ROI of Cloud Development - Case Study Example

ROI of Cloud Development of Affiliation ROI of Cloud Development The contemporary business environment is transforming from the on-premise IT infrastructure to the cloud solution (Buyya, Broberg & Gościński, 2011). However, places to store useful data has been problematic to some of the enterprises. For such, security alongside other concerns could impede their adoption of the cloud utilities for data storage. As technology grows from the conventional on-premise pattern to the cloud concept, service offerings change on a nearly daily basis. This is seen even the ore in the brought about significant growth in terms of use of the cloud computing technology. Nearly every IT department faces the question regarding the implication of this trend in the context of their own company or institute. For a number of them, the matter has gone past the idea of jumping into intensified on-premise IT facilities but rather the way to embed their local data center facilities into 3rd party cloud services, in order to enjoy the individualized capabilities of the cloud utilities. Such is the challenging facing Auction Analytics. In reality however, this is less likely to take place, at least in the foreseeable future (In, 2014). One of the reasons behind this is that the conventional data centers plus the dedicated hardware at Auction Analytics properly suit the current plus the future business cases. This is worsened by the drawbacks such as potential privacy violations that have been mentioned of the cloud environment. A way to address this concern would be to integrate every piece of Auction Analytics-owned infrastructure in order to create the cloud. Basically, the endeavor should revolve around a hybrid cloud solution that encompasses everything ranging from end-users to bare metals and to every intermediary material crucial to the success of the cloud solution that will be ultimately deployed by the organization. Further, the cloud solution adopted needs to offer several alternatives for viewing how different operations interact with one another inside the architecture, though this would be pegged on the user role. Hybrid Cloud Solution Out of the private cloud, public cloud and hybrid cloud options at the disposal of Auction Analytics, a hybrid cloud solution stands out as the most appropriate solution. A hybrid cloud solution is one that leverages a combination of public and private cloud services blended between these two platforms (Garber, Malik & Fazio, 2013). In many cases, the hybrid cloud solution is aimed at combining data and services from varied cloud models in order to come up with a properly managed, automated and unified computing context. Even though the private and public segments associated with a hybrid solutions are often integrated, the two often maintain autonomous states. This paves way for the hybrid cloud to provide the benefits related to multiple deployment models simultaneously. Basically, hybrid clouds have varied levels of complexity. For example, there are hybrid clouds that only connect the public and the on-premise cloud. In permitting workloads to switch between public and private clouds based on changes in costs and computing needs, hybrid cloud will offer Auction Analytics an enhanced flexibility in addition to extra data deployment alternatives. For instance, Auction Analytics could deploy private could use the private cloud in hosting critical or sensitive workloads the use any of the 3rd party public cloud providers like Google Compute Engine in hosting resources that are less crucial to the operation of the organization. Examples of utilities that would be stored in the latter category include development workloads and tests. Why Hybrid Solution? One of the major reasons why the hybrid model would be the best solution is that Auction Analytics could use it to benefit from the cost effectiveness and scalability that is typical of the public cloud solution at the same time safeguarding mission critical data and applications against the vulnerabilities and attacks that are commonplace within public cloud solution. What’s more, the presence of a directly accessible private infrastructure helps in reducing the latency and elaborated access times that are witnessed in public cloud solutions. Further, the hybrid cloud model provides the most efficient and superb solution considering that varied categories of data to whatever platform whilst guaranteeing data security. The chosen solution will also be of value to the changing workloads witnessed at Auction Analytics. Basically, Auction Analytics can use the on-premises computational facilities in supporting the average routinely workloads at the same time maintaining the capability of leveraging the public cloud solution to cater for failover situations, in which the tasks at hand surpass the computational power featured in the private IT infrastructure. This would offer the additional benefit of spending on subsidiary compute time only if these resources are required. As a consequence, for enterprises with milestones all through the year where above normal compute time is required, venturing into public cloud solutions would be a cheaper alternative compared to establishing a private infrastructure that would remain idle for the better part of the year. Another reason for adoption of the hybrid solution is that it issues precise use case regarding public cloud computing. According to Srinivasan (2014), particular perspective of the enterprise IT infrastructure exists in the public cloud arena, and the remaining portion of the infrastructure remains on premise. The cloud-based business intelligence utility offers a better illustration of this. Despite some end-users encouraging the transfer of several gigabytes of operational information to the cloud, a large number of users have found the idea of storing data in a local context then shifting the analytical processing issues to the cloud to be more practical. The immediate benefit of this is that Auction Analytics will not be worried of incapacitation to acquire the relevant resources for processing data related to some of the transactional operations. Adoption of the hybrid model would also send the meaning that Auctions Analytics appreciates the idea of the contemporary public cloud solutions