A Point of View

Modeling a Framework for Cloud Adoption

Abstract
Cloud technology has revolutionized commerce and industry. It has enabled enterprises to pursue scalability, agility, and
innovation, at lower costs. Business leaders endeavoring to stay ahead of the curve, and remain relevant, are quickly adopting
cloud technology. But successful cloud adoption requires more than just products that build the cloud. It requires a detailed plan
built around a standardized framework, and guidance on planning and execution of the cloud initiative.
The Cloud Computing Reference Architecture (CCRA) provides that roadmap. It outlines the relationships between the basic
elements that make up the cloud ecosystem and helps ensure that organizations not only make the most of this technology, but
also address security and privacy concerns adequately.
This paper offers an understanding of the CCRA, and how it enables business leaders to understand the prerequisites to a
successful cloud adoption.

Cloud Adoption and the Need for a Roadmap

Companies have been experimenting with cloud computing for almost two decades, but most are still struggling to harness its full
potential. Moving to the cloud is a critical part of going digital, but failure to move swiftly can do a lot of damage. Alongside the
innovation advantage and service agility, successful cloud adoption offers many economic benefits.
The emphasis, however, remains on integration of the different parts of the cloud ecosystem.
Cloud adoption can be a behemoth of a task, and the dizzying number of vendors and service providers in the market can
sometimes make things seem more difficult than they should be. This calls for the creation of a coherent plan aligned to the
organizations strategic objective, the lack of which can cause unnecessary deviations, cost overruns, and delays. Successful cloud
adoption needs a roadmap. It must align with the business goals and architecture vision, measure up to industry standards, and
serve as a blueprint for achieving higher levels of cloud maturity with minimal implementation risk. The cloud computing reference
architecture (CCRA) serves this purpose.
The CCRA (as shown in figure 1) provides a cloud implementation roadmap with a well-defined scope, as well as functional and
non-functional requirements. It includes a prescriptive architecture and product recommendations and leverages industry best
practices in a standardized, methodical way. The CCRA ensures consistent delivery and high quality project results and is vital for
building enterprise-class, highly scalable cloud infrastructure.
 Cloud Provider
Service Deployment
Public Cloud Private Cloud Hybrid Cloud

Cloud Service Orchestration Cloud Service Management

Consumer Cloud Service
Service Delivery Business Provisioning/ Portability/ Developer/
Role Based Support Configuration Interoperability Broker
Service IaaS PaaS SaaS
Catalog/ APIs Customer Rapid Data
Cloud Cloud Cloud Service
Management Provisioning Portability
Apps Apps Apps Intermediation
SLA/ Contracts Contract Resource Copy Data To-
Management Change From
Virtual

Open Standards
Service Instance Virtualized
Open Standards

Resources Images Inventory Monitoring Bulk Data Service

Mgmt. Management & Reporting Transfer
Security

Aggregation
Privacy

Compute Image
Accounting Service
Metadata Metering
& Billing Interoperability
Cloud
Networking
Auditor Image Reporting & SLA Unified Mgmt. Service
Auditing Management Interface Arbitrage
Security Storage
Audit Pricing & System
Rating Portability
Privacy Impact Software Kernel
(OS,VM Manager) Capacity VM Images
Audit Service
Planning Migration
Analytics
Performance Firmware, Hardware App/ Svc
Audit Migration

Open Standards
Cloud Integration Platform
Integration Integration Monitoring & Lifecycle
Services Governance Administration Management

Figure 1: The Cloud Computing Reference Architecture

Understanding the CCRA

The CCRA is made up of five fundamental blocks: Cloud Consumers; Cloud Auditors; Cloud Service Developer and Brokers; the Cloud
Integration Platform; and the Cloud Provider block. The Cloud Provider concerns itself with service deployment, service orchestration, and
cloud service management.
As a framework, the CCRA provides guidelines and options for making architectural decisions when selecting, developing, or implementing
cloud computing solutions. It helps deliberate about structures for cloud computing solutions and identification of building blocks when
considering applications or systems. It also plays a role in deciding on the communication of key architectural decisions.
By using this framework, organizations are forced to address important issues before they can take the next step on their implementation
journey. They must determine whether a public, private, or hybrid cloud model suits them and what cloud applications are needed on
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and the Platform as a Service (PaaS) for effective service delivery. They must
agree on how the business will support the configuration, and interoperability of the different applications. The framework also draws the
attention of the enterprise towards privacy and security issues, as a move to the cloud means sensitive data will be housed in networks and
systems that are far more vulnerable than in-house data centers.
The CCRA suggests the engagement of cloud consumers and cloud auditors as well. They help expand the capabilities of the cloud
infrastructure, and conduct security, privacy impact, and performance checks. In doing so they will ensure that the organizations cloud
model provides a safe and optimal environment for its business functions.
Most businesses are overwhelmed by the numerous decisions they need to make before they move to the cloud. Many lose sight of the fact
that the journey is as much an economic decision as it is a business, strategy, or IT decision. Organizations must choose the right
components for the cloud system and ensure that they are integrated effectively if they are to realize the full potential of the cloud, including

