Public cloud 101,One individual does not hold all the keys to the kingdom. Copy right IBM.

Public cloud 101:
Benefits, strategies and
security concerns

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Public cloud 101: Benefits,
strategies and security concerns
Contents
Gist uses IBM cloud to
improve supply chain
messaging
Cloud computing
benefits may trump
public cloud security
fears
Building an IT
infrastructure
roadmap to the cloud
The public cloud can offer organizations a number
of benefits but it also brings with it security concerns. Can the
benefits of cloud outweigh the challenges? Our experts go
head to head in this e-guide from
SearchCloudComputing.com and explore how the right cloud
platform can simplify management and reduce any major
security headaches. In addition, find out how to plan out a
proper IT infrastructure roadmap while understanding
storage, management and cost concerns.
Gist uses IBM cloud to improve supply chain messaging
By Cliff Saran
Gist, a logistics company specialising in the distribution of chilled, frozen and
ambient foods, has implemented IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services, to
enable it to share logistics messages with manufacturers.
IBM is transforming and managing Gist's IT infrastructure based on a cloud
service. IT process integration is managed and automated in the IBM cloud,
allowing Gist to focus its in-house integration expertise on its most business-
critical processes, such as fast-tracking perishable goods across its
warehouse, thereby helping Gist to provide the highest level of customer
service. The centrally managed IBM platform also issues automatic status
alerts to help ensure the accurate and timely delivery of fresh produce.
Mike Flynn, business solutions director at Gist, said, "Previously we used a
variety of legacy value added networks and our own IT. We found that the
number of interfaces we needed to maintain [with manufacturers] was getting
greater and greater as we needed more real-time communications."
Since Gist did not plan to make its messaging system a business
differentiator, he says that moving to a cloud provider to handle the
messaging was a better option and would also offer greater standardisation.

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messaging
Cloud computing
benefits may trump
fears
Building an IT
infrastructure
"As our trading partner network increases in size and complexity, it was
crucial to Gist that we further simplify and consolidate our B2B integration
operations and provide scalability to all our trading partners," said Susannah
Teixeira, application architect at Gist.
The shared platform from IBM maps transport logistics messages from
manufacturers to a form accpetable by Gist's own internal IT.
This enables Gist to accommodate the challenges of food and flowers
delivery, which range from ensuring timely stock replenishment to managing
returns, by its fleet of 1,200 vehicles to clients in the supplier, distribution,
and retail industries.
The scalable service is hosted on a public cloud. It provides Gist with the
ability to increase its supply chain operation's capacity when demand for
products increases around Christmas, Mother's Day or Valentine's Day.
Cloud computing benefits may trump public cloud security
fears
By Marc Maiffret and Sean McDermott
Sean McDermott Marc Maiffret
Public Cloud: Game changer or security gamble?
52% 48%
Sean McDermott: Public cloud services may offer certain enterprises a
better alternative to on-premises data center infrastructures, if those
enterprises choose the right cloud platform from.
Day 1

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messaging
Cloud computing
benefits may trump
fears
Building an IT
infrastructure
I have spent over 20 years helping hundreds of global clients manage their IT
environments. I literally live in this space and as you can imagine, spend a lot
of time talking about cloud. Massive investments are going into cloud
infrastructure, but is it really the way to go? Absolutely. Cloud is not only vital
to IT for a number of reasons, it’s a game changer.
The days of IT dictating to the end user what tools to use or what the type of
mobile devices can be on the network is a thing of the past. End users now
drive IT and push companies beyond their infrastructures’ capabilities. This
requires companies to move to a technology that is scalable and available
immediately at the request of the end user.
Evolving business models, advancements in technology and constantly
changing workforces drive businesses of all sizes to challenge their IT
departments to do more with less. That is where cloud comes in.
Cloud allows businesses to improve agility, reduce costs and reduce time to
revenue. To put it simply: The time previously spent in “fire-fighting mode”
can be replaced with time devoted to innovation.
With cloud, companies’ IT applications and infrastructure are available at all
times, everywhere. By orchestrating the tasks used to create, configure and
provision, service delivery initiatives are supported and enhanced like never
before. Maximum cost benefits are realized through scalability, which helps
companies support sudden increases in demand while avoiding underutilized
IT capacity during slow periods. Cost savings are also gained in several
other areas, including IT equipment, labor and data center real estate -- not
to mention power and cooling savings.
Automation, an organic component of all cloud platforms, provides the
opportunity to tailor any cloud to meet an organization’s unique needs. But
it’s important to note that cloud computing isn’t simply a switch you turn on. It
requires a deliberate and phased approach, with careful attention paid to
processes.

