Most
of us already know that Cloud Computing is a new Buzz word in the
industry and it is very true that everyone want to learn about it as
much as possible. For myself, I have been reading and observing cloud
computing evolution for past one year, and recently I had an
opportunity to attend for IBM’s SmartCloudCamp session which has given
me some insight on current state of cloud computing evolution.
I have
noticed several questions from System Admin community about the Cloud
computing’s effect on Infrastructure Support Teams. In this post I am
just trying to address the same question in a way that I understand
cloud computing.
Cloud Computing
Let me tell you a small story before we go to discuss about t the Cloud Computing.
My Sister
and her family is living in a small town in the state of Andhra
Pradesh, India. In the town, the power failures are so common and it
is like 1 or 2 hours of power outage with a frequency of 2 or 3 times
per day. My sister and her neighbors were so upset because these
continuous power outages disturbing the kid’s studies and also making
life difficult during the evenings. They know that there is an
alternative to solve the problem by having power generator as a backup
power source but most of the neighbor families are not in a position
to afford for it and also they are worried about the regular
maintenance cost of these devices.
One fine
day, a group of smart minds came up with a solution to purchase a high
capacity power generator , place it in some common place and to provide
backup power connections to every home who ever ready to pay for the
usage charges as per the the actual usage calculated by the electric
meter plugged in at every home. Interestingly, the idea worked very
well, and most of the people in the town were adapted the backup power
source with the minimum capital investment and zero maintenance cost.
I believe,
by this time, you might have understood the purpose of cloud
computing in IT industry. If it is still unclear, lets go forward to
look at it in more detailed terms
The
Current definition of Cloud Computing is ” A Comprehensive solution
which delivers the IT as a Service. Here the term IT can be expanded as
Infrastructure, Platform, Storage and Software”. . At present the IT
industry classified into two groups in terms of cloud computing , first
one is Cloud Computing Service Providers and the other one is Cloud Computing Service Consumers ( Client).
- Cloud Computing in its Basic Form
Quick refresh on Cloud Computing Benefits to a Client/Consumer
1. Reduced Capital Cost to setup IT Infrastructure
Scenario 1:
If any
organisation want to start a new business function that needs IT
infrastructure, the organisation need not go through the all the complex
process of establishing IT infrastructure starting from the Data
center planning. Instead the company simply can go for a Cloud Computing
service provider who is providing the kind of service , in his service
catalogue, that meets the organisation’s IT requirement for the new
business function. The requested service could be anything like
Server/Storage/Network Infrastructure, Platform Environment or already
built software application which can be customized to your requirement.
And the organisation will pay, to the service provider, only for the
resources that has been utilized. No Capital investment, no running
maintenance cost.
Scenerio 2:
If any
organisation want to migrate it’s existing IT infrastructure ( or part
of it ) related to less critical business function, it can again
approach the Cloud Computing Service provider for a solution that works
for their actuation requirement.
2. Rapid scalability with the help of dynamic infrastructure
Current Challenge:
In any
business, it is very common that, the initial design of IT
infrastructure happens considering the current potential of business
and expected growth of business in near future. And these expectations
/ predictions about the future growth may or may not be correct, in
current day high fluctuating business markets. Any large Investment in
IT infra setup will be wasted if the related business not doing well ,
as expected. And at the same time insufficient IT infra resources could
block the business growth if the business was progressing better than
expected.
It is
always a real challenge to any organisation to predict the actual
requirement of IT infrastructure , and this challenge can easily
addressable if the organisation considering the cloud computing
solution.
Using
Cloud Computing, organisations can easily scale it’s resources to the
level it matches the business requirement which is very dynamic in
nature.
3. Utility Pricing Model
This point
is self explanatory, organisations will pay for the only resources that
they have used. No Initial investment to setup infra.
4. Self Service by using Automated Provisioning
I believe, this is one key point where cloud computing affecting the existing IT infrastructure job roles.
By using
automated provisioning feature of Cloud Computing , organisations can
request the services mentioned in Service Catalogue and could receive
the services instantly and dynamically with minimum or no technology
skills.
5. Resource availability from anywhere of the world
Public
clouds can be accessed from anywhere of the world using the internet,
and this feature makes cloud computing as beautiful solution for many
startup companies which are running using virtual teams located in
different parts of world.
for more inforamtoin, you can refer my other post ” Cloud Computing – It’s not just another buzzword, but a near future “, which talks about cloud computing features and benefits.Cloud Computing Layers
IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service
Iaas is basically a paradigm shift from “Infrastructure as an asset” to “Infrastructure as a Service”
Key Characteristics of Iaas:
- Infrastructure is Platform independent
- Infrastructure costs are shared by multiple clients/users
- Utility Pricing – Clients will pay only for the resources they have consumed
Advantages:
- Minimal or No Capital investment on Infrastructure Hardware
- No Maintenance costs for Hardware
- Reduced ROI risk
- Avoid the wastage of Computing resources
- Dynamic in nature
- Rapid Scalability of Infrastructure to meet sudden peak in business requirements
Drawbacks:
- Performance of Infrastructure purely depends on Vendor capability to manage resources
- Consistent high usage of resources for a long term could lead to higher costs
- Companies have to introduce new layer of Enterprise security to deal with the cloud computing related to security issues
Note: It is better not to adapt Iaas Solution, if the oraganisation capital budget is greater than the Operating budget
PaaS – Platform as a Service
Paas is a Paradigm shift from ” purchasing platform environment tools as a licensing product ” to “purchasing as a service”.
