Cloud User Roles discussion

[Drussell4881]

Cloud User Roles: http://groups.google.com/group/cloud-computing-use-cases

With the “Moving to the Cloud” version about to be completed, the
question that comes to mind, “Who needs to be part of the decision
process to ensure success in moving services to the Cloud”? As Cloud
Computing continues to evolve, the decision process for Cloud or no
cloud in an enterprise becomes more critical as enterprises are no
longer looking to put non-trivial solutions into the cloud. If mission
critical solutions are to be considered, then it is important that the
right people have all the rationale available to make the right
decision. It should also be noted, that in today’s world, decisions
surrounding IT require that not only the IT line be involved, but the
Business line must also be a core partner in the decision process.
Therefore, let’s work on identifying the roles and the
responsibilities of the decision makers.

The base assumption is that there can be two or three main parties to
a successful partnership for identifying, providing and executing
cloud services.

At minimum there are the:

Cloud consumer – The party who contracts for the Cloud service and is
ultimately accountable to the users of the service for performance,
accuracy of results and any improvements required to meet existing or
new business requirements.

Cloud Provider – The party who provides the Cloud Consumer with a
contracted service based on the requirements of the Cloud Consumer.
The Cloud provider may also undertake subcontracting specific services
to meet demands which temporarily exceed the capabilities of the
primary provider.

Cloud Services Creator - The services creator can be a standalone
entity or can reside in either the domain of the Cloud Consumer or the
Cloud Provider. It is important to understand who is to provide the
service and what role / responsibility is expected for the identified
service.

To set the stage, let’s set up a series of questions that should be
answered prior to making the final decision of a moving a solution /
service / platform to the Cloud:


- What is the process to engage both the IT and Business communities
of the enterprise to ensure that the new solution will meet the total
needs of the business?
- What are the criteria to make the decision?
- The Enterprise had an application / platform / infrastructure – who
needs to be involved make decision to make the move to the Cloud?
- Who is responsible for collecting the information to represent the
criteria?
- Who makes the final decision?
- Who is the individual accountable for the final decision?
- Who is responsible for measuring the results to align with the
expected ROI for the newly implemented Cloud Solution?
- Who is responsible for the cloud service once it is implemented?
- What metrics are in place to ensure the decision is meeting the
intended goals?
- Who monitors availability / performance / etc. for the running
service?
- Who is responsible to manage resolving failures or upgrades to the
solution / service?
- Who is responsible to respond to queries should there be a problem
with the service, to either in-house or external users or both?
- Who is responsible for the negotiations between any third parties?
- Who is responsible for the communications between the Cloud
Consumer and the Cloud Provider(s)?
- Others

A further consideration in the decision process, there needs to be a
decision as to the type of cloud to host the service – Private,
public, hybrid or community. Each cloud type brings new decision
points to consider.

All the above and any additional questions must be considered and
answered as part of the decision process to ensure not only a
successful implementation of a cloud service, but also the continued
mapping of the service against documented expectations. As part of the
answering of the questions, levels of responsibility must be assigned.
To ensure continuity, the must be clearly linkages up and down the
responsible areas (or individuals) to ensure that no decision is made
in isolation.

A very critical of the element requires that there needs to be
effective communications between the Cloud Consumer and the Cloud
Provider and potentially a third party which could be a creator of
cloud services which the cloud consumer wishes to acquire and have
hosted by the cloud provider.

The bottom line is that the risks of moving services to the cloud can
be significantly reduced if the owners of the decision are clearly
identified, the right information is brought forward and the
appropriate checks are put in place to manage the service after the
decision is made.

Our goal should be to connect the responsible individuals from each
the providers (Consumer, Provider and Creator). Being able to
demonstrate both the vertical and horizontal communication lines, is
the key to success to not having any surprises and the final decision
will be made with all the facts required.

Examples of potential individuals who may be involved in the decision
process are:

- Executive level decision maker ( VP, President, or CEO )
- CIO
- CTO
- Finance Manager
- Operations Manager
- Service Manager
- Development Manager
- IT Architect
- Business Architect
- Contracts Manager ( also includes Legal )
- Customer Relations
- Business Analyst
- Facilities Manager
- Procurement Manager
- Others as identified


Let’s begin to work thru the questions:

1. What is the process to engage both the IT and Business communities
of the enterprise to ensure that the new solution will meet the total
needs of the business?
2. What are the criteria to make the decision?
3. The Enterprise had an application / platform / infrastructure –
who needs to be involved make decision to make the move to the Cloud?
4. Who is responsible for collecting the information to represent the
criteria?
5. Who makes the final decision?
6. Who is the individual accountable for the final decision?
7. Who is responsible for measuring the results to align with the
expected ROI for the newly implemented Cloud Solution?
8. Who is responsible for the cloud service once it is implemented?
9. What metrics are in place to ensure the decision is meeting the
intended goals?
10. Who monitors availability / performance / etc. for the running
service?
11. Who is responsible to manage resolving failures or upgrades to
the solution / service?
12. Who is responsible to respond to queries should there be a
problem with the service, to either in-house or external users or
both?
13. Who is responsible for the negotiations between any third
parties?
14. Who is responsible for the communications between the Cloud
Consumer and the Cloud Provider(s)?
15. Others

Potential outputs to develop:

a) Identification of the responsible individuals within each provider
b) Explanation of the role of the responsible individuals
c) Matrix showing the linkage of responsible individuals within each
provider
d) Matrix showing the linkage of responsible individuals across the
providers

We look forward to your responses at http://groups.google.com/group/cloud-computing-use-cases
to the above questions as we move to capture inputs and develop the
next version of the Cloud Computing Use Cases White Paper.