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What make it Cloudy ?
aligning Technology with business requirements
Georges MOKHBAT
V Barcelona Communications Technology
International Day
February 24th, 2016

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Macom expertise
Independent Communications Technology consulting firm
Experienced consulting team
Strong value proposition
 Corporate customers
 Government policy in Telecoms/ICT
 Member of the Society of Communications Technology Consultants International
 +25 years of experience in customer advocacy in Communications Technology services sourcing and contract negotiations
 Solid and recurring customer base across France, UK, UAE, Lebanon
 International project management expertise: Europe, Middle East, US
 Technical and financial expertise in technology services selection
 External opinion on where the technology or market is heading preventing short term decisions from hindering the future
 In-depth Market knowledge of international Telecom markets enabling now-how transfer
Paris, France
Beirut, Lebanon
Dubai, UAE
offices

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What is Cloudy ?
 Cloud services were always available in the IT industry…..
̶ 1970’s: TSO, APL, Centrex services….
…...But volume was not there for it to succeed
 In 2016,
̶ Volume is may be there (mobile, IoT, Applications on the move,….)
̶ Vendors hindered by their system costs and, driven by their investors, are looking for recurring revenues
̶ Corporate users are (may be) looking for increased flexibility
 Recent market study (June 2015) from Netmedia indicates:
̶ 47% of EU Corporations are using Cloud services today
̶ Key drivers: Mobility and fast Systems deployment
̶ 55% of Large corporations will be looking for hybrid environments
̶ Key vendor selection criteria’s: Availability of customizable SLA’s and Private Cloud services
̶ Expertise shortage of CSP’s is considered by 38% of Corporations to be THE CHALLENGE :
• Vendor Security process audit & control (for 66% of respondents)
• Integration with existing systems (for 47%)
• Contractual & Procurement issues (for 45%)
A Clear Sky for Business Development requires
 Confidence
 Flexibility

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Confidence
 Confidence means:
̶ Long term commitment
̶ OPEX type business model
 Transparency is required
 OPEX based “Businesses” that should be driven by these criteria’s are:
̶ Telco’s : have you noted how transparent they are ???
̶ Outsourcers’: Why do customers tend to re- insource ?
̶ Software vendors : will be judged in the long run
 You have to give before taking: Profitability from Cloud services cannot be short term but it is from
retaining your customer
 From the Users side, it is not only about costs: Customers need to integrate “service delegation into their
processes”
 From User perspective, this means:
̶ Talking same language: selecting a vendor that understands his business
̶ Being able to audit and control the performance
̶ Being Flexible: Being capable to switch between vendors
 Clear Skies mean a complete business perspective change : both from vendor and user sides

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Flexibility
 The main benefit from Cloud services lies with FLEXIBILITY but this means defining it and
organising itself in order to benefit from it:
̶ Where ?
̶ Checks and Controls ?
 Where: What functions
̶ Services: identification, security, management, help desk,..
̶ Applications: which type
̶ Computing power
̶ Storage
̶ Network Bandwidth
 Controls:
̶ Cross control between IT functions (Network v/s security, Application v/s networks
 Does your business need it ??
 Is this Flexibility needed because of current systems complexity?

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Challenges
 Need for a new business environment
̶ From vendor side: transparency, long term perspective
̶ From user side : a new vision on IT corporate services
̶ Cloud services is a Change mover
 What we have today ?
̶ Everyone wants all your business: status of an immature market
̶ Key Multinational players: GOOGLE, MICROSOFT, AMAZON…creating new regulatory
issues (who is responsible for the connectivity ?)
 How can I still address my business objectives ,
̶ How do I warranty data security without engaging corporate responsibility
̶ Where is my data (and what type) located
̶ Flexibility : How do I switch suppliers ?, What is my exit or migration strategy ?
̶ How to control costs when it becomes usage driven ?
 It is only once these questions are addressed that we can consider migrating to cloud
 You don’t move services into Cloud…. You prepare for migrating to Cloud

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How ?
 Don’t mix Outsourcing with “Clouding”
̶ Processes v/s Functions
 It is not a technology issue, it is a service one
̶ Do you know how to control service providers?
̶ Have you identified cloud providers for your business?
 Get prepared
̶ Review your IT processes and portfolios
̶ Build a team of controllers and auditors and avoid doers
 Do your investigation:
̶ Identify vendors for each service or process : infrastructure, application, security, management
̶ Identify your cloud services broker (v/s cloud services integrator)
• IAAS broker ?
• SAAS broker ?
• IAAS & SAAS broker ?
̶ Check on the various partnerships or links established between the various “cloud services”
providers

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How ?
 Classify your Applications portfolio
̶ CRM, ERP,….
̶ What is strategic?
̶ What is heavily used in a mobile environment?
̶ What is nice to have now?
 Define your Infrastructure services properly
̶ Network services
̶ Storage
̶ Computing requirements
̶ Security services
 It is really a case of “selecting the specialised supplier”

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How ?
 Remember it is a Cloudy business out there and many grey areas:
̶ Never trust vendors
̶ Allow time for contract negotiations
̶ A contract is usually negotiated once while the environment will change during its application
 Key points to address in your contract
̶ Transparency: technical changes control, auditing measures, functions modification rules,…
̶ Flexibility: exit strategy (partial or complete)
̶ Responsibility
̶ SLA commitments and monitoring services
̶ Pricing commitments
• Introduce a Productivity plan
• Regular scheduled date for pricing review
̶ Data security rules, specifically personal data concerns, auditing
̶ Regulatory concerns
• Services location
• Vendor nature definition
̶ Applicable Law…..

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Key takes
 Contract negotiations define against which Beast you are up against
 Set its game rules in the RFP
 When it comes to Contract negotiations, it is too late
 Migrating to Cloud is about:
̶ Specialised and Focused providers
̶ Transparency
̶ Flexibility
 Migration to Cloud is not about Costs

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Gràcies
Thank you
Gracias
Merci
‫شكرا‬