The fourth stage of cloud development: What it consists of and how to reach it

The 4^th stage of cloud development:

What it consists of and how to reach it

The 4^th stage of cloud computing network development represents a key turning point for organizations that own their own private / public cloud. It is during this stage that many typically begin to start creating their own services and marketing them to others. Perhaps a cloud computing system starts off as an on premises business solution and over time, grows into a vast set of hardware resources. Keeping in line with the overall philosophy of cloud computing, which seeks to make continuous use of any and all available resources a majority of the time, at this critical juncture it becomes possible to start creating one's own customers. What's so incredible about the 4^th stage is that it represents a position whereupon a set of cloud computing resources actually begins to pay for itself, eventually producing a steady stream of profits if managed correctly. It's basically about outsourcing your growing resources to third party clients and using this as leverage for further expansion, if possible.

Classic examples of Stage 4 Clouds:

• Public Cloud Platforms
• Service Provider Clouds

Both of these examples demonstrate the level of sophistication and volume of resources that must be present to be considered stage 4. To even reach the 4^th stage in the first place requires quite a lot of ingenuity, goal setting, and technical expertise. The need for qualified, technical experts at this stage cannot be overstated; the level, degree and number of ongoing processes present at stage 4 greatly surpass those of the previous 3 stages.

Use of Chargebacks

Chargebacks are absolutely necessary at the 4^th stage of development and serve their purpose by allowing an organization to specifically determine how their resources are being used. What is a chargeback? It is a pricing system for resources that 'have been / are currently used' by those entities utilizing a cloud computing network. In other words it is yet another 'pay for use' system; designed to allow cloud users to only pay for what they actually use (also can eliminate the need for bulky monthly fees). However, at the 4^th stage of development, organizations will often use chargebacks to determine exactly how much of their potential resources are being used, as well as by whom. This allows them to make more accurate predictions concerning future decision making as well as potential hardware / software purchases / expansions.

Automation

The 4^th stage is also crucial in that it marks the appearance of more useful automation processes; particularly those associated with cloud environment management. Your ability to incorporate and rely on increasing levels of automation within your cloud infrastructure will mark the difference between complete and moderate success. Automated processes not only ensure proper function of specific elements in the cloud, they also absorb the management workload that simply could not be met by human hands. Just imagine trying to manage 10,000 virtual machines! In fact, without the aid of automated processes, running and maintaining a large cloud computing network would be virtually impossible. The amount of time, money, energy required to maintain a staff large enough to do the jobs of these automated machines would absorb all the profits brought in via services offered.

Starting Points

As with any other type of cloud tool or resource that you plan on integrating, all stage 4 elements should be first 'tested' on what you consider to be non-critical processes. In fact, any new elements added might be best tested by sticking them into an isolated section of the cloud and monitoring their activities over a significant amount of time, just to be sure. Once the compliance and adaptability of these new components have been justified, they can be slowly integrated into the rest of the cloud. The reason for the careful treading is due to the fact that more often than not, newly integrated components may incur much larger expenditures.
The power and flexibility of your network with regards to creating and running a higher number of virtual machines is actually linked to the amount of RAM available at any given time. This is increased by adding a great number of DIMM's and/or NIC's; what' you should be trying to avoid is any kind of bottleneck scenario whereupon resources are strained and/or limited. Think of it this way, you can cover more ground if you use a spray nozzle as opposed to a jet stream. Cloud computing isn't about providing concentrated services to a select few, but distributing all resources across the cloud as evenly as possible with regards to pricing and usage.

The 4^th stage represents a critical turning point for most organizations; it is a level of achievement that allows them to continuously finance their entire operation (if set up and managed properly, that is). Successfully navigating the potential pitfalls of the 4^th stage will be difficult, but if an organization can pull it off, the rewards will be spectacular.