Project Managers Need to Think About Cloud Computing

Whether software development or infrastructure, the approach in which cloud computing projects are delivered is different enough to require a slightly different come up to project management. So while the same essentials subsist on cloud computing projects as any other, the succession that they need to be done in is a bit chaotic up, the spotlight is higher on some areas than customary and supplementary risks present themselves. The instantaneous accessibility of computing resources solves some tribulations, such as the dependencies on procurement and provisioning of assets, but replaced with far more authorized and contractual issues that need to be managed in advance on as some sticking points may get in the way.

Dealing with New Risks

With any new set of technologies and concepts new risks materialize. The leading risks to cloud computing projects may be non technical and may result from a superior stakeholder reading a sensationalized chronicle about data loss in the cloud and, fearing litigation or brand negativity, wants to shift the new cloud computing initiative on premise. Other risks include harms that result from purveyor/vendor platform and utensil immaturity, availability of skills, increased engineering expenditure, inability to satisfy certain chuck (such as latency), obedience issues and a whole host of other tribulations waiting to ambush the unsuspecting project manager.

Moving Activities Upstream

The on stipulate availability of assets presents fascinating opportunities to budge tricks, which have habitually been downstream activities, to be moved forward. Testing on a ‘production platform’, security, billing and operational handover, which should be moved forward, imitate the areas of spotlight on cloud computing projects that are either glossed over or taken for approved on traditional projects. Plainly security and regulatory concerns that would normally be preoccupied in the incumbent datacenters credentials will have to be dealt with in fact, both technically as well as the management of perceptions in the region of them. The project manager will need to fritter a lot of time allaying suspicions, proving the key and generally providing assurance and answers where few subsist.

Cloud Computing Projects Will Be Different

While purveyor will go to great lengths to notify us how household cloud computing is to their vacant offerings, things are different and, in many belongings, significantly singular. While project managers are outfitted with the broad-spectrum skills to manage a cloud computing project, most project managers would not have deliberation about cloud computing in ample detail to foresee what needs to be made on the project and will manage it as he or she would manage any other project until it all falls separately. There is a need and a prospect in the cloud computing world for project managers who at least have a conceptual perceptive of the issues.

Advances in Cloud Computing In the Past Two Years

The dizzying speed at which technology can move often leaves the casual observer baffled. One day something is space-age, think gesture controlled games consoles and TVs, the next it ‘comes as standard’. Cloud computing is now such a well-established technology that when Apple, Microsoft and Amazon talk about “keeping it in the cloud”, most techno-fans know exactly what they are talking about.

While indeed well-established, the bounds of advancement in all aspects of cloud computing and cloud solutions means that the whole concept can feel brand new. Though some are generally comfortable entrusting their media library to the Apple iCloud, there are many who shudder at not having their data on hardware they can hold in their hands, or on servers that they own.

Until recently there was some good reason for this; at the inaugural International Conference on Cloud Computing, held in Lisbon, Portugal in 2010, one concern that was repeatedly raised was that there was no security standard for cloud computing. While this didn’t necessarily leave data at risk, it was incredibly difficult to claim that security was anywhere close to 100% tight.

As well as security advancements, the last two years have seen a push towards cleaner inter-operability, with the Open Cloud Consortium (OCC) taking that very concept as their main remit. To try and keep pace with the evolving technology, both Europe and the United States have sought reassurances that cloud operators adhere to existing laws surrounding personal data with the United States even going so far as to instruct the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) to assess and provide authorisation to cloud providers.

Perhaps the most significant advancement in recent years has been the move towards ‘greener’ cloud solutions. Vastly increasing cloud usage has led to data centres becoming one of the largest electricity consumers in the developed world and so providers are keen to use methods such as ‘free cooling’ (where natural cooling is provided by wind or surroundings) and intelligent power allocation to cut down on costs but also cut down on carbon emissions.

There is little doubt, within the industry or without, that cloud computing provides a model for the way we store data in the future and has been a long-held ambition for many,with one industry insider pointing out that “you may not have to manage your own storage. You may not store much before too long.” Who said that? Steve Jobs. When? 1996

-by Telehouse

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fifikins/4194888231/