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Cloud computing
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Building an IT
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Fools rush into cloud without a strategy
Most companies are so eager to jump on the cloud bandwagon they do so
without the right vision and planning. In fact, I wonder if most companies
looking into cloud can even correctly define cloud. To take it a step further,
we’ve come across organizations that have already invested in commercial
off-the-shelf cloud products without defining the services they plan to offer in
their service catalogs.
Vendors rush to market with cloud-based offerings while at the same time
struggling to define their services. How can that be? Businesses are ready to
spend massive amounts investing in technologies, yet they are still unclear
as to what their best option really is. On top of that, companies forget the
cloud needs to be managed.
Organization needs to define “cloud” prior to choosing a product.
To properly manage resources and services in the cloud, companies must
implement a strategy that spans culture, organization, behavior and
technology. Culture shifts are a huge hurdle for IT organizations. The shift
from the technology mindset to service mindset will become imperative to the
entire IT organization.
Encourage change or fail in cloud
Cloud computing demands a deep understanding of business needs coupled
with multi-domain expertise that allow companies to design, build and
operate highly efficient IT infrastructures that include legacy infrastructures
aligned tightly with business priorities.
Existing business behaviors and processes won’t change just because IT
infrastructures do. Implementing cloud infrastructures demands a thorough
evaluation of the impact on both people and relevant business processes;
this seems to be a difficult lesson to learn.
What gets lost is the right service-centric IT strategy that ensures alignment
of IT decisions with business priorities. Cloud infrastructures must

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Cloud computing
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Building an IT
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seamlessly integrate with the existing environment as well as leverage
rigorous automation to drive value into the organization.
If you consider some of the benefits of public cloud in terms of scalability,
mobility, access, and ease of deployments, it becomes apparent the
standard processes that come out of the box are not tailored for all
organizations. It’s important to remember the processes are simply
guidelines. Companies need to spend time identifying the particular needs of
the organization and developing a clear method for each unique end user to
yield the best possible results in the cloud.
To fully leverage cloud capabilities, organizations need to make sure there is
a solid vision, and with that, I believe cloud’s full potential will exceed IT
expectations.
Marc Maiffret: When it comes to IT security, one size does not fit all. IT pros
must spend time and energy to put things into the proper context to make the
right decisions, particularly when evaluating whether to keep data on-
premises or move to cloud computing.
There is an ongoing debate over whether cloud-based architectures are good
or bad. IT teams who argue for cloud believe its business benefits outweigh
cloud computing security concerns. Cloud critics believe handing data to a
third party with unknown levels of control just won’t work. The truth lies
somewhere between the two extremes, and it depends on a variety of
factors.
Understanding when it makes sense to move data or systems to the cloud
starts with understanding what the cloud actually is. The cloud is not so much
a new technology as a new way of managing technology.
The term “cloud” has come to mean everything from a single application
normally hosted inside the organization to an application hosted by a third-
party on the Internet. In the context of IaaS, cloud can also mean entrusting
an entire IT infrastructure to another company.

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Cloud computing
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Building an IT
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Application choices matter with public cloud
Each organization will have different considerations when deciding whether
to move data or applications to the public cloud. Some of those decisions will
depend on where data will reside in the cloud.
From a security perspective, IT pros making decisions need to accurately
assess whether the organization can truly secure data or infrastructure better
than a potential cloud provider can. This is an important conversation that
seems to get lost in the noise and nuanced debates about moving to the
cloud.
The reality is moving corporate email systems to the cloud makes a lot of
sense for certain cases. For example, smaller organizations often lack the
expertise in IT and security to manage Microsoft Exchange. Likewise, when
you look at infrastructure providers such as Amazon, Rackspace or Google,
it is hard to say a small or even midsized organization will do a better job
securing cloud infrastructures.
A one-size-fits-all approach to security might not be tailored enough for the
security demands of a large enterprise, or even a smaller organization with
specific security requirements.On the flip side, many large enterprises have
advanced security processes, infrastructure and a seasoned security team in
place. In these cases, it might make sense to keep certain technologies and
infrastructure in-house, where security can be assured and might be stronger
than with a cloud vendor.
Cloud providers sometimes offer varying levels of security that small to
midsized organization cannot; however, there are also some cloud providers
that provide “one-size-fits-all” security. This one-size-fits-all approach to
security might not be tailored enough for the security demands of a large
enterprise, or even a smaller organization with more specific security
requirements.
The bottom line is to do the homework when looking at public cloud providers
and understand what levels of security they provide. Then, it’s important to

