7HabitsofHighlyEffectiveCloud

Architects








BROUGHTTOYOUBY

Inside

ExecutiveSummary.....................................................................................................................................3
1. IdentifyWorkloadsSuitableForTheCloudThatGiveYouEasyWins..................................................5
2. Assessifyouneedtore-architectyourapplicationstousethecloud.................................................6
3. Empoweryouruserswithself-serviceandcreateinternalevangelists...............................................7
4. Deployconfigurablevirtualdatacenters;dontforgetthenetworks..................................................8
5. Letyourusersrunmultipleenvironmentsinparallel..........................................................................9
6. LetyourusersshareITenvironments;besuretomanageuserroles...............................................10
7. Retainvisibilityandcontrolthroughusageandchargebackpolicies................................................11
Conclusions................................................................................................................................................12

7HabitsofHighlyEffectiveCloudArchitects 3
ExecutiveSummary

Businesseshavespentmillionsofdollarscreatingandoptimizingdatacenterstorunenterprise
applicationsaspredictableworkloads.However,duringthedevelopment,testingandtraining
phasesofthoseapplicationsfunctionalusersrequiredatacenterresourcesforexactlythe
oppositesetofneeds.Developers,testengineers,andanalystscreatedynamicworkloadsthat
requirerapidset-upandfrequentchanges.Whilethesedynamicworkloadsareillsuitedfor
traditionaldatacenters,theyareanidealfitforthecloudmodel.
ITarchitectsareevaluatingpopularcloudservicestomanagetheirdynamicworkloadneeds.
Theyquicklydiscoverthatmostpopularcloudservicespresentathornydilemma:
Commodityinfrastructureservicesofferscalabilityandlowcostresources,buttheyrequire
applicationstoberewrittentoproprietaryformatsandAPIsatconsiderableexpense.
SoftwaretoolssuchasVMwareorCitrixhelpcreateinternalclouds,butrequireadditional
hardware,largecapitalexpenseandtime-consumingITimplementation.
Inshort,neitherapproachisoptimal.NeitherhelpsITarchitectstomovedynamicworkloadsto
thecloudquicklyandcosteffectively.
Businessestodayneedadifferentalternative.Theyneedacloudsolutionthatenables:
Userstorunapplicationsunchangedinthecloudviaaself-serviceinterface,and
ITmanagerstoscalecapacityon-demand,reducecosts,gainvisibilityandmaintaincontrol.

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Forward-thinking IT architects are discovering that only cloud solutions that meet both needs
attain faster user adoption and deliver operational cost savings of 70% or more. These IT
architects identify seven highly effective habits that have delivered successful cloud
deploymentstotheirorganization.
Theyare:
1.IdentifyWorkloadsSuitableForTheCloudThatGiveYouEasyWins
2.Assessifyouneedtore-architectyourapplicationstousethecloud
3.Empoweryouruserswithself-serviceandcreateinternalevangelists
4.Deployconfigurablevirtualdatacenters;dontforgetthenetworks
5.Letyourusersrunmultipleenvironmentsinparallel
6.LetyourusersshareITenvironments;besuretomanageuserroles
7.Retainvisibilityandcontrolthroughusageandchargebackpolicies

Inthiswhitepaper,weidentifyseveralcommonITproblemsfacebyITarchitectsanddiscuss
solutionstothemindetail.WefocusonthesevenhabitsofsuccessfulITarchitectsand
describehowthesebestpracticescanhelpyoudevelopyourownhighlyeffectiveITstrategy.

1. IdentifyWorkloadsSuitableForTheCloudThatGiveYouEasyWins

EnterpriseCIOswantcloudcomputingsolutionsthat
(1) Deliveragilityandimmediatecostsavings.
(2) Canbeadoptedincrementallywithoutposingamajorrisktobusinesssystems.
(3) AvoidITdistractions;enableITtofocusonthecorebusiness.

Dynamic workloads such as application development, QA, IT sandbox, training and consulting
POC environments are prime candidates for cloud-based solutions. When expensive in-house
datacenterresourcesareprovisionedtoservedynamicworkloads,theyareoftenunderutilized
due to uneven demand. Since dynamic workloads dont impact mission-critical business
systems,movingthemtothecloudislowrisk.

