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To the Cloud: Cloud Powering an Enterprise [Hardcover]

Arora , Biyani , Salil Dave
2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Book Description

1 April 2012 007179221X 978-0071792219

The Why, What, and How of enterprise cloud adoption--a clear framework and proven best practices from Microsoft's own experience

"Great book. What's particularly impressive is the outline of steps Microsoft itself is taking in its move to the cloud. Do as I do is always more powerful than do as I say." -- Al Ries, Co-author, War in the Boardroom

"This book takes on enterprise cloud adoption to a level I've not seen before--made even more elegant with its structured framework and crisp approach." -- Anthony D. Christie, CMO, Level 3 Communications, Former CTO/CIO, Global Crossing

"A practical and timely guide that covers the entire journey to the cloud from an enterprise perspective including business, technology, and organizational impact." -- Bart Luijten, CIO Corporate Functions & Corporate Technology, Philips

"To the Cloud is recommended reading for any CXO who wants to understand the cloud--what it means, what it can do for their business, and more importantly, how to implement it in their organization. The authors have done an excellent job clearly explaining a complex topic, which will surely help this book's readers readily embrace the many benefits the cloud can provide." -- Jean-Philippe Courtois, President, Microsoft International

"The cloud powers business solutions for building tomorrow's enterprise and this book offers a simple, well-structured, and high-level process map for cloud adoption."-- Kris Gopalakrishnan, Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys Limited

"To the Cloud is a boon for CEOs evaluating the information technology needs of an organization. The easy-to-understand tone, tables, charts, and visuals allows non-techies to grasp concepts and decide how the cloud can benefit an organization--going a long way in helping a CEO decipher the language of the CIO!" -- Rajesh Dalal, Former CEO, Johnson & Johnson Medical India

"To the Cloud is a practical and timely primer, clarifying the concepts and many paths to the cloud. The cloud will elevate IT to a new plane--one which is transformational and plug-and-play--and the authors paint a vision of how it can help realize long-elusive IT productivity gains. Simply put, To the Cloud brings cloud computing down to earth." -- Ravi Kastia, Global Head, Aditya Birla Group

Cloud computing is full of tremendous opportunity, but is also riddled with hype and confusion. Business and technology leaders know the cloud is essential, but they lack clarity and experience. To the Cloud cuts through the noise and addresses the Why, What, and How of enterprise cloud adoption. This unique guide lays out a four-step framework, leveraging the experience and best practices of Microsoft’s own IT group. The book delivers end-to-end business and technology guidance, describing how to analyze application portfolios to identify good cloud candidates, choose the right cloud models, consider architecture and security, and understand how shifting operations to the cloud affects budgeting and staffing.

Applicable to all cloud platforms and providers, this practical resource debunks myths, revealing that real clouds are more than just web hosting, virtualization, or the Internet itself rebranded. It takes a balanced approach, addressing concerns and hybrid adoption scenarios alike. Based on the authors’ proven expertise working for Microsoft’s CIO on cloud migration and with cloud platform development teams, the book is supported by clear frameworks, graphics, tables, summaries, and checklists to provide a true practitioner’s guide to the cloud.

To the Cloud helps you:

  • Explore cloud computing to understand its promise and challenges
  • Envision how cloud computing can transform your organization
  • Enable your organization with the necessary resources and skills
  • Execute the design, development, and operation of cloud workloads

To the Cloud is essential for IT professionals seeking to lower total cost of ownership, improve the return on IT investment of existing services, and help the business bring new products to market more quickly.


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Product details

  • Hardcover: 146 pages
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne (1 April 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 007179221X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0071792219
  • Product Dimensions: 15.7 x 1 x 23.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,061,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Product Description

About the Author

Pankaj Arora is a Senior Manager in the Microsoft IT Global Strategic Initiatives team. A thought leader on cloud computing, he has been integral in developing the enterprise business case for Microsoft IT, defining the internal cloud adoption strategy, and partnering with the Windows Azure team on platform readiness and competitive analysis. Pankaj was the technical lead for the first migration of a Microsoft IT application to Azure, and he also launched an initiative to move critical assets to the cloud.

