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. and platform CEO Zhou Songnin summed up the implementation of cloud computing four key steps: Search learning, use of the scene, experimental verification, put into production.

Cloud computing as a newly developed things, because many enterprises are still groping stage, the success of the case is not many, so the enterprise in the implementation of cloud computing, the first thing to do is to do the survey, understand the learning related technology, products, benefits and risks. After the investigation is understood, the enterprise must define its own purpose to build the cloud, identify the goals to be achieved, and plan for the implementation of the cloud. After that is the actual establishment of the cloud environment, from the fixed infrastructure and application began to carry out experimental projects to verify the applicability of the cloud, and ultimately into the actual large-scale 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 manifestation of cloud computing is that we can use simple supply and demand to simulate cloud computing in the management of cloud: Resources is "supply", the application is "ask", compared with the traditional computing model, the biggest difference in cloud computing is a new "stack" between supply and demand, which is cloud management software, it should assume the whole cloud environment management responsibility, On the one hand, resources should be oriented to the management and deployment of resources, on the other hand, application-oriented, to meet the needs of the application of resources.

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, cloud computing can not rely on the efforts of the IT department alone, the need for strong corporate leadership support and business sector involvement and coordination, followed by IT management and organizational structure changes. 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.