Skytapapproach:Skytapprovidesaneasyon-ramptomoveyourexistingdynamicworkloads
to the cloud. You can import your VMware images easily. You can create use case specific
golden images and provision new environments on-demand. Just as easily as you created
them, you can export Skytap environments back to your data center. No proprietary file
formatsorAPIsareinvolved.

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7HabitsofHighlyEffectiveCloudArchitects 6
2. Assessifyouneedtore-architectyourapplicationstousethecloud

Ask any IT architect to name the platforms and tools he/she uses to enable the business, and
youll likely to hear a long list. IT architects today have many operating systems (Windows,
Linux, Open Solaris), application servers / platforms (.NET, J2EE, etc.) and databases (SQL
Server, Oracle, DB2 etc.) deployed in their organization. Most cloud services only support a
limited set of operating systems, databases and tools making them ill-suited for existing
applications.Theyaredesignedtorunnewapplications.

Choosing one of those services is not a viable option for many IT architects as they may be
required to re-architect or rewrite the applications, which is very expensive and time
consuming.Youneedtoassessthecloudfitforyourapplicationsbeforeselectingasolution.

Skytap approach: Skytap supports multiple operating systems, databases, and application
serversthatrunonthex86platform.Skytapmeetsthecomplexnetworkingneedsofenterprise
applications. Finally, Skytap provides IPSec VPN capability to enable secure, seamless
connectivitytoin-housesystemssoyoucanbetterleverageyourcurrentinvestments.
Skytap provides us with far greater flexibility than a physical IT lab. Testing our
software on client platforms, such as Windows 7, can be achieved without waiting for IT
operations to manually provision machines. Skytap's self-service model and pre-built
virtual machine templates allow us to provision a new test environment in minutes.

- Quality Assurance, Ellie Mae

3. Empoweryouruserswithself-service&createinternalevangelists

As an IT architect, teams count on you to drive rapid innovation within your

organization. Cloud computing promises to be an enabler of inovation; however, your
developers,testengineers,businessanalysts,orsupportstaffneedtorealizethevaluequickly.
Ease-of-use and self-service are an important aspect of cloud computing for these users.
Unfortunately, most cloud services only offer command-line tools or a basic web interface
designedfortechnicalusers.ThesetoolsincreasetheITsupportburdenanddonotfullymeet
user expectations for cloud computing. IT architects with the best track record select self-
servicecloudsolutionstofunctionalusersandrecruitthemasevangelistsearlyintheprocess.

Agoodwaytodothisistoshowthemhoweasyitistocreate,deploy,andmanagecloud
resourcesontheirown.Anotherwayistoconfigurecomplexenvironmentsandprovidethem
astemplatessothatyouruserscangetgoingimmediately.
Skytapapproach:SkytapprovidesawebinterfacethatempowersuserstoperformcomplexIT
operationsbasedonpoliciessetbytheITadministrators.ITmanagerscancreatepre-defined
templatesthatenablesuserstobeself-sufficient.Thiseliminatesthefrequentinterruptions
andproductivitydisruptionsthatcommonlyplagueITshops.

With hundreds of sales professionals worldwide, we were looking for a highly

scalable cloud solution that could offer access to our latest demo builds. Using
Skytap, our sales engineers can launch their own virtual lab in seconds to demo any
product or answer customer questions on a proof-of-concept in real time.

- Technical marketing manager, Open Text

7HabitsofHighlyEffectiveCloudArchitects 8
4. Deployconfigurablevirtualdatacenters;dontforgetthenetworks

As a cloud architect you may need to move a range of applications that typically run in corporate data
centers to the cloud. To ensure a smooth migration and successful adoption, successful IT architects
create virtual data centers that mimic in-house data center capabilities and enable networks required
for complex applications. For instance, one application may require clustered database servers with
multiple network interfaces (NICs) that connect to different networks. Another application may be
processorintensiveandneed4to6CPUcoresor32GBmemoryperserverforeffectiveperformance.

