By Jeff Erlichman, 1105 Government Information Group Custom Media.

Cloud Computing expert Dave Linthicum tells you how to scale the clouds step-by-step.

What the government IT manager needs when getting ready to embark on their migration to the Cloud is a good template; one that defines a proven roadmap to follow.What Cloud Computing Summit attendees learned (and now you) is that help is on the way. Cloud and SOA expert Dave Linthicum has developed a step-by-step plan to help you scale the heights. He goes through them meticulously in his new book Cloud Computing and SOA Convergence In Your Enterprise: A Step-by-Step Guide. At the Summit, Linthicum outlined the plan. Afterwards he told 1105 Custom Media you can consider Cloud Computing the extension of SOA out to Cloud-delivered resources, such as storage-as-a-service, data-as-a-service, and platform-as-a-service.

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Cloud Steps
In his upcoming book Cloud Computing and SOA Convergence In Your Enterprise: A Step-by-Step Guide, Cloud and SOA guru, Dave Linthicum, to successfully move to the Cloud you need to follow these 17 steps - without skimping on any.
*Access the business.

*Access the culture.

*Access the value.

*Understand your data.

*Understand your services.

*Understand your processes.

*Understand the Cloud resources.

*Identify candidate data.

*Identify candidate services.

*Identify candidate processes.

*Create a governance strategy.

*Create a security strategy.

*Bind candidate services to data and processes.

*Relocate services, processes, and information.

*Implement security.

*Implement governance.

*Implement operations. “The trick is to determine which services, information, and processes are good candidates to reside in the Clouds, as well as which Cloud services should be abstracted within the existing or emerging SOA,” Linthicum said.

Do Your Homework

Linthicum says to start with your Architecture and make sure you understand your organization’s business drivers, information already under management, existing services under management and your core business processes. In that way you can begin to look where Cloud Computing is a fit according to Linthicum. You can look to migrate to the Cloud when:
*The processes, applications, and data are largely independent.

*The points of integration are well defined.

*A lower level of security will work just fine.

*The core internal enterprise architecture is healthy.

*The Web is the desired platform.

*Cost is an issue.

*The applications are new.

While a Cloud candidate doesn’t have to meet every one of the criteria above, it does show that there are caveats – not all computing resources should exist in the Clouds and that Cloud is not always cost effective. It shows you need to do your homework before making any move. So, Cloud may not be a fit when the opposite conditions exist:
*The processes, applications, and data are largely coupled.

*The points of integration are not well defined.

*A high level of security is required.

*The core internal enterprise architecture needs work.

*The application requires a native interface.

*The cost is an issue.

*The application is legacy.

At the Cloud Summit, Linthicum told the audience external Cloud services should function like any other enterprise application or infrastructure resource and Cloud resources should appear native.


It goes without saying that as with any purchase, you should evaluate Cloud providers using similar validation patterns as you do with new and existing Data Center resources. You know there is going to be hype, but Cloud is not rocket science. If you feel you need to, hire a consultant as a trusted advisor.

Pilot Through The Cloud

When you have finally chosen an application to Cloud test, there are providers who have 90 days of free Cloud pilots. In that way you can truly minimize their risk by saying “let’s try it out and if happy you have the option to continue and turn that into a contract.

CSC’s Yogesh Khanna told Summit attendees to embrace the business models that Clouds offer. Security barriers are all addressable not only through technology but also through policies.  Be wary of the fact that there are a lot of Clouds out there. Some of the Public Clouds (e.g. Google’s or SalesForce.com) are proprietary in nature. Because this landscape is changing so fast, it is very important to maintain a level of flexibility and don’t fall prey to “vendor lock-in”.

“Look for some level of transparency that allows you to be certain exactly where your data is and who is seeing it,” said Khanna. “Have the flexibility to see where your data is at any given point and be able to monitor the health of the Cloud that’s delivering those services to you.”

Finally Robert Ames from IBM told the audience, “The message is by following the fundamental things – the three legged stool of technology, processes and organization, you will achieve transformation.”

“If you ignore process and organ you could spend billions on Cloud and not get anywhere,” Ames cautioned.