Delivering Cloud Services to the Enterprise

CIOs of large enterprises are watching while smaller businesses reap the benefits of cloud computing. These benefits include on-demand processing power, rapid scaling of resources and reduced CapEx costs. As tempting as it might be to join the party, there are a number of key concerns that must be overcome before larger organizations can react.

For example, enterprise CIOs often want assurances that applications hosted in the cloud are as secure and perform as well as the same applications currently running in the data center. Often, assurances are also required about how the applications are hosted, for example, can applications be easily ported between cloud service providers or automatically scaled to meet demand; and can the cloud provider furnish the CIO with certain compliance information about the host environment?

The Cloud Service Broker Catalyst is a new TM Forum project that will develop a trusted and governed cloud management platform to address such concerns and to simplify the delivery of complex cloud services. The collaboration, led by BT, also involves Comptel, Infonova, OpenNMS and Square Hoop. The project is initially looking at the role of the Cloud Service Broker in addressing concerns in areas such as application performance and security.

The demonstration at Management World 2010 will showcase delivery and operational governance of cloud resources in accordance with enterprise requirements. In the demonstration, the enterprise customer selects an e-commerce application. This selection results in a further number of choices becoming available, such as application performance, security and compliance requirements.

Once the selections are made and the order is placed, the application will behave in accordance with the contract made, for example the application will burst into the cloud from the data center if the application performance dips below the pre-agreed level. The Catalyst uses the TM Forum PSA specification to rapidly assemble these flexible enterprise offerings and automatically make them available to order through a portal.