Cloudy Thinking and Digital Transformation

Cloud Computing on CNBC – $100B market

By G C Network | May 28, 2008

Google’s Head In The Clouds Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson

IBM Blue Cloud

By G C Network | May 28, 2008

A short news interview on the IBM Blue Cloud . Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson

Amazon’s Cloud Overtakes Websites

By G C Network | May 27, 2008

May 27, 2008 See NY Times article, Cloud Computing: So You Don’t Have to Stand Still Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson

May 1 IBM, Google Partnership Announcement

By G C Network | May 27, 2008

In this video, IBM and Google announce their joint cloud computing initiative. As I said in my earlier post, Google and IBM have teamed up to provide a “Google-like” infrastructure.…

“The Missing Piece in Cloud Computing”

By G C Network | May 27, 2008

First Software as a Service – SaaS…Then Hardware as a Service – HaaS…Now, Middleware as a Service – MaaS? GigaSpaces’ CMO Geva Perry will be presenting on middleware virtualization at…

How the NRO can leverage Cloud Computing

By G C Network | May 26, 2008

Last Thursday, May 22nd, I had the pleasure of attending an Intelligence Community Executive Forum hosted by Carahsoft. The topic of this forum was “”Innovative Technology for the Intelligence Enterprise”.…

Green Cloud Computing

By G C Network | May 26, 2008

The other day I was asked “Why is cloud computing considered green?” Wouldn’t you know, The Economist provided the perfect answer. “In future the geography of the cloud is likely…

Oracle in the Cloud

By G C Network | May 25, 2008

Oracle (NSDQ: ORCL) is building new data centers to support cloud computing. The company is investing $285M and will break ground on the 200,000-square-foot facility this summer. Oracle’s president Safra…

Explaining Cloud Computing

By G C Network | May 23, 2008

In the video Explaining Cloud Computing Christopher Barnatt, author of ExplainingComputers.com, and Associate Professor of Computing and Organizations in Nottingham University Business School, provides a very understandable explaination of cloud…

Cloud Computing supports Net-Centric Warfare

By G C Network | May 23, 2008

Netcentric warfare theory contains the following four tenets in its hypotheses: 1) A robustly networked force improves information sharing;2) Information sharing enhances the quality of information and shared situational awareness;3)…

(Originally posted on the Engility Corporation Blog)

 

There’s a lot to gain from cloud computing, but success requires a thoughtful and enterprise focused approach. Cloud computing decouples data and information from the infrastructure on which it lies. A process that is a LOT more involved than dragging some folders from your desktop to a shared drive.

Cloud computing as a mission transformation activity, not a technological one.

As an organization moves from local information hosting to the cloud, one of the most important challenges is addressing cloud computing as a mission transformation activity, not a technological one. Cloud computing isn’t a new technology. It’s a new way of consuming and provisioning information technology services. Adopting cloud computing means paralleling your mission processes, rethinking the economic models and abstracting your applications from the technology stack silos, which are currently the norm.

Interactions and dependencies between mission applications may be more important than the data or application itself.

One of the first lessons we learned supporting customers was that cloud migration shouldn’t be planned as an application-by-application movement to a different hosting environment. Cloud adoption is an application portfolio activity. Interactions and dependencies between mission applications may be more important than the data or application itself. That’s why upfront screening, analysis and digital infrastructure modeling are so critical. Boeing flew its Dreamliner aircraft designs on a computer before they started to build. Shouldn’t we (and our customers) test future IT infrastructure on a computer before moving to the cloud? 



That is the digital transformation approach we recommend to our customers, and we have now built an entire methodology around it called Cloud ASCEND. We formed an alliance with a few select partners: Cloud Security Alliance, Burstorm, Sequoia and IBM. These companies bring tools, lessons and optimizations available from the commercial sector (the technical operations viewpoint). We blend those offerings with the experience we’ve gained actually transitioning applications to the cloud and the lessons we’ve learned in the DoD and intelligence community (the secure mission delivery and performance viewpoint).

We knew the Cloud ASCEND digital transformation methodology couldn’t be some static, one-size-fits-all approach we trot out for every customer challenge. Our methodology constantly evolves because the world is always advancing. This is an important realization that all organizations need to internalize. Cloud computing enables rapid employment of new mission processes. It lets mission owners deploy capabilities that they didn’t know existed. Cloud ASCEND is agile because effectively delivering the mission requires an agile methodology. 

It lets mission owners deploy capabilities that they didn’t know existed.

Getting ready to migrate to the cloud? Consider a digital transformation strategy that delivers information mobility, operational scalability and mission agility. These are the real benefits that make the process worth the effort. Organizations can apply a digital transformation methodology to determine when and how to get started, allowing them to reduce risk, reduce complexity and migrate with confidence. Cloud ASCEND enables a sort of future proofing because digital transformation means thinking today and doing tomorrow.

 

Cloud Musings

 

Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson
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