Gravitant helped the State of Texas create a cloud services brokerage portal to help state agencies plan, procure, and manage cloud services from multiple providers. The portal allows agencies to design cloud architectures, estimate costs, provision resources across providers, and gain visibility and control over spending. It addresses challenges like vendor lock-in and cost uncertainty. The portal has been successful, with 18 virtual data centers provisioned across several providers. The solution maximizes the benefits of cloud computing for improved government efficiency.
Lessons Learned: Pilot Texas Cloud Offering (PTCO) – PDF (267 KB, 13 pages)
Report on lessons learned from Texas state government and cloud provider pilot project; includes cloud computing overview
Rich Miller & Surendra Reddy
Lighthouse is a concept for the creation of an intercloud registry service, based on (1) access points established and maintained by cloud instances to disseminate operational metadata; and, (2) the use of publish/subscribe (pub/sub) asynchronous messaging as the dominant means of disseminating operational metadata among the constituents of the intercloud.
Nava Levy, cVidya VP Cloud/SaaS, presents at cVidya's Annual User Conference describes what "living in the eye of the storm" means including cVidya's Big Data announcement.
Lessons Learned: Pilot Texas Cloud Offering (PTCO) – PDF (267 KB, 13 pages)
Report on lessons learned from Texas state government and cloud provider pilot project; includes cloud computing overview
Rich Miller & Surendra Reddy
Lighthouse is a concept for the creation of an intercloud registry service, based on (1) access points established and maintained by cloud instances to disseminate operational metadata; and, (2) the use of publish/subscribe (pub/sub) asynchronous messaging as the dominant means of disseminating operational metadata among the constituents of the intercloud.
Nava Levy, cVidya VP Cloud/SaaS, presents at cVidya's Annual User Conference describes what "living in the eye of the storm" means including cVidya's Big Data announcement.
New Strategies Emerge to Stem the Costly Downside of Today’s Unwieldly Cloud ...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a discussion on what causes haphazard cloud use, and how new tools, processes, and methods are bringing actionable analysis to regain control over hybrid IT sprawl.
Cloud-based systems have brought a new, scalable application
delivery service model to the market. They can help clients
save both capital and operational costs, and further shift capital
expenses (CAPEX) to operational expenses (OPEX) while
providing increased flexibility for their organizations. However,
a key aspect of any type of Cloud deployment is reliable service
delivery, on which ready access to the digital information (data)
in the Cloud is foundational requirement.
Readiness assessments, hands-on demonstrations and market insight help organisations filter out the cloud noise and hype to develop a best-fit best-value approach for the latest IT delivery model
iStart hitchhikers guide to cloud computingHayden McCall
Many pundits agree that
2011 is set to become the year of
The Cloud and that IT professionals
need to prepare themselves. While everyone
seems to be talking about “The Cloud” in excited
tones, do we really understand what it’s all about?
iStart helps demystify what it all means and
navigates a clear path through all the hype.
What are the implications of ‘going public’
and staying private? By Chris Bell
http://www.istart.com.au
A brief and sharp explanation of the Cloud Service Brokerage concept. Starts with general cloud introduction explaining why brokers/aggregators/intermediaries might be needed. The second part explains the most important concepts of cloud service brokerage. And in the end the portfolio management matrix is proposed as an assessment tool.
This paper presents a holistic approach to see how Cloud computing can come in handy for a better governance. Gov2.0 is all about adoption of best in class technology to help citizens better, Cloud is the way to go.
Cloud computing of late has become the new buzz word joining the ranks of terms including; grid computing, utility computing, virtualization, clustering, etc. However the problem is that everyone seems to have a different definition..
New Strategies Emerge to Stem the Costly Downside of Today’s Unwieldly Cloud ...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a discussion on what causes haphazard cloud use, and how new tools, processes, and methods are bringing actionable analysis to regain control over hybrid IT sprawl.
