Policy-Based Optimization Critical to Private Cloud Success: Why Risk it Otherwise?

By Allison Boccamazzo, TMCnet Web Editor

Last week in “Private Cloud Usage Accounting: Don’t Bite (News - Alert) Off More than You Can Chew!”, we discussed the topic of usage accounting as a best practice for private cloud implementation as originally presented by Adaptive Computing CEO Rob Clyde. Now, we’re continuing this discussion by diving head first into the important pool of policy-based optimization, and how it’s truly a critical asset for IT and business continuity overall.

Think about it; in this day and age reflective of this frigid economy, the words “job loss” could (and should) make everyone shutter. This is exactly what you’re risking, however, if you don’t consider policy-based optimization when embarking upon a private cloud project, says Clyde in this part 2 series.

While most systems allocate virtual machines on the first hypervisor available and leave it at that, this will eventually prove deceiving, as it will break down over time. “No IT system is static, and private clouds are no exception,” Clyde says. “Users are constantly starting and stopping services. The services themselves go through periods of high and low loads, and the hardware environment is always changing: machines fail while new machines are added and others are decommissioned. A simple one-time allocation simply cannot cope with this real-world dynamic environment.”

Image via Shutterstock

This is where policy-based optimization becomes a key to success. While the “optimization” part works to review the private cloud environment and look for ways to further optimize it, the “policy” layer works to cover and define all of the policies that describe how your private cloud should operate, Clyde explains. For example, some things this takes into account are:

• Available compute, storage, and network resources
• Workload demands
• Server health status
• Security constraints
• Maintenance reservations
• Special hardware or software requirements
• Licensing needs

This becomes especially important for IT staff, which may have been tirelessly struggling o keep up with all of these requirements and policies. Finally, they can rest their heads and count some sheep, as policy-based optimization works to handle this in an efficient and easy manner. Don’t believe me? “Policy-based optimizers automatically enforce your policies, even when you’re sleeping,” Clyde confirms.

Take Adaptive’s signature Moab Cloud Suite, which can utilize thin provisioning and over-commit resources while maintaining service-level agreements (SLAs), which “can reduce the total amount of hardware required by another factor of two or more,” Clyde says.

So in a nutshell, without policy-based optimization, your private cloud has no choice but to rely on a more unreliable, error-prone, manual intervention in order to try and continue smooth operations. In today’s age of constant technological enhancements and evolutions, policy-based optimization fits right in to eliminate what were once unavoidable industry standards of repetitive processes and tedious automation.

“Implementing a private cloud without a policy-based optimizer is costly, error-prone, and wastes resources,” Clyde concludes. It’s vital to take the necessary steps to achieve a fully optimized and successfully running private cloud, so do yourself a favor and avoid taking the risk altogether.

To learn more about Adaptive Computing’s renowned cloud management end-to-end platform – that also provides touchless cloud service optimization – click here.

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