CIOIN

While enterprise technology decision makers are debating on various approaches to leverage different aspects of cloud computing, private cloud is fast establishing itself as the new consolidated IT infrastructure model for providing seamless computing resources across the corporate, while enjoying complete control on its own data. A number of CIOs concurred on this at a recently held roundtable discussion. This discussion was titled Consolidation, Convergence and Cloud – The New Economic Imperative, and was supported by Cisco. Vijay Ramachandran, Editor-in-Chief, IDG Media and John McCool, senior VP and GM of Cisco’s Datacenter, Switching and Services Group (DSSG) chaired the discussion.

At the onset, the CIOs at the roundtable discussion agreed that as the traditional corporate network perimeter continues to dissolve and the enterprise becomes more of a borderless environment, smartphones, tablets, other endpoint devices, and web applications are irreversibly changing the way people work online.

As individuals, we expect instantaneous and ubiquitous access to communications, data, content, and applications, the participants stated. They pointed out that they increasingly look to social media to inform about their personal and business decisions. “As business leaders, we expect technology to deliver cost efficiencies, improve customer experience, drive revenue growth, and foster innovation. At the same time, we expect constant availability and end-to-end security,” they concurred.

This combination of rising expectations and a rapid rate of change challenge traditional approaches for information technology. Business cycles keep shortening, but business system complexity keeps escalating. IT is too often described by business as equal parts accelerator and obstructer.

And, when datacenter consolidation, mobility and cloud computing is added to the mix, we get both complexity as well as new means of leveraging technology.

The participants agreed that Cloud will challenge organizations to rethink governance processes for consuming, delivering, and managing IT resources. Many organizations have undergone efforts to eradicate shadow IT, centralizing IT decisions and spend.

Cloud services are available to budget owners across the organization with the swipe of a credit card. Legal and risk management departments will require standards to assure security, privacy, SLA conformance, and compliance.

It was pointed out that Cloud is neither an instantaneous nor simple transformation, but can be adopted in a controlled and pragmatic way. Cloud involves new technologies, new service and deployment models, and new IT skills sets and processes. Migration of legacy applications to Cloud can be a real challenge. That said, legacy platforms can co-exist with Cloud deployments and be migrated only as appropriate.

Cloud is not a “one-size-fits-all” proposition—the right approach depends on an
organization’s needs and priorities. It was established at the discussion that different service and deployment models can be adopted to match the requirements of different types of workloads from across the business.

A new approach is needed to free individuals and organizations from the constraints of traditional information technology. Cloud is part of the answer and will play a central role in the next era of IT.