Cloud Computing Adoption Model unveiled by rPath

 

rPath Announces Cloud Computing Adoption Model
 
Company Offers Pragmatic, Five-Step Framework for Realizing Cloud Computing Benefits
 
RALEIGH, N.C. - October 15, 2008 - rPath today announced its Cloud Computing Adoption Model, which
defines a pragmatic, five-step approach for the graduated adoption of cloud computing. The Cloud
Computing Adoption Model will be rolled out on October 23, as part of an rPath webinar featuring
guests Amazon Web Services, Forrester Research and MomentumSI.
 
"These days, it seems like everything is being labeled cloud, from data centers to browsers," said
Billy Marshall, rPath founder and chief strategy officer. "We very much believe in the
transformational potential of cloud, but also realize that hype, platitudes and empty promises will
only stall mainstream adoption. We developed the Cloud Computing Adoption Model to provide a series
of pragmatic guidelines for the incremental adoption of the technologies that create the foundation
for cloud, while ensuring these investments yield a progressive series of returns."
 
According to Frank Gillett, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, in an
interview published by Beet.TV on September 26, 2008, "Cloud Computing is a very confusing
topic?all the marketers are getting out their cans of cloud spray and spraying ?cloud' on many of
their products and offerings?But then, underneath all that innovation, there are some true, real
new ideas?The impact is revolutionary in the long run, but all this hype in the short run is
overblown. We're going to baby-step our way into this like we do a lot of other technologies..."
 
A Pragmatic, Incremental Approach to Cloud Computing
 
Cloud computing holds real promise for enterprises and SMBs, as well as the ISVs and individual
developers serving them. Among other benefits, cloud computing can help organizations:


·        reduce capital and operating expenses by increasing infrastructure utilization and
reducing server sprawl;
·        reduce the cost of software consumption by allowing business lines to consume application
functionality on demand and to align cost with value received; and 
·        dramatically improve business agility and responsiveness by compressing deployment cycles
and time-to-value for application functionality. 
 
To help organizations realize the promise and avoid the perils of cloud computing, the Cloud
Computing Adoption Model provides a pragmatic, actionable, step-by-step framework for achieving
measurable benefits now, while laying the foundation for the strategic benefits of a cloud
infrastructure over time. The five levels of cloud computing adoption include:
 
·        Level 1: Virtualization. The first level of cloud adoption employs hypervisor-based
infrastructure and application virtualization technologies for seamless portability of applications
and shared server infrastructure.
·        Level 2: Cloud Experimentation. Virtualization is taken to a cloud model, either
internally or externally, based on controlled and bounded deployments utilizing Amazon Elastic
Compute Cloud (EC2) for compute capacity and as the reference architecture.
·        Level 3: Cloud Foundations. Governance, controls, procedures, policies, and best practices
begin to form around the development and deployment of cloud applications. Initially, level 3
efforts will focus on internal, non-mission critical applications.
·        Level 4: Cloud Advancement. Governance foundations allow organizations to scale up the
volume of cloud applications through broad-based deployments in the cloud.
·        Level 5: Cloud Actualization. Dynamic workload balancing across multiple utility clouds.
Applications are distributed based on cloud capacity, cost, proximity to user, and other criteria.
 
For each level, The Cloud Computing Adoption Model outlines strategic goals, investment
requirements, expected returns, risk factors, and readiness criteria for advancement.
The upcoming webinar, "The Pragmatist's Guide to Cloud Computing: A 5-Step Framework for Achieving
the Strategic Value of Cloud Computing While Delivering Real ROI Along the Way," will be held
Thursday, October 23, 2008, at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time/2:00 p.m. Eastern time. The webinar will
feature guest speakers Jeff Barr, senior Amazon Web Services evangelist; Frank Gillett, vice
president and principal analyst, Forrester Research; Jeff Schneider, CEO of MomentumSI; and Billy
Marshall, founder and chief strategy officer, rPath. All registrants will receive a complimentary
copy of "The rPath 5-Step Framework" along with the Forrester Research Paper, "Future View: The New
Tech Ecosystems of Cloud, Cloud Services and Cloud Computing." To register for the webinar, please
visit http://www.rpath.com/cloudwebinar.
For more information on rPath, please visit http://www.rpath.com. For Billy Marshall's perspective
on software innovation, please visit and subscribe to his RSS feed at
http://blogs.rpath.com/wpmu/bmarshall/.
 
Recent News and Resources
 
rPath Defines the Path for Cloud Computing Success;
http://www.rpath.com/corp/component/content/article/14-20...
 
SOASTA Leverages rPath's Technology to Ship Virtual and Hardware Appliances;
http://www.rpath.com/corp/news-and-events/252-09302008
 
rPath Enables VMware Ready Virtual Appliances;
http://www.rpath.com/corp/news-and-events/248-091608
 
rPath Launches New Technology to Accelerate Adoption of Cloud Computing via the Amazon Elastic
Compute Cloud; 
http://www.rpath.com/corp/news-and-events/238-09042008
 
About rPath
 
rPath is the pioneer and leader in technology for virtualizing software applications and managing
the complete lifecycle of virtual appliances and application images. ISVs and enterprises rely on
rBuilder and the rPath Lifecycle Management Platform to automate the creation, configuration,
conformance, management and maintenance of application images for virtualized and cloud computing
environments. By producing application images that are optimized for any hypervisor, rPath frees
the application from the underlying hardware, and enables a more efficient, lower cost model for
development, maintenance and support and dramatically accelerates application deployments. rPath's
end-to-end technology simplifies the entire range of lifecycle management activities for
application images, while promoting scalability in response to dynamic demand. rPath is
headquartered in Raleigh, NC. Visit www.rpath.com.
 
rPath is a registered trademark of rPath. All other brand names and product names are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective companies.
 
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