WHITE P APER Five Steps to Successful Integrated Cloud Management

Sponsored by: HP Mary Johnston Turner May 2011 Robert P. Mahowald

IDC OPINION
www.idc.com

IDC estimates that by 2012, 85% of net-new enterprise applications will be specifically designed to be accessed in the cloud. Cloud computing strategies help IT organizations reduce costs, improve service levels, and increase business agility by dynamically sharing IT resources across multiple applications and workloads. Although many organizations have started their cloud journey by using software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings or implementing self-serve approaches to virtual server provisioning, a small but rapidly growing group of IT organizations are focused on using cloud to optimize more broadly across application development, infrastructure operations, and day-to-day management processes. A recent global IDC survey, sponsored by HP, examined the experience of this proactive group of integrated cloud managers. These organizations are actively integrating and automating application development, provisioning, security, and management across public and private cloud resources as well as noncloud application development and datacenter operations teams. They are seeing many benefits, including faster application provisioning, lower application development and maintenance costs, improved business agility, higher service levels, and improved business and IT relationships. Their experiences also highlight that success depends on cultural transformation as well as integrated and automated management processes and tools. An analysis of the experiences of these early adopters identifies five important steps for successful integrated cloud management. Specifically: ! Define a plan that coordinates the organization's application modernization strategy with its cloud infrastructure and SaaS agenda ! Assess current costs and develop benchmarks for application support, provisioning, and ongoing resource consumption ! Identify opportunities to reduce costs and speed up service delivery via use of automation for integrated application and infrastructure provisioning ! Implement systems to monitor and integrate application performance and realtime capacity planning analytics with automated provisioning solutions ! Integrate security strategies and priorities across the application development, release, and operations life cycle

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IDC recommends that organizations begin the journey toward integrated cloud management by targeting early pilot projects at developer teams and application environments that can deliver quick payback to validate the business agility benefits and operational efficiency improvements.

METHODOLOGY
This white paper discusses the results of a recent HP-sponsored IDC survey of IT decision makers who are actively engaged in designing and implementing their organization's cloud strategy. This global Web-based survey examined the current use of various public and private cloud solutions among 9,410 IT decision makers located in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia. From that group, 501 IT decision makers were identified as being the most proactive when it comes to integrating application development and operations priorities into their overall cloud strategy. To be included in this most proactive group, participants had to be currently taking advantage of one or both of the following application-centric cloud strategies: ! Private cloud management approaches that go beyond infrastructure provisioning and virtualization to integrate automated application planning, development, test, release, and/or runtime management processes and tools to optimize application development, provisioning, and management inside a single organization's firewall ! Public, Internet-based platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud solutions (e.g., Google App Engine or Microsoft Azure Cloud) that can be used to simplify, integrate, and standardize application development, provisioning, and management strategies using resources accessed over the Internet and paid for via a subscription or usage fee The experiences of these 501 forward-looking organizations can provide valuable insight for the broader cloud user community as it works to deliver the greatest business and IT value possible from a rapidly expanding portfolio of traditional and cloud-based infrastructure and application resources.

SITUATION OVERVIEW
Hybrid Cloud Environments Expected to Dominate for Many Years
IDC's research consistently finds that most enterprises expect to rely on a mix of physical, virtual, and cloud-based application and compute resources for many years and will need to integrate development and operations processes, policies, and management tools across these diverse environments to meet fast-moving business requirements, ensure consistent service levels, and hold down IT costs. Among IT decision makers who are currently using cloud architecture and services, most participants make use of multiple types of clouds, as shown in Figure 1.

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FIGURE 1
Types of Cloud Solutions Currently in Use Worldwide

Private inf rastructure cloud Public SaaS Public IaaS Public PaaS Private integrated application/inf rastructure cloud Unsure 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

(% of respondents)
n = 9,410 current cloud solution users Note: Multiple responses were permitted.
Source: IDC's Global Cloud Survey, sponsored by HP, March 2011

Private infrastructure clouds that automate the provisioning and management of hypervisors, servers, storage, and network infrastructure resources are the most widely used (59%) cloud approach. They are followed closely by public SaaS options (54%) such as salesforce.com. Public infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solutions (16%) such as Amazon EC2, public PaaS solutions (16%) such as Microsoft Azure, and private integrated application and infrastructure cloud solutions (14%) are used by smaller numbers of organizations. IDC expects that the number of organizations that will want to integrate cloud-based application development and operations with infrastructure cloud solutions will continue to grow over time. IDC estimates that by 2012, 85% of net-new enterprise applications will be specifically designed to be accessed in the cloud, even as many mission-critical applications that were not built for cloud continue to deliver business value. For major enterprises, a complex Web of packaged and composite applications will emerge that have in-house and external components running on hybrid cloud platforms. As a result, IDC expects that the majority of enterprise organizations, and many smaller organizations, will rely on hybrid environments spanning public, private, and noncloud resources for a number of years due to the unique infrastructure and operational requirements of different applications being used by the organization. Differing IT philosophies toward sourcing external services as well as security/governance postures unique to a specific business or industry will also drive long-term reliance on hybrid architectures.