Cloud-based systems have brought a new, scalable application
delivery service model to the market. They can help clients
save both capital and operational costs, and further shift capital
expenses (CAPEX) to operational expenses (OPEX) while
providing increased flexibility for their organizations. However,
a key aspect of any type of Cloud deployment is reliable service
delivery, on which ready access to the digital information (data)
in the Cloud is foundational requirement.
Readiness assessments, hands-on demonstrations and market insight help organisations filter out the cloud noise and hype to develop a best-fit best-value approach for the latest IT delivery model
iStart hitchhikers guide to cloud computingHayden McCall
Many pundits agree that
2011 is set to become the year of
The Cloud and that IT professionals
need to prepare themselves. While everyone
seems to be talking about “The Cloud” in excited
tones, do we really understand what it’s all about?
iStart helps demystify what it all means and
navigates a clear path through all the hype.
What are the implications of ‘going public’
and staying private? By Chris Bell
http://www.istart.com.au
A brief and sharp explanation of the Cloud Service Brokerage concept. Starts with general cloud introduction explaining why brokers/aggregators/intermediaries might be needed. The second part explains the most important concepts of cloud service brokerage. And in the end the portfolio management matrix is proposed as an assessment tool.
This paper presents a holistic approach to see how Cloud computing can come in handy for a better governance. Gov2.0 is all about adoption of best in class technology to help citizens better, Cloud is the way to go.
Cloud computing of late has become the new buzz word joining the ranks of terms including; grid computing, utility computing, virtualization, clustering, etc. However the problem is that everyone seems to have a different definition..
Three Strategies to Accelerate Your Agency's Migration to the CloudGov BizCouncil
Federal agencies have tough decisions to make as they move past the low-hanging fruit and start migrating older and more interconnected systems to the cloud.
The Jamcracker Platform - Cloud Services Governance and Management for the En...John Katrick
Enterprise cloud computing has transformed IT. Cloud computing decreases time- to-market, improves agility by allowing businesses to adapt quickly to changing market demands, and, ultimately, drives down costs.The ease of deploying and scaling cloud services, along with their relatively low cost of acquisition, has resulted in increasingly decentralized IT, or what is referred to as “shadow IT.”
Choosing the right service providers, managing resources with one governance model, and right-sourcing workloads based on cost, SLA, and trust can be a daunting prospect. Some call this private cloud, others refer to it as public cloud, and still others as hybrid cloud. A better moniker might be enterprise cloud. Enterprise clouds are more attainable with solutions like Gravitant’s cloudMatrix.
Don’t fear Shadow IT, it offers great value to the organization. IT needs to work to minimize the any possible negative impact from security risks and spend control challenges. Learn how to provide users a “carrot” without the “stick” through an approved marketplace for purchasing public cloud. At the same time, you give IT the visibility and traceability to manage security and costs.
Which Cloud? It All Starts with Assessing Application ReadinessGravitant, Inc.
One of the more challenging aspects of cloud adoption is identifying if an application is a good fit for cloud, and what cloud is the best. Gravitant has taken their extensive knowledge and developed a wizard-based tool that determines the business value of moving to the cloud, the amount of effort it will take to make the application cloud ready and what type of cloud is the best fit for this particular app. Join us to learn more about the key criteria to consider when assessing an application and how we enable IT to assist the business in this determination.
AWS Got You Worried? Learn How to Get a Grip on Cloud Spend and SprawlGravitant, Inc.
We hear it all the time, “new AWS services are popping up everywhere.” With Amazon Web Services and any public cloud solution being so easy to purchase, internal IT users — application developers in particular — are going around IT and leveraging outside public cloud services. The urgency is growing for most customers. IT needs to figure out how to get control of the spend and sprawl associated with public cloud usage. Gravitant has a a practical approach to help you “get a grip on AWS” with visibility and budgetary controls, while also providing customers with an easy-to-use portal to encourage them to leverage the IT processes. Learn how Gravitant cloudMatrix brokerage software helps IT get control of AWS while empowering their users.