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the cost-efficiencies and cost-savings involved. It is when making these decisions that the cloud service developers and brokers, and the
cloud integration platform make the biggest contribution. Since all parties are identified in the CCRA, an organization may benefit by
considering the role that each party will play in the cloud program early on. Thus it can make maximum use of these contributors.
Cloud service designers, intermediate, aggregate, and analyze the services procured from various vendors. The cloud integration platform
then helps integrate the different components, governs the integration project, monitors the progress, and manages these different
products through their lifecycle. This is done independently and in conjunction with the program. The success of your cloud program
requires the engagement of experts who will develop or help deploy your cloud services, and integrate them. Their ability to work well
together is critical.

The CCRA as a Tool to Build an Implementation Roadmap

Since vendor selection and integration play a critical role in the success of the cloud adoption program, it helps to have the same teams
involved in procurement and integration.
The framework will make sure that the clouds interfaces and formats confirm to relevant industry open standards for automated operations,
data protection, and productivity. It will also provide a transparent architecture and control.
A 2015 survey by CSO revealed that improved agility and cost savings are the biggest motivators behind cloud adoption. A third of
respondents said that lack of technical expertise and limited confidence in their ability to meet compliance requirements act as roadblocks.
52% of respondents also said that they were wary of reconfiguring their systems and applications to be cloud ready. This suggests that by
following high level architecture principles, first time adapters are a step ahead of the competition.
Most enterprises have either adopted, or have plans to adopt, the cloud as a strategic choice to support their business and technology goals.
As a result, the cloud is dominating IT architecture roadmap discussions in the boardroom. There are several questions that need to be
answered and a framework such as the CCRA is going to help tick all the right boxes. To implement complex and highly scalable cloud
infrastructures, it is important to understand the perspectives of the providers and the consumers, and the CCRA achieves that. Ultimately, it
is important to involve the right experts to help choose the right providers, fine-tune the solutions procured, and integrate them to form a
dependable cloud ecosystem.

About the Authors

Girish Chaudhari
Girish Chaudhari has over 19 years of significant international and cross-cultural experience in consulting, practice building, business
development, and client relationships. He has an expertise in IT consulting, with proven abilities to work across multiple sectors and
functions as a trusted advisor to CIOs and IT Directors in driving transformation across the IT landscape, leveraging the people-process-
technology triad.
Currently, he is a senior member of the leadership at TCS Cloud Consulting Practice. Earlier in a variety of roles, he managed and successfully
executed engagements for Fortune 500 companies across industry domains, delivering value and building lasting relationships and alliances.
He has broad knowledge of the e2e IT value chain across strategy, engage, build, and run functions with a diverse hands-on experience
primarily encompassing: cloud consulting, strategy and transformation, cost optimization, enterprise systems performance consulting, and
technology consulting.

V. Ramanathan
V. Ramanathan is a TOGAF certified Enterprise Architect and Microsoft certified Azure Solution Architect and is part of TCS Cloud Consulting
Practice. He has around 24 years of IT industry experience and holds a Masters Degree in Engineering Design from a premier institution.
Ramanathan has architected solutions and delivered engagements covering a wide range of areas such as cloud computing strategy
definition, cloud applications migration, cloud workload suitability analysis, enterprise architecture consulting, IT transformation consulting,
solution architecture, IT delivery, relationship, and large program management.
He has worked in the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Mexico, Germany, Denmark, Malaysia, Australia, and India and engaged
with customers across various industries including BFS, Insurance, Retail, and Travel Transportation, and Hospitality. As part of the Cloud
Consulting Practice, he has helped develop the Cloud Workload Evaluation Suitability and Placement Model (C-WESP), including assessment
questionnaires and the model for evaluating cloud workloads for enterprises.

[1] CSO, Cloud Security Concerns and the Perceived Effectiveness of Traditional Security Solutions in a Cloud Environment, June 2015, accessed August 2016,
http://resources.idgenterprise.com/original/AST-0147586_cso-cloud-security-concerns-and-the-perceived-effectiveness-of-traditional-security-solutions-in-a-cloud-environment.pdf

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