missing some IT resources (Srinivasan, 2014). In the end, this move will be translated into a more satisfied consumer population. In the light of the enterprise’ performance needs, security restrictions as well as compliance issues, local IT infrastructure would be inevitable. Further, the hybrid cloud solution would suit Auction Analytics because of its capability to process big data. For example, the company will be able to use the storage space within the solution to maintain long term test, business sales or other data whilst running analytic queries within the public cloud solution, whose scalability suits the demanding tasks associated with distributed computing. Another reason why the hybrid cloud solution suits Auction analytics is that it allows optimized decisions when it comes to organizational expenditures. Generally speaking, enterprises using separate tools to monitor performance, cloud service usage and the SLA achievements are better placed in terms of making educated decisions on expenditures. This is based on the fact that a hybrid cloud platform offers these entities the opportunity to assess and evaluate the returns they get out of whatever investment they make to acquire the cloud services. This perspective of the hybrid cloud becomes more interesting in the light of the tough economic times that are already compelling organizations to only pursue business adventures that can cut cost. If properly planned, Auction Analytics will be in a state to successfully monitor its return on investment as far as expenditures on IT facilities are concerned, then use the evaluation results to inform the subsequent investment decision that the top management will be engaging in. One of the greatest challenges centered on the deployment of the hybrid cloud solution is the idea that the data owned by Auction Analytics will reside in a multi-tenant environment. This in simple terms means that the physical resources are available are shared amidst numerous users. The immediate implication of this is the point that performance is bound to experience occasional fluctuation, though this might not cause any hurdle. Nonetheless, when several applications witness heightened load whilst using a single physical server, storage node or network card, there is a higher likelihood of the applications influencing each other. However, cloud vendors have of recent adopted some measures to have these concerns addressed. For instance, Amazon has of recent released Provisioned IOPS designed for superb performance cloud databases plus other I/O demanding workloads, which guarantees a deterministic number of I/O operations in every second. Another challenge with the hybrid cloud solution is the privacy and the security concerns therein. Generally speaking, the party charged with the duty to control the physical machines will ultimately gain access to the data that is stored and processed by that machine. Evidently, this stands out as the greatest barrier as with regards to the organizations’ appreciation of the cloud concept. In fact, for some applications, Auction Analytics will simply find it unacceptable handing over the associated control to the off premise cloud vendor. Moreover, the stored data becomes easier to intercept, legitimately or illegitimately, thus sensitive and private information risks reaching unintended audience. However, most of the cloud service providers have introduced stricter policies to govern how their employees deal with the cloud-featured data. So, Auction Analytics could bank on this aspect in order to have the conviction that the data in the public cloud segment of its hybrid solution will remain secure. Again, several compliance and legal issues will unravel if Auction Analytics decides to use the services of the third party cloud providers. Often times, if the services are provisioned within a particular jurisdiction, the regulatory policies within that region or nation might apply to the service in question, despite the cloud platform being physically located elsewhere. The EU Data Protection Directive might for instance force personal data storage to be within locations inside EU. A similar case is seen in the Megaupload Data Seizure. Here, the U.S government has taken action by eliminating the property rights associated with the parties that store data inside the Megaupload cloud arena, sending the message that property rights get limited when it comes to data featured in the cloud. Elsewhere, the Dutch Data Protection Authority mentions that Dutch enterprises leveraging cloud services under the EU-US based Safe Harbor arrangement are rendered responsible to comply with data and privacy legislation. The aforementioned illustrations all point to the fact that Auction Analytics will set measures to ensure coverage of all applicable legal rules if it ultimately deploys the hybrid cloud. Finally, the hybrid cloud model presents business, management and technical drawbacks. For instance, a private cloud workload would need to access then interact with a public cloud provider. Implicit in this is the point that solid network connectivity, coupled with application program interface (API) compatibility is crucial to the proper functioning of the hybrid solution. For instance, connectivity issues such as SLA breaches are likely in the public cloud portion of hybrid solution. Though it is possible alleviating these risks by architecting hybrid workloads capable of interoperating with numerous public cloud providers, the approach could sophisticate workload design plus testing. In other instances, workloads aimed at hybrid cloud might have to be redesigned to suit the individualized features of a cloud provider’s API. Infrastructure as a Service The cloud project at Auction Analytics seeks to use Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud environment. Sabharwal & Wali (2013) define IaaS as the act of delivering computer infrastructure as a service. Basically IaaS employs meaningful data center investments, services and technology in order to aid in delivery of IT to consumers in form of a service. Contrary to the conventional outsourcing that needs intensive due diligence, lengthy contract bureaucracies and negotiations, IaaS is founded on a service delivery model that issues a deterministic standardized infrastructure particularly optimized