Infrastructure To Cloud Transformation

IT Infrastructure To Cloud Transformation
Michael Graber 2016©Page 1
Contents
About this Document.....................................................................................................................................1
Cloud Computing...........................................................................................................................................3
Business Challenges...................................................................................................................................3
Cloud Computing: Key Principles.............................................................................................................3
Cloud Computing: Service Models............................................................................................................4
Cloud Computing: Deployment Models....................................................................................................4
Cloud Computing: Service Delivery Framework ......................................................................................5
Cloud Compute Architectural Model.............................................................................................................6
Service Delivery Model Architecture ........................................................................................................6
Service (Presentation) Layer......................................................................................................................7
Service Orchestration Layer ......................................................................................................................7
Service Control Layer................................................................................................................................7
Virtualization Layer...................................................................................................................................7
Physical Layer............................................................................................................................................7
Service Management Vertical....................................................................................................................7
Business Continuity Vertical .....................................................................................................................7
Security Vertical ........................................................................................................................................8
Service Catalog & Reference Architecture....................................................................................................8
Service Catalog..........................................................................................................................................8
Reference Architecture ..............................................................................................................................8
Defining and Building Service Catalog and Reference Architecture ............................................................9
Building Business and IT Current State “Baseline” ..................................................................................9
Build lists of Business/IT requirements.....................................................................................................9
Perform analysis and gap determination..................................................................................................10
Build “Future State” Service Catalog and Reference Architecture .........................................................10
Build IT Transformation Business Case..................................................................................................10
Develop complete architecture of Cloud infrastructure...........................................................................11

List of Figures
Figure 1. IT Cloud Service Delivery Model .............................................................................................6
Figure 2. Reference Architecture Sample.................................................................................................9
Figure 3. Business/IT Requirements Sample..........................................................................................10
Figure 4. Business Case Financial Analysis Sample ..............................................................................11
Figure 5. Business Case Cost Avoidances Sample.................................................................................11
About this Document
This document provides an overview of the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and its vital part –
Infrastructure Reference Architecture, Service Catalog and general strategy, methodology and workflow
of Enterprise Information Technology transformation process from traditional infrastructure to the Cloud
(ITaaS) infrastructure model as well as provides a high-level descriptions and definitions of the ITaaS
architecture, its major components, elements and “building blocks”. Also it discusses the challenges and
benefits of developing and offering ITaaS and its mayor components IaaS, Platform as a Service (PaaS)
and Software as a Service (SaaS).
Please note: Applications to Cloud Readiness Analysis is not covered in this document. Will be covered
in separate document I am working to compile and will release soon.

Cloud Computing
Business Challenges
Currently, businesses are facing an unstable economic climate and they need to stay ahead of the
competition by quickly offering innovative products, and still provide outstanding customer service. They
must achieve revenue goals, while also spending earnings efficiently. They must be flexible to respond to
changing needs and make the best use of their staff. But, they must also contend with the challenges of
increased risk, the need to provide real-time information and address cultural trends (such as, social
media, usage of multiple devices by customers and employees). All these challenges dramatically impact
organizations, who are looking for better ways to do business.
Three key themes emerge from these challenges. Businesses need to be more competitive in existing and
new markets by reducing the time it takes to introduce new products to the market and be more agile in
anticipating market and customer trends. Businesses need to be more innovative in creating their products
and services by utilizing new sources of information such as social media and collaboration, and
expanding into new markets. They also need to be more efficient by optimizing costs and using their
employees strategically.
Gartner and a number of industry analysts follow the developments in the technology sector to identify
trends that will affect businesses and society. Cloud computing is a differentiator and a key enabler for a
business to be more agile and competitive; however, what is cloud computing? There are a number of
assumptions about what cloud computing means and what the core tenets, service models and delivery
models are.
Cloud Computing: Key Principles
The term cloud computing has different meanings to different people. Many experts view the cloud
computing definition by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a US Government
standards authority, defines five key principles for cloud:
– Resource pooling – Provides efficiency through resource sharing. This reduces costs and
maximizes value. For example, when businesses purchase and deploy individual servers for a
specific application, such as a web server, it often results in very low utilization. You can
optimize resources and spread across business needs by leveraging virtualization to pool
resources, servers, networks and storage.
– On-demand and self-service – Provides agility, but also increases efficiency for the business.
On-demand means that IT systems are available on short notice, at any scale—and users’ only
pay for the services consumed. This can range from raw computing resources to a complete CRM
application. For example, a business wants to experiment with a new software product; they could
temporarily install it on the on-demand cloud and test it—without having to purchase, install, or
maintain any of the infrastructure. Self service enables the business to leverage IT services as
needed. This includes provisioning, using and de-provisioning services.
– Measured service – Provides a metering and billing mechanism that shows the customer how
much of a resource they consumed and its associated cost. This provides transparency about the
cost of the resources and helps users develop a better sense of accountability for resources they
consume.

