Page 153 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

IT REORG ANIZES

capacity frequently isn’t available within the company’s data
center, and the task languishes.
This is a perfect example of a cloud providing a major
benefit to a business. The ability to handle such analytics out-
side the company’s data center reduces capital expense and
leaves server space free for transactions and other core func-

tions that can’t be sent to the cloud.
Chances are, many organizations already have someone
in-house who has some of the skills to determine which work-
loads should be run where. The part of the staff that has man-
aged outside vendors or outsourcing projects will see parallel
issues in managing work in the cloud. Objectives need to be
well defined and service-level agreements set, with some type

of independent monitoring established.
As this writer reported in InformationWeek on November
30, 2009, cloud computing adds its own special condition to
the one-to-one nature of an outsourced project. “There’s a big
difference in that cloud computing runs on a shared infra-
structure, so it’s a less customized deal. Some compare out-
sourcing to renting a house and the cloud to renting a room
in a hotel.” The cloud user needs to take into account the risks
of sharing a physical server with other users, even if each is

restricted to its own virtual machines.
One way to do that is to enter into a service-level agree-
ment (SLA) with the cloud supplier. At this stage of cloud
computing, that’s still an exception rather than the rule. Dur-
ing its first two years of beta or experimental operation, Ama-
zon’s EC2 didn’t offer SLAs. It does now. Still, many users do

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