What is an ITaaS catalog and why is it a necessity?Gravitant, Inc.
Creating a service catalog is a critical first step in delivering cloud services and enabling users to order and consume IT services directly. Though a service catalog appears as a list of services to the users, to IT it represents a supply chain of services across various service types, levels, and providers. Organizations must consider a catalog solution that can be flexible to the needs of the business and grow with IT as they adapt to the cloud era.
Join Gravitant as they outline characteristics and considerations for developing a service catalog. We will walk through what you need to consider when looking for a service catalog solution: automation, flexibility, contract pricing and dynamic catalog options.
What Do you Need to Know to make IT-as-a-Service a Reality?Gravitant, Inc.
Cloud is on everyone’s mind, in fact in a recent IDC survey over 70% of IT Executives indicated IT-as-a-Service is key to enterprise success and in a recent Cisco and Intel survey, 76% of respondents see themselves becoming an internal broker. These two trends represent a shift in the approach to IT services, one that focuses on business operations as much, if not more, than traditional IT operations.
Join Gravitant and Leverhawk as we share our customers’ early learnings and strategic considerations in making the transition to ITaaS and key takeaways for what you need to know to do IT-as-a-Service right in your organization.
What Happens When Cloud Happens? IT Challenges within the CloudGravitant, Inc.
What happens when cloud happens? Public cloud can bring agility to the business but it can also cause difficulties for the IT department that is responsible for ensuring processes are followed effectively. In this presentation, we cover some of the challenges IT departments face when business units adopt cloud directly as well as a way to address those challenges.
Best practices to make efficient use of your public and private clouds thereby proving cost effective to the company. Presentation given by Aaron Yan, Ilyas Iyoob & Ton Dieker at the 2013 Informs Annual Meeting.
1. CASE STUDY
Gravitant Powers First Cloud Services Brokerage
Portal for State of Texas
AT A GLANCE
THE CHALLENGE
Texas State agencies wanted a way to
plan for cloud IT services, govern
procurement and contracts, control
provisioning, and manage costs in the
cloud. They knew they faced issues
such as vendor lock-in, VM sprawl, cost
uncertainty, and procurement
challenges.
Overview THE SOLUTION
Gravitant’s cloudMatrix technology
offered Texas the ability to stand up a
Cloud computing is an established alternative to traditional IT powerful and dynamic web-based
cloud brokerage portal for government
service delivery with shorter procurement times, lower cost
agencies to design, order, provision,
and greater agility for both private and public sector IT needs.
and control IT services across multiple
However it is still a challenging environment to onboard and providers.
manage this new, evolving, and rapidly changing technology. THE RESULT
Texas State agencies were able to
simulate cross-provider provisioning
Texas State agencies wanted to use cloud services but needed
and estimate cost prior to
an effective way to compare cloud offerings, architect cloud
deployment. The portal also allowed
solutions, contract and manage cloud services. Texas State Agencies to establish complete
agencies required a solution that aggregates services from command and control into their cloud
multiple providers, integrates into existing technologies, IT. Gravitant’s cloud brokerage
solution maximized the opportunity to
enforces audit and approval requirements, manages costs, and
leverage cloud computing to improve
is customizable for each participant, in other words, they government efficiency.
needed a cloud services brokerage solution.
www.gravitant.com (512) 535 - 7399 info@gravitant.com
2. THE CHALLENGE
A common lament from IT Leaders, well crystallized by Vivek Kundra when he was the Federal CIO, is
that IT is often “…characterized by low asset utilization, fragmented demand for resources, difficult to
manage environments, long procurement cycles, and a decreasing IT budget.” Similar challenges arise
with cloud services and make it difficult for customers to realize the full capabilities and advantages
of cloud technology.
With thousands of different cloud service providers with different offerings and pricing models,
customers have a difficult time selecting the cloud service provider and an offering that best meets
their needs. The contractual solution, and often times the optimal solution, may require mixing and
matching of services from multiple cloud providers, but the resulting billing situation with multiple
bills from different providers is a nightmare.
