Published: February 06 2012, 09:56 AM | 1 Comment(s)
by George Watt

Does cloud computing really make things greener?

The Green Onion's Three Layers

Recently my colleague Dhesi Ananchaperumal and I were invited to speak at several conferences on the topics of energy management and consumption, and cost reduction. During those sessions I was asked to share some of our experiences in our journey to providing a private cloud and to discuss whether the cloud made CA Technologies greener. In preparation for these sessions I realized that we had actually progressed through three levels of green awareness and maturity in our cloud's early years. (You can watch a short YouTube video of one of our sessions here.)

1. Collateral Greenage

Though it would make me very happy to begin by stating that we had a greener planet in our sights when we created our private cloud many years ago, that was not at all the case. We created our cloud to address a serious business agility challenge that was impacting product quality and extending our delivery times; and to address resource requirement challenges caused by demands that changed with our business lifecycle. It was only as our service matured that we realized that, in addition to addressing our agility and business cycle challenges, our private cloud had also brought some green benefits.

We did not truly appreciate this until we were asked to participate in an exercise to help reduce our corporate real estate footprint. We had been consolidating facilities routinely, though this project would require a concerted effort. In the first phase the team was asked to replace 19 labs. A second opportunistic project the following fiscal year required closing another 25 in one quarter. It was during this exercise, and all of the financial analysis that accompanied it, that we were made aware of some of the green benefits of our cloud implementation. We realized the cloud economics that are widely discussed now, and our focus on resource pooling, automation, and operational efficiency had resulted in the provision of services with reduced overall energy consumption.

Initially we focused only on the financial benefits related to reduced consumption. Though later we came to understand that whenever we were greener we almost always had reduced expenses, and when we reduced expenses we were often greener (as a result of reduced consumption). And as a cloud provider it was certainly a very good thing to have business value that could be relevant to both the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Sustainability Officer. It was also at this point that we realized just how valuable our partnership with the Finance team was.

2. Deliberately Green

Once we discovered this "collateral greenage" effect, we realized that it was an area that deserved some deliberate attention. Our company had begun to focus on sustainability as a key corporate initiative; and I cannot think of any company that does not have minimization of costs listed somewhere in their corporate objectives. We began to deliberately seek green benefits and focused on improving our infrastructure "with green in mind". And whenever we were greener in this context, our costs were lower. The team was able to purchase less, to raise the chiller and air handler temperatures, reduce copper consumption, and reduce carbon consumption by thousands of tons. This resulted in a significant contribution to our sustainability objectives. (CA Technologies has recently become one of the top ten green companies in the United States.)

Deliberately Challenged - "It's not that easy, being green."

Though we had success with our deliberate initiatives, and our increased awareness and capability enabled us to be opportunistically green, we realized we were far from obtaining the maximum value possible, both in terms of cost reduction and green benefits. As well, creating reports that demonstrated the value of what had been accomplished was extremely challenging. It involved a lot of mind-numbing human effort, and many of the reports were of value for a very limited amount of time. A high priority "out of cycle" request for executive information could result in a 48-hour fire drill for one or more people; possibly worse if the data had never before been requested.

The impact of not having this data readily available created several challenges:

• How could we accurately identify targets for "green action"?
• How could we demonstrate the value of those actions in a business context?
• How could we be confident that the actions we took actually had the impact we intended them to have?
• How could we know when those actions added cost or made us less green?

3. A Measured Approach

And this is where the discussion returns to Dhesi. As we were trying to address these questions we had another "slap yourself in the forehead" moment. Dhesi, a friend and colleague, was now a customer of our cloud service. He had experience in this domain and, as we learned, was creating what became the CA ecoSoftware enterprise energy and sustainability management solutions. Of course, we turned to Dhesi for assistance and guidance (and software). Though what's critical here is, as I have stated in other contexts, measurement is key. And improving the timeliness of the data, reducing the cost required to produce the measurement, and reducing the manual effort required (and potential for human error) will improve the effectiveness of such a program.

Are all clouds green?

So, does simply moving to a cloud make you greener? Probably. (How's that for commitment?) There are two things to consider. First, there are some who are very good at "traditional IT". Not knowing whether you are amongst those makes answering the question a challenge. Though if you're not doing anything cloudy I would bet that cloud computing will make you at least a little greener. Second, it's possible to do anything poorly, so I would bet there are some cloud providers (both private and public) who are not yet recognizing the full potential of cloud computing in terms of agility, expense reduction, resource optimization, and sustainability.

Overall I do believe cloud computing can "make you greener". Though there are many other things that must also be considered when deciding whether to adopt cloud computing.

This blog is cross-posted at Pragmatic Cloud. Follow @GeorgeDWatt on Twitter.