Raj Biyani is the Managing Director for Microsoft IT (India) and the Global Strategic Initiatives organization. Microsoft IT (India) is Microsoft’s largest IT operation outside of corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Raj has demonstrated an ability to see opportunities early and generate executive support for initiatives to capitalize on those opportunities. Prior to joining Microsoft IT, he led the envisioning and successful creation of the Windows Marketplace, an electronic software delivery platform for Microsoft.

Salil Dave is a Senior Director in the Microsoft IT Global Strategic Initiatives team. In his 25-year career, he has covered a range of industries and roles, including a decade at Microsoft, 6 years at supply chain software pioneer i2 Technologies, and 5 years at the Indian Revenue Service. Salil has a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and an MPA from Harvard University.


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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
I found this a rather disappointing and superficial book with a very Microsoft oriented viewpoint on the cloud.

The authors are all senior Microsoft staff and have been intimately involved in Microsoft's move to the cloud. Microsoft's have some very good services and offerings, but I think the authors should have covered more of the alternatives to Microsoft such as Amazon and Salesforce (which is barely mentioned).

The book has a good structure and is well laid out. There are four main sections with useful summaries at the end of each section:

Explore - gives a good introduction to the cloud and the terms such as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, public cloud, private cloud, etc.

Envision - discusses developing the vision and business case. There are two pages on cost/benefit analysis including the shift from CapEx to OpEx and areas of potential savings. However they don't mention some of the pitfalls to look out for, such as the need for careful analysis of per user per month changing models.

Enable - talks about how to select the approach that is right for your organisation, choosing the right partners and the training and policies needed. They point to the cloud as an enabler in moving to more Agile approaches to development and the introduction of the DevOps model. The section has some useful checklists and guides, on security and compliance for example.

Execute - gives guidance about what to consider in moving your own applications to the cloud, including the impact on Enterprise Architecture, the implications on network bandwidth and design issues such as automatic scaling.

This book is of most use if you are looking for an introduction to the cloud, but falls down in lack of detail.
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Amazon.com: 4.5 out of 5 stars  10 reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Crisp Introduction to Cloud 14 Feb 2012
By Sharad Gupta - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This is a good book for anyone in the IT leadership role considering to learn more crisply about what cloud has to offer and how to go about adopting it. The book is rather small with four main chapters and can be read in a few settings. The book proposes a four-step cloud adoption model or a framework that is comprised of the following steps - Explore, Envision, Enable, and Execute. The framework is pragmatic and it incorporates key learning from real projects. This book cites many examples of how Microsoft migrated many of their IT applications to Microsoft Azure, but the learning, the issues, and the framework are generic and applicable to any cloud platform.

Here is a quick summary of the main chapters:

The first chapter describes the Explore step of the adoption model. This step is about understanding the cloud and its variations (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and more) as well as its value proposition from a business perspective.

The second chapter describes the Envision step of the adoption model where the focus is on recognizing the change and the opportunities it brings up. Cloud adoption has many key considerations, such as security and availability, that will continue playing major roles in how fast and which applications are migrated to cloud.

The third chapter describes the Enable step of the adoption model where the focus shifts on organizational readiness aspects, such as defining an adoption approach based on a given organizational context, selection of potential cloud providers, and upgrading the organizational capabilities (people, process, tools) to enable the cloud adoption.

The fourth chapter describes the Execute step of the adoption model where implementation aspects are covered. Cloud enablement and migration of applications has major impact on how applications are architected, designed, secured, deployed, and operated in the cloud.

Overall, this is a book that ties the business and the technical aspects of cloud computing nicely and provides a pragmatic framework. I would have liked a little more meaty coverage of some topics, but I understand that the primary audience of this book may be senior business and IT leaders. If you fit in those categories or need a good overview of cloud adoption, this book would be a worthwhile read.

