Good cloud ops needs good cloud metrics

25.08.2015
People who operate clouds -- you can call yourselves "cloud ops" -- understand that the work is harder than you were originally told. There are many systems and subsystems to consider, including storage, database, and application layers.

Furthermore, today's reality is not the single-cloud deployments originally envisioned. Complex hybrid clouds and multiclouds are more prevalent these days than single clouds. Indeed, you could have as many as a dozen clouds under management.

If you're charged with cloud ops, you need to learn how to place a layer of technology between yourself and complex cloud services -- and learn fast.

Core to this goal is the gathering of cloud metrics, such as performance and transaction data, as they occur. This information is valuable for several reasons:

Cloud ops is gaining more importance as enterprises depend more on public and private clouds. However, not much has emerged around best practices and best tools in this area. Thus, most people charged with operating clouds have had to feel their way in the dark these last few years. That needs to change.

It's time we start thinking about what cloud metrics mean for quality cloud operations. At a very basic level, that means uptime. Cloud ops need to exceed traditional on premises operational practices in terms of uptime. Although the IT focus will be on operational metrics, the business will measure the value of the cloud by the number of service disruptions.

From both the IT and business perspectives, the objectives are to prevent bad things from happening and to promote continuous operations of cloud systems. The effective use of cloud metrics can help you reach these goals.

(www.infoworld.com)

David Linthicum

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