EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Cloud computing models offer a new approach for IT organizations to deliver business services to end users. By implementing their own internal or “private” cloud infrastructures, IT organizations can deploy a technology model that provides both flexible IT architectures and dynamic business agility. The private cloud model, once fully implemented, offers capacity on a pay-as-you-go basis. That is, it provides a method of freeing and uniting computing capacity that had been isolated within business units. It makes system resources accessible to applications that span the entire organization. At its full potential, cloud computing can ultimately accelerate business innovation and transformation.
IDC finds that firms are considering three approaches to building an infrastructure platform to deliver internal or “private” cloud services to end users: integrated infrastructure systems, reference architectures, and “build your own” systems. This paper presents IDC’s insights about implementing an internal or “private” cloud technology model and how this strategy can allow IT organizations to respond to and support business demand with dynamic business agility. It discusses the benefits and considerations firms must be aware of with these three different approaches to stablishing the foundation for a private infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud. That is, it discusses three different approaches to building modular, scalable, and standardized hardware configurations for cloud.
As this document highlights, when firms move to reference architecture or integrated infrastructure system strategies, they gain material cost and time-to-market advantages over traditional IT. Reference architecture and integrated infrastructure system strategies offer advantages over a “build your own” approach. Reference architectures reduce overall costs per year and time to deploy infrastructure by almost 25%.
Integrated infrastructure systems reduce overall costs by 55% and time to deployment by 65%. Additionally, the converged model enables more efficient use of available IT capacity than traditional IT. The higher utilization rates drive down hardware costs and make long-term infrastructure planning more reliable and efficient. These material benefits make both reference architectures and integrated infrastructure systems an imperative for IT organizations.
