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PUBLIC, PRIVATE, OR HYBRID CHOOSING A CLOUD THAT FITSEric DominguezServerCentral Director of Solutions Engineering


Parameters of a successful Public Cloud Deployment

• Application Redundancy – Critical applications must be able to survive regular provider

outages– Applications should be load balanced across multiple clouds or

multiple availability zones– The more data-driven the application, the less hyperscale

friendly the application will be



• Application Portability– Ability to pick your ball up and go home– Applications are not vendor-locked– Easily decoupled systems– Legacy app integration


• Hyperscale development competency– Outsourcing hyperscale development is a slippery slope– These are expensive resources onshore – High short term turnover rate amongst these employees




• Understanding of at-scale costs– Costs can ‘hockey-stick’ as workloads increase– Inefficient operations cost more in the public cloud


What are the parameters for a successful Private Cloud Deployment?

• Understanding of growth pattern implications– Longer term investments (provider contracts, etc.)– Capacity planning is key– Requires up-front understanding of existing infrastructure inner

workings



• Willingness to grow in ‘chunks’– Growth happens in larger increments than on public cloud– Not all resources used all the time– Larger up front cost than public cloud



• Most like traditional infrastructure– Choose the right platforms (hypervisor/network/storage) for

your organization– More flexibility means more decisions to make


What are the parameters for a successful hybrid cloud?

• Connectivity between private and public environments– Extend enterprise network into the public cloud without

lowering security– Understand impact of latency between private environments

and public cloud availability zones– Capacity plan for a rainy day



• Support of underlying infrastructure and connectivity– Clear delineation of duties to manage private and public– Keep internal install base up to date– Reconcile vendor invoices & understand ‘what you’re paying

for’



• Where to put what– Have a clear vision for which apps will live in the cloud, and

which will stay in traditional infrastructure– Map apps that will ‘burst’ into the cloud, and understand

associated costs– Ensure data doesn’t ‘bleed’ between public/private

environments without good reason


Successful Cloud Transitions

• Deciding which applications belong where– Some workloads lend themselves to being fully virtualized,

some don’t– Remember the 80-20 rule with regard to resource utilization

and thereby cost– Internal teams ensure no cross pollination exists, or is

mitigated– What are your competitors/friends doing with these apps?



• Ensure the Benefit of the Cloud is realized– Is it more cost effective?– Is it more reliable?– Is it easier?– Does it scale better?– Can somebody else operate it?



• Make your move successful with a strategic approach – The whole team needs to sign off, from C-Suite to IT Johnny – Evaluate the options through a holistic lens (Technical,

Financial, Strategic, Human Capital, etc.)– Your plans must be fluid; ready to change with the weather



• Evaluate each application– Develop internal ‘tiering’ system for apps

• Tier0 – 15 minute recovery time– Critical systems – spend your money here

• Tier1 – 1-4 hour recovery time– Email, non-revenue generating systems

• Tier2 – 4-8 hour recovery time– Support systems and the like

• Tier3 and beyond– Everything else



• Regulatory Compliance Considerations– HIPAA/PII/PHI – Not public cloud friendly

• This market is emerging, expect it to be expensive and risky in the short term

– PCI• Moderate public cloud complexity• Cost is a consideration here as well• Short list of providers have gone through the validation

process


Recent Experience

• Medium Sized Healthcare Software as a Service Organization (SaaS)– HIPAA Compliant, Processes PHI– Big Data Driven– Entirely Online Business– Predictable growth template– Concerned with replication and DR testing


Healthcare SaaS Continued

• Selected Private Cloud, Disaster Recovery as a service (DRaaS)• Primary site is Highly Available, secondary is non-HA• Secondary site supports only Tier 0,1 apps• Secondary site is also backup target for long term archival• Management up to the application (OS management included,

Customer manages applications)


Large Dotcom Service Company

• PCI Compliant• Aging Infrastructure• Mix of enterprise systems and public cloud resources• Lack of unanimous cloud strategy• Extreme public cloud spend


Dotcom Service Company Continued

• Large dotcom service organization• PCI Compliant• Aging Infrastructure• Mix of enterprise systems and public cloud resources• Lack of unanimous cloud strategy• Extreme public cloud spend• Infrastructure and cloud teams roll up to different business units



• Cloud Utilization– Developers in charge of their own environments– Underdeveloped DevOps– Continually shifting focus to ‘shiny’ tech– Not connected to Core infrastructure



• Core Infrastructure Utilization– Mature team and management – Aging but stable systems– Run as traditional enterprise IT– Not connected to Cloud Infrastructure



• Mind-melding the two – Unified management and budget– Investment into DevOps training and resources– Core and Cloud infrastructure interconnectivity– Unanimity Required– Enterprise and Cloud Infrastructure transforms to Hybrid Cloud

Infrastructure


THANK YOU

ita tech talk with servercentral

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