Mostcloudvendorsdontprovidethesophisticatednetworkingfeaturesnecessarytodeployenterprise
applicationsthatincludeclusteringandfailovermechanisms.Also,theyonlysupportfixedinstance
types(e.g.small,large,extra-largeinstances),soitbecomesdifficulttoreplicateanexistingIT
environmentinthecloud.Cloudsolutionsthatprovideconfigurablevirtualdatacentersandadvanced
networkingsettingswillenableyoutocreateproductionlikescenariosinthecloud.
Skytapsolution:Skytapoffersfullconfigurabilityofserversandnetworkingthroughitsuserinterface
andAPIs.ThisconfigurabilityempowersITarchitectstoscaledisks,setCPUcores,establishmemoryper
virtualmachineandconfigureNICsandMACaddresses.Theycanalsospecifynetworksubnet
addresses,hostIPaddresses,hostnames,DHCP,DNSgatewaysandmore.Skytapprovidesapowerful
administratorinterfacetoquerythatstatusofdeployedvirtualmachinesandvirtualdatacenters,
createdetailedusagereportingandconductcomplianceaudittracking.

7HabitsofHighlyEffectiveCloudArchitects 9
5. Letyourusersrunmultipleenvironmentsinparallel

Enterpriseapplicationsarecomplexinnatureandcompriseofmultipleinterconnectedserversand
services.Toresolveacomplexbugscenario,yourteammayneedtocapturethefullstateofthose
serversandservices.Yourdevelopmentteamwillneedtorunaninstancetodebugtheissuewhilethe
QAteamisrunningaparallelinstanceforloadtesting.

Onewaytodothiswouldbetouseacloudsolutionthatcanrunmultipleenvironmentsinfullyisolated
andnetworkfencedVLANs.Withoutthiscapability,bothusersandITwillwastevaluabletimequeuing
uptheworkonsamesetofresourcesorsettingupandtearingdownnewdatacenterresources.
Skytapsolution:Skytapprovidesvirtualdatacenters(VDCs)thatruninsideaVLAN.EachVDCcan
havemultiplemachinesandnetworksthatruninsidetheVLAN.MultiplesuchVDCscanruninparallel
withoutanyconflict.SkytapalsoenablesITarchitectstocreateahubandspokemodelforcreating
sharedserverresources.Thisisespeciallyusefulwhendiagnosingperformanceissues,architecture
changesorsoftwarebugs.Userscanalsosaveagoldenimageforrapiddeploymentatalaterdate.

"Before Skytap it would take us 2-4 hours to build a local environment and constant
back & forth with Support & Engineering teams. For many of our clients, especially
during implementations, we would spend many hours each week just on low-value
environment support. With Skytap it took less than 15 minutes to provision an
environment and share globally, providing Calypso dev / test teams greater
productivity and higher value-add to our customers."
-DirectorEngineeringOperations,Calypso
7HabitsofHighlyEffectiveCloudArchitects 10
6. LetyourusersshareITenvironments;besuretomanageuserroles

A big part of being agile in software development is the ability for developers, test engineers and
supportstafftocollaboratewithoneanotheroncommonissues.Traditionaldatacenterresourcesmay
providemachinelevelscreensharing;however,sharinganentireITenvironmentthatincludesservers,
databasesandnetworksisnoteasywithphysicalresources.Usingacloudbasedarchitecture,youcan
easily enable users to share IT environments as simple as sharing a URL. In addition, your users may
also want to organize their work by project and limit the access to members of a specific project. For
instance,anadministratormayhavetheright toviewacompleteaudittrailofactivityinavirtualdata
center, whereas an offshore tester may only have access to a sandbox test environment to complete
specific test cases. Most cloud providers dont offer easy sharing of IT environments. Whats more,
creatinggranularrole-basedaccesscontrolpermissiontoITenvironmentsoftenaprogrammingtask.

Deployingacloudsolutionthatenableseasyuser-to-usercollaborationwillensureyourearlyusersare
successfulandraveaboutyourdeployment.Bychoosingcloudsolutionsthatprovideaself-service
interfacetosetgranularuseraccesscontrol(UAC)permissions,ITarchitectscansaveconsiderable
amountoftime.
SkytapSolution:SkytapenablesusersandITarchitectstocreateandpublishURLsforITenvironments
thatcanbeeasilysharedwithvendorsorconsultantssothatworkcanbecompletedovertheweb.
SkytapalsooffersarichUACmodelandabilitytosetfine-grainpermissionsdependingontheroleofthe
user.Forinstance,rolessuchasmanagers,editorsandmemberscanbeimplementedtoenable
differentlevelsofaccesstoavirtualdatacenter.