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Published: February 02 2012, 02:59 PM | no comments
by Mark Lukianchuk

A little more than a year ago I presented a session on cloud computing at a CIO conference where I highlighted the three key issues preventing cloud computing adoption: security/privacy, availability and performance. However, in doing some research for a session I gave at CA World this past November, I realized that things have changed. Back in the mid-1990s companies were nervous about leveraging the Internet for these same reasons, and a few years later were equally concerned about moving virtual machines into production.

Today, everyone is using the Internet and running VMs in production, so it's logical to assume that any artificial barriers to cloud adoption will also be broken, certainly in the next 12-18 months. Companies no longer need to know what cloud computing is, they need to learn how to use it.

From many conversations I've had with CIOs and senior IT leaders I've found a growing trend towards companies dipping their toes into public SaaS offerings like Salesforce.com while simultaneously building out some sort of private "cloudish" environment (the "if you build it they will come" strategy). In many cases, the less critical applications were targeted to move first, along with new services launched directly into the private cloud. But is that the best solution?

In my CA World session titled "Cloud Transformation for the Enterprise" I discussed 4 major criteria that need to be considered when it comes to cloud adoption: cost, risk, speed (or agility) and value (or quality). Ironically, most of the people I've spoken with do not consider cost as the main driver for cloud computing. The real #1 driver is speed, and its associated reduction in time-to-market for new and updated services. This should immediately make you think about how to prioritize the migration of cloud applications and services.

If that's the case, should you move your less critical applications to your private cloud first? Should you consider using a public cloud? The answer of course is "it depends" - security, governance and risk all play a role, as well as the need to support handheld devices, drive revenue, etc.

I haven't heard many customers tell me that they have put a thoughtful, detailed plan in place to look at their existing and future applications and services - and determine which ones are actually suitable for a cloud computing environment, based upon technology fit, business value and other criteria. Some are better off remaining in the data center. And, of course, deciding what to move before starting to build out an internal cloud or getting compute capacity from a public cloud provider. Moving without planning (detailed or otherwise) can work, but the risk is pretty high. If you're wrong, costs can actually go up instead of down and quality can suffer. That's the "ready, fire, aim" approach.

That's why I make the case for cloud planning. Do a portfolio analysis of your applications and services first (or at least a good subset of them). Understand any service level requirements, KPIs and key metrics. Project your capacity requirements for proposed target environments. Have a testing plan. Once you have all of that in place, then negotiate contracts and open your checkbook, knowing that you're managing costs, managing risk, maintaining quality and doing it at the right pace to meet your business needs. 

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Published: February 01 2012, 09:11 AM | 2 Comment(s)
by Christine Needles

On Monday night at "Accelerate the Cloud Miami 2012," a CA Technologies MSP Symposium event, the team was very pleased to give out the first annual CA AppLogic Partner Awards to five very deserving partners. ScaleMatrix, DNS Europe, CorePLUS World, Cirrhus9 and Bird Hosting were recognized for their achievements with the CA AppLogic® platform - including technology innovation and success in thought leadership and driving awareness, as well as support and participation in the Cloud Commons® ecosystem.

Take a look at today's press release for more details, and click here for photos.

Following are a few highlights of the awards:

CA AppLogic Partners of the Year

ScaleMatrix (Americas recipient), a provider of cloud solutions with an infrastructure-based approach, and DNS Europe (EMEA recipient), a London-based European cloud hosting provider, were selected for their exemplary overall contributions to the CA AppLogic partner community, and for their ongoing commitment to driving platform advancements and awareness in the marketplace.  

I asked ScaleMatrix' Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Chris Orlando to share his thoughts about receiving the award. He said:

"The close relationship formed between ScaleMatrix and CA Technologies has been one of the contributing factors to our early success in the cloud and managed hosting space. Flagship products like CA AppLogic, CA ARCserve, and Nimsoft provide great differentiation and play a key role in providing the enterprise class solutions our clients demand. Being named Partner of the Year is a great honor, and we look forward to what our two organizations will be able to do together in 2012."

And Stephen Hurford, Cloud Services director of DNS Europe, had this to say:

"DNS Europe is honoured to receive this award from CA Technologies in recognition of the work we've been doing with CA AppLogic in Europe. It's very exciting for us to be part of the expanding community of AppLogic service providers and businesses taking advantage of this revolutionary private cloud platform. Looking forward we see significant opportunities for DNS Europe to expand our range of AppLogic support and development services throughout Europe and beyond, forging even stronger relationships with other leading partners in the global community of CA AppLogic MSPs."

CA AppLogic Cloud Trailblazer

CorePLUS World, an on-demand service provider delivering a complete outsourced solution for IT and application services, was recognized for its innovative approach to delivering IT services via the CA AppLogic platform.

CA AppLogic Market Influencer

Cirrhus9, a cloud computing systems integrator specializing in managed services, deployment and migration solutions, and qualification and validation services, was honored for its long-time commitment to driving market awareness and contributing to various CA AppLogic communities, such as the LinkedIn AppLogic Users Group and @AppLogic Twitter feed.

