It’s such a classic enterprise solution to the cloud computing phenomenon. Build one yourself.
That’s the approach being taken by some leading names in the corporate world, and a new article in Information Age discusses some of these initiatives, based on presentations at a recent Forrester confab.
For example, Charles Newhouse, chief IT strategist for BAE Systems, a defense and aerospace manufacturer, now operates its entire IT department as an internal cloud provider — managed from the outside by CSC. “We began seeing our infrastructure as a commodity service and not a strategic asset,” he is quoted as saying. BAE’s IT services are now provisioned through a web portal, and each department receives a bill for their usage at the end of the month.
Newhouse said there was resistance from the IT department — “with one IT employee describing the change as ‘professional emasculation.’” Ouch.
As discussed here at this blogsite, service-oriented principles lay the groundwork for a private cloud strategy. Not everyone agrees — VMWare’s Paul Maritz says virtualization is the optimal route. “Unlike service oriented architecture, virtualization allows you to provide ‘IT as a service’ without rewriting your applications,” he is quoted as saying in the article. But private clouds, like all good things in enterprise IT, require architecture and governance as well as the technology.
Joe McKendrick is an author, consultant and speaker specializing in trends and developments shaping the technology industry.
Disclosure
Joe McKendrick
Joe McKendrick is an independent consultant, editor and speaker.
Joe has performed project work (white papers, articles, blogs, research and presentations) for the following companies in the IT marketspace:
- CBS Interactive/CNET/ZDNet (this blog)
- ebizQ
- Evans Data
- Gartner
- IBM
- Informatica
- IDC
- Microsoft
- Systinet/HP
- Teradata
- Unisphere Reseach, a division of Information Today, Inc.
- WebLayers
Joe has also performed research work for the following sponsoring organizations in partnership with Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc.
- IBM
- Luminex
- Noetix
- Oracle Corp.
- Teradata
- Informatica
- International Oracle Users Group
- Oracle Applications Users Group
- Professional Association for SQL Server
- International DB2 Users Group
- International Sybase Users Group
- SHARE (IBM large systems users group)
Biography
Joe McKendrick
Joe McKendrick is an author and independent analyst who tracks the impact of information technology on management and markets. Joe is co-author, along with 16 leading industry leaders and thinkers, of the SOA Manifesto, which outlines the values and guiding principles of service orientation. He also speaks frequently on Enterprise 2.0 and SOA topics at industry events and Webcasts, and serves on the program committee for this year's SOA & Cloud Symposium in London. As an independent analyst, he has also authored numerous research reports in partnership with Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc. for user groups such as SHARE, Oracle Applications Users Group, and International DB2 Users Group. In a previous life, Joe served as director of the Administrative Management Society (AMS), an international professional association dedicated to advancing knowledge within the IT and business management fields. He is a graduate of Temple University.
