Intuitive transparency how should cios monitor private clouds?

At first glance, the private cloud seems to be the next growth point for it. But what does this model really mean for organizations that adopt the old ways of managing their infrastructure? Can they move server virtualization to private cloud overnight? Generally speaking, the answer is in the negative.

For IT departments with a history of paying for fixed IT resources, a paid private cloud computing consumption pattern can cause serious anxiety. Private cloud Billing mode based on debit is like a phone bill sent every month, and if there is no suitable tool to track the new method of resource consumption, the cost of the change will make IT staff at a loss. In addition, the business manager may object to the new system that must pay for it use. They might ask, "Why should we pay for a server that used to be ' free '?" ”

Now, considering the complexity of infrastructure resources, including hardware, storage devices, and network devices, all of the resources are virtualized and integrated. If any member of a company can start a virtual server at will, the cost of services and energy consumed by the virtual machine (VM) becomes quite complex. This is different from logging and tracking the rapidly changing cloud computing environment. As one IT manager notes, in this new virtual world, "what is the intuitive and controllable nature of the deduction?" ”

Thus, the characteristics of a private cloud-scalability, resilience, measurable services, extensive network access, and a self service model-involve numerous contradictions: IT resources are more resilient, dynamic, and flexible. But IT systems that make up the private cloud model need to be more transparent, better defined, and better managed than before.

To achieve visibility and transparency in a dynamic private cloud environment, you must consider how you manage and control your infrastructure differently from the start.

System Planning and Design

For years, the IT department has been emphasizing the benefits of planning, but with the private cloud infrastructure, design has also become a requirement. Unlike a public cloud with seemingly endless resources, the private cloud is based on limited resources, and enterprise IT departments try to manage performance and capabilities. The private cloud still requires the underlying servers, networks, and storage devices that the IT staff obtains, installs, and manages. Although the cloud usually has some overcapacity, older it may take weeks or months to get more online resources if the project needs exceed its available resources.

A good planning process and a culture of documentation will help organizations achieve better results on existing systems, allowing IT personnel to make performance planning ahead of time to avoid excessive procurement, to properly monitor resources, and to avoid the wanton growth of virtual machines.

The system design phase is a critical time to generate advanced available functionality in a cloud computing environment. For example, VMware's virtualization and Management suite vsphere enables high availability, fault tolerance, and business continuity, which can either positively or negatively impact system design, resource consumption, and even the price of an application. People involved in the design of private cloud systems must be aware of possible antecedents to prevent unintended consequences.

Appendix: Methods for simplifying planning and design

When you start building a private cloud, there are different ways to simplify the same problems as the planning design phase.

1 each resource or IT department is documented, including networks, storage, and virtualization groups.

2 All members of the IT department should agree beforehand on what it should support. For example, a design using the Microsoft Cluster Service might not be able to use the VMware Company's vmotion, which could fundamentally affect how it supports these services and infrastructure.