– Broad network access – Enables mobilization and globalization so that the business can connect
anyone to anything from anywhere. For example, a customer should be able to use the company’s
online resources from anywhere in the world using any device they have.
– Rapid elasticity – Provides the agility to immediately respond to changing business
requirements. For example, during major holidays, retail companies require significant amounts
of extra processing power to handle the spike in retail sales. They need the flexibility to
automatically and elastically expand their data center capabilities to deal with the short-term need
and then scale resources back as sales return to normal levels.
Cloud Computing: Service Models
The models are outlined in the NIST definition, which describes the basic services provided by cloud
providers.
– Infrastructure-as-a-Service provides consumers with these capabilities: provision processing,
storage, networks and other fundamental computing resources so the consumer is able to deploy
and run software, such as operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or
control the underlying cloud infrastructure, but has some control over operating systems, storage,
deployed applications and possibly limited control of select networking components. This is the
foundation layer in any data center. These resources can be either company or service-provider
managed. The location of the resources is unimportant to the business user; the primary concern
is service levels, cost and functionality. Some examples of Infrastructure-as-a-service are IBM
SoftLayer, EMC Private Cloud solution, Amazon Elastic Compute, and Rackspace hosting.
– Platform-as-a-Service provides consumers with the capability to deploy onto the cloud
infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages
and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying
cloud infrastructure, such as network servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over
the deployed applications and possibly over application hosting environment configurations. This
is the layer used by application developers for development and includes pre-configured
components of the IT stack including databases, middleware, etc. Examples include Pivotal One,
VMware's Cloud Foundry, Salesforce’s Force.com, Oracle’s Java, Microsoft’s .NET and many
open environments.
– Software-as-a-Service provides consumers with the capability to use the provider’s applications
running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices
through a thin client interface such as a web browser. The consumer does not manage or control
the underlying cloud infrastructure, which includes network servers, operating systems, storage,
or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific
application configuration settings. This layer resides on top of the IaaS and PaaS layers. It
presents the application or service to the end user. SaaS offerings vary from simple email
applications (for example, Gmail and Hotmail) to fully functional Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) systems (for example, Salesforce.com).
Cloud Computing: Deployment Models
The service deployment model (Private, Public and Hybrid) is loosely based on who owns the
environment.

– Private clouds are managed by the company. Cloud resources may reside onsite at the company
or with a service provider. It is a Private cloud because the company manages the
infrastructure—regardless of where it resides. The capabilities provided by the Private cloud are
for the exclusive use of the company that owns them; Private clouds are not shared with other
companies.
– Public clouds are managed by providers. Public providers such as Amazon, Rackspace and
Verizon provide various services, which may include infrastructure (IaaS), full development
environments (PaaS), or application services. A company may choose not to develop (or even
run) a CRM package in-house. They might use a cloud provider, like Salesforce, to supply CRM
services; in this case, the company can only add data to it, and decide the level of employee
access to the various functions. The key attribute of the Public cloud is that it is multi-tenant.
– Hybrid clouds may include both Public and Private clouds presenting a seamless service or
application to an end user. This type of service requires a deep understanding of the capabilities
that are going to be connected between the company and a service provider. For example, the
public portion can be leveraged for commodity applications, scale, and workload changes, while
the private portion can provide higher SLAs and greater protection for sensitive data.
– Community clouds are Public or Private clouds usually owned and managed by a specific
community. They are designed to bring together separate groups or companies with a common
requirement or interest. For example, a regional healthcare cloud could be constructed so that
insurance companies, caregivers and hospitals together share the burden of cost and support. This
community would also be HIPAA and/or HITECH compliant to satisfy the compliance
requirement of protecting shared patient data.
Cloud Computing: Service Delivery Framework
Service delivery framework is an end-to-end model where a consumer can select a product and any
options, understand the pricing and terms of it, gain approval for the purchase and place the order from a
self-service portal. This order is then automatically processed by the provider and delivered to the
consumer within stated and acceptable time limits.
At the center of the framework is the Service Catalog, which manages all of the defined services for the
organization. It integrates with all the other management components, including the Chargeback,
Metering and Monitoring, Configuration Management and Compliance systems as well as the
Orchestration Engine. The services in the catalog can be from both Public and Private Cloud
environments.
When an order is placed through the service catalog, the fulfillment of the order and provisioning of
virtual resources is automated through orchestration. Essentially, this is automating the workflow for
processing the order and involves coordination and sequencing among multiple, disparate systems.
Configuration management ensures provisioned orders follow established specifications, and prevents
future discrepancies from them as well. Metering is the process of measuring resource consumption so
that consumers can then be billed back, or charged back for usage.

