It’s almost a given that everybody in the IT industry knows the name “Salesforce.com,” a company that offers online customer relationship management solutions. Likewise, another popular name in the tech industry is VMware, an EMC subsidiary that creates virtualization technology enabling multiple OSs to run at the same time – and on the same computer – for greater operational flexibility.

Well, now the two companies have partnered and created an entity known as VMforce, a cloud-based service for running Java applications. VMforce will debut later this year.

Why is this so noteworthy? Because this represents a movement in the direction of a general-purpose cloud computing foundation in which customers can run their own programs. Beforehand, Salesforce.com offered a Java-like language (known as Apex) for such services.

Other cloud providers that have stepped up to the Java plate are Google’s App engine and Microsoft Azure. Both let customers run their own programs.

Recognizing this trend and need among customers, we at Monitis earlier this month introduced Java Application monitoring. The new service enables IT managers to monitor any Java-based service with JMX hooks from the cloud. This means that users can not only see inside a production Java (also JRuby) application deployed in a cloud or in a datacenter, but users can monitor these processes from anywhere at any time.

With this new addition Monitis has become like a true Swiss army knife for IT administrators. Our host of useful tools in one simple easy-to-use package is configurable in five minutes and requires zero maintenance efforts.

Setting up internal server and network monitoring can be a time-consuming process, sometimes taking weeks.  Servers usually need a VPN connection to your monitoring server.  This can be a pain to set up, especially with remote servers, particularly with open source systems like Nagios and Zenoss.  You also need a database to store historical data and a reporting module.  Monitis cuts setup time to 5 minutes by utilizing every shortcut enabled by cloud computing.  Instead of reporting to your server, the Monitis internal agent sends encrypted data to the Monitis Cloud via https where it is stored on world class servers.   Let’s do a timed setup of internal monitoring for 10 servers.First we log into Monitis, click Add Monitor to load the internal monitoring wizard, and download the proper agent for our operating system. (30 seconds)

We are running Linux, so we can automatically install the agent on all ten machines.  It takes about 3 minutes.  If you’re running Windows, it takes 1 minute to install and activate (with your login) on each server.  Here’s a Windows agent that’s been activated.

Firewalls don’t need to be touched since the agent only uses port 443.  The same setup.zip file can be used to install the agent on multiple servers, so you only need to download once.  Also, you’ll never need to upgrade agents because upgrades are done automatically without manual intervention.Next we go back to the internal monitoring wizard.  A list of names assigned to your agents will load.  You can assign a tag-name to group internal monitors together.  This comes in handy when generating reports.  We can multi-select all ten agents and select the metrics to monitor (CPU utilization, memory, drive, http, ping), and click Add.  (45 seconds) Dozens of movable, re-sizable graphs appear on the dashboard.  Soon they are populated with data.

It took just 4 minutes and 15 seconds to set this up.  The time-saving features can be narrowed down to three main points.1.  Agents report to Monitis via https, no need to touch your firewall.  Just install and you’re ready to go.2.  Upgrades are done automatically without your intervention.  No more concern about patches or versions.3.  Internal Monitoring Wizard lets you configure through any browser, and bulk-configuration of agents is quick and easy.

But don’t take my word for it, sign up for a 2 week trial and see how much time you’ll save.

Cloud computing can sometimes seem to simple, and, when it comes to service level agreements, that’s not necessarily a good thing.

IT managers are used to covering all their bases in service contracts – a mile or so long in paper – for technology providers. The contracts typically cover:

- pricing and benchmarks

- processes and procedures

- security and business continuity requirements

- clauses that spell out the rights and responsibilities of the IT services supplier and customer.

Yet, sometimes, cloud computing service contracts can be extremely short (although that might seem a welcome gift)…and vague. “Failure to understand the true meaning of the cloud and to address the serious legal and contractual issues associated with cloud computing can be catastrophic,” says Daniel Masur, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of law firm Mayer Brown, quoted in a recent article about cloud agreements. “The data security issues are particularly challenging, and failure to address them in the contract can expose a customer to serious violations of applicable privacy laws.”

