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Wrapping Your Arms around the Cloud, Part 4: One Cloud, or Many?

forums@developer.bmc.com — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:22:30 GMT

Recall in our previous posting, we introduced the notion of an Enterprise Cloud, comprised of a combination of private, public, and hybrid cloud services. Many enterprises will want to exclusively offer private services (meaning they are operating, by definition, a “private cloud”) for a variety of reasons (a topic of a future posting in this series). However, more realistically, and more commonly moving forward, IT will need to manage all three types of services.

Thus, the question is that of how IT wants to approach the design and management of the mixture of cloud services in its environment – whether the service types are blended together in a single cloud offering, or separated. There is no single right answer to this, as it’s entirely dependent on the organization’s priorities, infrastructure, needs, and context. Nonetheless, it’s clear to me that there’s a need and a demand for an overall management platform that can handle all three variety of services in a unified fashion.

For example, imagine that you’re a developer who needs a server OS temporarily provisioned for some development work. You make the request, and a few minutes later you have a new VM, which you access across the network via some sort of remote login. Does it *really* matter where that VM physically resides? Much of the time, it doesn’t…it can just as easily and productively be in a remote cloud as in the server room down the hall. That is, the policies and factors that determine where this particular VM is provisioned should be embedded in and executed by the management platform, which can make the best placement decision at the time of request. There would need to be a compelling reason to instead have the requester make this decision, by explicitly choosing which cloud platform to use.

A related question, applicable to organizations operating only private cloud services, is whether to manage one cloud environment, or have distinct cloud infrastructures to serve different purposes. The answer is that there is no single answer…people will need to balance their technical and business needs with the financial, technical, and organizational constraints, and make an informed decision that’s right for them. Nevertheless, I think that many organizations will want the option of managing disparate service types, as well as all their clouds, from a common management platform. Even if an organization is running multiple, distinct private clouds, it makes sense to embrace a common management platform, to leverage shared policies, processes, and people.

Our next topic in this series – using external Cloud Service Provider offering definitions as a model for internal cloud service types.

Aeroprise+BMC: Redefining Enterprise Self Service

dan@aeroprise.com — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:58:44 GMT

By Dan Turchin, chief executive officer and co-founder of Aeroprise. Follow Dan on Twitter.

Here's an interesting exercise I tried last week: go back two years in your day planner. What were you doing? How did you do it? Pull up last Tuesday and ask the same questions. Remarkable, huh? I spent more time on the road, interacted with fewer people, knew less about their lives, and had a ton more paper in mine. Case in point: wheels up two years ago meant forced down time. Not so today. With in-air WiFi and faster, more capable devices, 5B is just an office with a view (and a fat dude snoring but that for another post).

Work and life are digital. But more important, they move faster. They're more agile, more complete - all in a way that makes them richer and more fulfilling. Extend these trends out two years and factor in the Droid generation - adolescents raised today with the expectation that anything is a click away - and it's tough to imagine what we'll be doing and how we'll do it. One thing is clear: life won't happen in front of a PC and service delays and information gaps won't be tolerated.

Inspired by that world, we recently launched our most exciting product ever. It extends the value we've always provided IT to the rest of the business. It's not a product launch as much as a reminder that technology is catching up with life as quick as life is catching up with technology. The product is called Mobile BMC Self Service and it devolves control over how and where we work to where it should have always been: the hands of end-users.

Mobile BMC Self Service gives you and me, mortals with phones, the power we've always needed. We can now submit and manage service requests, browse the catalog, and know in real-time wherever we are when our issues are being worked, by whom, and when they'll be resolved. The way to build more dynamic businesses isn't to add features or work longer hours. It's by spending more time collaborating and less time waiting. It's by making fewer calls to the service desk and more calls to action that drive innovation and create business value.

What we announced is bigger than a new product, bigger than anything we could do alone. It's the next step in the evolution of enterprise self-service. It's the culmination of years of hard work and industry leadership from BMC, Aeroprise, and RIM. You'll be hearing more about it in the months ahead but consider this your invitation to join a dialog that's just getting started and will influence how we all work and live for years to come.

Want to learn more? Check out this video of Mobile BMC Self Service in action.

The postings in this blog are my own and don't necessarily represent BMC's opinion or position.

AlarmPoint/BMC Webinar: Recording Now Available

forums@developer.bmc.com — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:24:38 GMT

Thank you to those of you who were able to make the webinar yesterday, Automate the Delivery of Business Critical Events and Improve Response times by Over 40%, we had a great turnout. For those that were unable to attend, the recording is now available: Download Now.
In the webinar, we discussed how AlarmPoint and BMC automate the process of targeting, delivering and escalating alerts to the person who can best resolve them enabling improved response times accountability and audibility, Covering how organizations can:

Automate dispatch and incident assignment processes
- Reduced time to event ownership on average of 85%
Reduce Mean Time to Repair
- Cost reduction of up to $1,000,000 / yr by reducing the notification element of incident resolution time by an average of 80%.
- Increased SLA compliance by reducing time from ticket creation to ticket close by over 40% increasing margins in the upwards of $800,000/yr.

Eliminate unnecessary calls into help desk
- Proactive notification saves millions of dollars in manual callouts and drastically reduced calls into helpdesk
For those of you that missed it, you can now watch a recorded version of the Webinar online. If you have comments or questions, contact your BMC Sales Rep or email sales@alarmpoint.com.

Business Impact of IT Requires Good Partnership with IT & Business: Susan Cramm, author & CIO Coach

tom.parish@gmail.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:36:12 GMT

In this podcast, Susan Cramm, author of, The Eight Things We Hate About IT, talks about how CIOs can improve their relationships with business partners to achieve a higher quality of business value. She also attacks some of the political issues that CIOs face on the job. Read More.