Monitoring is an important activity that ensures resources are available as per planned capacity and
provisioning is accomplished within published service levels. All these components work together to
enable self service capability for a consumer.
Cloud Compute Architectural Model
This architectural model outlines general Cloud functional layers and is vendor and cloud type agnostic. It
does not depend on how actual Cloud is implemented – hosted by Service Provider or realized in-house at
the organization Data Center.
Service Delivery Model Architecture
Typical Cloud Compute architecture consists of 5 functional layers and 3 verticals.
Service
Catalog
Self-Service
Portal
Orchestration
Software
Resource
Pools
Virtual
Resources
Virtualization
Software
Network StorageCompute
Replication
Backup
Fault
Tolerance
Mechanisms
Service
Operations
Management
Service
Portfolio
Management
GRC
Security
Mechanisms
Control
Software
SERVICE
MANAGEMENT
SERVICE LAYER
SERVICE ORCHESTRATION LAYER
CONTROL LAYER
VIRTUALIZATION LAYER
PHYSICAL LAYER
BUSINESS
CONTINUITY
SECURITY
Figure 1. IT Cloud Service Delivery Model
Layers are:
- Service (Presentation) layer
- Orchestration Layer
- Control Layer
- Virtualization layer
- Physical layer
Verticals Are:
- Service Management
- Business Continuity
- Security

Service (Presentation) Layer
Service (Presentation) Layer provides Self Service Portal for all the qualified users to choose and order
IT service instance or group of service instances covering all the variety of possible IT services from 2
major domains:
- Infrastructure – IaaS (Compute, network, Storage, Database, Middleware, Security,
Operational/Disaster Recovery, etc.).
- Platform – PaaS. Preconfigured and predetermined development templates with built in
development platforms, frameworks and tools. Built on the top of infrastructure offering
instances.
Self Service Portal shape and configuration built on the IT Service Catalog customized to satisfy all IT
requirements of particular organization or group of organizations. In addition it provides cost information
for service instances.
IT Service Catalog based on IT Reference Architecture, which determines in detail all the technological
and functional elements of infrastructure, required to “build” service offer instances.
Service Orchestration Layer
Service Orchestration Layer provides orchestration of all Cloud operations – automated provisioning
and orchestrating – forms and prepares finalized service instance offer from all the necessary elements of
infrastructure – mostly in general case Compute (# of CPU’s, memory), Network (bandwidth,
performance, load balancing, DNS, firewall services, etc.).
Service Control Layer
Service Control Layer controls how all resources are functioning from performance, reliability,
utilization and availability perspective, as well as “feeds” Security vertical with necessary information
about security, compliance and data protection.
Virtualization Layer
Virtualization Layer organizes all physical compute resources into virtual resources and then, pools
them together based on wide variety of principles and/or conditions – by performance, by functionality,
by availability, etc.
Physical Layer
Physical Layer consists of compute resources typically located in Data Center (both: physical and
logical, as well as data sets, databases, middleware, etc.) – servers, network elements, storage frames and
pools, databases, software packages, etc.
Service Management Vertical
Service Management Vertical spans through all horizontal layers of architecture model. Service
management tools allow cloud providers to ensure optimal performance, continuity and efficiency in
virtualized, on-demand environments. These tools – software that manages and monitors networks,
systems and applications – enable cloud providers not just to guarantee performance, but also to better
orchestrate and automate provisioning of resources.
Business Continuity Vertical
Business Continuity Vertical spans through all horizontal layers of architecture model. Provides
functionalities and tools for Business Continuity and Disaster Recoverability for the services, provided by
Cloud infrastructure model. That also includes Operational Recoverability (backup) and Storage
Archiving.

