Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution: How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Businesses And Why You Can’t Afford to Be Left Behind

Author: Charles Babcock
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional (www.mhprofessional.com)
Published: April 2010
ISBN: 978-0-07-174075-3
Format: Hardback, 272 pages
Price: $27.95

Use Cloud Computing To Transform Your Enterprise

Until recently, few, if indeed any, IT professionals would have looked to the clouds as an analogy to find inspiration for the next wave of the ongoing information technology and communications revolution. In his book, “Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution: How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Businesses And Why You Can’t Afford to Be Left Behind”, Charles Babcock, a leading reporter of major trends in computing over the last 20 years, says that, "at its heart, the cloud is a shift in how end users will do the bulk of their computing. It's assumed at this early stage that 'services that previously resided in the client, including e-mail, photo and video storage and office applications' will move off the PC device and into the cloud." But does cloud computing really possess the potential to radically transform the manner in which business is conducted? It seems so, as Babcock reports that "there will be a shift toward being able to rely on large clusters of servers on the Internet for either steady state operations or the occasional needed surges of compute power – at prices below the cost of running the corporate data center." Most importantly too, Babcock adds that "businesses large and small will have the power to do things that they couldn't do before, do them faster, and reach customers more effectively when they make the right moves."

The titles, along with a brief rundown of the contents, of the eleven chapters that comprise "Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution" are:

1. "The Cloud Revolution": this is where Babcock investigates the meaning of  the term "cloud." He concludes that "there are many definitions of the cloud – too many for any one to have achieved a rigorous meaning. It’s most specifically described as software as a service, where a software application can be accessed online, as in Salesforce.com, Google Apps, or Zoho. It also takes the form of infrastructure as a service, where a user goes to a site such as Amazon Web Services' Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)and rents time on a server. It also takes the form of platform as a service, where certain tools are made available with which to build software to run in the host cloud." Note: there is a section in the second chapter of Babcock's book that covers how to build an elastic cloud center.
2. "The Amorphous Cloud": Just like it can be difficult to describe a real cloud in the sky in terms of its shape, form, boundaries, and makeup, the IT version of clouds too can sometimes be hard to define in a clear cut manner. In that regard then, Babcock explores, in this second chapter, the concept of elasticity associated with this particular form of computing. He sums it up in by saying that "when you need a computing resource to serve you, but you don’t know how much of it you're going to need, this special characteristic of the cloud – elasticity – will serve you well."
3. "Virtualization Changes Everything": Babcock describes virtualization, in the most basic of ways, as "the process of taking a physical machine and subdividing it through software into the equivalent of several discrete machines. While these machines operate independently, they share the hardware resources of a single server without impinging on each other." And he regards virtualization as "one of the key technologies that gives the cloud its elastic quality, so that a user can enlist support from many servers and, conversely, many users can receive services from the same server."
4. "Just Over the Horizon, Private Clouds": One of the most unappealing aspects of cloud computing is not knowing which other companies and organizations could be using the same cloud as your enterprise uses. It is fair to say that most, if not all, CEOs, CIOs, COOs, and CFOs, would be alarmed if they were to discover that their most bitter and fierce business rivals were sharing the same cloud space. Apart from this concern, the issues of both access to information in general and the security of information within a cloud, need to be addressed as well. In the future, one possible solution to problems of this nature could be the use of private clouds. However, at the time of writing his book, Babcock reports "the adoption of private cloud computing is so young that it's hard to talk about – it's something that doesn't yet exist fully, but is found only in skeletal, experimental form."
5. "The Hybrid Cloud": Is it likely that the resources of a public cloud and a private cloud could ever merge together to create some sort of super "hybrid" cloud that could deal with special business circumstances? Babcock reports that it's not likely, but if it ever did, he sees that a relationship of that sort "would be focused on managing the spikes in demand that occur in every business: accounting's close of a quarter; the launch of a new product; the onslaught of customers during the holiday shopping season."
6. "Overcoming Resistance to the Cloud": As with the attempted introduction of any new technology, or with a desire to change how business is conducted – sometimes even in the smallest of ways – it is almost guaranteed that there will be some sort of resistance. In this chapter of his book, Babcock looks at what to expect when the possibility of using cloud technology is first raised in your own business environment.
7. "IT Reorganizes": Without a doubt, going down the path of cloud computing will have a major impact on the role of IT professionals within an organization or business. And the success of the outcome will largely depend on how IT reorganizes itself to face the challenges involved. This particular chapter of the book is recommended reading for any IT professionals soon to be part of a cloud computing project.
8. "Dangers Abound: Security in the Cloud": This chapter should be regarded as mandatory reading for both high level management executives as well as IT professionals within a company.
9. "Your Cloud Strategy: What Kind of Company Do You Want?": In many ways, the introduction of new technology into an environment is the easy part. It's how a business subsequently adapts to the use of that technology that can be extremely difficult. Babcock is correct when he points out that "computing professionals can only make cloud computing available as a potential platform for the business." But this is also where, he says, that "every business professional has something to contribute in making the transition. New uses of computing will spring up continually as cloud resources grow. Computer literate business users will increasingly gain mastery of these uses, in some cases taking advantage of new ease-of-use features available through the cloud. If the use of these features is misunderstood or minimized by the organization as a whole, users should point out how other companies are gaining competitive advantage from their own use of the cloud."
10. "Calculating the Future": In this chapter, Babcock poses the question that anyone reading his book will be desperately looking for the answer to, namely, "Will cloud computing lead to your company's success – or something else?" You'll need to read the book to find out his answer!
11. "Nebula: NASA's Strategic Cloud": The final chapter of "Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution" is devoted to discussing Nebula, the space agency NASA's approach to cloud computing. One of the reasons for focusing on Nebula like this is because Babcock believes that it "illustrates how cloud computing can further a set of strategic goals that hitherto have been too expensive or too time consuming for each data center in the agency to implement on its own." To find out more about Nebula, visit the official site at http://nebula.nasa.gov – where, for example, you can watch a brief introductory video about what cloud computing is and the potential benefits it has to offer.

So, what of the future of cloud computing? According to Englishclub.com (www.englishclub.com ) a resource that describes itself as a website for learners and teachers of English, the phrase "to have your head in the clouds" is explained in the following way: "If someone has their head in the clouds, they are out of touch with the everyday world and can be unrealistic or naive as a result." But that particular meaning no longer has relevance in the context of IT. In fact, in his book, Babcock urges readers to re-evaluate their impressions and ideas of how computing should be conducted now and in the immediate future. He believes that "cloud computing will solve the problem of over provisioning and the tendency of data center budgets to invest heavily in keeping the lights on and the computers running, when what they really should be doing is solving new problems." The eventual outcome he sees is that, "most of all, the cloud will bring a new way of doing things and a whole new set of opportunities." In closing though, it would be remiss not to point out that Babcock readily acknowledges too that "the cloud will also bring its own complexities and management challenges, and some of them will prove worthy successors to the challenges of the past." It is for all of these reasons that I urge you to read "Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution" for yourself so that you can then form your own opinions as to the potential benefits offered to your company or organization.