The Enterprise Cloud

Book excerpt: Despite the buzz surrounding the cloud computing, only a small percentage of organizations have actually deployed this new style of IT—so far. If you're planning your long-term cloud strategy, this practical book provides insider knowledge and actionable real-world lessons regarding planning, design, operations, security, and application transformation. This book teaches business and technology managers how to transition their organization's traditional IT to cloud computing. Rather than yet another book trying to sell or convince readers on the benefits of clouds, this book provides guidance, lessons learned, and best practices on how to design, deploy, operate, and secure an enterprise cloud based on real-world experience. Author James Bond provides useful guidance and best-practice checklists based on his field experience with real customers and cloud providers. You'll view cloud services from the perspective of a consumer and as an owner/operator of an enterprise private or hybrid cloud, and learn valuable lessons from successful and less-than-successful organization use-case scenarios. This is the information every CIO needs in order to make the business and technical decisions to finally execute on their journey to cloud computing. Get updated trends and definitions in cloud computing, deployment models, and for building or buying cloud services Discover challenges in cloud operations and management not foreseen by early adopters Use real-world lessons to plan and build an enterprise private or hybrid cloud Learn how to assess, port, and migrate legacy applications to the cloud Identify security threats and vulnerabilities unique to the cloud Employ a cloud management system for your enterprise (private or multi-provider hybrid) cloud ecosystem Understand the challenges for becoming an IT service broker leveraging the power of the cloud