Key Characteristics:
- Deployment purely based on cloud infrastructure
- caters to agile project management methods
Advantages:
- It is possible capture the complex testing & development platform requirement and automate the tasks for provisioning of consistent environment.
Drawback:
- Enterprises have to introduce new layer of security to deal with the security in cloud computing environment.
SaaS – Software as a Service
SaaS is
basically paradigm shift from treating “treating software as an asset of
business/consumer” to “using software as a service achieve the
business goals”
Advantages:
- reduce Capital expenses required for the development and testing resources
- Reduced ROI risk
- Streamlines and Iterative updates of the software
Drawbacks:
- Enterprises have to introduce new layer of security to deal with the security in cloud computing environment.
Cloud Computing Solutions for Enterprise
Public Cloud Solution for Enterprise
Public
Cloud solution allows enterprise to adapt Iass, Pass and Saas services
from a cloud computing service provide on the internet, and actual
computing resources are available under control of Vendor.
Private Cloud Solution for Enterprise
Private
Cloud Solution for Enterprise nothing but constructing cloud solution
within the enterprise datacenter, to provide more security on physical
resources. And the internal departments of the enterprise within the
organisation can utilise and pay for cloud computing resources as if
they are using public cloud resources.
Hybrid Cloud Solution for Enterprise
Hybrid
cloud solution enables enterprise use both public cloud and private
cloud resources same time depending on the criticality and importance of
the business function.
Virtual Private Cloud Solution
Using
Virtual Private Cloud Solution Companies can create their own private
cloud environment with in the public cloud by using different
network/firewall rules. And the purpose is to avoid external access to
the enterprise resources.
How Cloud Computing affects the Job roles in the Infrastructure Support Team
Depending
on the Clod computing Solution that enterprise adapted, there will be
direct and indirect effect on the various job roles with in
the infrastructure support teams.
If you look at the Sysadmin role in general , the actual job role involves three major responsibilities:
- Hardware administration
- Operating System Builds
- Operating System Administration
- Network Services Administration
Once the
organisation adapted the Cloud Computing solution ( IaaS / PaaS / SaaS )
, it no longer required to maintain the skillful technical people to
deal with hardware related issues and OS Build operations but they still
need resources to perform OS / Network administration and to customize
cloud resources to meet the organisation requirements. And the same
effect is true for the Network Support roles.
Cloud
Computing solutions cannot replace every system administrator in the
company but it will expect new level cloud computing related expertise
instead of ” to be isolated hardware maintenance skills”. For sure, it’s
a call for learning. And more importantly the sysadmin job roles
specifically dealing with the “Hardware & OS builds” has to go away,
in near future.
For any
organisation, the current recruitment strategy for the SysAdmin Team
is “No. of Sysadmins are directly proportional to the physical server
foot print in the data center “. With IaaS adaption organisation’s
server footprint will reduce drastically, and hence the no. of sysadmin
positions.
As of now
the Clouds were deployed to replace the Server infrastructure with
windows / linux on X86 model, but not yet having solutions for Vendor
Specific Server OS like Solaris on Sparc, IBM AIX and HP UX …etc.
Considering the speed of evolution in cloud computing technologies, it
may not take long time to provide solutions for all kinds of
server infrastructure. From the other side, if the Organisation choose
to migrate their applications to X86 model servers to receive the
benefits of economic cloud computing then the change is more rapid.
Below
pictures will give you an understanding how the roles are moving out of
Infra Teams depending on the Cloud solution adapted by the organisation.
Final and one more story, i want to tell you, before closing this post.
As most of
you already aware, India is an agricultural based society where people
treat their land like “mother that feeds you everyday ” and cows like
“part of family wealth”. A decade before, most of the families used to
follow the traditional way of cultivation that requires more number
people and long working hours . And this requirement for the human labor
is the main source for the jobs , in villages, for longtime
With
technology innovations in India, there were many new tools/machines had
been introduced to the indian agricultural industry which in turn
reduced the requirement for the human labor. During
this technology change, many people back at villages worried about
their livelihood for sometime. But, the worry didn’t last longtime
because most of them quickly adapted the skills related to these new
technologies like “regular maintenance of these new tools” , “using the
tools for better productivity” and “finding new lands to cultivate using
these new machines with low cost” etc., and started living better than
earlier.
And I
believe, same story applies for any other industry including IT.
And whenever we notice an inevitable change in our way, it is always
wise to understand and get ready to accept it, instead of worrying
about and trying to resist it.