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messaging
Cloud computing
benefits may trump
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Building an IT
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not only ask if the cloud provider’s security is up to par, but if you can do it
better.
Building an IT infrastructure roadmap to the cloud
By Mike Laverick
Infrastructure is where the public cloud model can offer the biggest benefit for
startups. Public clouds allow startups to spin up their businesses quickly
without eating into smaller cash flows by wasting dollars on building their own
internal IT infrastructures.
But there is an unhealthy assumption that by merely adopting a public cloud
strategy, organizations will automatically save money. This is not necessarily
true.
Some employees may be using the cloud right now without even knowing.
This represents a hidden "iceberg" of cost, where employees may be
spending their organization’s money on virtual machines (VMs) with
providers like Amazon EC2. This not only circumvents the standard operating
procedures of many organizations but also their accounting and auditing
systems as well.
For two major reasons – to guarantee that commercially sensitive content
remains private and to ensure the application of proper accountancy
practices -- it may be time for organizations to legitimize public cloud for
certain types of work. Costs will be incurred, but they should not be hidden
from the business like a dirty little secret.
Managing the cloud
The two main areas of the cloud that users interact with are the service
catalog and the self-service portal. It’s important to remember that having
these features doesn't equal having a cloud; these are just the elements that
are visible in the user interface.

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messaging
Cloud computing
benefits may trump
fears
Building an IT
infrastructure
There are management tasks that need to be carried out before users can
even log on and start working. Envision the service catalog as the storefront
or shop window from which the business offers pre-packaged and configured
applications that consumers can use.
The vApps in this catalog should represent the applications that business
units want and need. Consider an audit of these applications to make sure
that they are what different business units require. The service catalog needs
to be presented in an attractive and simple way via the self-service portal.
The real management challenges involve trying to integrate a cloud
automation system on top of an existing virtual and physical infrastructure.
Just as virtualization introduced new changes at the network and storage
layer, so does the cloud.
Private clouds may introduce new requirements that are go beyond normal
virtualization needs. On the network side, you will need to ask your network
team to create a significant number of VLANs on the physical switches to
offer up pools of networks that cloud users can address. Typically, users
creating new vApps initiate these requests.
Network teams may react negatively to the idea that countless dormant
VLANs are being created without knowing when they will be used. Therefore,
the cloud and virtualization administration teams will have to explain, and
justify in detail, the need for this configuration.
Storage in the cloud
Similarly, even larger pools of storage will need to be created, often using
other tiers of arrays as well as different types and numbers of spindles,
capacity and redundancy. These will then be displayed to users as data
stores offering gold, silver and bronze classes of storage. Technologies such
as thin provisioning and data deduplication may elevate this anxiety, but the
main concern will be that the storage team is losing control of its part of the
physical infrastructure.

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messaging
Cloud computing
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The way most clouds present storage is at odds with the best practices of
virtualization vendors. The general recommendation is to split the virtual
disks across different classes for optimum performance -- fitting the demands
of each virtual disk against its IOPS needs.
The cloud doesn’t currently offer this level of granularity, with the boot OS,
log files and data all being dumped on the same class of storage. Thus, it is
possible for ancillary log files to be stored on some of the most expensive
storage available. So there is tension surrounding the attempt to simplify the
virtualization environment without losing the granularity that application
owners have come to expect in recent years.
Securing the cloud
The focus of cloud security has been multi-tenancy, which can be compared
to an office block that is shared by many different businesses: Businesses
rent the space and services they need without the burden of managing and
maintaining the physical infrastructure. Security practices must ensure that
any shared-access model does not allow for one business to intrude upon
another. After all, you might be sharing the office block with one of your
competitors.
One area of concern is whether the cloud security model allows for these
organizational units to be secured from unauthorized access by a cloud
provider. Who polices the police?
If the cloud administrator has access to the underlying virtual infrastructure,
then there is little to stop him or her from duplicating the data that resides
inside a VM’s virtual disks and attaching that data to a VM for which they
have system-wide administrative privileges. So one major challenge of the
cloud model is ensuring that correct role-based access privileges have been
assigned in such a way that one individual does not hold all the keys to the
kingdom. In the case of the public cloud, it means trusting your provider to
apply appropriate security procedures in its delegation process.
Overemphasis on multi-tenancy unduly places focus purely on the network
layer, often at the expense of analyzing how raw data is secured and

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Cloud computing
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Building an IT
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protected. For this reason, it is worth investigating private key encryption of
data balanced against the regional laws that govern the physical location of
the cloud.
Before adopting any cloud automation layer, it’s necessary to conduct a root
and branch audit of your existing virtual infrastructure. Whereas virtualization
was a tactical solution that evolved into a strategic model, the cloud
represents a strategic shift. Even more so than virtualization, cloud
technology needs backing from senior managers and a project manager who
is dedicated full time to delivering it.

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Cloud computing
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Building an IT
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