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Each enterprise will make its own decision on the set of resources, security, and management strategies it will use depending on its specific business and application requirements. However, it is important to note that customers consistently tell IDC that the needs of the applications in terms of performance, security, scalability, and cost dictate the type of cloud or noncloud environment that will be used to support them.

Integrated Application and Infrastructure Management Strategies Emerge as a Critical Cloud Control Point
Applications are where IT is converted to business value, and the effective development, deployment, operation, and security of applications are IT's highest priorities. Making decisions about how to best use cloud solutions requires IT organizations to have a solid understanding of application performance, security, costs, and utilization requirements. The cloud decision makers who participated in this survey have opted to make the integrated management of application development and operations a priority across their cloud environments. They have chosen this strategy due to a number of challenges involving both application development and ongoing operations. With regard to application development, the major challenges they seek to overcome are shown in Figure 2.

FIGURE 2
Major Application Development Challenges That Cause Organizations to Implement Integrated Cloud Solutions

LOB pressure to cut costs Need to rapidly ref resh applications Application modernization to support cloud Improve access to development/test resources Embed security in static code 0
n = 501 Note: Multiple responses were permitted.
Source: IDC's Global Cloud Survey, sponsored by HP, March 2011

10 15 20 25 30 (% of respondents)

35

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Specifically, they identify the following important application developmentrelated drivers: ! Line-of-business (LOB) pressure to reduce application development costs ! The desire to modernize applications to take advantage of cloud infrastructure architectures ! The need to rapidly and continually refresh applications ! The need to more quickly provide access to development and test resources ! The need to embed security information into static code during development With regard to day-to-day management and operations (see Figure 3), these decision makers are aiming to reduce business risk, improve application performance, and hold down costs.

FIGURE 3
Major Application Management Challenges That Cause Organizations to Implement Integrated Cloud Solutions

Data protection/disaster recovery IT budget constraints Need to enf orce security policies Increasing management complexity Problems monitoring public cloud SLAs 0
n = 501 Note: Multiple responses were permitted.
Source: IDC's Global Cloud Survey, sponsored by HP, March 2011

10 15 20 25 (% of respondents)

30

Specifically, they note the following management drivers: ! The need to better protect critical data and improve disaster recovery ! IT budget constraints driving the need to reduce application management costs across the development/operations life cycle ! The need to more consistently and automatically enforce security policies ! The need to overcome increasing management complexity ! Problems with effectively monitoring the performance of applications hosted on public cloud resources

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Cloud Requires New Types of Application and Infrastructure Management Capabilities

Survey participants were selected because they have hands-on experience in integrating application development and operations activities across private, public, and hybrid cloud environments. Less than half of the survey participants (47%) think that their existing application performance and availability management processes and tools will be effective in addressing their organization's requirements for monitoring and managing applications across public and private cloud environments on a consistent and seamless basis in the future (see Figure 4).

FIGURE 4
Expectations for How Well Existing Application Management Processes and Tools Will Be Able to Address Requirements Across Public and Private Clouds

Unsure (9.0%)

Effective (47.0%) Ineffective (44.0%)

n = 501
Source: IDC's Global Cloud Survey, sponsored by HP, March 2011

More than half feel that their existing application management and tools will be ineffective (44%) or are unsure (9%). The most experienced customers tend to have the lowest levels of confidence in the ability of current precloud management tools and processes to address the full set of application life-cycle management requirements in the cloud. Two areas of particular concern are: ! The need for increased automation of application provisioning ! The ability to embed security across the full life cycle

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As shown in Figure 5, a strong majority (70%) believe that automated application provisioning is important to the success of their overall cloud strategy.

