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Platform as a service completes the picture by automating operating systems and middleware:
With Platform as a service (PaaS)
This translates to far better responsiveness through an agile and adaptive operating model. But every bit
as important is clouds impact on the economic model for IT: Commoditization and better utilization of in-
frastructure means you spend lessand elastic, pay-as-you-go pricing models means spending is closely
aligned to need.
providerswho seek to evolve their traditional data center environments into large-scale clouds.
It covers infrastructurecompute, network and storage; and it covers platformsoperating systems,
middleware and other software that enables applications.
In the cloud vernacular, the framework explores the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-
service (PaaS) layers of the stack, but it excludes software as a service (SaaS).
Its worth explaining why!
Were big believers in SaaS and suggest that it should be high on your list of options for off-the-shelf ap-
plications that serve general-purpose business requirements. If youre looking for guidance as a consumer
of SaaS applications, this is the wrong resource for you.
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provideryouve come to the right place. This framework can help you.
In general, the Enterprise Cloud Adoption Framework is designed to guide you through the cloud transfor-
mation of infrastructure and platforms that enable applications. These applications can be custom one-offs
that serve the needs of a small, but valued user community, or general-purpose SaaS applications that
serve the needs of very large populations of users.
So, lets take a look at the Enterprise Cloud Adoption Framework.
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forcing customers into a prescribed solution.
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tion isnt always the right answer for todays complex enterprise environments.
In fact, the level of standardization that makes sense for most organizations resembles a sort of Goldi-
locks logic: Not too much. Not too little.
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sive.
about: Applications.
As well discuss in the next section, PaaS is absolutely the correct goal for your cloud transformation, but
today it doesnt match up to the complex realities of enterprise IT.
Again, the choices you make about standardization are compromises between tradeoffs. Lets take a
closer look at these tradeoffs to inform the strategy you set on your path to cloud transformation.
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tion and sprawling virtualization? The stock answer is governance. Sprawl means hordes of unnecessary,
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even more systems than before.
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Amazon (and expense it as a book purchase!).
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The result is cloud sprawl.
IaaS is ideal infrastructure, but IaaS alone cannot move the needle on app delivery. Even in a full-blown
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error-prone as ever.
That rounds out the bottom row of our matrix. Regardless of infrastructure choice, app delivery is ham-
strung when app platforms are diverse. At the opposite end of the spectrum, what can full platform stan-
dardization do for IT?
ELASTIC PAAS
When app platforms and underlying infrastructure are both highly standardized, we have elastic PaaS,
which many vendors simply call PaaS. With elastic PaaS, you write applications to a strict, consistent
platform API. That level of standardization makes it possible to safely run any number of totally unrelated
apps on the same, shared platform instance. And as we see with public and private PaaS offerings such
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underlying resource utilization.
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enterprise application projects, and the current elastic PaaS offerings, simply arent ready for each other.
The biggest problem is that real apps require tweaks and nonstandard extensions to their platformsev-
erything from native code extensions to multiple simultaneous versions of the same platform-to-platform
source-code changes.
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tecting your apps.
Elastic PaaS is ideal for next-generation app projects, but its simply too strict for modern enterprise apps.
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ENTER-
PRISE
PAAS
Enterprise PaaS means on-demand, standardized app platforms for the current generation of enterprise
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pectso Enterprise PaaS is based on self-service, orchestrated IaaS.
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nately, theres a happy compromise: platform stacks on demand.
With Enterprise PaaS, IT can run many platform instances to serve the distinct needs of different apps and
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repeatable stacks, making rapid deploy and update possible without app rewrites.
We believe that Enterprise PaaS is simply the best available strategy for contemporary enterprise apps.
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Standardization and cloud reinforce each other and rise together. If your organization isnt willing or able to
standardize its use patterns, it will simply fail to adopt cloud technology.
For the many organizations that have already embarked on a standardization effort or for those that are
willing to start one, whats next?
RECOMMENDATION 2:
ORGANIZE CLOUD PROJECTS AROUND INFRASTRUCTURE
STANDARDIZATION EFFORTS
Too often, cloud adoption is presented as a one-dimensional equation:
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As weve argued in detail, cloud has two equally important essentials. Infrastructure-only cloud efforts
simply dont move the needle.
Infrastructure and application platform standardization efforts are so important, and use such different
groups of people in IT, that there is no reason not to work on them at the same time. We recommend two
top-level, parallel efforts in major enterprise cloud adoption: One to move toward elastic, agile infrastruc-
ture, and one to move toward standardized, on-demand platforms for rapid app delivery.
RECOMMENDATION 3: DONT LET THE DETAILS OF CLOUD SWAMP
THE HIGH-LEVEL INITIATIVES
But what about chargeback or showback? When should IT focus on global cloud compliance? What about
resource optimization and global software catalogs?
These are all important aspects of cloud (and many vendors stand ready to help you). But chargeback is a
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apps on standard platforms, not an end in and of itself.
We recommend focusing your effort on moving your organization at least one step up and to the right on
the cloud maturity framework. Your architects plans for making those changes will drive detailed require-
ments that call for these detailed cloud features at the right time.
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CONCLUSION
So thats the Enterprise Cloud Adoption Framework. Our goal was to cut through the muck and mire to
provide a clear picture of the graduated evolution of your cloud transformation by providing a set of recom-
mendations that help you advance your project and create the foundation for ongoing success.
We will continue to use this framework as the basis for our practices and as the kindling for critical public
debate on the right way to guide cloud transformations.
Have we helped? We hope so. But we also recognize that this is an evolutionyour transformation and
the best practices that enable it. Let us know. Were eager to hear from you.
OUR COORDINATES:
Web: www.cloudadoption.org
E-mail: info@cloudadoption.org
Twitter: #ECAF
SPONSORED BY:
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