Security Vertical
Security Vertical spans through all horizontal layers of architecture model. It provides tools,
functionalities and measures to make sure that data and information is protected against unauthorized
access and compromises. That includes mostly two areas:
- Data at Rest and Data in Motion encryptions (software/hardware based)
- Security hardening tools, mechanisms and functionalities (Access Controls, penetration detection
and prevention mechanisms)
Service Catalog & Reference Architecture
IT service catalog, sometimes called an IT service portfolio, is a list of available technology resources and
offerings within an organization.
Reference architecture is used to select the best delivery method for particular technologies within an IT
service catalog.
Both elements belong to Service Layer of the Cloud Model. Services, presented to the end users as
deliverable, may be considered as having two views, a customer-facing view from which business users
can browse and select services (Service Catalog) and a technical view that documents exactly what is
required to deliver each service in the catalog (Reference Architecture).
Service Catalog
IT service catalog contains information about deliverables, prices, contact points and processes
for requesting a service.
IT service catalogs were introduced in ITIL v3 as a best practice for service management. ITIL
defines an IT service catalog as a "database or structured document." It is recommended that if
an IT organization is interested in developing an IT service catalog, they begin by taking
inventory of all the services they offer. Once the catalog has been created, IT department or IT
Cloud Provider needs to manage the implementation, promotion and lifecycle of the catalog. It is
done by developing and defining Reference Architecture which supports each offering instance
in Service Catalog with actual technologies and processes available and necessary to fulfill
Service catalog offerings.
Reference Architecture
The reference architecture may be built in-house or it may be supplied by a third-party service provider or
vendor. Typically, a reference architecture will document such things as hardware, software, processes,
specifications and configurations, as well as logical components and interrelationships.

Domain: Compute
Com_L_01 Com_L_02 Com_L_03 Com_W_01
Compute Linux Large
Compute Linux
Medium
Compute Linux Small Compute Windows Large
Production
Production or Non-
Production
Production or Non-
Production
Production
Compute (Server
template, CPU #,
memory, interfaces,
Load balancing - on the
server level) in support
of client production and
project processing
requirements
(development, testing).
High-End performance
and capabilities.
Compute (Server
template, CPU #,
memory, interfaces,
Load balancing - on the
server level) in support
of client production and
project processing
requirements
(development, testing or
demonstration).
Mid Level performance
and capabilities.
Compute (Server, Storage,
Security, OR/DR, Services)
in support of client
production and project
processing
requirements(research,
development, testing,
staging, QA, or
demonstration).
Economy Level
performance and
capabilities.
Compute (Server, Storage,
Security, OR/DR, Services)
in support of client project
processing requirements
(research, development,
testing, staging, QA, or
demonstration).
High-End performance and
capabilities.
8 vCPU 4 vCPU 2 vCPU 8 vCPU
RHEL v6 Server 64-bit RHEL v6 Server 64-bit RHEL v6 Server 64-bit Windows 2012 R2 64-bit
16GB 8GB 4GB 16GB
Shared (up to 4 VMs) Shared (up to 4 VMs) Shared (up to 16 VMs) Dedicated
Virtual Template
Com_L_01
Virtual Template
Com_L_02
Virtual Template
Com_L_03
Virtual Template
Com_W_01
Yes Yes Yes Yes
Platinum Gold Silver Platinum
Level 1 Level 2 Level 2 Level 1
Standard Standard N/A Standard
Premium Standard Economy Premium
Standard Standard Standard Standard
Decommission Yes Yes Yes Yes
SSM
Premium Plus / Premium
/ Standard / Economy
Premium Plus / Premium
/ Standard / Economy
Premium Plus / Premium /
Standard / Economy
Premium Plus / Premium /
Standard / Economy
Compute Cost Model Compute Cost Model Compute Cost Model Compute Cost Model
$$$ $$ $ $$$
Compute
Decommission Management *
Level of Support **
Virtual Template
Console Management
Resiliency Management
Workload Automation (batch)
Cost Model
Service Cost (HW, SW, Maint)
General
Unique ID Code
Offering Name
Environment
Service Summary Description
CPU #
Operating System
Memory (GB)
Hypervisor
Enterprise Management (LDAP/AD)
Compute Performance Monitoring
Domain Management
Chargeback/S
howback
Figure 2. Reference Architecture Sample
Defining and Building Service Catalog and Reference Architecture
In IT to the cloud infrastructure (IaaS) transition methodologies and workflows need to be followed:
– Building Business and IT Current State “Baseline”
– Build lists of Business/IT requirements
– Perform analysis and gap determination
– Build “Future State” Service Catalog and Reference Architecture
– Develop complete architecture of Cloud infrastructure
Building Business and IT Current State “Baseline”
Building Business and IT Current State “Baseline” – complete assessment of business IT needs,
requirements, methodologies, delivered services and internal relations between business and IT. This
would include required by business and provided capacities, technologies, processes, hardware and
software packages, platforms and functionalities. Would also include operational processes and
processes and business/IT governing documentation such as ITIL Framework processes, SLAs/OLAs
and associated tools such as:
- Configuration Management process (including CMDB)
- Change Management Process
- Incident Management Process
- Problem Management Process
- Capacity Management Process
- Service Management Process
And so forth
Build lists of Business/IT requirements

