Select the Right Cloud Infrastructure Service Partner
Info-Tech Research Group, June 2010
This Info-Tech Research Group product combines actionable insight and relevant advice. Our practical approach is designed to have a clear and measurable impact on your organization’s bottom line.
With cloud hype growing, so to is the number of potential cloud computing partners.
Your Challenge
- Situation. Our recently completed survey shows that cloud computing is very hot right now, and the majority of organizaitons are in the evaluation stage.
- Limitation. Most if not all of our clients have heard about the big vendors in the space, but they don't necessarily know what kinds of questions to ask to make sure that the solution they want actually suits business needs.
- Solution. Organizations need to know how to evaluate this emerging technology: how pricing works, what SLAs to look for, and how to assess their risk tolerance.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- The value of the cloud is that you don’t have to sell the value – IT wants it, and the business wants it.
- You don’t have to build the business case.
- To assess cloud services, you have to evaluate both the vendor and the business. What can the vendor do, how fast, how well, and for how much compared against what can be done internally? What can you put in the cloud; what applications and data are appropriate for the cloud?
Impact and Result
- Smaller enterprises can have large enterprise capabilities by taking advantage of the lower financial and technical barriers to entry that the cloud offers.
- With “cloud” being slapped on just about any service by marketing hype machines, it is important to be clear about the kind of cloud service being sought and what it can really do.
- The cloud is for everyone, but it’s not for everything. Consider appropriateness of each candidate workload. It is critical to identify the right applications and data for the public cloud before selecting a service provider that best meets the needs of IT for that particular workload.
Get to Action
1. Evaluate and select the right cloud vendor for the appropriate cloud service.
Take advantage of the security and lower capex cost of utilizing the cloud.
- Storyboard: Select the Right Cloud Infrastructure Service Partner
- Cloud Candidate Assessment Tool
2. Identify which applications, data, and services are appropriate for the cloud.
Ensure the best fit and suitability for the enterprise.
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Flexiant
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: GoGrid
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Joyent
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: OpSource
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Rackspace
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Savvis
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Terremark
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Amazon Web Services
- Cloud Vendor Shortlisting Tool
3. Compare cloud versus on-site services.
Ensure the most benefit for the best price and lowest risk.
- Cloud versus On-Site TCO Comparison Tool
- Storyboard: Select the Right Cloud Infrastructure Service Partner (Powerpoint)
- Cloud Candidate Assessment Tool (Excel)
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Flexiant (Pdf)
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: GoGrid (Pdf)
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Joyent (Pdf)
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: OpSource (Pdf)
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Rackspace (Pdf)
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Savvis (Pdf)
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Terremark (Pdf)
- Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Amazon Web Services (Pdf)
- Cloud Vendor Shortlisting Tool (Excel)
- Cloud versus On-Site TCO Comparison Tool (Excel)
What you receive:
*Storyboard: Select the Right Cloud Infrastructure Service Partner
With “cloud” being slapped on just about any service by marketing hype machines, it is important to be clear about the kind of cloud service being sought and the requirements of a specific service. This storyboard helps you:
- Identify the opportunities of the cloud
- Assess the right workloads
- Evaluate and compare leading vendors
- Determine best next steps
Optimize your time-to-value in the cloud by selecting the right vendor for your cloud initiative.
*Cloud Candidate Assessment Tool
Before moving everything into the cloud, assess appropriate candidate applications for their requirements and suitability.
This tool will help to assess a workload’s fit for the cloud, and determine what a specific workload requires in terms of:
- Capacity
- Security
- Availability levels
The cloud is popular right now, but it is not the silver bullet many hype machines would have you believe. The cloud may be for everyone, but it is not for everything.
*Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Flexiant
With “cloud” being slapped on just about any service by marketing hype machines, it is important to be clear about the kind of cloud service being sought and the requirements of a specific service. Infrastructure-as-a-Service vendors will be evaluated on:
- Available features
- Affordability
- Usability
- Vendor viability, including geographic presence
- Support
The critical exercise will be to identify those applications and data which can be moved to a public cloud and then selecting a service provider that best meets the needs of IT for that particular workload.
*Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: GoGrid (Pdf)
With “cloud” being slapped on just about any service by marketing hype machines, it is important to be clear about the kind of cloud service being sought and the requirements of a specific service. Infrastructure-as-a-Service vendors will be evaluated on:
- Available features
- Affordability
- Usability
- Vendor viability, including geographic presence
- Support
The critical exercise will be to identify those applications and data which can be moved to a public cloud and then selecting a service provider that best meets the needs of IT for that particular workload.
*Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Joyent (Pdf)
Pricing is higher than competing vendors. It is also monthly billing, whereas the industry is heading towards a pay-as-you-go model. Joyent is still refining its pricing structure - expect pricing to change as the vendor grows beyond their hosting services business.
*Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: OpSource (Pdf)
With “cloud” being slapped on just about any service by marketing hype machines, it is important to be clear about the kind of cloud service being sought and the requirements of a specific service. Infrastructure-as-a-Service vendors will be evaluated on:
- Available features
- Affordability
- Usability
- Vendor viability, including geographic presence
- Support
The critical exercise will be to identify those applications and data which can be moved to a public cloud and then selecting a service provider that best meets the needs of IT for that particular workload.
*Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Rackspace (Pdf)
With “cloud” being slapped on just about any service by marketing hype machines, it is important to be clear about the kind of cloud service being sought and the requirements of a specific service. Infrastructure-as-a-Service vendors will be evaluated on:
- Available features
- Affordability
- Usability
- Vendor viability, including geographic presence
- Support
The critical exercise will be to identify those applications and data which can be moved to a public cloud and then selecting a service provider that best meets the needs of IT for that particular workload.
*Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Savvis (Pdf)
With “cloud” being slapped on just about any service by marketing hype machines, it is important to be clear about the kind of cloud service being sought and the requirements of a specific service. Infrastructure-as-a-Service vendors will be evaluated on:
- Available features
- Affordability
- Usability
- Vendor viability, including geographic presence
- Support
The critical exercise will be to identify those applications and data which can be moved to a public cloud and then selecting a service provider that best meets the needs of IT for that particular workload.
*Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Terremark (Pdf)
With “cloud” being slapped on just about any service by marketing hype machines, it is important to be clear about the kind of cloud service being sought and the requirements of a specific service. Infrastructure-as-a-Service vendors will be evaluated on:
- Available features
- Affordability
- Usability
- Vendor viability, including geographic presence
- Support
The critical exercise will be to identify those applications and data which can be moved to a public cloud and then selecting a service provider that best meets the needs of IT for that particular workload.
*Cloud Infrastructure Vendors: Amazon Web Services (Pdf)
With “cloud” being slapped on just about any service by marketing hype machines, it is important to be clear about the kind of cloud service being sought and the requirements of a specific service. Infrastructure-as-a-Service vendors will be evaluated on:
- Available features
- Affordability
- Usability
- Vendor viability, including geographic presence
- Support
The critical exercise will be to identify those applications and data which can be moved to a public cloud and then selecting a service provider that best meets the needs of IT for that particular workload.
*Cloud Vendor Shortlisting Tool (Excel)
When selecting a cloud partner, it is essential to know how secure your data is going to be, what sort of assurances and service level agreements they are able to provide, the level of support offered, and in some cases, the physical location of your data. This tool asks seven short questions about your requirements, and then asks you to rank the importance of the
following evaluation criteria:
- Vendor product features
- Affordability
- Usability
- Vendor viability, including geographic presence
- Support
Not all cloud vendors are created equal. Use this tool to help eliminate vendors from your long list.
*Cloud versus On-Site TCO Comparison Tool (Excel)
Because cloud infrastructure is directly competing against internal IT departments, it is important to have a clear picture of the projected TCO. While the cloud may provide low cost barrier to entry, the amount spent in overtime may reach in-house levels.
This tool will help you calculate and compare in-house costs to cloud service costs by looking at:
- In-house hardware costs
- System software and integration costs
- Facilities costs
Use this tool to map and compare total cost of ownership for hosting servers in-house versus hosting a like server virtual instance in the cloud via an infrastructure-as-a-service provider.
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