Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Reliable software applications are as critical for mid-market businesses as they are for enterprises. Choosing the right platform is the key to ensuring that applications are available, scalable, cost effective, compliant and secure. With the growing variety of physical, virtual and cloud-based platforms to choose from for application deployment, many will value the advice of third party experts as they plan the evolution of legacy applications or deploy new ones. This paper looks at the issues that mid-market IT and business managers need to take into account when deciding how to deploy applications and when they should consider turning to managed service providers (MSP) for resources and advice. The document should be of interest to those who are focused on delivering their organisations core value proposition, whilst also considering how this is best underpinned by IT.
Bob Tarzey Quocirca Ltd Tel : +44 7900 275517 Email: bob.tarzey@quocirca.com
Clive Longbottom Quocirca Ltd Tel: +44 771 1719 505 Email: clive.longbottom@quocirca.com
Location, location, location Flexible application deployment Application deployment check list Security and compliance
Reliable software applications are essential to the smooth running of any business but, for most organisations, IT is not a core skill. Selecting the right platform and location for running a given application and ensuring future flexibility involves a number of increasingly complex choices. Many will be better off turning to partners with integration skills for advice and resources, especially mid-market organisations that will not have the required expertise inhouse. In the past it was common to run individual applications on dedicated physical servers; in some cases this may still make sense. However, much of the time it makes sense to share physical resources between applications by virtualising servers or creating private clouds. Public clouds allow even greater economies to be achieved through sharing infrastructure with other organisations. By definition, public clouds are hosted in third party data centres. However, dedicated infrastructure can be too, either by co-locating existing equipment or making use of managed hosting services. Most mid-market organisations will find that the resilience and efficiency of enterprise-class third party data centres far exceeds that of in-house facilities. Ensuring a given application workload can be moved from one type of platform to another is essential to achieving many of the goals of reliable application deployment. This is the best way to ensure resilience, scalability and future proofing. There is a long list of considerations for ensuring optimal deployment that will vary from one application to another. These include how the application should be structured and its workloads broken down, what resources it needs, where it is in its life cycle and how commercial components are licenced. Considerations will also vary for in-house developed and commercially acquired applications. Two key considerations are security and compliance. Options for using certain cloud platforms may be restricted for regulated data. That said, the perception that cloud platforms are inherently insecure is slowly being overcome. Businesses are coming to realise that the reputation of cloud service providers is dependent on delivering higher levels of security than many IT departments achieve in-house. The choices are complex and most mid-market organisations will not have all the skills required in-house, which is why many turn to MSPs for advice and resources. Integrator-MSPs are onestop-shops offering advice on end-to-end application deployment services whilst specialist MSPs offer specific services, for example managed hosting. For an all-round service the first call should be on the former who will engage with and integrate the latter as required.
Conclusions
All businesses are now reliant on IT to a greater or lesser extent and mid-market businesses, in particular, are unlikely to have the full range of in-house skills needed to ensure the performance, scalability, security and compliance of their applications. Forwardthinking mid-market organisations are turning to integrator-MSPs and benefiting from their business processes being supported by reliable applications running on stable and flexible platforms.
Quocirca 2012
-2-
However, this is a metaphorical heart, no longer necessarily a physical one. Software applications may be essential to supporting a given business but, increasingly, the same business does not need to be expert in IT to achieve this; it does not even need to run the necessary systems on its own premises. Find the right third party to work with and the running of all or part of a given organisations IT requirements can be trusted to a partner who sees ensuring high performance, scalable, reliable, compliant and secure applications as their core value proposition. Today there is huge flexibility in the choices that can be made because of the global network connectivity that has been put in place over the last 20 years. For mid-market organisations this is a double-edged sword; they can more effectively compete with larger organisations without having to build up internal IT expertise. However, entrust the task to the wrong partner and the intended goal of delivering more reliable applications may not be achieved and the business could be derailed. This paper looks at the issues mid-market businesses (5005,000 employees) must consider when working out how and where to run the various applications that they rely on. It looks at whether they should they keep old ones in-house and what the options are for deploying new ones. It also looks at the types of managed service providers (MSP) and the benefits to be expected when partnering with one. The document should be of interest to midmarket business and IT managers who are focused on trying to deliver that core value proposition, but are also likely to have to regularly stop and consider how this is best underpinned by IT.