Based on “Baseline” compile detailed list of business, operational processes and technology
requirements to IT for all IT domains (Compute, Network, Storage, Middleware, databases, Business
Continuity and Disaster/Operational Recovery, data and information security, needs in and
requirements to high availability, etc.)
# Requirement
CR1 Utilize Intel x86 (preference for 64 -bit) Architecture (Windows, Red Hat Linux) and migrate away from other Linux distributions.
CR2 Compute should support unified management and orchestration.
CR3 Scale and Deliver “Right Size” capability for systems. By this, we need to identify Compute bricks that are applicable for different
target locations and demand. (Regional Data Center vs Branch Office).
CR4 Improve visibility into measurements of scale and performance.
CR5 Compute infrastructure must have the ability to be managed and monitored by mature native tools.
CR6 Compute infrastructure will support zoning (PCI, Red, Green, etc.) and multi-tenancy.
CR7 Compute infrastructure will support global enterprise virtualization features.
CR8 Infrastructure needs to adapt to different sized stacks. For example rack versus blades, VDI special use cases, etc.
CR9 Hypervisor should support High Availability
CR10 Virtualization Platform must have the ability to be managed and monitored by mature tools.
Figure 3. Business/IT Requirements Sample
Perform analysis and gap determination
Perform analysis and gap determination of current state – “baseline” and future state – based on best
practices desired state of overall business and IT
Build “Future State” Service Catalog and Reference Architecture
Build “Future State” Service Catalog and Reference Architecture supporting the Service Catalog
Build IT Transformation Business Case
IT Transformation Business Case will define and show:
1. Costs of ownership of assessed IT currently (Current State) including hardware, software, capital
and operational expenses, managerial and operational overheads
2. Costs of ownership of proposed IT architecture and design (Future State) including hardware,
software, capital and operational expenses, managerial and operational overheads
3. Differences between Current State and Future State in these categories – hardware, software,
capital and operational expenses, managerial and operational overheads

Figure 4. Business Case Financial Analysis Sample
CY CY+1 CY+2
Current Cost $586.5 $695.9 $826.2
Target Cost $338.1 $401.5 $476.4
Cumulative Benefit $248.5 $542.9 $892.7
$0
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
$600
$700
$800
$900
$1,000
ThousandsUSD)
Cumulative Application Alignment - Cost / Benefit Analysis
BAU vs. Target
(2014 - 2017)
Figure 5. Business Case Cost Avoidances Sample
Develop complete architecture of Cloud infrastructure
Architect and develop (in case if enterprise is interested to build Cloud on premises) or choose and
recommend Cloud Services hosting provider (in case if enterprise is willing to outsource Cloud
services to the provider). This design step/workflow should include developing complete architecture
and provide design for all 5 layers and 3 verticals of the Cloud Model
1. Physical Layer – provide complete inventory od IT physical resources and software, and
recommend changes, acquisitions and updates/upgrades based on Reference Architecture
demands – future state resources need to “satisfy” and be able to support offering
configurations, defined in Reference Architecture (only in case if on premises Cloud model is
chosen)

2. Virtualization layer – Recommend, architect and develop virtualization tools and platforms to
form pools of virtual resources in all IT domains – Compute, Network, Storage, Middleware,
databases, Business Continuity and Disaster/Operational Recovery, etc. (only in case if on
premises Cloud model is chosen)
3. Control Layer – Recommend, architect and customize control platform and software (only in
case if on premises Cloud model is chosen)
4. Orchestration Layer – Recommend, architect and customize orchestration platform and
software (only in case if on premises Cloud model is chosen)
- Develop detailed enterprise IT Transformation Roadmap as series of interconnected initiatives
and project plans outlining and defining exact steps necessary to implement developed IT
transformation initiative according to presented architecture and development

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