Cloud computing is the sourcing of a computing capability – hardware, software, or even execution of a business process – somewhere “out there,” in a computing cloud created wherever vast information resources are linked together.

Users don’t know or care where the capability comes from, or how the computing capability is put together. What users do care about is the capacity of cloud computing to introduce significant new levels of scalability and flexibility. This includes:

• Lower infrastructure, maintenance and energy costs;
• Capacity when you need it, with the ability to handle unexpected load changes; 
• Accelerated speed to market, including faster pilots; and 
• High-powered computing, including infinite computing capacity on demand.
  

Cloud computing sounds good on paper. More and more enterprises have or are planning to migrate to the cloud due to the benefits and the seeming ease in getting there. Yet, prior to taking the leap, every enterprise needs to answer a series of critical questions. Chicago-based Accenture Technology Labs developed what it calls the Cloud Computing Accelerator to help organizations answer these questions quickly via a defined process using proprietary tools to accelerate an organization’s first cloud pilot.  

The Attraction of the Cloud
Cloud computing is an integrated sequence of services, accessible from anywhere, that turns computing from a fixed cost into a variable one by providing on-demand computational capacity or application services from remote locations using a global network. It essentially delivers IT capability “as a service,” allowing users to access vast technology resources via the Internet. This service remains available at all times, adjusting resource usage automatically, so companies pay only for what they use.

The Accenture Cloud Computing Accelerator helps enterprises explore the potential power of cloud computing from assessment through pilot. Many organizations have heard about cloud computing and are intrigued by its possibilities, but don’t know where to begin. Most would like to pursue a structured process of experimentation, while avoiding the obvious pitfalls of going too fast and stumbling, or going too slow and falling behind.  

The Accelerator helps by formulating answers to the following questions:

• What business applications can be migrated to the cloud?
• Is the existing applications infrastructure ready to make the move?
• Which migrations will most benefit the enterprise?
• What are the risks and opportunities of cloud computing?
• Can cost savings be realized quickly?
• How do you get started?
  

Accenture’s deployment strategy modeling will help identify cloud-ready enterprise applications and pilot a candidate application with one or more cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft’s Azure service.

Several categories of cloud computing exist, from hardware clouds to software and desktop clouds. The Accelerator focuses on the infrastructure clouds, platform clouds and application clouds.

A Closer Look
Cloud computing is a flexible alternative to an enterprise’s current IT capability, delivering such tangible benefits as:

• Cost reduction – With lower infrastructure, energy and maintenance costs, cloud computing removes significant near term IT infrastructure costs. With no hardware acquisition, the total cost of ownership is reduced.
• Elasticity and scalability – Cloud computing provides on-demand capacity and business agility, including infinite computing capacity when needed. 
• Speed to market – Cloud computing allows enterprises to launch projects earlier and succeed (or fail) faster, with lower risk. It also makes it easier for a successful pilot to scale up services.
  

With virtually every organization today concerned about economic conditions, businesses are searching to preserve capital. Cloud computing enables them to take advantage of important IT trends, including hardware commoditization, failing costs for network bandwidth, the virtualization of servers, and the economies of scale that are a dominant feature of globalization.

A Case Study
A public-sector enterprise has a small but highly visible application scheduled to go live soon. The organization anticipates high traffic, but funding is limited.

Cloud computing offers an appealing alternative. With no upfront hardware costs, the company can quickly stand up the short-duration application and then scale it down (or tear it down) after the peak season. In contrast to a rigid infrastructure configuration, it can use cloud computing to manage capacity in a cost-conscious way by automatically shrinking and expanding resource pools as needed.

The enterprise needs to quantify the value of cloud computing against a traditional data center alternative. Team members work to answer a battery of questions: Is cloud computing viable from a business, technical and security perspective? Given the business objective of cost avoidance, is this application the best fit?

Once it is determined that cloud computing is a viable approach, the business needs to quantify the cost reductions with a chosen cloud provider. Lastly, the organization needs to shape an infrastructure deployment strategy and schedule that will estimate the total cost of migration.

How the Accelerator Works
As for the Accenture Cloud Computing Accelerator, it can take an enterprise from a standing start to a full-scale pilot in a month or less by working through the following defined phases:

• Discovery – In phase one, those applications that could benefit by running on the cloud are identified. Business goals and IT strategy are determined, a search conducted for underutilized assets, and pilot opportunities prioritized. The work in this phase can proceed more rapidly if the organization has typical industry applications or if it knows the applications it is interested in piloting. Due to the intrinsic advantages of cloud computing, the discovery process moves quickly regardless of where the specific opportunities lie.
• Assessment – During phase two, application readiness is prioritized and detailed maps created for migration opportunities. A quantitative assessment of the enterprise’s options are conducted, results reviewed, migration strategy for the highest value applications defined, and an implementation roadmap built. 
• Workshop pilot – In the final phase, Accenture works with its client to conduct a workshop pilot that will prove out a functional cloud to management, and then build an implementation plan.
  

In the future, more and more high-performance businesses will choose to tap into a global computing cloud for suitable hardware, software or desktop computing capabilities. The benefits notwithstanding, there will be some challenges. A structured exploration of the potential of cloud computing will assure that an organization does not move too fast and stumble, or go too slow and lag behind.