通往私有云的荆棘路连载 – 第三部分: 准备好了么？

 

The bumpy road to private clouds – Part III, Are you ready? Probably Not

通往私有云的荆棘路 – 第三部分 : 准备好了么？也许未必

Forrester Research estimates that only 5% of corporate IT shops are really ready to offer private cloud service. A recent Forrester report by analyst James Staten says that your IT operation is "cloud-ready" if:

• You have standardized procedures for the deployment, configuration and management of virtual machines.
• You have turned over the deployment and management of virtual machines to automated tools.
• You provide self-service access for end users.
• Your business units are ready to share the same infrastructure.

根据 Forrester 调查公司的评估结果，大概 5% 公司的 IT 部门可以认为是真正的“准备好了”提供私有云服务。最近的 Forrester 报告指出，如果你的 IT 具备了一下特征，就可以认为“准备好了”：

• 具有虚拟机部署、配置和管理的标准流程
• 已经采用自动化的工具去部署和管理虚拟机
• 具备针对最终用户的自助式服务
• 业务部门已经准备好了接受以共享形式存在的基础架构

Before moving toward private clouds, IT shops must become even more efficient at server virtualization. Most IT departments lack consistent procedures for tracking the deployment, usage and ownership of virtual machines; that leads to "virtual machine sprawl," which will cancel out the economic savings of a private cloud, Forrester says.

Forrester 的调查指出，一个通往私有云的先决条件是 IT 提供的“服务器虚拟化 (server virtualization.) ”服务必须变得更加高效。大多数 IT 部门缺少持续的流程去跟踪虚拟机的部署、使用率和所有者情况，这将引起虚拟机无序蔓延 (Virutal Machine Sprawl) ，最终将导致原先通过私有云节省开支的计划落空。

IT shops also need to learn to manage the entire pool of virtualized servers rather than single virtual machines or workloads, the report adds.

Forrester 的调查还指出，如何做好从单一虚拟机 (Single Virtual Machine) 一个虚拟资源池（ Virtualized Server Pool ）管理的转换，是另外一个重要条件。

Once your virtualization house is in order, Forrester suggests the following steps to get started with a private cloud:

• Begin with noncritical workloads to show that it works.
• If a business unit is willing to invest in cloud computing, set up a brand-new cloud environment just for them.
• Get executive support -- actually, a mandate -- so that business units will share the pool of virtual resources.
• Show the benefits, such as dramatically faster deployment and lower costs.
• Embrace public clouds that can supplement your internal cloud

Forrester 的之后指出，当你企业的虚拟化成熟度提高后， 你可以根据以下步骤开始你的私有云建设

• 从非关键业务开始，目的是为了验证私有云的可行性
• 如果某一业务部门认为私有云值得投资，为他们搭建一个全新的专属环境
• 得到最高执行层的支持——实际上是必须的——这样业务部门才能愿意去共享资源
• 展示带来的好处，比方说部署速度的显著提升运维费用的降低
• 不要排斥共有云，试着让他们成为你私有云的组成部分

In a traditional data center setup, "every time you add a server, somebody has to walk to a firewall console, set up firewall rules, attach the server to a VLAN, set up load balancing" and do many other tasks, explains Jeff Deacon, cloud computing principal at Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications Inc. that provides managed services. But a private cloud needs little human intervention other than bringing in new computers or storage to keep up with demand. In a cloud environment, there is one console that lets operators set parameters to automate the entire process, rather than requiring IT personnel to log into different consoles for security, networking and server operating system functions.

Verizon 通讯公司（ Verizon Communications Inc ）的云计算首席工程师指出，在一个传统的数据中心的建设过程中，“每次你增加一个服务器，你必须指定人手去配置防火墙、设置安全规则、把服务器加到某个 VLAN 和设置负载平衡等相关任务”。这样才能够提供“可被管理的服务”。但是在一个私有云系统里面将减少这些人工的投入。因为它不再需要人们登录到不同的控制台去实现不同的操作，而是只需要登录一个地方，设置相关参数，然后通过自动化流程即可完成所有的配置。

Another big difference between private clouds and traditional data centers involves IT processes, which probably need to be revamped for a private cloud. Today, for example, to provide computing resources, IT organizations typically have to get budget approvals, discuss the implications with storage, network and server groups, and fill out tons of paperwork. This type of process is in stark contrast to the streamlined, short-duration provisioning done in clouds. The time-to-provision may go from weeks in the traditional data center to minutes in a cloud.

传统数据中心和私有云的另外一个很大的不同是 IT 流程，这些流程也许会因为私有云而改头换面。举个例子，在当前模式下，如果一个 IT 需要提供新的运算能力，基本上他需要先得到预算的批准，需要讨论具体的实施细节，比如存储、网络和服务器群等各个方面，将会需要大量的文档工作。这种僵化的运作方式将在私有云系统中变成更为流畅和高效。从准备到最终提供的时间将会从传统的数周时间变成为数分钟时间。

The systems running older applications may need an overhaul too, if they're based on mainframes and proprietary Unix platforms. Most virtualized environments, including private clouds, are geared to run on x86-based systems. Also, in a virtualized environment, you generally don't know exactly where an application is running at any given time. Because most legacy applications are tied to a specific platform, running them in a private cloud will often require re-architecting them.

同样的，那些运行着基于主流的 Unix 平台上老程序也将面临重新设计。大部分虚拟化环境，包括私有云系统，都和基于 X86 的系统结合紧密，而在一个虚拟化环境里，你通常不知道在某一时刻你的程序是运行在哪里。所以你要将这些遗留的老程序运行在私有云环境里的时候，通常要进行重新设计。（译者注：这一段的论述似乎比较模糊和片面，不知道作者为什么要把 Unix 平台拿出来说，似乎在现有的虚拟环境里，运行一些基于原有 Unix 的程序应该不会出什么问题。）

Divorcing applications from the hardware is a hallmark of clouds, including private clouds. In a traditional data center, you might have 10 servers running billing applications, and five other servers running customer data apps. But with a private cloud, it's not known ahead of time which servers will run which specific applications. The applications run on whichever servers have free cycles at the time the apps need to run.

程序和硬件剥离程度是云计算，包括私有云的一个核心标志之一。在传统的数据中心，你也许需要 10 台服务器运行你的结算系统，而需要另外 5 台服务器运行客户数据程序。但是在一个私有云里，你无法知道那台服务器用来运行那个特定的系统。程序运行在那台服务器上将由程序的按需运行的周期决定。

Private clouds involve two groups of people: the IT operations staff and the business users who want to run applications. A private cloud gives business users the opportunity to quickly provision a server and run an application when they want to, without human intervention.

私有云面对着两种人群： IT 管理人员和需要运行程序的业务用户。一个私有云将提供业务用户新的体验，那就是不需要任何人工干预，它可以获得一个服务器并把程序运行在之上。

The IT operations staffers have to make sure that sufficient resources are available for the type of on-demand computing that business users have heard is available with public clouds, and that usually means that the wait for user-requested resources is minutes, not days. Anything short of this, and end users won't be happy.

从 IT 管理人员来说，面对这种按需提取计算的方式，它需要保证背后有充足的资源支持，就像用户在公共云上获得的一样。而且通常来说，这种获得资源的时间是以分钟而不是以天为单位。如果无法达到这种短时间的标准，用户将不会对服务感到满意。