“The diversity in cloud financial and service level models creates complexity in
performing a normalized analysis that results in appropriate and consistent
purchase commitments”
- IT Director, Texas State Government
Several Texas State agencies wanted to provision resources on demand and de-provision resources
outside peak usage periods. But different terminology, standards and technology across providers
challenge procurement strategies and practices. Network and security settings needed to be
identified and configured per provider. Furthermore, the lack of automation with many cloud
providers added extra and often manual processes to provision resources.
Also, the cloud providers did not offer any solution for agencies to track resources utilization by
application and apportion the bill accordingly. This level of transparency was needed for SLA
compliance, cost and resources control and to ensure that dynamic IT demands are being met.
All of this made it a challenge for IT Managers to maintain visibility and control over IT spend and
resource utilization. Agencies needed a solution that aggregated services from multiple cloud
providers, easily integrated into legacy technologies, and was customizable for each agency. In other
words, Texas agencies needed the services that are delivered by a cloud broker.
www.gravitant.com (512) 535 - 7399 info@gravitant.com
3. THE SOLUTION
Through the Pilot Texas Cloud Offering initiative, sponsored and created by the Texas Department of
Information Resources, Gravitant created a powerful and dynamic web-based cloud brokerage portal called the
Texas Cloud Services Portal (TCSP). The portal runs on Gravitant’s innovative cloudMatrix CSB Platform and
enables agencies to design, order, provision and control cloud services (public, private, and hybrid) across
providers.
Portal Capabilities
• Wizard-based tools for screening applications for cloud deployment, identifying target cloud
infrastructures, estimating capacity required on the cloud, comparing provider prices side-by-side,
creating a migration roadmap, and finally evaluating the ROI of cloud migration.
• Single view for designing application architectures in the cloud, assigning portions of the architecture to
different cloud providers, automatically provisioning the entire architecture simultaneously, and cost
estimation.
• Dashboards for consolidated billing, utilization monitoring, and security monitoring.
• Command and control screens for provisioning authorization , workflow orchestration, and provider
compliance evaluation.
State of Texas Implementation
At the center lies the cloud services broker
platform – cloudMatrix - which integrates cloud
services from public, private, and hybrid clouds
as well as managed services and migration
services. Above cloudMatrix lies the cloud
management services fabric that allows for auto
provisioning, consolidated billing, chargeback,
command and control, and governance. These
management services were critical for
successful adoption of this portal in the public
sector for delivery to the citizens of Texas
through the Texas Cloud Services Portal.
www.gravitant.com (512) 535 - 7399 info@gravitant.com
4. THE RESULT
The TCSP portal allowed the agencies to get hands on experience with cloud architecture design, sourcing,
provisioning, monitoring, and billing. Agencies were also able to involve their legal and financial groups in the
procurement process through the portal’s user administration and access control capabilities. There are
currently 18 Virtual Data Centers provisioned through the portal across Amazon, Savvis, Terremark, and Vintage
IT Services.
The success of the TCSP solution was first presented at the 2012 Texas Association of State Systems for
Computing and Communications (TASSCC) conference. A panel of speakers representing the project
participants was organized to describe the cloud experience and share the collective experience with other
public sector organizations. The program has been extended through 2013 in an effort to accommodate more
agencies. The Texas Department of Information Resources has published a lessons learned document as a
result of the combined experiences of these Agencies as well.
“There are so many complexities in making the cloud work for us. Gravitant’s cloud
brokerage platform, along with their expertise helped us get on to the cloud successfully.”
- Information Security Officer, Texas State Government
ABOUT GRAVITANT
Founded by innovative executives with over five decades of combined experience in Enterprise
IT management, operations research, advanced analytics, and service-oriented architectures (SOA),
Gravitant offers next-generation on-demand cloud broker and management applications for
enterprise IT organizations.
For more information visit us at WWW.GRAVITANT.COM
www.gravitant.com (512) 535 - 7399 info@gravitant.com