FIGURE 5
Importance of Automated Application Provisioning to Overall Cloud Strategy

Unsure (14.0%)

Useful (16.0%)

Important (70.0%)

n = 501
Source: IDC's Global Cloud Survey, sponsored by HP, March 2011

The ability to rapidly and consistently provision applications, as well as the underlying middleware and infrastructure that support them, is a central element in integrated application/infrastructure cloud strategies. Automating standard implementations helps reduce errors and deployment time. It also makes it easier to maintain versions and patches and to implement a self-service portal to allow end users the ability to request and provision the application themselves. Automation is needed to ensure optimal use of resources and to make sure that unused resources are reclaimed and reused as soon as possible. Similarly, these integrated application and infrastructure cloud users recognize the importance of identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities in static code across all phases of the life cycle (see Figure 6). Rather than rely exclusively on development teams to address application security concerns, these IT decision makers recognize that highly dynamic cloud architectures require security to be managed proactively at every stage across the application's development and operations life cycle.

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FIGURE 6
Point in the Cloud-Based Development/Operations Life Cycle When It Is Most Important to Identify and Fix Security Vulnerabilities in Static Code

Unsure (13.0%)

Application development (21.0%)

Day-to-day operations (36.0%)

Application provisioning (30.0%)

n = 501
Source: IDC's Global Cloud Survey, sponsored by HP, March 2011

Most organizations that are working to align their cloud application and infrastructure development, provisioning, security, and day-to-day management strategies are getting started with one or two application-specific pilot projects. Initially, they may focus on standardizing and automating specific activities such as application release and self-serve provisioning. As the value of this integrated approach is documented, these organizations typically expand the range of activities and the number of applications supported by this highly integrated, automated approach.

FUTURE OUTLOOK
Integrated Cloud Users Look for Rapid Payback
Using pilot projects to develop a better understanding of the opportunities and benefits related to integrated, automated application and infrastructure cloud management also allows IT decision makers to develop methodologies for measuring and documenting the business and financial paybacks associated with these programs. As shown in Figure 7, the majority (57%) of organizations that are pursuing application-centric cloud strategies are expecting to see paybacks on current projects in the 12- to 24-month time frame. This is an aggressive timeline given that traditional large-scale IT projects have frequently looked for 2- to 3-year paybacks.

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FIGURE 7
Typical Current Integrated Cloud Payback Periods
Under 12 months (6.0%)

Unsure (22.0%)

Over 24 months (15.0%) 1224 months (57.0%)

n = 501
Source: IDC's Global Cloud Survey, sponsored by HP, March 2011

IT decision makers base the business case and payback analysis for integrated application and infrastructure cloud programs on a number of criteria, as shown in Figure 8.

FIGURE 8
Ten Most Important Benefits of Using Integrated Cloud Strategies

Lower-cost application development/operations lif e cycle Better application perf ormance Faster application provisioning Better IT/business relationships Improved employee productivity Faster application development Better compliance Simpler application management Business agility improvement Lower business risk 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

(% of respondents)
n = 501 Note: Multiple responses were permitted.
Source: IDC's Global Cloud Survey, sponsored by HP, March 2011

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Customers identify the opportunity to reduce total application life-cycle cost across development and operations as the most important benefit. Most of the major benefits they expect to achieve focus on cost, performance, and business agility improvements. Top goals are: ! Reduced costs across the application development and operations life cycle due to more standardized and automated test, release, provisioning, security, compliance, and management capabilities ! Improved application performance and availability due to more stable environments and automation ! Faster application provisioning due to integrated application, middleware, and infrastructure automation ! Improved business/IT relationships as business-critical applications are provided more quickly, perform better, and are delivered more cost-effectively ! Increased IT and business employee productivity as downtime is reduced and more implementation and support activities are automated and integrated Similarly, when asked to compare application development and operations life-cycle costs, agility, security, SLAs, and financial management experiences before and after implementing integrated, automated cloud management and security strategies, the majority of decision makers in the survey reported many improvements over the experience of their precloud environments (see Figure 9).

FIGURE 9
Extent to Which Integrated Cloud Strategies Improve Operations and Business Agility

Application provisioning time and costs Application development and maintenance costs Business agility LOB/IT relationships Runtime perf ormance/SLAs Application portf olio/financial management 0 20 40 60 80 100

(% of respondents) Better
n = 501
Source: IDC's Global Cloud Survey, sponsored by HP, March 2011

Same

Unsure

Worse

10

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Specifically, these IT decision makers stated that: ! Application provisioning time and costs are better for 65% of organizations. ! Application development and maintenance costs are better for 62% of organizations. ! Business agility is improved for 62% of organizations. ! LOB and IT relationships are improved in 61% of organizations. ! Runtime application performance and SLAs are better in 57% of organizations. ! Application portfolio and financial management is better in 55% of organizations. Despite the benefits of this integrated, automated approach to application and infrastructure security and management across hybrid cloud environments, many organizations also note that this is a complex transformation that creates a number of challenges.

