The document discusses business perspectives on cloud computing from a presentation given by John Rhoton at Digital Trends 2011. It outlines assessing cloud computing from financial, risk, and strategic perspectives. While cloud computing has evolved gradually, the right conditions can create market disruption. The presentation provides advice on adoption including starting early, engaging stakeholders, and finding quick wins to prepare for long-term cloud strategies and the challenges of integration, security, and governance.

1. Business Perspectives on
Cloud Computing
John Rhoton
Digital Trends 2011, Athens
Green ICT and Cloud Computing
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 1

2. Agenda
• Assessment
– Financial, Risk, Strategic
• Adoption
• Challenges
• Guidance
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 2

3. Two views of technology evolution
No pivotal innovation vs. Very disruptive impact
Network effects
Competitive
THEN Economy Price
• Application Service Provider of Scale
• Web Hosting Service
• Managed Hosting Service
NOW Accelerated
• Software-as-a-Service Improved development
• Platform-as-a-Service functionality
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service
Multi-tenancy. Virtualization.
Utility billing. These aren’t new – Increased Adoption
just a gradual evolution. The right conditions can create market
disruption for evolutionary improvements.
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 3

4. Financial Assessment
• Software
• Hardware
• Facilities
• Operations
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 4

5. Risk Assessment
• Data leakage • Rogue clouds
• Data loss – Employee dissatisfaction
• Service loss – Unmanaged applications
– Insecure data
• Compliance
• Lock-in • Competitive disadvantage
• Internal risks
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 5

6. Strategic Assessment
• IT Support
– Intellectual Property
– Knowledge Management
– Service Delivery
• Agile Enterprise
– Core competency
– Modular services
– Ecosystem
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 6

7. Private to hybrid evolution
• Resource Efficiencies
• Operational Efficiencies
• Sourcing Efficiencies
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 7

8. Candidate applications
• Low risk, high return
• Test and Development
• Externalised applications
– Isolate threats, malware
• Redundancy
– Geographical
– Organizational
– Technological
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 8

9. Design challenges
• Integration
• User management
• Reliability
• Governance / SLAs
• Security
The most common cause of failure
is underestimating these challenges
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 9

10. Concerns and risk mitigation
Risk Mitigation
Data leakage Encryption
Data loss Multi-source, backup
Vendor Standards, multi-source,
lock-in backup, exit strategy
Service loss SLA, audit, certifications
Compliance SLA, audit, certifications
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 10

11. New trust basis
Employees Contractors
• Personal observation Physical
• Personal experience Segmentation
Access controls
• Human Insight
Partners Suppliers
Auditors
• Public verification Virtual
Public Scrutiny Segmentation
• Contracts
Encryption
• Compensation Experts Access controls
Legal Counsel
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 11

12. Words of Advice
• Start early
• Engage everyone
– Users, HR, Legal, Procurement,…
• Be skeptical of the skeptics
• Find Quick wins
– Cheap, low-risk
• Prepare for the long term
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 12

13. Summary
• Assess cloud computing from financial, risk
and strategic perspectives
• Be prepared for disruption
– Requires new trust strategy
• Don’t underestimate the challenges
• Accept the inevitable
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 13

14. Thank you!
John Rhoton
john_rhoton@symantec.com, john.rhoton@gmail.com
www.xing.com/profile/John_Rhoton
linkedin.com/in/rhoton
www.amazon.com/John-Rhoton/e/B001K8TFW0
30/11/2011 John Rhoton – Digital Trends 2011 14