Find the right MSP to work with and the running of IT can be trusted to a partner who sees ensuring high performance, scalable, reliable, compliant and secure applications as their core value proposition
Quocirca 2012
-3-
Quocirca 2012
-4-
Virtual platforms
Quocirca research has consistently shown that hardware servers are underutilised. This has been the driving force behind the explosion in the last 10 years of virtualisation software for utility x86-based servers. This has seen the emergence of virtualisation platforms, including VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV). These are all hypervisors that provide a virtual link between hardware resources and infrastructure software. There is nothing new about the idea of virtualisation - it was at the heart of mainframe operating systems - but what was new was to apply it to all sizes of computers (even PCs). Virtualisation is not just about better utilisation, it is about flexibility of deployment; for example, two applications, one running on Linux and one running on Microsoft Windows, can share the same physical hardware whereas before they would have needed their own dedicated servers. Tools supplied with virtualisation software make it relative easy to take instances of applications running on dedicated physical servers and move them, almost seamlessly, to virtual environments. Some still perceive virtual platforms as only being suitable for non-critical workloads, but the truth is that a growing number of businesses are now running all their applications in a virtualised environment as whole data centres are turned into virtual private clouds.
Private cloud
Scaling up virtualisation itself, so that many physical servers appear as a single large virtual server, is, in effect, what a computing cloud is. When this is run exclusively for the use of a single organisation then it can be termed a private cloud. Applications are deployed to the private cloud with no need to assign resources, as the cloud will assign them as needed, in so far as they are available. Of course, the availability of these resources is still limited by the underlying physical platform and this will dictate how the cloud is constructed and run and the sort of applications that can be deployed to it. Existing in-house data centres may be transformed into private clouds or cloud service providers can provision them for their customers in industrial-scale data centres, often alongside their own public cloud offerings.
Public cloud
Take the cloud concept and use it to build large-scale multi-tenancy platforms with hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of servers that can be shared by multiple organisations and you have a multi-tenant public cloud. There are two flavours; infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), where the deployment is to a hypervisor (i.e. an application is deployed with the operating system it requires to run) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) where the public cloud is like a huge shared Windows or Linux platform to which applications can be deployed directly. PaaS is generally quite proprietary, for example Microsoft Azure (based on Windows), Force.com (from salesforce.com) or Google App Engine. With IaaS, deployment is to the hypervisor and this is the way most cloud service providers are building out public clouds. Examples include Amazons EC2, which is based on Xen (an open source project that is also used by Citrix), and Rackspace Cloud Servers (based on OpenStack, an open source data centre operating environment that supports various hypervisors).
Software-as-a-service (SaaS)
Whilst it is not strictly speaking a platform, SaaS is mentioned here as it is an option that should be considered when thinking about deploying new applications. A SaaS application is one that is provided as ready to go over the internet as a service. Just as with public cloud, the infrastructure is shared but there is no need to even install application software although varying degrees of tailoring are possible. Perhaps the most obvious example is email; why go to the bother and expense of installing a Microsoft Exchange or some other email server when you can just
Quocirca 2012
-5-
The market for third party data centres has grown fast in the last decade; placing applications and the infrastructure they rely on in such facilities is called co-location, or co-lo for short. Co-lo providers are experts at running data centres, ensuring power supplies, access to multiple network service providers, 24-hour physical security and advanced protection against fire and flood. As the costs of running such facilities are shared across multiple customers they are accessible to all sizes of business. Their owners focus on ensuring access to utilities and also selecting low cost locations. As most applications are not so time critical that a few 10s, 100s or even 1,000s of miles separation of users from applications makes a huge difference, many businesses now turn to co-lo providers for their data centre needs, either provisioning new equipment in these facilities or moving old kit off-premise to them.
