Page 157 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

IT REORG ANIZES

Learning to monitor your virtual machines in the cloud
independently will be a precursor to achieving a combined
view of your virtual machines on premises and your virtual ma-
chines in the cloud. If both sets of resources could be meshed
by a systems management console into one logical view, the
need for staff with specialized knowledge for each environ-

ment would be reduced and some of the potential savings of
cloud computing would be realized. But the cloud computing
monitoring systems that are available don’t have any idea what
physical resources you’re using on premises. That’s not their
job. And likewise, your on-premises systems management has
only the faintest idea of what’s running in the cloud.
The traditional systems management vendors, IBM, HP,

CA, and BMC, are trying to mesh the views of physical and vir-
tual resources and have at least partially succeeded. For those
who don’t use one of the big four, there’s freely downloadable
open source code from GroundWork, Zenoss, and Bluenog.
However, meshing the picture you have of the on-premises
data center with its related activity in the public cloud will still
remain a challenge for some time.
Another fundamental change that cloud computing
imposes on computer professionals is the shift in end user

management. In the past, the end user has taken what the
computing professionals have given him and has had little
choice about it. The cloud introduces the possibility of end
users provisioning themselves, and if they feel the need for an
additional server, they will be able to commission another vir-
tual machine, as long as their department pays the hourly

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