Business Management of Cloud Services

Business Management of Cloud Services 1. Establish executive support Senior management team must understand and take responsibility for the successful adoption of cloud services. Pressures will come from a number of key players in any cloud decision: IT, finance, procurement, and the user community. The IT community is most concerned about global access and impact on networks, security, user performance, etc. The key to their support is a globally-aware architectural plan for cloud implementation. Finance and procurement are most concerned about saving money. The key to executive support is a well-thought ROI rationale and calculation. Users are often most concerned scaling the environment in lock-step with changes to the business. The key to executive support from this group is to demonstrate higher elasticity from the cloud. 2. Address organizational change management Management must understand and address the pressures introduced by cloud computing on the organization. Cloud computing will introduce change to the normal IT development and deployment processes, breaking down many organizational barriers and norms. At the heart of change is fear of loss-primarily, loss of control. The change must have a well-managed, well-planned process for mitigating fear of loss. Embracing change is critical to success. 3. Establish commitment The organization must be fully committed to developing and executing a strategic plan for cloud computing within the enterprise. Adoption of cloud computing should be led by senior management including the CEO and CFO with the CIO and CTO playing a role of key enablers. 4. Carefully evaluate cloud service agreements to ensure critical business needs Do not use service agreements for a fundamentally broken system that cannot meet the expectations being set. The service agreement is a shared responsibility and simply moving a service to a cloud provider does not mean that the service will magically work. Buy service, not servers. Look for complete managed s ervices where you rely on the cloud provider to integrate all the parts into a complete solution. A properly negotiated service agreement will ensure there is a partnership between the customer and provider for the overall success of the service. 5. Address federated governance Cloud services are by nature distributed, but most command-and-control systems for managing IT are hierarchical. To succeed, some degree of distributed control and federated governance is necessary to match the model of cloud service delivery. Before making a decision on a cloud service provider, it is important to understand how the cloud service will be managed and what processes need to be integrated into the existing IT environment. 6. Rationalize security and privacy At the heart of security is trust. Often cloud providers have a deeper awareness of what is required to provide good security than the customers they serve. However, the customer and cloud service provider must work together to estab lish a trust relationship and to establish the security and privacy required. Document the level of security required to properly protect the service and data and let the provider confirm how the requirements will be met. Objectively measure the provider’s true security capabilities. It is critical that sensitive information does not find its way into the wrong hands. The provider is responsible for ensuring that the data has appropriate protection, consistent with the requirements of the SLA. 7. Comply with legal and regulatory requirements An organization must be aware of and plan for adherence to legal and regulatory requirements, including those related to security, privacy and accessibility. Failure to comply can derail the cloud computing effort and result in costly lawsuits. 8. Define metrics and a process for measuring impact Create operational metrics which define steady state success – define how the metrics will be measured. Use metrics to assess cos t savings and revenue enhancement, and to validate SLA compliance, including elasticity, availability, performance globalization, etc. By measuring results, there will be a baseline from which to make better decisions for future cloud services with the goal of continual ROI improvement

Exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 2

Exam - Essay Example Employers are also required to report any workplace accident to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), particularly those that involve death of an employee or hospitalization of five or more employees. Another requirement is for the employers to provide safe and healthy working conditions for the workers and the contractors. Such conditions include safe machinery and equipment, ensuring that the work place is safe through activities such as installing fire exits and emergency equipment. The employer is also supposed to provide adequate facilities for employees to ensure they are free from accidents and their health and safety is not compromised. Moreover, employers are supposed to ensure that the employees are informed and understand the instructions for them to operate in a safe and healthy manner. Additionally, the employer should ensure that the employees are aware of any possible negative effects that could be associated with their work. Additionally, employers are liable for any forms of injuries that the employers may incur when employees are performing activities especially the hazardous ones. This applies even when the person who causes the injury is a contractor. The McWane a major manufacturer of iron pipes for water piping and sewers has had several health and safety violations, which have resulted in numerous injuries and some death cases. After investigating, the working conditions at McWane, OSHA confirmed that the company had consistently flouts most of the work place safety rules. McWane was listed as one of the companies with the worst workplace safety records within America. Since 1995, the company has violated more than 400 safety measures. The violation result in serious accidents an example being crushing of one of the employees by a truck, which resulted in amputation of both legs. Such violations include the unsafe systems such as machineries and equipment of which were

Energy Resource Challenges Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Energy Resource Challenges - Essay Example Thirdly, author mentions liquid fuels and the practice of turning food into fuel. For instance the cellulose in corn is used to produce ethanol. However, at present, there is a shift from the use of food grains to that of the stalks and stubble left after harvest, thus not compromising on the loss of grains to the generation of power. The National Renewable Energy Lab uses a plant to turn leftovers from the harvest and many other non-usable things into energy. Finally, the author talks about the use of wood chips to generate power. Nevertheless, despite the fact that renewable energy sources have several advantages, there are also a few challenges to their effective use. For instance, in the case of solar power, a solar concentrator is required which may be difficult to keep ones backyard. Also, in the United States, the cost for energy is very low and hence the renewable energy industry faces stiff competition from fossil fuels. Thirdly, in order to make a difference with renewable sources of energy, it has to be on a large scale. Lastly, there is also a lack of urgency with regard to the utilization of renewable sources of energy. One form of renewable energy not mentioned in the video is Hydroelectricity, in which water is harnessed for generating energy.