experts at running data centres, ensuring power supplies, and access to multiple network service providers
Co-location (co-lo)
Quocirca 2012
-6-
Quocirca 2012
-7-
Redundancy
As outlined above, the best way to provide a failover capability for many applications deployed on-premise will be to have access to a cloud-based back up resource. For applications that are deployed in the cloud as a primary platform, failover should be to a secondary cloud resource. For new applications, this means ensuring there is sufficient flexibility to achieve this. This may be harder for legacy applications that may be tied to old hardware and it may be a good reason for accelerating their replacement.
Peak planning
Some applications may happily run on a given platform with limited resources most of time, but require additional resources for short periods. In the past this required over-provisioning of hardware. However, being able to make use of additional on-demand resources only when they are needed, sometimes called cloud-bursting, avoids this problem. New applications should be acquired with this flexibility in mind.
Future proofing
It is in the interests of cloud service providers to keep up with emerging technology. Even if one lags, another may be innovating. Provisioning all infrastructure in-house limits an application to the technology stack that was available at the time it was initially provisioned. Ensuring an application can be easily moved means that if a given new technology can provide considerable benefits and provide quick wins then an application can be moved to a platform provider that is quick on the uptake of such technology. Understanding when this is the case will depend on the applicationspecific considerations.
Provisioning all infrastructure inhouse limits an application to the technology stack that was available at the time it was initially provisioned
Quocirca 2012
-8-
Network
As discussed earlier, if access to a preferred network service provider is required or there is any special connectivity to other partners, users or the public internet needed, this may affect the choices made. There may also be special considerations for access from mobile devices as their use becomes more and more common amongst businesses of all sizes (Figure 5) that require particular load balancing and data caching to be put in place.
Platform
Again, the platform options have been discussed above. As discussed, different workloads may best run on different platforms, be they physical, virtual or cloud based.
Storage
Where data is stored is an important consideration for a number of reasons including latency, compliance and capacity. Storage is provided as an integral part of cloud and other offerings from service providers but is also offered as a discrete resource by many. When this is the case, storage can be provisioned separately; for example for providing off-site backups, shared data stores etc. Similar considerations apply to those for deploying applications when considering the suitability of dedicated versus shared storage infrastructure.
Quocirca 2012
-9-
Application structure
Much of the discussion so far has talked about applications as if they were a single entity that cannot be broken down, which of course they can, into individual workloads and components. It may make sense to deploy different parts of an application on different platforms. An ecommerce application may consist of a web server, an order processing application and a transactions database. It may make sense to deploy the web server in the cloud, well connected to customers, whilst the order processing application may be a legacy system best run on existing hardware but co-located near the web server. For performance reasons, the database may be best deployed on a dedicated physical server offered as a managed hosting service in a nearby facility. This will only work if the application has been structured in way that allows such componentisation in the first place, which many will not have been especially older ones. Even when that is the case, it does not mean there is no choice to be made; a more resilient application may be achieved by moving it, and the hardware it runs on, to a co-lo facility or by reprovisioning it on a managed hosting platform.
Quocirca 2012
- 10 -
Software licencing
Another consideration is software licencing. First, it may be the case that an organisation has perpetual licences for certain infrastructure and applications software that need to be utilised in any long-term plan to avoid unnecessary new investment. However, moving licences to a virtualised environment may not be straightforward and a renegotiation with the supplier may be necessary. This is especially true as more and more software runs on multicore physical servers, as some vendors charge for a licence per core.
Quocirca 2012
- 11 -
Quocirca 2012
- 12 -
Conclusions
All businesses are now reliant on IT to a greater or lesser extent; mid-market businesses, in particular, are unlikely to have the full range of in-house skills to ensure the performance, reliability, scalability, security and compliance of the applications they rely on. To this end they should consider engaging with integrator-MSPs that have the skills and resources they lack. This will leave them free to focus on their core business activity and avoid having to invest in internal IT expertise.
