cloud service catalog
Introduction
In the context of cloud computing, the service catalog is an integral and critical
component of the cloud computing architecture. Most cloud computing projects will
invariably begin with a discussion of “what IT services does an enterprise need?”
Helping companies devise their service catalog strategy, design a service catalog,
and design and implement a service catalog portal that supports the underlying cloud
infrastructure are primary components of Cisco® Cloud Enablement Services.
The Context: Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a service delivery model that abstracts the setup and
management of IT resources from the underlying infrastructure, providing compute
environments in a self-service mode, on demand, and at scale.
An enterprise can deploy cloud computing within its private network. This is
commonly referred to as a private cloud, as it is restricted in access to the private
network. A service provider can provide cloud-based services to its customers over
the public Internet. This is commonly referred to as a public cloud. An environment
that transparently combines both a private cloud and a public cloud is commonly
referred to as a hybrid cloud.
A cloud can provide IT infrastructure (for example, machines and storage, including
the base operating system), an application deployment platform (for example,
machines and storage, including the base operating system plus standard enterprise
middleware), or subscription-based software. These different types of cloud
computing services delivery models are called infrastructure as a service (IaaS),
platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).
IT services that are delivered as cloud services typically have the following attributes:
Pay as you go: minimal or no initial costs as well as self-service request capability
Usage based pricing: end-user costs are based on actual resource consumption
Elasticity: end customers can dynamically consume more or less resources
The NIST definition of cloud computing is a good reference for additional information
about cloud computing deployment models and definitions.
The Front End: Service Catalog
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL® v3) service design defines a
service catalog as a list of technology-enabled services that an organization
provides, often to its employees or customers. More specifically, the service catalog
is an expression of the operational capability of a service provider or enterprise
within the context of an end customer, a market space, or an internal business unit
stakeholder.
In the context of cloud computing, the service catalog is an integral and critical
component of the cloud computing architecture. A cloud service catalog:
Contains a set of cloud services that an end user can request (usually through a
web self-service portal).
Acts as the ordering portal for cloud end users, including pricing and service-level
commitments and the terms and conditions for service provisioning.
Can also be used as a demand management mechanism, directing or incenting
customers toward particular services or service configurations or away from
legacy or declining services, as well as making sure of alignment with governance
and standards through default configurations and service options.
Has a self-service look and feel; that is, it provides the ability to select service
offerings from the cloud service catalog and generate service requests to have
instances of those offerings fulfilled.
Is useful in developing suitable cloud-based solutions, thus enabling other IT and
business services, which in turn create the value propositions for the investments
in cloud architectures.
Contains features and characteristics (atomic items1
Serves as the provisioning interface to automated service fulfillment using a cloud
orchestration subsystem.
Developing an Optimum Service Catalog
An optimum catalog is one that maximizes the alignment of infrastructure capabilities
with business requirements while delivering the best value for the end consumer.
The service catalog can be used as an effective tool by IT organizations to
implement enterprise standards, introduce new technologies, and enforce default
regulatory requirements. The enterprise architect is responsible for the service
catalog’s alignment with the business architecture, thereby helping to maximize the
return on investment in cloud and service catalog development.
It is important to note that an optimized cloud service catalog can only be built when
both the business perspective (for example, which services does the business need
to deploy?) and the IT perspective (for example, what services can be provided?) are
taken into consideration at the same time.
The cloud service catalog development methodology should be:
Repeatable: When a service catalog is built for a customer, the process could be
taken and repeated for multiple customers.
Measurable: A service catalog's items should also be measureable in order to be
priced for chargeback, as well as managed for availability and performance.
Comprehensive: A service catalog should encompass all the possible
combinations of infrastructure capabilities as well as different deployment
requirements.
As a result, the cloud service catalog development framework should be:
Scalable: To enable services provided to scale up or down according to market
and end-user requirements. It should enable horizontal and vertical scaling
requirements of the services provided through transparent integrated automation.
Flexible: To accommodate new and changing service requirements for end
consumers and implications on the IT service catalog.
Service Catalog Development Methodology and Framework
The initial framework upon which the service catalog will develop depends in part
upon the relative maturity of your IT organization. More advanced organizations will
have an enterprise architecture (EA) practice, often at times reporting to the CIO, or
an IT executive reporting to the CIO. One of the four pillars of the EA practice is the
generation of the enterprise business architecture. In an IT organization with this
practice in place, the service catalog will align exactly with the business architecture
practice’s artifacts and will be used as the one tool to manage change into the
enterprise. The ability to use this group’s work in the creation of the cloud service
catalog will add significant velocity to the effort and greatly simplify the work. For the
purposes of this paper, therefore, we will focus on organizations that have not yet
reached this level of maturity. The following steps outline this methodology and
framework for designing a cloud service catalog:
1. Capture initial requirements based on your environment (brownfield/greenfield).
2. Analyze and identify requirements from following perspectives:
Business
Services capabilities
Role-based access
Governance and compliance
Purpose-built cloud use cases
Geographical constraints
3. Create a template of the cloud service catalog based on the distilled
requirements.
4. Create sample service catalog work flows for a self-service portal.
5. Review the cloud service catalog design with the customer and incorporate
feedback.
6. Iterate through distilled requirements and finalize the design.
These steps are illustrated in the service catalog decision tree (Figure 2) and are
discussed in detail in the remainder of this document. Note that this illustration
shows an example for IaaS.
Current Environment (Brownfield vs. Greenfield)
In a situation where you might already have an existing service catatog in place, the
service cataloging process will encompass analyzing the requirements, assessing
and identifying any particular gaps in your existing catalog with respect to best
practices, and providing recommendations to mitigate those gaps. This is a highly
customized effort and is, therefore, not covered in this white paper. This white paper
only discusses environments where a service catalog does not exist.
