System Integration Morphs To Cloud Service Integration

June 19, 2016 / G C Network / Comments Off on System Integration Morphs To Cloud Service Integration

“Cash for Clunkers” Should Have Used the Cloud!

By G C Network | August 24, 2009

Rich Bruklis wrote an excellent essy on how the government missed a perfect opportunity to use cloud computing. In “Cloud Opportunity Missed” he writes: “It appears that the voucher system…

US Navy Experiments With Secure Cloud Computing

By G C Network | August 20, 2009

This week in San Diego, CA the US Navy held the initial planning conference for Trident Warrior ’10. The Trident Warrior series is the premier annual FORCEnet Sea Trial Event…

GSA To Present On Cloud Initiative at NCOIC Plenary

By G C Network | August 13, 2009

A General Services Administration (GSA) representative is now scheduled to provide a briefing on the agency’s cloud computing initiative during a “Best Practices for Cloud Initiatives using Storefronts” session on…

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By G C Network | August 12, 2009

During this week Federal Executive Forum, FAA CIO Dave Bowen mentioned protection against software vulnerabilities, wireless intrusion and website vulnerabilities as his top cybersecurity priorities. As the Assistant Administrator for…

DHS Asst. Secretary Addresses Cybersecurity Priorities

By G C Network | August 11, 2009

Greg Schaffer, Assistant Secretary for CyberSecurity & Communications for the US Department of Homeland Security, sees Trusted Internet Connections, EINSTEIN, and front line defense of the nation’s networks as top…

US DoD Chief Security Officer on Cybersecurity Priorities

By G C Network | August 10, 2009

In a Federal Executive Forum interview, Robert Lentz, Chief Security Officer for the US Department of Defense, highlighted the departments cybersecurity priorities. Mr. Lentz is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of…

Twitter Under Denial of Service Attack

By G C Network | August 6, 2009

Multiple sources are reporting that Twitter continues to be under a denial of service attack. Some are speculating that this represents the power of a coordinated bot network attack. For…

NCOIC Holding Full Day Cloud Computing Session

By G C Network | August 5, 2009

The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) will be holding a one-day cloud computing session during its plenary meetings, 21-25 September at the Fair Lakes Hyatt in Fairfax, VA. A…

Sevatec a New Player in the Federal Cloud Computing Market

By G C Network | August 3, 2009

Just in time for the new Federal Cloud Computing Storefront, Sevatec, Inc. is announcing the development of a toolkit to help federal agencies transform their enterprise architectures to cloud computing…

GSA Releases Cloud Computing RFQ

By G C Network | July 31, 2009

Following through on a much anticipated action, GSA released their Cloud Computing Request For Quotation (RFQ) today. Cloud computing is a major part of President Obama’s reform effort and this…

Cloud Service Brokerage is changing from an industry footnote toward becoming a major system integration play.  This role has now become a crucial component of a cloud computing transition because they help organizations aggregate multiple cloud services, integrate services with in-house applications, and customize these services to better meet customer needs. CSBs also help by consulting and recommending the best fit cloud services according to business requirements and goals. Cloud brokers may also be granted rights to negotiate with different service providers on behalf of their customers. This transformation is driven by the rapid rise of cloud computing, which has risen from under $6B in 2008 to a point where the market is expected to almost reach $160B in 2020. The global Cloud Service Brokerage Market itself is expected to grow from $5.24 Billion in 2015 to $19.16 Billion by 2020. 
Since CSBs merge the functions of reseller, systems integrator and independent software vendor (ISVs) into a convenient service delivery model, they deliver solutions by aggregating cloud services sourced from multiple cloud service providers. They can also customize those services to meet unique business requirements. Although CSBs often deliver transactional cloud services, their real value lies in the unique ongoing operational support they provide.  Unlike financial or real estate brokers that typically end their customer relationship after the sale, CSBs:
  • Enable cloud service arbitrage based on cost, performance or operational need;
  • Help companies migrate operations to the cloud and assist with staff augmentation and training;
  • Provide cloud service auditing and SLA monitoring services;
  • Help in focusing and managing organizational cloud service demand;
  • Provided toolsets to assist in the migration and integration of enterprise applications; and
  • Help in change management and the selection and integration of other managed services.

 
By automating and operationalizing the governance of cloud services, CSBs can efficiently multi-source services and augment them with third party metering and monitoring. Using CSBs, organizations also accelerate their transition to hybrid IT models. This marketplace is typically segmented type of services: cloud brokerage and cloud brokerage enablement, wherein cloud brokerage enablement is further segmented into internal and external brokers. When used internally, cloud enablement platforms helps enterprises adopt the new hybrid IT and multi-sourced operating model. By building organic expertise, companies can personalize IT service consumption and unify
IT service delivery through the use of a corporate self-service store, a dynamic service marketplace, and continuous delivery. This centralized, supply chain approach unifies the order, execution, and management of multi-sourced solutions across legacy and cloud resources, by centrally delegating and tracking execution.
Another important management capability they deliver is performance auditing. Cloud Service Provider (CSP) price/performance has been shown to vary as much as 1000 percent depending on time and location. High levels of variability have also been seen within the same CSP processing the exact same job. This also means that the cost for an enterprise to processing the exact same job in the cloud could vary by this much as well. 
Changes in instance types, pricing, performance over time and availability of services by location highlights the inadequacy of traditional benchmarking philosophies and processes. The use of “performance quotas” by service providers may also lead to operational cost increases. This generally happens if a customer meets a CSP-determined management quota and the performance of relevant instance is reduced. Active metering and monitoring by a CSB can help companies detect and avoid this hidden cost.
As the cloud service brokers market matures, they are destined to replace the traditional system integrator. Maturation of technologies and CSB offerings will also make this service a “must-have” for the foreseeable future.

 

 (This post was brought to you by IBM Global Technology Services. For more content like this, visit Point B and Beyond.)
 

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