Read & Listen to all EnterpriseLeadership.org Articles & Podcasts

Is there such a thing as a Bad Cloud?

forums@developer.bmc.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:42:55 GMT

A Bad Cloud, eh? What in the world is a Bad Cloud? How can I avoid one, if they even exist? And for that matter, that brings me back to the original question – Is there such a thing as a Bad Cloud?

In a nutshell? Yes.

But before we answer the other questions as to what is a Bad Cloud and how to avoid one, let’s give some background behind how a Bad Cloud forms.

Cloud often means different things to different companies. However, most commonly across progressive organizations, the term describes a visible and executive-sponsored initiative. If a project is part of a cloud initiative, then it probably also has a better chance of being funded than other projects in the IT realm. Sure, this isn’t always true, but the point I’m making here is that the positive power of cloud is significant.

Part of the reason that cloud projects are so popular is simply because buyers are ready to implement clouds, and therefore to build or buy cloud-focused products. The strong support for cloud is also influenced by the sheer hype around the topic that exists in the industry. Yet another factor is because it is the most commonly understood concept that unifies many of the solutions that companies have been developing across the Enterprise for years. And, the list goes on…

Cloud is exciting. Cloud is the Cool Nerd in a teen movie. Cloud reeks of innovation and the cutting edge. But the cloud boost factor (the appeal attributed to cloud for the aforementioned reasons) sometimes causes otherwise intelligent decision makers to make poor choices, and that’s when a Bad Cloud rolls in.

A Bad Cloud can be the result of something as simple as rushing to implement a private cloud without understanding the proper controls of that environment. For example, no change management or tracking of virtual machine provisioning can cause the underlying virtual infrastructure to grow unchecked (commonly known as sprawl).

Luckily, such a situation can be easily remedied with the proper tools and processes put into place. However, a Bad Cloud can also be represented by a poorly formed cloud strategy that encourages employees to use public clouds for any short-term projects and/or to aggressively try new ideas in the public cloud. Such unbridled enthusiasm without foresight can unintentionally cause placement of confidential data – like customer credit card numbers or employee Social Security numbers – into a public cloud.

So, what can you do to avoid a Bad Cloud? Like with all major decisions, use common sense – think through what are your core needs and stick to addressing those first. Use industry leaders and market sources to help you understand where are the pitfalls. And purchase the right products and solutions – ones that will not only add automated execution to your cloud environment, but also the right governance and controls to keep your good cloud from going bad.

Platforms Care About End-User Experience

matthieu_laurenceau@yahoo.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:37:41 GMT

zIIP-a-dee-do-da

forums@developer.bmc.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:12:36 GMT

zIIPs. I am sure you have heard about them and how they can save you money.

They can.

But before you jump into the zIIP world, weigh the costs and benefits. Consider whether you can offload MIPS during peak processing times (high return on investment) or during off-peak hours (not so high ROI).

Choose vendor software that can help with offloading work to zIIPs. Be sure that the vendor is providing software that is compliant with IBM standards for specialty engines.

For more information on zIIPs, see this Q&A with Gary Salazar, BMC IMS architect.

Tell us about your experiences with specialty engines.

The postings in this blog are my own and don't necessarily represent BMC's opinion or position.

Tideway Acquisition brings best of breed IT discovery tool to Atrium customers, with Colin Fletcher

tom.parish@gmail.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:33:44 GMT

Download Audio (18:07)

"BMC Atrium Discovery customers have every reason in the world to be absolutely thrilled ... we're bringing them the best of breed discovery and dependency mapping technology," says Colin Fletcher.

In today’s highly complex and rapidly evolving computing environments, having deep visibility and clear understanding of the critical business services and their associated relationships to specific IT resources is fundamental. Especially if you want to improve service quality, minimize risk and reduce IT costs. BMC's October 2009 acquisition of Tideway Systems Limited (Tideway), a leading provider of IT discovery solutions, enhances BMC’s Business Service Management (BSM) platform and helps organizations minimize the risks associated with business-critical initiatives such as data center consolidation, virtualization and compliance.

Join as as we talk with Colin Fletcher, Solutions Marketing Manager for BMC Atrium, as we find out just how the Tideway product fits in with BMC's Business Service Management (BSM) platform and why Atrium customers in particular are so excited abou this addition to the BMC product line.

Bio

Colin Fletcher is the Solutions Marketing Manager for BMC Atrium at BMC Software, where he serves as a trusted advisor, evaluating business
and technical challenges from a BSM perspective.

Questions

You've had quite an involvement in Tideways Systems? Can you give us a brief overview of this product?
What is it about what they have there that's just so strong?
How does Tideway fit in with the BMC product line?
How does this affect Atrium users in particular?
What about the CMDB?
How does this acquisition change the landscape for customers with virtual servers?
What are you hearing from users? What are they especially happy about related to the Tideway acquisition?

Introducing Mobile BMC Self Service

dan@aeroprise.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:19:57 GMT

By popular demand, here's that link to the video we used to launch Mobile BMC Self Service at last week's WWRUG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRzeyMOjnl4.

Thanks for all the great feedback on the new product and the mobility discussion with Doug Mueller! It was a reminder of why the Remedy community is so vibrant after so many years.

And of course thanks to Daniel Bloom, Phil Bautista, Lenny Warren, Joel Sender, Kelly Deaver, and everyone who put on an excellent event!

See you next year!

-Dan and the Aeroprise team