Originally posted:  Cloud Commons

“Cloud Mavericks! Going Out on a Limb, without Falling Out of the Tree!” The discussion at the CA Technologies workshop at GigaOM last month in San Francisco revealed a set of best practices and clear messages for the so called “Cloud Mavericks” who are viewed to reach just outside the fringes to meet the ever growing and demanding business expectations. Contrary to what the mainstream thinks these mavericks know how to leverage the new opportunities that Cloud presents without jeopardizing the sanctity of business, and more important, it seems that these are the types of individuals the businesses need to provide that much needed edge to accelerate past the competition.

Ravi Rajagopal, Vice President, Cloud Strategy, CA Technologies & Adjunct Professor, New York University led a panel discussion with two other IT experts: Jim Prebil, Principal at Fujitsu Management Consulting, and Raman Kannan, former CTO at Rosenblatt Securities, a major front end transaction processing firm on Wall Street, who was the first on the Street to successfully use Cloud for “mission critical” applications without a glitch.

Through these trail-blazing initiates spearheaded by these mavericks, many enterprises are taking advantage of the new paradigm and rapidly adopting cloud services. 74% of enterprises have deployed a cloud service and have allocated up to 30% in cloud spending, and about 70% of enterprises are investing in building private clouds [Avanade 2011 Cloud Global Survey]. What’s interesting is the fact that 72% of CIOs say they have to think outside the box and be innovative to answer to these growing business demands [Harvey Nash global CIO Survey 2011].

The discussion focused on many critical issues on how IT can help facilitate the journey into cloud and provide businesses a structure to access and use Cloud services effectively. A number of questions were tackled including:

−    How to use the Cloud, even for mission critical applications, without leaving the enterprise exposed to risks and associated expenses?

−    How can IT organizations help business units and mavericks navigate through seemingly complex options without exposing the                      corporate network and to the benefit of the enterprise?

−    How to empower these cloud trail-blazers, while protecting the company, from the impact of risky but potentially rewarding decisions?

−    How to make the corporate network less fragile and ready to add newer cloud services? And, what can IT do to help facilitate this                    process?

−   What type of education is needed to ensure that the businesses understand the security, privacy and SLA concerns when they                        procure cloud services?

−  How can IT take the lead and create value so that businesses come to IT to get cloud services rather than going on their own?

Based on proven experiences of the panelists, a series of best practices emerged. The following is a summary of these best practices which will be expanded into detailed roadmaps and guidelines in upcoming articles.

1.   Excellent IT Management Tools that extend into cloud:  An absolute requirement for any enterprise integrated IT management tools that extend the capabilities into the Cloud.

2.   Holistic ROI and TCO analysis – prove economics: Do a detailed holistic economic analysis to prove the value of Cloud.  Build a               dynamic model that can be monitored for the lifecycle of all applications.

3.  Focus on agility and innovation: Once the economics is proven, elevate to nest level, focus on agility and innovation capabilities of  Cloud. Start with reengineering simple business processes in making them more efficient, and expand into creating newer business models that can help business innovate better.

4.  Run trials – showcase the value: Start small, pick a non critical application, migrate to Cloud and showcase its value. Follow this with one aspect of a critical application, and demonstrate who it can be executed in the Cloud.

5.  It’s an organizational shift – engage operations, legal, and finance: It’s not just IT, engage other lines of business. Cloud is a                  corporate initiative, where IT can lead, but with the help of other vital organizations.

6.  A dynamic applications Portfolio strategy and a service catalog: Create and maintain a dynamic applications portfolio so                        businesses can come to IT rather than going out searching the Cloud.

7.  Use public/private key based access: Raise the Security bar. Implement robust Identity, Access and Information management tools.         Consolidate access, and use public/private key based as needed for certain mission critical applications.

8.  Establish cloud governance – resolve issues immediately: Create a governance roundtable that comprise of members of all                    organizations where IT is a player (not the player), and resolve issues that emerge immediately giving direction and confidence for the business.

9.  Get experts to help you – don’t do it alone: Get experts to help you. Join a council that includes peers, academics, and industry              experts.

10.  Partner with a company that values your relationship: Go with a company that not only has the state of the art solutions, but a                   vision, and leadership to execute the vision. Partner with a company that can stand by you and values your relationship at all levels.

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Ravi Rajagopal

Vice President, Cloud Strategy, CA Technologies; ravi.rajagopal@ca.com

Adjunct Professor, New York University; RaviRaja@poly.edu

Ravi Rajagopal is a results-oriented technology executive with a 20+ years of experience in leading and managing organizations that deliver innovative & practical solutions for corporations and governments around the globe.

As Vice President at CA Technologies, he helps define and execute CA cloud strategy, and advises CIOs of large enterprises on planning and implementation of IT. Prior to joining CA in 2006, Ravi had 17 years of progressive leadership tenure at AT&T. He held several senior management positions, built global organizations ground up, received numerous awards and was elected to the AT&T leaders' council.

Ravi is also an Adjunct Professor at New York University. He teaches graduate courses on Cloud Computing, Technology Strategy, and Innovation. Ravi holds multiple degrees including a master's in computer science from City University of New York, and has completed post graduate work in Electrical Engineering at Columbia University.

He is co-founder of a charitable international organization that helps orphan and underprivileged children in India.

Jim Prebil is a Business/technology leader with over 25 years as a consultant and leader of technology groups. He has worked for Fujitsu Consulting and Mercer Management Consulting, as well as the CIO for four different businesses from large global companies to two early stage aviation companies.  Jim is currently a Principal at Fujitsu Consulting, working with clients on adopting cloud computing, shared service and other organization forms, and significant business/IT transformations. Jim received his BS from the University of Illinois and his MBA from the University of Baltimore. He served as a guest lecturer at the University of Minnesota Carlson Graduate School.  jim.prebil@us.fujitsu.com

Raman Kannan is hands on C level executive with an MBA from Columbia University and a PhD from West Virginia. Former CTO at Rosenblatt Securities, Raman is a Financial Service Technologist with 15 years experience consulting and adopting emerging technology solution on Wall Street. He is a regular speaker on Disruptive Technologies as an essential American Value. He has deep experience on Object Relational Mapping, Model Based Programming, and SOA for STP, and Cloud in a highly regulated Agency Brokerage.  rk2153@gmail.com]