CHALLENGES/OPPORTUNITIES
From an operational perspective, customers working with public PaaS solutions state that they face challenges in effectively monitoring end-to-end application performance in PaaS environments using current performance monitoring tools. They also note that they can have some difficulties in embedding corporate security requirements during development. Customers that rely on integrated, in-house solutions to support cloud strategies note similar challenges and also say that a lack of appropriate internal skills and knowledge of best practices can lead to project costs being higher than expected. Both types of organizations also recognize that a number of nontechnology issues can slow down or derail integrated cloud initiatives. As shown in Figure 10, transforming internal IT culture, selecting the right applications, nailing down the ROI, and designing applications to make full use of the cloud are frequent challenges.

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FIGURE 10
Five Greatest Nontechnology Challenges Related to Integrated Cloud Experience

Internal IT culture Selecting right applications Developing an ROI Designing applications to make use of cloud Lack of cloud application development skills 0
n = 501 Note: Multiple responses were permitted.
Source: IDC's Global Cloud Survey, sponsored by HP, March 2011

10 15 20 25 (% of respondents)

30

35

Many decision makers are looking to their vendors and service providers to offer integrated automated management tools and security solutions, as well as professional services and best practices, to accelerate organizational change and ensure successful, integrated cloud implementations. These early adopters understand that to be successful, they must break down traditional barriers and silos that separate development and operations teams. Their early experiences indicate that cost, performance, and business agility can all be improved by moving to more integrated, automated, and standardized workflows, provisioning programs, and security strategies.

FIVE STEPS TO INTEGRATED CLOUD MAN AGEMENT SUCCESS

The experiences of the early adopters who participated in the survey identify both the benefits and the challenges associated with integrating application and infrastructure management and security across the cloud development and operations life cycle. To be successful, IT organizations need to adapt business and IT governance strategies and break down barriers between development and operations. Executive leadership and support from business, development, and IT operations stakeholders are critical as are a strong vision, clear goals, and a commitment to standardization and automation.

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Assess, Plan, Implement

The experience of these organizations identifies five important steps for successfully optimizing hybrid, integrated cloud operations: ! Define a plan that coordinates the organization's application modernization strategy with its cloud infrastructure and SaaS agenda ! Assess current costs and develop benchmarks for application support, provisioning, and ongoing resource consumption ! Identify opportunities to reduce costs and speed up service delivery via use of automation for integrated application and infrastructure provisioning ! Implement systems to monitor and integrate application performance and realtime capacity planning analytics with automated provisioning solutions ! Integrate security strategies and priorities into the application development, release, and operations environments Together, these steps enable IT decision makers to identify roles and responsibilities across the development and operations life cycle, set reasonable expectations for payback and ROI, document that the benefits are being delivered, and optimize use and security of both applications and infrastructure resources across public and private cloud platforms. Customers should look for modular, integrated, automated management tools and best practice process models to integrate across application development, test, release, provisioning, security, and day-to-day management activities using a consistent set of metrics, role-based dashboards, and workflow engines.

Opportunities for Rapid Payback

IDC recommends that organizations structure this journey toward hybrid, integrated cloud operations by selecting specific developer teams and application environments that can be used to quickly validate cost savings and business agility benefits as well as pilot and document any necessary changes to management processes and tools. Based on the experience of organizations that participated in this survey, some of the best places to begin implementing integrated cloud management automation strategies include: ! Automating application release and integrating application release into provisioning processes ! Automating and integrating application and infrastructure provisioning via selfservice portals and service catalogs ! Automating application patching and performance monitoring and audit activities to provide rapid feedback to developers, release management, and application provisioning teams

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Cloud computing represents an opportunity for enterprise IT organizations to shift their focus from maintaining the health of individual IT components to improving business agility by delivering end-to-end services rapidly and cost-effectively to business users when and where they need them. Integrating application development and IT operations management with cloud infrastructure and SaaS strategies provides IT organizations with an opportunity to achieve these goals more quickly and deliver greater benefits to the business compared with environments that treat cloud infrastructure and applications separately.

Copyright Notice
External Publication of IDC Information and Data Any IDC information that is to be used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval from the appropriate IDC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason. Copyright 2011 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden.

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