Open Data Center Cloud Maturity Model OPEN DATA CENTER ALLIANCESM EXEC OVERVIEW:
Cloud Maturity Model The Open Data Center Alliance has identified the need for a Cloud Maturity Model (CMM), which enterprizes can apply in order to:
- Support the development of a balanced cloud strategy and roadmap in any enterprize
- Enable the understanding of the various dimensions that constitute cloud maturity, from the perspective of both the consumers and the provider of cloud services
- Enable the development of focused investment initiatives (i.e. a roadmap for their journey to Hybrid IT and cloud adoption), to move selected cloud capabilities/domains to target maturity levels in order to improve their effectiveness.
- Steer inputs and priorities relating to cloud service usage and adoption
- Leverage the ODCA and other usage models to identify characteristics and artifacts that enable an enterprize to increase their cloud maturity and service success through cloud service adoption
- Maximise their potential to achieve the expected benefits of Cloud, to an acceptable degree
The ODCA Cloud Maturity Model maps cloud maturity from two key perspectives: business capabilities in specific domains and technology capabilities in specific domains. It also maps maturity levels for the individual cloud service models such as: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, DBaaS, Platform Integration-as a Service and Information-as a Service amongst others.
The objective of the CMM is to help enterprizes build a custom roadmap towards establishing more effective Hybrid IT aligned to their specific needs and objectives.
By Hybrid IT, reference is made to the use of traditional internal IT systems and cloud environments with the participation of external partners and systems and services simultaneously, so as to enable the Enterprize overall. Hybrid IT considers the multiple involved layers of people, process and technology across the enterprize IT ecosystem in context of the differing operating models that each IT Service type and that the internal and external delivery models drive. The business domain capabilities addressed in the CMM provide a comprehensive view of the maturity model's stages through the lens of "business use of the cloud." This perspective includes a mix of cloud service models, cloud deployment models, and cloud domain capabilities across business categories. The technology domain capability perspective of the CMM provides a similar comprehensive view of an enterprize's cloud maturity, but does so through the lens of cloud and ICT technology. These perspectives on cloud maturity offer a way for each unique enterprize to plot its maturity in context of a number of Use Cases, enabling them to select the ones that best suits its business needs. Some enterprizes are organized (or targeted toward business models) where one or more of the cloud service models are of little value or produce an inverse total cost of ownership. These enterprizes can assess their maturity across the cloud service model that is applicable to their enterprize, without the added complexity of the service models that do not apply. NOTE1 : The CMM does not provide detailed solutions to enterprize adoption of Cloud / Hybrid IT – it provides a roadmap to adoption, pointing to potential gaps and possible frameworks and solutions to consider. NOTE 2: Treat Enterprize IT as a Service Provider, so as to gain consistency in CMM assessment results (as compared to internal IT being a Consumer) NOTE 3: Outcome Guides answer “What does the delivered result look like?” NOTE 4: The CMM Provides a portfolio of domains from which the user can select appropriate ones (not more than 8 to 12, of the large available range) to address the specific use cases critical to the user's enterprize. i.e. all domains may not be required, nor optimal for all enterprize's to pursue. . NOTE 5: Hybrid IT establishment represents a journey – it has to be taken as a set of defined steps, and does not necessarily include the whole enterprize at once.
In cases where an enterprize will use two or three cloud service models in combination, the model offers an opportunity to plot maturity across SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and Info-aaS, amongst others independently, in context of the specific technology and service approaches, the enterprize ability to use them, and the enterprize ability to operate a diverse set of IT platforms (i.e. Hybrid IT). The objective of the Maturity Model is to ensure and identify that the necessary elements to support the achievement of the expected cloud benefits are in place, and to help provide a roadmap in cases where the elements are missing. For example, if one is looking to achieve "speed", then a fair degree of automation and process integration need to be in place between the Consumer and Provider - the Maturity Model addresses these various areas directly. Some of the generally expected benefits arising from the use of a mature implementation/integration of cloud technology include: Increased Capability in certain domains - new features and functions for the business that don't have to be self-developed Efficiency - re-use of standard designs and solutions with co-ordinated development, operations and support Velocity - ability to change and deploy services in near-real time Flexibility - ability to scale and change services to align to dynamic business needs Quality - increased focus on standardized services, engineered, operated and supported consistently across the enterprize It is also important to note that there are significant differences between the enterprize types when using this Cloud Maturity Model. Consider Public and Private Enterprizes. The aim of the public sector is generally to serve their people, but private sector enterprizes are generally established with profit motive. Typically:
- Public Sector Enterprize’ objectives = to serve the citizens of the country, political gain, cost not an issue, looking for job creation (maximise society & social welfare).
- Private Sector Enterprize’ objectives = business gain, production cost/time improvement (maximise profit) Therefore benefits and objectives considered in the use of the cloud maturity model must take these into account.
The CMM identifies five levels of cloud maturity. It is not necessary for an enterprize to aspire to CMM Level 5 in all cases-different levels in the different domain capability areas may be quite acceptable and may meet that enterprize' requirements adequately. It is up to each enterprize to determine for itself where it wants to be, and what actions and enablers will take it there, per domain capability. In addition, a mix of legacy, private and hybrid clouds providing infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), or software as a service (SaaS) is quite acceptable. The same is true for IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. CMM 5 does NOT dictate pure public or SaaS-based systems. It describes a managed set of controls, processes, and systems to help to consistently manage cloud services in line with business priorities, with sustained and enterprize aligned processes. As an enterprize progresses through introspection in regard to the above, it is common to identify islands of excellence within the enterprize, in contrast to other areas that (may) have lower cloud maturity. This is normal and an indication of being at CMM 1 or 2. A consolidated, cohesive enterprize aligned cloud strategy will enable consistent measurement and rating of the whole enterprize. Legacy environments will not go away. They add value for many years and should not detract from an enterprize having a cohesive and effective cloud roadmap and strategy and strong cloud maturity achievement. Everything does NOT have to be on a federated cloud for an enterprize to be in the more mature rating levels. Having identified consistent frameworks and controls that enable selected business systems, according to a defined set of categorization, to be run according to a defined strategy in the cloud, representing the characteristics and artifacts identified in the CMM model, could also result in a high CMM rating.