Monday, August 24, 2009

Products for Cloud Ops vs. Traditional Ops

Most in IT agree that cloud computing - while not a technology - does impact how technology is used within IT, and also implies a change in how IT operations will manage infrastructure. So it comes (to me) as no surprise that a number of traditional "point-product" IT Service Management (ITSM) products might be obviated by the new cloud computing operational paradigm - while others may morph in how they're used.

I touched on this topic a little over a year ago when looking at ITIL, ITSM and the Cloud as well as assessing how capacity and consolidation planning will likely change.

When I read Gartner's Hype Cycle for IT Operations Management 2009, I was struck by how many technology categories may really need to change (or may simply become unnecessary) in a cloud model. (BTW, I should point out that cloud computing itself is at the peak of Gartner's overall Technology Hype Cycle for 2009.)

I see roughly five dimensions for how ITSM product use might shift within a cloud model:
  • Overall increase in use, due to IT Operational needs created by the automation and dynamics within a cloud infrastructure. With more dynamic/unpredictable resource requirements, some ITSM tools may become more valuable than ever. For example, take Billing/Chargeback. Clearly any provider of a public (or internal) cloud will need this to provide the pay-as-you-go economic model, particularly as individual resource needs shift over time. Same clearly goes for tools such as Dynamic Workload Brokering, etc.

  • Overall decrease/obviation of need, due to the the automation/virtualization within a cloud infrastructure. As automation begins to manage resources within the cloud, certain closely-monitored and managed services may simply be obviated. Take for example application-specific Capacity Planning; no longer will this matter to the degree it used to - now that we have "elastic" cloud capacity. Similarly, things like event correlation _might_ no longer be needed -- at least by the end-user -- because automation shields them from need to know about infrastructure-related issues.

  • Shift in use to the cloud operator - that is, the IT Service Provider will tend to use certain ITSM tools more. For example, Asset Management, Global Capacity Management and QoS tools necessarily mean nothing to the end-user now, but may still be critically-important to the SP.

  • Shift in use to the cloud end-user - that is, the cloud end-user may tend to use certain ITSM tools more - chiefly because they do not directly 'own' or manage infrastructure anymore - just executable images. i.e. end-users using IaaS clouds will need to maintain their Application and Service Portfolio tools to manage uploadable images etc. Conversely, End-Users may no longer care about Configuration Auditing tools - since that would not be managed by the cloud provider.

  • Transition from being app-specific to environment-specific - that is, a shift from tools being used to monitor/control/manage a limited-scope application stacks, to being used to do the same across a large shared infrastructure. As above, Capacity and Consolidation Planning tools are no longer of interest to the end-user on a single-application-scale. But to the cloud operator, knowing "global" capacity and utilization is critical.
In retrospect, I can probably concoct exceptions to almost every example above. So keep in mind the examples are illustrative only!

The diagram below is also mostly conceptual; I am not an ITSM professional. But while it may be a bit of a 'hack', I'm hoping it provides food-for-thought regarding how certain tools may evolve, and where certain tools may be useful in new/different ways. I've selected a number of ITSM tools from Gartner's IT Ops Management Hype Cycle report to populate it with.


Monday, August 17, 2009

What's your "data center complexity factor"?

After speaking with IT users, analysts and vendors, I've tried to draw-up a "map" of some of the most common data center management tools directly related to operations, and how they layer across typical infrastructures. So far, I see about 13 tools in use. (I'm not counting higher-level administrative tools e.g. compliance mgmt, accounting, problem management etc. - but watch this space for a future Blog)

I'm curious to see (a) if I have it right, and (b) how does *your* infrastructure management 'stack' up? Can you do better than 13? Worse?