Data Management in the Cloud: Five Fundamentals of Cloud Services Design

By Robert Kaloustian, Vice President, WW Technical Services, CommVault

With adoption rates soaring, it’s safe to say that the “cloud” is here to stay. While companies of all shapes and sizes rush to jump on the cloud bandwagon, data management miscues could make their journey a long and bumpy ride.

A fundamental challenge for successful cloud adoption is communicating a consistent definition of “cloud” throughout an organization because the CIO, IT staff and business line managers often define it differently. This simple difference in perspective makes it nearly impossible to achieve a consensus on vision, and even more difficult to implement successfully. Despite the potential for lack of clarity on a formal definition of the cloud, a recent CommVault survey fielded by IDG Research shows that the cloud now consumes nearly 45 percent of the average IT budget, and is slated to increase to nearly 60 percent over the next two years. That same survey indicated that IT executives’ biggest concerns about private clouds are total cost, followed by integration with public cloud.

Public, Private, Hybrid: Eenie, meenie, miney, mo?

Perhaps one of the most confusing components of cloud computing lies in the distinctions between the three types of cloud: public, private and hybrid. While most customers will deploy a mix of the three cloud service types, many are approaching IT service design based on a private cloud platform first, then integrating new technologies as depicted by Key Performance Indicator (KPI) results. As the organization better understands how the service impacts KPIs, they can evaluate and incorporate different types of cloud services into their strategy. By putting end users first and measuring the success, IT is able to follow a service-led approach for cloud development that is better aligned with the end users’ business needs.

Internal Challenges When Selecting a Cloud

Internal challenges such as those listed above are no small feat to manage, especially when the expectations of decision makers aren’t aligned. Executives frequently claim their staff is stretched too thin and that they have little time to educate themselves adequately about cloud. Additional concerns outlined in the IDG survey include priority on price over value, lack of involvement from business owners, priority on technology, and billing and cost models. The common thread among these challenges is that the traditional IT organization tends to be vendor- and product-centric rather than outcome and customer focused.

To avoid consequences of this commonality, it is imperative that the IT organization understand its customer and clearly define its business needs. Once defined, the organization can then move forward with the following five-stage process for service-centric, data management in the cloud.

This five-stage, ITIL-based process is based on the business needs of IT customers and aligns business requirements, customer needs and technology.

1. Service Strategy

The first step in the process is for IT to align its principles with its organization’s business objectives, providing a foundation for designing all subsequent services and guidance should any roadblocks pop up. This allows IT to deliver the best counsel possible for its end user in regards to what cloud solutions to move forward with, letting them adjust the strategy accordingly in the future.

2. Service Design

This step sets up every aspect of the service from a business process and technology perspective. This includes service offerings, which should put the actual offerings in terms the end user can understand. Next is the billing and cost model, which should include key considerations such as the billing system, frequency and recipients. Third is reporting, which articulates the appropriate information for display by users per their different roles in the environment. Finally is the service pipeline that functions as a roadmap displaying what’s next for the future of the service.

3. Service Transition

The transition from a traditional IT delivery model to a service based approach is one of the most important steps, as checks and balances are a critical component of service design and deployment. The platform must be integrated into the company’s change management structure and a transition readiness assessment must be completed to ensure the service launch will be successful.

4. Service Operations

It’s important for the IT team to clearly outline all recurring and necessary tasks for the customer, specifically the new roles and potential organization changes that will be needed to support the new services. This ensures that both staff and management alike understand how tasks will be accomplished.

5. Continual Service Improvement

Business agility is often a priority, so cloud services must change with the business climate and technology roadmap. Take the time to define KPIs with your customer that align with the service strategy to accurately measure real success. Once the KPIs are confirmed with the customer, regularly review them and adjust service offerings to best align with business needs.

Conclusion

As cloud adoption continues to grow across businesses, the only factor we can count on with certainty is that there will always be challenges to overcome. For any business looking to deliver data management in a cloud environment, it’s important to follow the five steps outlined above. The IT team should keep KPIs top-of-mind, and as long as the strategy aligns with the business’ needs, then challenges can be overcome.

Robert Kaloustian

Vice President, Worldwide Technical Services

Robert Kaloustian is our Vice President of Worldwide Technical Services. Prior to this position, he served as our vice president of systems engineering from May 2008 to March 2012. Since joining CommVault in June 2000 as a technical services manager, Mr. Kaloustian has held several roles with increased responsibility. Prior to CommVault, he worked at MTI as director of technical sales from August 1999 to May 2000, and as a senior systems engineer from November 1996 to August 1999. Mr. Kaloustian started his career in the United States Marine Corps, in a variety of capacities, serving his final role as Executive Officer, Combat Services Support Command-23. He earned his Master of Arts degree in Business from Webster University and his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois at Chicago.