to suit the applications of a customer. In IaaS, implementation from the provider’s end would constitute computer hardware (basically establishing a grid to cater for intensive horizontal scalability), computer network (consisting of firewalls, routers and a set of load balancing utilities), internet connectivity, utility computing billing as well as service-level agreements. IaaS would allow Auction Analytics to evade the intensive expenditures associated with the establishment of new data and infrastructure centers. Through IaaS, the company will be able to leverage the equipment of a 3rd party in supporting the day to day operations. Typical examples of the equipment are networking components, servers, hardware, storage amd processing maong others. The 3rd party cloud service provider will own the equipment and will be charged with the hosting and maintenance duties. On the the other hand, Auction Analytics will be responsible for controlling the deployed applications, storage as wella s operating systems. To accomplish this, the company will need to use a web-oriented graphic user interface in managing the cloud environment. One of the reasons why IaaS most suits the need at Auction Analytics is that it offers the capability of transferring work to the cloud arena, even if the on promise systems are going through a peak demand. This sends the meaning that Auction analytics will be relieved of the need to part with additional funds in the name of acquiring additional servers, whose need may crop up repeatedly all through the year. In general, IT investments would be useful to Auction Analytics except that it could in the long term prove to be an expensive venture with regards to the rapid technological revolutions. So, IaaS will offer Auction Analytics to channel its financial expenditure towards operations instead of keeping up with the relatively expensive I.T infrastructures. Another reason why IaaS is a worthy alternative for Auction Analytics is that it will allow the company to select then pay for services particularly tuned to the needs of the enterprise. Examples of services that the company would enjoy in this context include servers, storage utilities, computer power and email archiving among others. So, at least, Auction Analytics investing in services and assets that it does not require. When exploring the IaaS cloud environment, the enterprise can use nearly effortless and metered services which are readily available from cloud service providers. Apart from helping the company to cut cost, IaaS will offer Auction Analytics the opportunity to stay abreast with the latest technology. It is commonplace finding cloud service providers constantly upgrading their infrastructure to the latest technology. To Auction Analytics, this would be a good opportunity to enjoy such provisions to gain a competitive advantage within its industry. Resorting to IaaS would in itself be an evidence of an enterprise that is at the forefront to embrace innovative practices. This is because the cloud environment offers benefits such as ability to split the enterprise’ activities into economically and socially distinct tasks it pursues to execute the routinely duties. On the other hand, the capabilities of IaaS will support the operations of the enterprise in avenues such as the ability to perceive business challenges in an individualized perspective and the ability to reduce the gap between the technical lot and the business people One potential challenge to take note of whilst the company prepares to adopt the IaaS cloud environment is that it leads to reliance on a particular provider. Consequently, choice of a service provider will have to be a constant worry to Auction Analytics. Moreover, the process requires complex resource allocation software in order to guarantee the availability of the cloud-oriented resources. Whilst using such resources, Auction Analytics will have to keep an eye on the type of data it sends to the cloud-based resources in order to keep incidences of data security breaches at bay. Finally, the virtual on-demand infrastructure capability combined with the growing number of mobile users poses challenges when it comes to resource distribution. Examples of challenges are the hurdle of preventing staff from violating the enterprise information security procedures and policies to develop or use software utilities outside the view of the formal governance programs at Auction Analytics. Resources in the Cloud Solution to be deployed Public cloud This resource will be owned and managed by any 3rd party cloud service provider that Auction Analytics shall choose. Basically, a public cloud provides a cluster of equalized business processes, infrastructure services as well as applications on a cost per use and flexible platform. The obvious advantages of this resource include capital preservation, standardization and flexibility along with a reduced cloud deployment time, which in turn translates to shorter time to test the software utilities under test. The public cloud solution will be availed via the internet by cloud service providers such as Rackspace and Amazon. Private Clouds These resources will be owned then used only by Auction Analytics. It features numerous benefits that are related to what the public cloud resource offers, and they will offer greater control and flexibility to Auction Analytics. Generally, private clouds are known for benefits like driving efficiency, support for greater customization whilst retaining the ability of the involved organization to standardize then implement IT practices that best suit overall enterprise goals. This cloud segment will be located within the premises of Auction Analytics. At the most basic level, it will serve as a data center facility that will be configured then operated in the same style as the public cloud segment. The resources in this cloud segment will be available in virtual form (VLANs and VMs), just like the resources featured in the public cloud. Varied are the software platforms that can be used to create and manage the private cloud. One main reason why the company would need to set up the private cloud is allowing easy movement to and from the enterprise and other cloud environments. Communication Tools Communication tools will also be needed between the public and the private