Quocirca 2012
- 13 -
References
1. Quocirca 2012 The year of Application Performance Management February 2012, interviews with 500 UK, USA, German and French IT managers. To be published on www.quocirca.com later in 2012, freely available on request from bob.tarzey@quocirca.com or downloadable at: http://applicationperformance.dynatrace.com/2012_Application_Performance_Management_Outlook_Survey. html Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research; A paradigm shift for IT: The Cloud November 2009 Quocirca Outsourcing the problem of software security February 2012, interviews with 100 UK and US enterprises. To be published on www.quocirca.com later in 2012, freely available on request from bob.tarzey@quocirca.com or downloadable at: http://info.veracode.com/Quocirca_Outsourcing_Software_security.html Quocirca The data sharing paradox, Quocirca Sept 2011 http://www.quocirca.com/reports/620/the-datasharing-paradox (SMB data from UK, France, Germany USA and Australia) Quocirca; UK-only data taken from research published in Next Generation Datacentre Cycle II Cloud findings, April 2012 http://www.quocirca.com/reports/689/next-generation-datacentre-cycle-ii-cloud-findings
2. 3.
4. 5.
Quocirca 2012
- 14 -
REPORT NOTE: This report has been written independently by Quocirca Ltd to provide an overview of the issues facing mid-market organisations as they deploy business applications. The report draws on Quocircas extensive knowledge of the technology and business arenas, and provides advice on the approach that mid-market organisations should take to create a more effective and efficient IT environment for running applications that will support future growth.
About Quocirca
Quocirca is a primary research and analysis company specialising in the business impact of information technology and communications (ITC). With world-wide, native language reach, Quocirca provides in-depth insights into the views of buyers and influencers in large, mid-sized and small organisations. Its analyst team is made up of real-world practitioners with first-hand experience of ITC delivery who continuously research and track the industry and its real usage in the markets. Through researching perceptions, Quocirca uncovers the real hurdles to technology adoption the personal and political aspects of an organisations environment and the pressures of the need for demonstrable business value in any implementation. This capability to uncover and report back on the end-user perceptions in the market enables Quocirca to provide advice on the realities of technology adoption, not the promises. Quocirca research is always pragmatic, business orientated and conducted in the context of the bigger picture. ITC has the ability to transform businesses and the processes that drive them, but often fails to do so. Quocircas mission is to help organisations improve their success rate in process enablement through better levels of understanding and the adoption of the correct technologies at the correct time.
Quocirca has a pro-active primary research programme, regularly surveying users, purchasers and resellers of ITC products and services on emerging, evolving and maturing technologies. Over time, Quocirca has built a picture of long term investment trends, providing invaluable information for the whole of the ITC community. Quocirca works with global and local providers of ITC products and services to help them deliver on the promise that ITC holds for business. Quocircas clients include Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, O2, T-Mobile, HP, Xerox, EMC, Symantec and Cisco, along with other large and medium-sized vendors, service providers and more specialist firms. Details of Quocircas work and the services it offers can be found at http://www.quocirca.com Disclaimer: This report has been written independently by Quocirca Ltd. During the preparation of this report, Quocirca has used a number of sources for the information and views provided. Although Quocirca has attempted wherever possible to validate the information received from each vendor, Quocirca cannot be held responsible for any errors in information received in this manner. Although Quocirca has taken what steps it can to ensure that the information provided in this report is true and reflects real market conditions, Quocirca cannot take any responsibility for the ultimate reliability of the details presented. Therefore, Quocirca expressly disclaims all warranties and claims as to the validity of the data presented here, including any and all consequential losses incurred by any organisation or individual taking any action based on such data and advice. All brand and product names are recognised and acknowledged as trademarks or service marks of their respective holders.