On the other hand, if you listen to cloud service providers, they’ll tell you that simplicity is the whole point of the cloud. They offer low-cost, instantly available, pay-per-use options for everything from infrastructure on-demand, to desktop support, to business applications by pooling resources. Meanwhile, the responsibility for issues like data location or disaster recovery remains with you – the client.

But you don’t have to accept this situation – because it may not always be right for you. It depends on what you’re using the cloud for. As the article points out, demand a tighter service contract if you’re employing the cloud for mission-critical systems, employees’ personal data (which is often regulated by governments around the world) and sensitive business intelligence, it’s a good idea to get the legal department or general counsel involved.

What kind of SLA considerations should you look for in this case? First of all, consider a private cloud. Other considerations: guarantees and details on data encryption, geographic restrictions, and other terms.

Yet, for non-core apps or services that typically involve routine, non-sensitive data, looser contract terms with a lower price might be just the thing and perfectly acceptable.

Typical Mistakes

Major mistakes that new cloud services customers often make is when they assume a vendor’s contract provides adequate customer protection or that there’s no room to negotiate at all. “Many prospective customers assume incorrectly that cloud contracting is very similar to traditional IT contracting and either fail to address the issues unique to cloud computing, such as data privacy and compliance issues, or do so in a manner that increases their price without delivering commensurate value,” said Masur, in the article.

I know that when I speak with customers who are checking out our SLA monitoring service, I often hear stories that would make your hair curl – about a general lax attitude toward meeting and reporting on these basic service guarantees. And if customers require more from their cloud service provider, that can often mean higher pricing from those vendors.

If you want to beef up your standard cloud vendor agreement, use your traditional IT outsourcing contract as a model. Despite the lack of standard best practices in cloud contracting, your traditional IT contract can guide you with a list of standard engagement provisions, including:

- privacy and security standards,

- regulatory and compliance issues,

- service level requirements and penalties,

- change management processes,

- business continuity procedures,

- mandatory flow-down of all terms to subcontractors,

- termination rights.

Software licensing terms, too, offer useful guidelines for SaaS deals.

When engaging with a cloud vendor, take the time to consider which services need appropriate levels of guarantees. And use cloud platform and SLA monitoring to independently track and safeguard your data.

Everybody wants low- or lower-cost computing these days. Add being a good citizen to that list – in terms of being environmentally responsible and greener computing. What you’ve got is a good argument for cloud-based internal monitoring – even more so than using open-source monitoring – which is, in at least some sense, free.

Let me explain.

So, if you want to run Nagios, Zabbix or a similar free and open-source product, you need a server. Nagios, which uses CPU very intensively (due to its architecture) needs quite a robust server – one with plenty of muscle. Now, a typical server could eat up between 0.5 to several kilowatts. If you figure in the cooling costs, UPS and other equipment, let’s safely assume that that server will use 1 kilowatt.

That translates to 24 kilowatt hours (kWh) per day, or 672 kWh per month – for a grand total of 8,760 kWh per year.

Let’s do a bit more figuring here because we’re not done totaling up the costs. Research from the Department of Energy shows that the average cost of residential electricity was 12 cents per kilowatt hour in the U.S. in April 2009, and ranged from 7 cents in frozen North Dakota to 26 cents in air conditioner-dependent Hawaii.So, from this little figuring, let’s make some quick calculations:

8,760 kilowatts X 12 cents = $1,051.20.

That’s the amount of your electricity costs for running one server per year.

A More Cost-Effective, Greener Way

Now let’s look at another more cost-effective way of internal monitoring.

Monitis’ Basic plan costs $98 per year, and Monitis Plus plan costs $384 per year. Neither requires you to have a server in-house. Plus, Monitis barely makes a carbon shadow, never mind a footprint. Monitis’ tiny internal monitoring agent can be co-located on any server within an enterprise data center.

What we’ve looked at so far are infrastructure costs for the two ways of internal monitoring. But we haven’t even yet considered the labor costs to your organization that comes with traditional server-based, open-source monitoring. That typically involves weeks of system set-up time and many hours of maintenance efforts for chores like patching, updating and configuring open-source software. With Monitis’ quick set-up feature, you don’t even need to consider those costs.