sides to aid in interaction of the two segments. Elongated physical distances between the public and the private segment could bring about network delays which cannot be disregarded. This is because applications that run on virtual utilities can never cope with extra delay. So, if managing resources, whether automatically or physically, it would be prudent that Auction Analytics uses a single management interface both on the public and the private side. Amazon-offered cloud for instance has an API that that can be availed to other cloud frameworks and environments. So, Auction Analytics could resort to the likes of OpenStack or Eucalyptus to establish a cloud management framework within the private cloud segment. Human Resource Auction Analytics will take advantage of the two cloud solutions discussed above through integration into a hybrid solution. In this case, the company will embrace a hybrid solution that is inclusive of the people resource. With regards to this, numerous roles are deemed to be crucial as far as delivery and consumption of the hybrid cloud solution at Auction Analytics is concerned. The roles are major providers, integrators and consumers. Providers Providers refer to the parties that are supposed to grant access to the cloud-based services to Auction Analytics alongside maintaining QoS attributes regarding the company’s service access requests such as performance. It is the providers to own the physical assets that are crucial to production and delivery of cloud services to Auction Analytics. Consumers This group refers to users of the cloud-based service that Auction Analytics is about to venture into. In the private clouds, users would be within the same premises as the cloud-based supplier. However, the public cloud would mean the consumer is at the same premise as the provider or in a different location. Integrator This party will be in charge of designing and constructing an embedded cloud offering. It is possible for the role to exits within or without auction analytics. Whenever the service integrators are located outside the organization, they reserve some degree of accountability pertaining to the cloud solutions provided by 3rd party consumers. Performance Indicators Performance criteria like throughput and response times all useful in all computing environments, or at least they become issues of concern if they fail to comply with the user expectations. Nonetheless, business performance encompasses something that goes past measures focused on overall through put and transaction response times. This idea turns to be of greater significance in the hybrid cloud solution where the resources leveraged will not be directly controlled by Auction Analytics in addition to the physical resources probably changing from one day after another. Aspects such as flexibility to business demands, service consistency as well as reliability have a role to play in the context of enterprise-wide performance which is to be delivered by the company’s hybrid cloud solution. In many cases, these aspects are of significance with dedicated environments, but they turn to be major purchase criteria within the shared resource environments (Typically cloud solutions) similar to what Auction Analytics seeks to venture into. Some of the performance indicators that are addressed with regards to the hybrid cloud solution addressed in this paper include capacity versus utilization and racing to the bottom against quality of service. Capacity verses Utilization The issue of capacity verses utilization has of recent turned to be a major issue in the cloud arena. It for this reason that cloud service providers and consumers both pursue cloud services enabled via on-demand business offering model in order to ensure that the services provided are in line with the actual level of cloud service. Why this would matter to Auction Analytics is that one of the primary intentions of cloud solutions is to evade the cost implications founded on under-provisioning and over-provisioning. This reason is coupled with factors like the potential to venture and explore new markets and low cost of deployment of the cloud services. So, what does the hybrid solution mean for Auction Analytics on this front? Making actual utilization and capacity to be at par will no doubt improve the organization’s operational efficiency, yet this is not all. Utilization and capacity are key performance indicators (KPI) Racing to the Bottom against Quality of Service The cloud environment has of recent grown past being perceived as a distractive technology as the ancient cloud service sellers and buyers did think. More specifically, it is transforming into striking a balance between added value Quality of Service (QoS) and reduced cost arbitrage. Formally defined, race to the bottom refers to a competitive motive informed by the desire to cut cost (McGill, 2015). Generally speaking, the term has been negatively perceived since reduced costs or margins are perceived as injuries to the parties involved. In adopting the hybrid cloud solution, Auction Analytics will be better place to enjoy the intensively scalable services from the 3rd party cloud service providers thus paving way for cost reduction and keeping at par with the dynamics of market competition. QoS is the counter balance of this considering that it considers the value associated with the unit cost associated with every performance offered. Diagrammatic Representation of the Cloud Solution Conclusion In sum, the hybrid cloud concept addresses a number of key performance indicators like capacity, performance and utilization. However, actualizing the aforementioned factors requires that Auction Analytics weighs the pros and cons of the challenges discussed in this paper then put the relevant deployment factors into consideration. References Buyya, R., Broberg, J., & Gościński, A. (2011). Cloud computing: Principles and paradigms. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Garber, D., Malik, J., & Fazio, A. (2013). Windows Azure Hybrid Cloud. Hoboken: Wiley. In Jajodia, S. (2014). Secure cloud computing. McGill, M. V. (2015). Race to the bottom: Corporate school reform and the future of public education. Sabharwal, N., & Wali, P. (2013). Cloud capacity management. New York: Apress. Srinivasan, S. (2014). Cloud computing basics. Read More