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IT & DATA MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS & CONSULTING
Executive Summary
While a there is a lot of industry hype around Cloud, and while
many IT organizations feel under pressure to move to Cloud
computing in order to cut costs, industry data shows that transi-
tions to Cloud are greatly enhanced when supported by supe-
rior levels of service management. IT reluctance to jump into
broadly deployed Cloud models is understandable, especially
when so many IT organizations are still struggling to get their
arms around their own resources. How then can they effectively
measure the value of pulling in third-party services, or even
manage an internal transition to a more virtualized data center
for “Internal Cloud?”
IT reluctance to jump into
broadly deployed Cloud
models is understandable,
especially when so many
IT organizations are still
struggling to get their arms
around their own resources.
Much of the debate around supporting Cloud computing to date has focused on security. This concern
is real, but in many ways an even more fundamental concern is often overlooked – how does Cloud
computing impact IT’s ability to deliver its application without disrupting critical Service Level Agreements and other
business requirements? The bridge between application management and Cloud computing investments
is still poorly understood – and yet IT’s “products” are its applications. It is these, in the end, to which
IT is rightly expected to be most accountable.
This report provides insights into the various faces of Cloud computing, public and private, and how
and why they are being adopted. It then provides insights into critical performance requirements and
technologies most relevant to Cloud. The report also offers some guidance on how to get started
with performance management strategies for assimilating Cloud services, and introduces Compuware’s
portfolio as a unified solution to monitor and manage performance requirements inside and outside
the firewall.
Methodology:
In order to develop this report, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) has drawn on numerous
industry dialogs including consulting engagements and EMA research reports. Chief among these are:
The Responsible Cloud, January 2010; End-to-End Application Management Issues and Trends, 2010, January
2010; Quality of Experience – the Ultimate Collaboration: How Real Deployments Are Succeeding and Why,
December 2008; EMA Radar™ for Business Service Management: Service Impact Q3 2010, June 2010, and
additional custom research on Web-based ecosystems.
The Move to Cloud:
EMA asserts that applications depending on Cloud require thoroughgoing capabilities for service man-
agement throughout their lifecycle, just as non-Cloud-delivered applications do. In other words, Cloud
computing is not a pathway out of service management, but rather a new and in many respects a more
complex and demanding environment that requires a disciplined management approach optimized to
support Cloud’s very dynamic challenges for performance, risk management and accountability.
Figure 1 shows that among those 159 respondents with committed plans for Cloud services or with
Cloud services in production, about 25% of users and applications are dependent on Cloud—either in
terms of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), or via virtualized, on-demand infrastructures as an external ser-
Optimizing Cloud Computing to Support Application Delivery
©2010 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.enterprisemanagement.com
Page 1
Figure 1: Among those respondents with committed plans for Cloud Services, or with Cloud already in deployment in Q1 2010, 25% of
users and applications were Cloud dependent. This number is expected to roughly double in about two years. (“The Responsible Cloud”)
EMA data also shows that storage services, test and development for applications, and Web site
hosting are leading Cloud services today, followed in the application area by administratively specific
applications (payroll, HR, etc.), messaging and communications applications, personal productivity
applications, and lastly, ERP applications that are fundamental to critical processes and outcomes. In
other words, Cloud favors selectively putting your toe in the water on less critical applications until a
comfort level is achieved around impact, monitoring and control.
Cloud Benefits and Issues
Cloud adoption has, in reality, delivered a number of significant benefits. In Fact 76% of the 159 global
respondents in “The Responsible Cloud” claim measurable cost savings from Cloud adoptions. In Figure
2, the types of benefits delivered through Cloud adoptions are ranked in terms of predominance, top
to bottom.
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 2: The benefits of Cloud computing and Cloud services range from the expected – (Capex and Opex
savings) to those less expected outcomes, such as improved service availability and improved security.
Optimizing Cloud Computing to Support Application Delivery
©2010 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.enterprisemanagement.com
Page 2
61%
53%
53%
53%
49%
46%
46%
38%
34%
26%
2%
IT & DATA MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS & CONSULTING
vice (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), or within the IT organization (Private Cloud). But this number will
more than double for users in about two years. As a wider base of IT organizations seek to assimilate
Cloud services and as existing Cloud adopters increase their level of usage
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
55%
45%
25%
25%
Currently
In 2 Years
Users
Applications
Reduce the capital costs of IT management (e.g.
hardware, facilities, licenses, etc.)
Improve service quality (less downtime, faster
response, meeting SLAs, etc.)
Reduce the operational costs of IT management
(e.g. staff, power, rent, maintenance, etc.)
Reduce complexity of IT management
Free up resources for strategic projects instead of
routine operations/firefighting
Enable disaster recovery/business continuity
Increase flexibility and agility (including growth
beyond current facility limitations)
Improve security and/or risk management
outcomes
Improve regulatory compliance
Expand revenue channels by reselling Cloud-
based services
Other (Please specify)
IT & DATA MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS & CONSULTING
24%, or nearly a quarter
of respondents, would not
even consider taking Cloud
services from a provider that
had suffered a significant
performance or availability issue.
There are real issues in effectively assimilating Cloud comput-
ing resources. These include costs of migration, rigidity in
terms of vendor relationships, SLA, performance, and security
issues—although the top concern is political or process-related:
who does what, when there is a requirement to manage Cloud services across
organizations? As the data below will show, this underscores the
need for strong service management capabilities in assimilating
Cloud, so that there is at least a foundation for good data sharing,
communication and process definition. This is reflected in the fact that 24%, or nearly a quarter of
respondents, would not even consider taking Cloud services from a provider that had suffered a significant
performance or availability issue, while an additional 57% would at minimum seek more information
before going forward with adoption (Figure 3).
Might still use the service based on
more information
Wouldn’t consider it
Would still use their service
Doesn’t factor into the decision
0%
57%
24%
16%
3%
20%
40%
60%
Column %
Figure 3: Nearly a quarter of the respondents would not consider services from a Cloud services provider with a major
performance or availability, an additional 57% would at minimum seek additional information. (“The Responsible Cloud”)
Performance Monitoring and Cloud
Business applications dependent on Cloud computing must ultimately meet the same expectation levels
for user experience and business impact as those applications hosted on non virtualized infrastructures
within IT. In fact, strong performance management with insight into user experience is an excellent
barometer of the effectiveness of your Cloud adoptions. EMA has seen IT organizations evaluate
where and how to use Cloud services most effectively by assessing service impact and user experi-
ence―for instance, in different geographical regions to see where application acceleration via a Cloud
provider is most beneficial and most cost effective.
Technologies and Processes for Critical Application Performance in
Cloud and Non-Cloud Environments
A majority, 57%, of respondents in The Responsible Cloud expected to monitor Cloud services from
their own monitoring or management systems. But this is a “both/and” situation as 55% also expect
to get alerts from their Cloud Services provider—meaning that performance information needs to be
effectively shared across both parties. Moreover, 88% of respondents with Cloud computing deploy-
ments (active or committed) viewed performance and availability management as important or very
important―with 53% saying it’s very important. Similarly, 79% felt that SLM is important or very
important, and 67% felt end-to-end service diagnostics were key.
Optimizing Cloud Computing to Support Application Delivery
©2010 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.enterprisemanagement.com
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