Cloud computing is on the rise for enterprises, despite unresolved issues. IDC estimates that spending on cloud computing will increase from $16 billion in 2008 to $42 billion by 2012, representing about 25% of all IT spending that year. A May 2008 report from Merrill Lynch estimates that 12% of the worldwide software market will migrate to the cloud over the next five years.
The promises of cloud computing are intoxicating: reduced cost when IT becomes a pay-as-you-go function; greater flexibility to deploy new applications and services more quickly; increased mobility for users who now can access applications and information more easily from anywhere; and the liberation of internal IT staffs from constant server and software updates, which frees them up to focus on more strategic contributions to the business.
But before enterprises rush to the cloud, it’s important to first understand and mitigate the risks, many of which arise from the loss of control over and visibility into application behavior. One of the biggest challenges is how to manage applications in the cloud. Given that the likely scenario for most enterprises is that they will need to rely upon both in-house and cloud applications, a related challenge is how to reconcile and integrate the two. No one wants two sets of disconnected application monitoring and management tools — one to mange internal apps, and one to manage apps in the cloud.
Maintaining Control
Managing applications is difficult no matter where they reside, and many enterprises have spent years and considerable amounts of money on tools and processes to establish effective and consistent monitoring and audit solutions. It’s understandable IT organizations do not want to lose this hard-won visibility and control as they move their applications into a cloud.
A cloud computing approach can enable enterprises to efficiently monitor and act upon the following –…