e n t / O p e r a t i o n s L i f e C y c l e

W h e n I t I s M o s t I m p o r t a n t t o I d e n t i f y a n d F i x S e c u r i t y

V u l n e r a b i l i t i e s i n S t a t i c C o d e


Most organizations that are working to align their cloud application and infrastructure

development, provisioning, security, and day-to-day management strategies are

getting started with one or two application-specific pilot projects. Initially, they may

focus on standardizing and automating specific activities such as application release

and self-serve provisioning. As the value of this integrated approach is documented,these organizations typically expand the range of activities and the number of

applications supported by this highly integrated, automated approach.

F U T U R E O U T L O O K

I n t e g r a t e d C l o u d U s e r s L o o k f o r R a p i d

P a y b a c k

Using pilot projects to develop a better understanding of the opportunities and

benefits related to integrated, automated application and infrastructure cloud

management also allows IT decision makers to develop methodologies for measuringand documenting the business and financial paybacks associated with these

programs. As shown in Figure 7, the majority (57%) of organizations that are pursuing

application-centric cloud strategies are expecting to see paybacks on current projects

in the 12- to 24-month time frame. This is an aggressive timeline given that traditional

large-scale IT projects have frequently looked for 2- to 3-year paybacks.

Applicationdevelopment

(21.0%)

Applicationprovisioning

(30.0%)

Day-to-dayoperations

(36.0%)

Unsure (13.0%)

n = 501


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2011 IDC #228116 9

F I G U R E 7

T y p i c a l C u r r e n t I n t e g r a t e d C l o u d P a y b a c k P e r i o d s


IT decision makers base the business case and payback analysis for integrated application

and infrastructure cloud programs on a number of criteria, as shown in Figure 8.

F I G U R E 8

T e n M o s t I m p o r t a n t B e n e f i t s o f U s i n g I n t e g r a t e d C l o u d S t r a t e g i e s

n = 501



Under 12 months(6.0%)

1224 months(57.0%)

Over 24 months(15.0%)

Unsure (22.0%)

n = 501

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Lower business risk

Business agility improvement

Simpler application management

Better compliance

Faster application development

Improved employee productivity

Better IT/business relationships

Faster application provisioning

Better application performance

Lower-cost applicationdevelopment/operations life cycle

(% of respondents)


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10 #228116 2011 IDC

Customers identify the opportunity to reduce total application life-cycle cost across

development and operations as the most important benefit. Most of the major benefits

they expect to achieve focus on cost, performance, and business agility improvements.

Top goals are:

! Reduced costs across the application development and operations life cycle due

to more standardized and automated test, release, provisioning, security,compliance, and management capabilities

! Improved application performance and availability due to more stable

environments and automation

! Faster application provisioning due to integrated application, middleware, and

infrastructure automation

! Improved business/IT relationships as business-critical applications are provided

more quickly, perform better, and are delivered more cost-effectively

! Increased IT and business employee productivity as downtime is reduced and

more implementation and support activities are automated and integrated

Similarly, when asked to compare application development and operations life-cycle

costs, agility, security, SLAs, and financial management experiences before and after

implementing integrated, automated cloud management and security strategies, the

majority of decision makers in the survey reported many improvements over the

experience of their precloud environments (see Figure 9).

F I G U R E 9

E x t e n t t o W h i c h I n t e g r a t e d C l o u d S t r a t e g i e s I m p r o v e

O p e r a t i o n s a n d B u s i n e s s A g i l i t y

n = 501


0 20 40 60 80 100

Application portfolio/financialmanagement

Runtime perfo rmance/SLAs

LOB/IT relationships

Business agility

App lication development andmaintenance costs

Applicationprovisioning time and costs

(% of respondents)

Better Same Unsure Worse


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2011 IDC #228116 11

Specifically, these IT decision makers stated that:

! Application provisioning time and costs are better for 65% of organizations.

! Application development and maintenance costs are better for 62% of

organizations.

! Business agility is improved for 62% of organizations.

! LOB and IT relationships are improved in 61% of organizations.

! Runtime application performance and SLAs are better in 57% of organizations.

! Application portfolio and financial management is betterin 55% of organizations.

Despite the benefits of this integrated, automated approach to application and

infrastructure security and management across hybrid cloud environments, many

organizations also note that this is a complex transformation that creates a number of

challenges.

