Cloudy with a chance of services

By Kobi Korsah

As I sat down to write this there was already a lot of cloud noise in the media. I noted with considerable interest that much coverage on the subject had even appeared as editorial in several respected non-IT publications over the last nine months. The fact is the world is keenly watching what would appear to be a seismic technology shift; probably as important as the day Karl Benz first attached an internal combustion engine to the chassis of a horse cart to create the first car. Benz’ insight provides a great example of how the inspired coupling of existing technologies has greatly enhanced life.

The almost accidental advantage that combining mature technologies often brings is a powerful catalyst both for market creation and for business acceleration; and it continues to enhance the fortunes of modern day businesses such as Apple Computer with its iconic iPod and subsequent market shaping initiatives. But what does all this have to do with cloud computing, and more importantly financial services?

It’s life but not as we know it…

Most components of the cloud predate it; and the provision of finance IT services is heavily influenced by these developments. In addition, infrastructure and applications are often sourced from disparate organizations to complete a service with non-core capabilities such as credit checking. To keep business running smoothly, IT rightly places a tremendous amount of value on gathering and aggregating information on all underlying network and hardware throughput, and on monitoring availability and performance of revenue generating applications. However, what senior management tell us they are interested in is assuring service quality to ensure positive business outcomes; such as winning new business as a direct result of improvements in transaction speed. But further complexity is on the way.

After a period of scepticism, some rather large financial institutions are seriously examining the merits of cloud for selected services. In fact there are reports that the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model is already being used to acquire additional computing power, when needed, to manage delicate high-value trading operations. This could be the case for a variety of sophisticated transactions in your complex operations. Many of which may require extra CPU capacity to reliably deliver instantaneous analysis for rapid decision-making about varying potential outcomes. Any latency in such a case could cause a missed step in a series of transactions, which could cost millions and potentially damage reputations and even result in compliance challenges.

It’s all about your services

One third of Europe's online population access banking services and mobile banking, which will reach one billion people by 2015. As more sophisticated services, channels, and delivery models proliferate; business services, cloudy or not, must be seamlessly delivered. Forecasts for the future of IT appear to be “cloudy with a chance of services” so the quest for clarity on cloud-derived service management is understandable. Cloud computing with its various derivatives and models presents a number of challenges. For example who will be in charge of and accountable for which bits of the evolved service model?

Your business relies on the help of IT to achieve positive business outcomes, which puts the onus squarely upon IT to ensure that customer experiences are consistently good. This requires that revenue generating applications and IT infrastructure are highly available and perform, regardless of the degree to which they utilise external resources. As a result, any service providers you engage must have a framework for agreeing and guaranteeing acceptable levels of service so you can focus on enabling your business. In the near to medium term a sliding scale of shared responsibilities is the likely outcome. Ultimate responsibility for the quality of your services still lies with you; but having diligently assured infrastructure and applications for years a large piece of the solution to your service assured future is probably closer to home than you might think.

Biography

Kobi Korsah is Product Marketing Director at CA, with EMEA responsibility for the company’s Service Assurance portfolio; driving adoption and market development for application and infrastructure performance management solutions. His 15 years of product marketing experience is underpinned by a passion for ideas and methods for sustainable business advantage.