Introducing ECS

We introduce the Enterprise Cloud Services series, a Network World bi-monthly special report exploring the possibilities of cloud computing.

ECS replaces our long standing New Data Center series through which we explored, over the years, the technologies reshaping corporate computing, everything from virtualization and network integration to adoption of unified communications.

Yes, cloud is overhyped (everything is “cloud washed” these days) and the hyperbole is sickening. No, cloud won’t solve all IT ills. But the fact is money is pouring into cloud tech development, the tools are maturing and early adopters are seeing promise. (Read our story about cloud economics.)

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We introduce the Enterprise Cloud Services series, a Network World bi-monthly special report exploring the possibilities of cloud computing.

ECS replaces our long standing New Data Center series through which we explored, over the years, the technologies reshaping corporate computing, everything from virtualization and network integration to adoption of unified communications.

Yes, cloud is overhyped (everything is “cloud washed” these days) and the hyperbole is sickening. No, cloud won’t solve all IT ills. But the fact is money is pouring into cloud tech development, the tools are maturing and early adopters are seeing promise. (Read our story about cloud economics.)

"People are looking at it, they're trying to figure it out," says Eric Marks, President and CEO of AgilePath Corp., a management and technology consulting firm that has been engaged by many large companies to build cloud strategies. "Interest is high. The actual adoption is low, but we're very early in the early adopter phase of this thing."

It is hard to argue with the basic premises of cloud. After all, the practice of running applications on dedicated hardware stacks is just not sustainable. For every new application you end up with a different systems architecture. The complexity is huge, the utilization rates are abysmal, and the environment grows increasingly brittle.
Moving to a highly virtualized cloud environment based on standardized components should help us address those and other issues. We won’t get there overnight, and the journey won’t be the same for everyone. But organizations can embrace cloud computing piece meal.

That’s why we chose the name Enterprise Cloud Services for this series. A line of business service delivered today using traditional resources can be shifted over time to a cloud-based service, whether the backend is a cloud pod in the data center or systems run by a service provider. If the experience delivers the promised advantages, then the next service can be prepped for migration. (Read our story on careers in cloud computing.)

Easier said than done, of course. The challenges are many, everything from technologic to political and organizational in nature. Even the economics can be hard to get your arms around. But one trap to avoid here in the early going, Marks says, is to limit your thinking about what cloud can be. "There's a vast variety of cloud patterns that can be created to address specific business or mission requirements."

With this six-part ECS series we intend to sift through the issues and provide information that will help you in your own analysis of the potential.

Read more about cloud computing in Network World's Cloud Computing section.