Soa Notes
Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited Case # 09-0743
Systems Engineering at MITRE
SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE (SOA) SERIES
Cloud Computing and SOA
Geoffrey Raines
Executive Summary
Cloud computing describes a broad movement toward the use of wide area networks (WANs), such as the Internet, to enable interaction between information technology (IT) service providers of many types and consumers. Service providers are expanding their offerings to include the entire traditional IT stack, ranging from foundational hardware and platforms to application components, software services, and whole software applications.
Considerations with cloud computing—Cloud computing brings with it a number of key benefits and risks that should be examined by any senior leadership team considering a realignment of their enterprise computing IT portfolio. These include:
• Outsourcing to cloud providers: Commercial cloud computing effectively outsources portions of the IT stack, ranging from hardware through to applications, to cloud providers. Cloud computing allows a consumer to benefit by incrementally leveraging a more significant capital investment made by a provider. The consumers also benefit significantly by being able to dynamically scale their demand of the cloud services. • Dependence on the network: Cloud computing is fundamentally dependent on the network to connect the offeror with the consumer. For those who have redundant network connections with robust bandwidth this will not be an issue, but for those who do not, serious consideration should be given concerning singular dependence on network-based offerings, and how business continues when the network is unavailable or unreliable. • Dependence on individual cloud providers (lock-in): Vendor lock-in is a risk with the current maturity of cloud computing. Vendor neutrality is often best achieved by utilizing industry or open standards, and these standards
are currently evolving for
Systems Engineering at MITRE
SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE (SOA) SERIES
Cloud Computing and SOA
Geoffrey Raines
Executive Summary
Cloud computing describes a broad movement toward the use of wide area networks (WANs), such as the Internet, to enable interaction between information technology (IT) service providers of many types and consumers. Service providers are expanding their offerings to include the entire traditional IT stack, ranging from foundational hardware and platforms to application components, software services, and whole software applications.
Considerations with cloud computing—Cloud computing brings with it a number of key benefits and risks that should be examined by any senior leadership team considering a realignment of their enterprise computing IT portfolio. These include:
• Outsourcing to cloud providers: Commercial cloud computing effectively outsources portions of the IT stack, ranging from hardware through to applications, to cloud providers. Cloud computing allows a consumer to benefit by incrementally leveraging a more significant capital investment made by a provider. The consumers also benefit significantly by being able to dynamically scale their demand of the cloud services. • Dependence on the network: Cloud computing is fundamentally dependent on the network to connect the offeror with the consumer. For those who have redundant network connections with robust bandwidth this will not be an issue, but for those who do not, serious consideration should be given concerning singular dependence on network-based offerings, and how business continues when the network is unavailable or unreliable. • Dependence on individual cloud providers (lock-in): Vendor lock-in is a risk with the current maturity of cloud computing. Vendor neutrality is often best achieved by utilizing industry or open standards, and these standards
are currently evolving for