Jason Cowie

We won't be that far into 2012 before most people's New Year's resolutions start to fall apart. That new running routine sounded great on January 1, but the reality is that getting up early to jog in the cold, dark dawn is no fun. And that diet? It's easy to maintain until doughnuts start showing up in the staff lunchroom or "happy hour" is reintroduced to build morale. For IT, though, the resolutions for 2012 cannot be so easily abandoned. In the coming year, many chief information officers have resolved to bring the private cloud to their enterprises. Their success, which will affect the overall success of their businesses, hinges on three tasks: getting clarity, getting specific, and getting buy-in.

The Many Misunderstandings Surrounding One Word: Cloud
For more than a year, it seems everyone has been talking about "the cloud," but what is understood by that term differs depending on whether the person saying it works in IT or sits in the corner office. It's time to get some clarity. If IT administrators are to fulfill their cloud resolutions in 2012, they need to make sure that the executives with whom they work understand this term.

Often, CIOs scoff when those outside of IT use the word "cloud." Many have heard it from end users who have a murky idea of its meaning, while others get asked to "deliver a cloud" with no further description of what that means. Sometimes, CIOs get this request when they are already providing private cloud functionality and on-demand, real-time infrastructure.

While the term "cloud" is in heavy circulation, there is still a wide chasm between what IT leaders and CEOs understand that word to mean. It's up to CIOs to clarify the term for their peers and superiors throughout the business. They should have some experience with this task. With the introduction of x86 server virtualization several years ago, IT teams had to sell organizational leaders on its benefits. Virtualization was on the IT must-have list back then and came with a significant capital expenditure investment that required support from the CEO and chief financial officer. To get sign-off on that first step toward the private cloud, IT leaders had to demonstrate to their bosses that virtualization meant increased flexibility with a reduction in infrastructure costs. This should be part of the definition IT provides for private clouds. Clarifying discussions should focus not on the pure technology aspects of deployment, but on the strategic benefit the cloud offers in terms of lowering costs, improving service and delivering an edge in competitive markets.

IT Leaders Get Specific About What They Need to Succeed
The job of building the private cloud might land on the CIO's desk, but he can't complete it alone. This is an initiative that requires people and processes, as well as technology. In order to deploy true private clouds, enterprises need to re-engineer their processes, align their business goals with IT objectives, and put the right people in critical roles. First, though, CIOs need to understand where their organizations are and where they hope to go. Most likely, process improvement, agility and operational efficiency are important goals for the business teams, too.

With that in mind, CIOs can document what they need to best operationalize the cloud for the specific needs of their organizations. This is the information IT leaders need to take to their CEOs and CFOs.

It's also crucial for CIOs to outline what a private cloud is, what components they currently have, and what their private cloud should include. )To fulfill this resolution, IT needs to bring in components including self-service management and provisioning, service catalogs, and showback and IT chargeback. Automation and management should also be part of IT's plans, so businesses get the full benefit of improved service delivery, resource optimization and operational efficiency the cloud promises.

There is also an opportunity to pinpoint how and where a private cloud deployment will occur. In some organizations, starting with a pilot test is the best way for a CIO to pursue the final goal of a company-wide deployment. By selecting one department for initial cloud process initiatives, IT gains a chance to demonstrate value, counter arguments against the cloud and win over doubters. Workloads such as development, quality assurance or testing can be good candidates for these pilot tests.

How to Get the Buy-In of Business Leaders
Deploying a private cloud is a difficult resolution since it requires the buy-in of executives beyond IT. How can CIOs win over their business-focused counterparts? They should start by focusing on what matters most to CEOs and CFOs: demonstrable, quantifiable returns.

This is a good time for IT administrators to raise the issue of the showback and costing models possible via the private cloud. Private cloud deployments help companies monitor and curb consumption for IT resources, leading to more accountability over infrastructure investments (both capital and operational expenses) and ultimately a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). CIOs can make these business paybacks clear by bringing in supported, unbiased, third-party data from media, analysts and vendors.

Business executives will also ask questions about the timeline for return on cloud investments. In response, CIOs can introduce solutions that deliver critical private cloud computing competencies and real-time infrastructure-as-a-service quickly and effectively. One cautionary note on this: CIOs need to be transparent about long-term needs for automation and management. Getting buy-in is important, but not if it comes at the expense of support for long-term goals.

A Resolution That Rewards Business and IT
When both business and IT teams understand the value of the private cloud, their leaders are more likely to resolve together to accomplish this strategic goal in 2012. Reaching that combined effort requires clarity, specificity and buy-in from all parties. With those elements in place, deploying cloud competencies might be far easier than resolving to bypass junk food or stick to a fitness routine.