(Disclosure: I received a free advance copy in exchange for writing a review of the book.)
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent intro to cloud computing 1 Feb 2012
By Ben Rothke - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
A recent search on Amazon showed an amazing 1,460 titles on cloud computing. It is no secret that cloud computing is a technology that has arrived.

But with all the excitement around cloud computing, it is difficult to filter through the hype. For those looking to get a clear understanding of this monstrosity called cloud computing, To the Cloud: Cloud Powering an Enterprise provides the reader with a detailed overview of what cloud computing is, and what it is not.

While the book is authored by 3 technical Microsoft staffers; it is overall a vendor agnostic reference. Albeit the epilogue does use a case study of the Windows Azure cloud platform.

In fewer than 100 pages, the books 4 parts consist of sections on:

Explore - understand the promise and challenges of cloud computing
Envision - details how cloud computing can transform an organization
Enable - details the necessary resources and skills for en effective cloud computing initiative
Execute - creating the design, development and operation of cloud computing

While not specifically a security book, the authors note in chapter 3 that moving services to a public cloud means potentially increasing your business exposure to malicious attacks. I would take note that it is not a potential increase, rather a definite increase. The authors write that it is important to determine how well a cloud provider handles both technical and legal issues, in addition to other security requirements.

Chapter 4 notes the importance of a penetration test for any cloud-based application. It also stresses the need for comprehensive logging and monitoring.

For those looking for a succinct tactical introduction to cloud computing, To the Cloud: Cloud Powering an Enterprise is an excellent place to start.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Good non-technical introduction to cloud adoption 28 Jan 2012
By Erik Gfesser - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
The authors of this text rightly explain in their introduction that the path to cloud adoption is bound to be different for every firm. Because much of what is provided here is based on Microsoft IT's own experience with cloud adoption, and most of the software that Microsoft IT consumes is built in-house, the authors point out that they recognize their enterprise is unique, so they chose to focus on concepts rather than specific technologies when guiding the reader through the cloud adoption learning process. While the reader should readily recognize that this is a Microsoft text because the foreward was written by Microsoft CIO Tony Scott, what the authors present here is for the most part product agnostic. And since they share as case studies what they have accomplished as Microsoft IT, it should be no surprise to readers that Microsoft Hyper-V and Windows Azure are periodically mentioned.

The material presented here is broken down into four parts: (1) Explore, (2) Envision, (3) Enable, and (4) Execute. After first discussing the cloud computing paradigm, and the value proposition that it offers, the authors provide practical advice for developing a business case and building consensus with key stakeholders once there is momentum in making a move toward the cloud. The following focus then shifts to various adoption approaches, and a number of topics surrounding cloud execution. Having also just recently completed a reading of "The Cloud at Your Service: The When, How, and Why of Enterprise Cloud Computing" by Jothy Rosenberg and Arthur Mateos (see my review), another high-level introduction to cloud computing that follows a similar line of presentation, as a consultant who works with technical and non-technical stakeholders I see the need for these two texts to share the same shelf space, with this other work catering to a technical audience.

In my opinion, what Arora, Biyani, and Dave provide here is akin to an expanded white paper, due to its format and sub-100 page length, perfect for mid-air reading. One aspect of this text that I especially appreciate is the well executed style of diagrams reminiscent of Harvard Business School Press offerings, which always provide ideas as to how the material might best be presented visually to a non-technical audience. Judging from the frequency and location of dog ears that I left behind after my reading of this book, I found the first half of what the authors present to be material to which I will return, with the parts on Explore and Envision especially well done. The section on "demand patterns", for example, in which the authors describe application usage patterns used to determine best fit based on analyzing user demand and usage patterns, as well as workload characteristics, although brief, was surprisingly not covered as a topic in the earlier work. Well executed. Recommended especially for non-technical management.
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