I’ve written extensively about Cloud Computing and Cloud Networking in the past. Now I want to take a deeper dive in regards to the components of a Cloud and what it takes to make it work and work well. First off, we need the infrastructure to support it which entails compute power, networking, storage, and security. Secondly, we need to have management which includes provisioning, billing/chargeback, and SLA metrics. The third significant component is policies in the form of security and availability, and finally the last component is services comprised of application, platform, and infrastructure.
Players such as Amazon, Google, and SalesForce.com are known as Cloud Service providers. Their role within this concept is to deliver application / platform / infrastructure services via the internet.
NetApp will play in the services component of cloud computing as a Cloud Enabler where we sell products and technologies which allow clouds to be built and cloud services to be delivered efficiently. I care about storage, and specifically cloud storage is going to consist of a combination of hardware, software, and processes designed to efficiently deliver storage services and applications to an organization.
Let’s talk about the economics of service providers and subscribers and the benefits that Cloud Computing provides. A previous post of mine referred specifically to the economics of Cloud Computing. The service providers gain economics of scale via a multi-tenant infrastructure. Additionally, they have a predictable recurring revenue system. The subscribers on the other hand shift storage to operating expenses where the subscriber only pays for what they use. They end up reducing operating expenses because it’s covered by the SLA. Additionally, it moves power, cooling, and carbon footprint to the cloud service provider. In regards to their control, they can balance SLAs with costs and on-demand capacity and performance provides business flexibility. Sounds like a winning game plan, right?
There is such a thing as a recipe for success. The ingredients are a mix between requirements and technologies. The requirements are low operating expenses and as close to ‘commodity’ pricing as possible while having everything based on standards. The technologies that are required in this formula are integration with server virtualization and scale-out NAS. Data reduction, utilization reporting, multi-tenant security, multi-drive support, and multi-interface support are also critical components.
NetApp’s opportunity is new build-outs in the corporate data center and the ability to partner with service providers to determine if it’s an appliance that is needed or a hybrid product. All in all, there are two business models for cloud – Service Providers and Enablers. The role of NetApp will consist of parts of the storage infrastructure being a ‘service’ and NetApp being the key enabler.
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