The self-provisioning features of Skytap Cloud mean that our developers can simply
add or subtract computing resources according to their needs. Skytap Cloud has
worked extremely well for our development and test needs.
- Manager IT Systems Engineering and Architecture, Coinstar
7. Retainvisibility&controlthroughusage&chargebackpolicies

CIOsexpectITarchitectstocreateandenforcesecurityandcompliancepolicies.CIOsalsoneedusage
visibilitytokeepcostsundercontrol.InsomecompaniesCIOsalsorequireITarchitectstoimplement
chargebackpoliciesduetoasharedservicemodel.Onegoodwaytomeettheserequirementswouldbe
tocreateITapprovedpolicycomplianttemplatesmadeavailabletousersbasedontheirprojectneeds.
Inaddition,bycreatingprojectanduserspecificusagereports,ITarchitectscanprovidedetailedusage
visibilityacrossusersandimplementchargebackpolicies.

MostIaaSproviders,unfortunately,provideonlysimplecreditcardbasedprovisioningonaperuser
basis.Thedonotofferadvancedsecurityandcompliancepolicymanagementtools.Theyalsodon't
provideanycostcontrolcapabilitiesortheabilitytoisolateusagetointernalgroupsforchargeback.
TheyrequireITpoliciesbeimplementedinaseparatesolutionratherthanprovidingitoutofthebox.
CloudsolutionsthatprovidepolicymanagementasanintegralpartofthesolutionsavesITarchitectsa
lotoftimeandmoney.TheyalsoenableITarchitectstomanageusagecostspro-activelyandavoid
nastystickershockattheendofthemonthwhenthebillarrives.
Skytapapproach:Skytapofferscorecostcontrolcapabilitiesintegratedintheproduct.Forexample,
Skytapenablesvirtualdatacenterstobeauto-suspendedwhennotinusetosavecosts.Inaddition,
quotascanbeappliedtoindividualsandorganizationstocapusageunlessauthorizationisobtainedto
burstcapacity.SkytapalsoenablesglobalenforcementofITpolicies,suchastemplatesthatcontain
licensedoperatingsystems,applicationsanddatabases.Italsoprovidesworkflowsofsubnetrangesfor
virtualdatacentersanddisapprovalsofpublicIPaddressestovirtualmachines.Finally,Skytapprovides
adetailedreportingandauditingcapabilityforadministratorstomaintainfullvisibilityandcontrol.
7HabitsofHighlyEffectiveCloudArchitects 12
Conclusions

AsanITarchitect,youarecalledupontomakealotofdecisions,guideyourorganization
towardssuccessfulclouddeploymentsandunderstandhowtoweedthroughallthe
hype.SuccessfulITarchitectsidentifyworkloadsthatareagoodfitforthecloudmodeland
deliverearlysuccess.Theyalsounderstandthatyoudon'thavetore-architectappstomove
themtothecloud.Theyrecognizetheimportanceofeasytolearn,self-servicesolutionsthat
makeitpossibletoachievefasteradoptionandrecruitinternalevangelistsfromsuccessful
projects.Finally,successfulITarchitectsarekeenlyawareoftheneedtodriveuserproductivity
byenablingthemtomulti-taskinthecloudwhileprovidingfullvisibilityandcontrolover
clouddeploymentstomanageusagecostsprudently.Thesesuccessfulhabitsareapplicableto
allITarchitectsthatwanttodrivefasterinnovationintheircompanyandbethepioneerthat
transformstheirbusinessusingthecloudmodel.

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As more workloads move to cloud style deployment, there will be a corresponding,
but not necessarily equal, movement of expenses from fixed capital outlay to
operating outlay. But the history is pretty clear on this. When we have variability of
expenditures with fewer controls, we can run into overspending.
- Gartner Fellow & Managing VP, Daryl Plummer
7HabitsofHighlyEffectiveCloudArchitects 13
TolearnmoreabouthowSkytapcanhelpwiththesuccessofyourfirstcloudprojectortosign-
upforafreetrialofSkytapcloud,pleasevisitwww.skytap.com.

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