C H A L L E N G E S / O P P O R T U N I T I E S

From an operational perspective, customers working with public PaaS solutions state

that they face challenges in effectively monitoring end-to-end application performance

in PaaS environments using current performance monitoring tools. They also note

that they can have some difficulties in embedding corporate security requirements

during development. Customers that rely on integrated, in-house solutions to support

cloud strategies note similar challenges and also say that a lack of appropriate

internal skills and knowledge of best practices can lead to project costs being higher

than expected.

Both types of organizations also recognize that a number of nontechnology issues

can slow down or derail integrated cloud initiatives. As shown in Figure 10,

transforming internal IT culture, selecting the right applications, nailing down the ROI,

and designing applications to make full use of the cloud are frequent challenges.


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12 #228116 2011 IDC

F I G U R E 1 0

F i v e G r e a t e s t N o n t e c h n o l o g y C h a l l e n g e s R e l a t e d t o I n t e g r a t e d

C l o u d E x p e r i e n c e

n = 501



Many decision makers are looking to their vendors and service providers to offer

integrated automated management tools and security solutions, as well as

professional services and best practices, to accelerate organizational change and

ensure successful, integrated cloud implementations. These early adopters

understand that to be successful, they must break down traditional barriers and silos

that separate development and operations teams. Their early experiences indicate

that cost, performance, and business agility can all be improved by moving to more

integrated, automated, and standardized workflows, provisioning programs, and

security strategies.

F I V E S T E P S T O I N T E G R A T E D C L O U DM A N A G E M E N T S U C C E S S

The experiences of the early adopters who participated in the survey identify both the

benefits and the challenges associated with integrating application and infrastructure

management and security across the cloud development and operations life cycle. To

be successful, IT organizations need to adapt business and IT governance strategies

and break down barriers between development and operations. Executive leadership

and support from business, development, and IT operations stakeholders are critical

as are a strong vision, clear goals, and a commitment to standardization and

automation.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Lack of cloud applicationdevelopment skills

Designing applications to make useof cloud

Developing an ROI

Selecting right applications

Internal IT culture

(% of respondents)


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2011 IDC #228116 13

A s s e s s , P l a n , I m p l e m e n t

The experience of these organizations identifies five important steps for successfully

optimizing hybrid, integrated cloud operations:

! Define a plan that coordinates the organization's application modernization

strategy with its cloud infrastructure and SaaS agenda

! Assess current costs and develop benchmarks for application support,

provisioning, and ongoing resource consumption

! Identify opportunities to reduce costs and speed up service delivery via use of

automation for integrated application and infrastructure provisioning

! Implement systems to monitor and integrate application performance and real-

time capacity planning analytics with automated provisioning solutions

! Integrate security strategies and priorities into the application development,

release, and operations environments

Together, these steps enable IT decision makers to identify roles and responsibilities

across the development and operations life cycle, set reasonable expectations for

payback and ROI, document that the benefits are being delivered, and optimize use

and security of both applications and infrastructure resources across public and

private cloud platforms.

Customers should look for modular, integrated, automated management tools and

best practice process models to integrate across application development, test,

release, provisioning, security, and day-to-day management activities using a

consistent set of metrics, role-based dashboards, and workflow engines.

Opportunities for Rapid Payback

IDC recommends that organizations structure this journey toward hybrid, integrated

cloud operations by selecting specific developer teams and application environments

that can be used to quickly validate cost savings and business agility benefits as well

as pilot and document any necessary changes to management processes and tools.

Based on the experience of organizations that participated in this survey, some of the

best places to begin implementing integrated cloud management automation

strategies include:

!

Automating application release and integrating application release intoprovisioning processes

! Automating and integrating application and infrastructure provisioning via self-

service portals and service catalogs

! Automating application patching and performance monitoring and audit activities

to provide rapid feedback to developers, release management, and application

provisioning teams


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Cloud computing represents an opportunity for enterprise IT organizations to shift

their focus from maintaining the health of individual IT components to improving

business agility by delivering end-to-end services rapidly and cost-effectively to

business users when and where they need them. Integrating application development

and IT operations management with cloud infrastructure and SaaS strategies

provides IT organizations with an opportunity to achieve these goals more quickly and

deliver greater benefits to the business compared with environments that treat cloud

infrastructure and applications separately.

C o p y r i g h t N o t i c e

External Publication of IDC Information and Data Any IDC information that is to be

used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written

approval from the appropriate IDC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the

proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC reserves the right to

deny approval of external usage for any reason.

Copyright 2011 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden.

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