Platform Zhou Songnin: Four key steps to successfully implement cloud computing

For the enterprise, to achieve the successful implementation of cloud computing, to achieve the expected business goals, take a pragmatic step is the key. Over the past few years, platform has explored with many of the world's successful cloud computing clients and partners, summarizing the four key steps to successfully implement cloud computing: survey Learning, using scenarios, validating experiments, and putting into production.

Cloud computing is a new thing and there are not many successful cases, so companies need to investigate and understand the technologies, products, benefits, and risks involved when deciding to implement cloud computing. After investigating the study, the enterprise should make clear how to build the cloud, what is the goal to achieve, and what is the plan to implement, the next thing to do is to actually build the cloud environment, but not at this time to invest in large-scale production applications, but from the selected infrastructure and applications began to carry out experimental projects, Verify the applicability of the cloud, the end is to put into actual production use.

Step One: Survey learning

To migrate from a chimney-like server-centric datacenter to a cloud data center, the first thing to do is to investigate and learn from your business, to learn about the cloud, to identify the benefits of the cloud, and to turn to the cloud. In this connection, there are three areas that require special attention.

One is to define a concept: cloud computing is not just virtualization.

When companies consider cloud computing, the most common confusion is the relationship between "virtualization" and "cloud computing". Although many cloud environments are built using virtualization technology, virtualization is not synonymous with the cloud. Cloud computing needs to integrate and deploy large-scale resources, it often needs virtualization technology, but also beyond virtualization technology, in the cloud computing environment, both virtual machines, as well as physical machines, all resources need to be centrally managed and scheduled. As the Forrester senior analyst James Staten said, "Virtualization is a step towards cloud computing, but achieving virtualization does not mean cloud computing."

Second, understand the core technologies and products needed to implement cloud computing.

Cloud computing is a new technology, but it is not all the aspects that are involved. For example, cloud computing resources and applications are not new: hardware resources or X86 servers, small machines, mainframe, storage equipment, and applications are the original business applications, but is to deploy in the cloud inside the run.

The new cloud is reflected in the management of the cloud. We can use simple supply and demand to simulate cloud computing: resources are "supply" and applications are "begging". The biggest difference in cloud computing is the emergence of a new "stack" between supply and demand, compared with traditional computing patterns, this is the cloud management software, it should assume the entire cloud environment management responsibility, on the one hand, to resource-oriented, the resources for the management and deployment of automation, on the other hand, to face the application of resources to meet the needs.

The core of cloud management platform is automation, can intelligently perceive application, resources and dynamic, flexible deployment. For cloud management software, another issue that must be considered is "open", because most cloud environments are heterogeneous, this heterogeneous is not only hardware resources, but also include software resources such as different operating systems, different virtual machines, etc., which requires that the cloud management platform is an open architecture, Able to tolerate and integrate a variety of heterogeneous hardware and software resources to support different applications, only in this way, customers will not be a certain manufacturer locked into the new "cloud chimney."

Third, understand the changes that cloud computing brings to people and organizational architecture

This includes three aspects: first, leadership and end user support. The implementation of cloud computing cannot depend solely on the efforts of the IT department, but also on the strong support of the enterprise leadership and the involvement and cooperation of the business unit, followed by the change of IT management style and organizational structure. In the traditional it architecture, the IT department's management model is also chimney-style: Server administrators do not go to the storage, the corresponding, storage administrators are not concerned about the state of the server, and the implementation of cloud computing means that the IT department from the cost center into a service center to provide comprehensive support for business applications. In this case, the change in the organization structure and management process of the IT department is unavoidable and the knowledge skills of the IT staff need to be improved. Finally, you need to understand the changes in cloud usage and operating patterns, including security, service levels, and billing.

(Responsible editor: Liu Fen)