CA AppLogic Top Technical Contributor

Bird Hosting, a cloud service provider and longtime CA AppLogic customer, was recognized for its ongoing contributions to the advancement and development of the CA AppLogic platform.

Thanks to all who participated in the CA Technologies MSP Symposium and to all of the partners for all of their contributions to the ecosystem!

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Published: January 31 2012, 09:50 AM | no comments
by Marvin Waschke

I am in the midst of writing a book on Cloud Standards (expected to be available on or about June 20, 2012). There are only a handful of standards that apply directly to clouds, but the number of standards that cloud computing inherently relies upon is enormous. I have lots of leeway in writing about standards in the book, mainly because it is hard to think of a computing standard that does not apply to cloud in some way.

There is a reason for that: cloud is the culmination of almost everything in computing up to now. Of course, that means that there is very little in cloud that is new (yes, I did just suggest cloud is old, too). The components and technologies that make up a cloud implementation are the same technologies that have been used for decades. So, why all the talk about cloud today? What's new are the ways all the technology fits together, the scale of its application, and its wide variety of uses.

Look at the giant data centers built by providers like Google and Amazon. They have racks and racks of perfectly ordinary computers with processors and memory that are faster and more compact than those of twenty years ago, but otherwise, not very different. Most storage is still spinning disks. Cloud data centers communicate with their consumers via networks that follow standards that have been around for twenty years. Yet they do things that have never been done before. And their cumulative complexity is truly amazing.

I did some Google research and back of the envelope calculation the other day, and promptly gave up. I tried to compare the complexity of a 737 airliner (which I happen to have been slightly involved with designing) and a cloud data center. Boeing says that a 737 has 367,000 parts. Google says that one of its data centers has 650,000 cores. Is it fair to compare airplane parts to cores? That is the point where I gave up, but think about this: which is harder? To rivet, bolt, and glue together 367,000 parts and make them fly? Or wire up 650,000 processors and make them tell me that there are 367,000 parts in a 737? Both are staggering tasks and command tremendous respect, but the data center has the numbers.

This brings me back to standards, which occupy quite a few of my thoughts lately - makes sense for someone writing a book on the subject. How is it possible to make these absurdly complex clouds work? Aside from the impressive effort of the engineers who put them together and keep them working, it is also because they are built on experience that has been accumulating for the last half century. And much of that experience is embodied in the standards that hold clouds together. For example, the interconnection between processors in a data center is often Ethernet, the standard for the data link layer in networking since the ‘80s. Why does it work in this extreme application? Because experience has tuned it and streamlined it, and made it efficient enough to do a job that far exceeds its original intent.

It is precisely because of this experience that clouds can be both complex and reliable and why I am enjoying writing my book. Over the next few months, I will share with you some of the random thoughts that come up as I'm writing. I hope you enjoy the posts, and I look forward to sharing the final book with you this summer.

*Image courtesy of stock.xchang.

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Published: January 27 2012, 09:02 AM | no comments
by Jeffrey Abbott

Circa 1993, when only the senior executives were lucky enough to have 17-inch monitors, businesses would buy floppy disks full of imagery called clip art. One of those images was a bubbly cloud. Originally, this represented the telephone network. Then it came to represent the Internet, and now the cloud represents a cloud - well, not really. Let's take a look at what's happened to this puffy little orb.

For most people, the ‘90s cloud icon represented everything that was the responsibility of a utility company. Nobody questioned the size, shape, or color. And then, as the Internet slowly became valuable, the icon grew more relevant and it rose from the sea of PowerPoint obscurity to represent the world wide interwebopsherenets. Soon, Super Bowl ads were pushing more routers than beer. Meanwhile, terms like ‘application service provider' (ASP) and ‘Internet service provider' (ISP) reigned as our favorite tech acronyms (actually initialisms) - until February 2001 when all the ASPs and ISPs went out of business (or so it seemed...).

Then, from the ashes of the dot.com era, as business realized that they needed to sell something of value, and "pre-IPO" became a bad thing, comes the "rise of the services." Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Was there no limit to where AAS could take us? (Queue scratching record sound). Hmm, that won't work. Sorry Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - I can't say you without laughing.

Now just when you thought it was safe to go back into hi-tech, from nowhere, someone brilliantly resurrected "cloud," and in doing so, found another way to confuse people by re-assigning a definition to an even less intuitive term. And here we are. It caught on and people understand it (remarkably). Cloud is everywhere and it's hard to believe that it will clear out anytime soon. Will "cloud" be replaced by a new word? Maybe. But more importantly, will the model for cloud computing continue to be relevant 10-20 years into the future? I venture to say "yes." In fact, I think it will be so relevant, so widespread, so quickly, that we will soon no longer need to call attention to it and the beloved little cloud icon will fade back into obscurity.

Check back for my insightful review of what will come to be known as the ampersand dynasty as we explore whether or not "@" has finally earned a dedicated key on your keyboard.

*Cloud clip art courtesy of Microsoft clip art gallery.

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