I live in Marin county in California, very close to Mount Tamalpais. Mt. Tam to locals. What is striking about Mt. Tam is how the treeline abruptly stops at a certain point up the mountain. A point where clouds have already sufficiently cooled, condensed and dumped their valuable rain. This is a common weather phenomenon; and it is also characterized by a lack of rainfall on the other side of the mountain – aka the RAIN SHADOW.
I am told the Gobi desert lies in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, makes sense, that’s one huge mountain for any Cloud to climb. I cannot help but think Private Clouds are susceptible to the same phenomenon as their natural counterparts. That as virtualization rates increase Private Cloud benefits start to cool off.
That the higher your Private Cloud climbs up the mountain to the IT-BUSINESS INTERFACE (the PEAK) the more susceptible it becomes to losing its BENEFITS (RAIN).
Increasing virtualization and decreasing returns? I admit it sounds counterintuitive. But having worked on the value of enterprise cloud adoption for 2 years now I think this phenomenon is real and can be avoided. Here are some thoughts on how the RAIN SHADOW can happen.
1. PRIVATE CLOUD loses it CAPEX MOJO: Capital saves are like water to Private Clouds. This is where the Cloud gets its initial mass and nothing stops a Cloud from reaching the PEAK faster than the belief that CAPEX saves are done. Watch out for the following.
Squeaky Wheels go silent. This happens when capex shortages are filled and we wait for the next capacity problem; aka the bandaid approach to the tech refresh cycle.
Virtualization = Server Consolidation. This mindset limits lower IT unit costs from being applied to other IT strategies (e.g. business continuity, security)
Investing too far ahead of Demand. Creating too much virtual capacity for fear of coming up short on all those On-demand Promises. Or just bad capacity planning.
2. IT BACKLOG steals the THUNDER: Every IT organization has some kind of pent up demand or under-investment lurking around. This IT backlog wants a piece of your Cloud as it rises beyond capex saves. Here’s a few examples that will hide your Cloud benefits.
Midnight oil stops burning. IT admin to server ratios improve over 150% but headcount stays the same, huh? As it turns out cheaper IT ends up increasing demand.
IT Debt Payoff. Storage pooling and QA process efficiencies dissolve into a long stream of skunk IT projects and overdue application maintenance.
ITIL program Quicksand. Real-time, self-service capacity provisioning is offset by tardy service management programs that end up creating two ways of doing business.
3. END-USERS kill the SILVER LININGS: Improved uptime, speedy service, adaptable IT processes – Shangri La. Like any major organizational change Fear-Uncertainty-Doubts needs to be actively managed. Here’s a few to address.
Perceived Performance Decline. Granted, virtualizing applications / desktops involves implementation risk, but do end-users really know the true before and after application performance story? Is performance degradation real or a myth?
How long to 100% Virtualized Business? If this is the vision for your Private Cloud, it's a fair request to understand the details of the cloud journey, not just how long but also the transition pains that will be encountered. Transition pains like the SAN Man or dual IT processes.
Just another IT FAD. SOA, ITIL, IT Utility, Scrum – Users have heard it all before, how will the Cloud be different? Your Cloud needs to be directly linked to a tangible impact on market extension, faster product development or business model innovation to build credibility.
You want your customers to benefit from the Cloud. They want it too.
So in addition to good technology, be vigilant around maintaining your capex saves momentum, understand and communicate where your IT backlog absorb benefits, and finally, proactively address the fears and concerns of your business partners. This will give your Private Cloud the best chance to rain benefits on end-users and prevent your efforts from becoming just a marketing cliché.
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