TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

Cloud in a Box? Could Be the Right Approach for You

Aaron Goldberg | Date: 06-09-09 | Comments

Customers wishing to implement a cloud infrastructure have always had just two (not very appealing) options: Go with a service provider and live on its infrastructure or try to self-integrate a cloud solution. Thankfully, a third option is now emerging.

For much of the nascent history of cloud computing, customers wishing to actually implement a cloud infrastructure had two options, either dump it all over to a service provider and live on its infrastructure or go through a somewhat torturous process of trying to self-integrate a cloud solution. Neither seems especially appealing. And neither of these approaches looks like it can get you up and running in a short time frame so you can start driving the return on your cloud investment.

To this end, there are now "prepackaged" cloud solutions, each of which comes with a number of advantages, the most important being:
- Speed to deployment�You can't get return until you actually do something, so the sooner you're up and running, the better. "Cloud-in-a-box" solutions have substantial impact on your financial model for cloud computing.
- Quality of implementation�If you choose to self-integrate, there can be startup and on-going reliability issues if products don't work well together. Prepackaged solutions can change this.
- Completeness�Once you get the system deployed, that's not the time to find out you've missed a key part of the management console or have a data management issue with a lack of tracking. Prepackaged solutions eliminate the problem.
The reality is that what customers really need from cloud computing is the benefits, not the hassle of trying to figure out how to use it. Even if you outsource to a cloud vendor, there can be numerous transition and visibility issues that create other problems. As a result, it's worth truly exploring a prepackaged/pretested cloud computing infrastructure. The time and dollar savings can be very compelling.

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