Let’s not forget server depreciation costs, too, which will depend on the scope of your IT needs and computing efforts. For a large organization, we’re talking quite a considerable sum.

You may have expected me to say this, but I recommend cloud-based monitoring. But don’t take my word for it. Consider the total cost of ownership (TCO) alone.

For more on cloud-based monitoring versus open-source software, check out an additional blog post on Monitis.

Press Release

San Jose, CA – April 22, 2010 – Monitis, the leading provider of all-in-one Cloud-based network and application monitoring suite, today announced a major new product launch: Java Application Monitoring.

Using their leading-edge hosted software as a service (SaaS) approach, Monitis’ Cloud-based Java Application Monitoring Tool enables IT managers to monitor any Java-based service with JMX hooks, but to do so from the Cloud. This means that in addition to enabling users to see inside a production Java (also JRuby) application deployed in a cloud or in a datacenter, users are free to monitor these processes from anywhere at any time.

Said Monitis Founder and CEO, Hovhannes Avoyan, “This is a big deal. This is a major step forward in the industry and we are excited to be at the forefront of this innovation. With this new addition Monitis becomes a true Swiss army knife for the IT administrators. Our host of useful tools in one simple, easy-to-use package can be configured in 5 minutes and require zero maintenance efforts.”

Monitis’ Cloud-based Application Monitoring Tool provides monitoring, troubleshooting, root cause diagnosis, plus pro-active planning tools such as load generators, scalability analysis, resource usage analysis and more. Specifically, the Java Application Monitoring tool:

• Monitors every metric, log, and configuration for all JMX resources in your inventory
• Identifies problem resources
• Controls all JMX resources on-demand
• Sends alerts on any measurement, log, or security event in your JMX environment
• Integrates fully into Monitis’ award-winning internal and external monitoring suite.

Specific metrics for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) Monitoring Tool include:

• General JVM Server Metrics
• Availability and Uptime
• Object metrics
• Heap Memory Used, Committed and Max
• Loaded and Unloaded Classes
• Thread Count
• JVM Garbage Collector Metrics
• JVM Memory Pool Metrics

Monitis’ Cloud-based Java Application Monitoring Tool can monitor all leading commercial and open source J2EE application servers. The servers which provide JMX capabilities for monitoring include all leading products like: WebLogic, WebSphere, JBoss, Apache Geronimo, JRun, Tomcat, Glassfish, and Resin. Monitis monitoring of Sun Java System could also be done through the SNMP mechanism used by the administrative console of the web server.

As with all Monitis tools, the new Cloud-based Java Application Monitoring tool is designed to save IT managers massive amounts of time. Sign-up and set-up take less than 5 minutes, and with Monitis’ heralded, hyper-intuitive interface, there is no learning curve – an incredible claim given that Monitis is perhaps the most powerful application performance management tool available today. Its pay as you go model makes the procurement easy even for Universities, which may also benefit from academic pricing.

Last but not least, Monitis is making the remote JMX probe agent open source, creating unlimited space open for IT managers and system administrators to gain confidence by extending the tool and creating customized checks.

Java Management Extensions (JMX) is a Java technology that provides the tools for building distributed, Web-based, modular and dynamic solutions for managing and monitoring devices, applications, and service-driven networks.

About Monitis All-in-One Monitoring Platform

Monitis is the only service that provides Cloud Monitoring from the Cloud.  It is leading a new era of systems management tools – the Cloud generation.  Monitis is a 100% Cloud-based, complete, and flexible IT monitoring solution, offered on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

Monitis consolidates back-end monitoring, application monitoring, website monitoring, and cloud monitoring in an all-in-one, central monitoring service. The platform is easily customizable and may be used for managing of all kinds of IT assets such as websites, servers, routers, switches, VoIP devices, DNS, databases, processes and any other IP devices.  Monitis provides users with a comprehensive view of their system’s health and performance. 

About Monitis

Monitis believes that the Cloud is the biggest thing to happen in IT management since IT management. Having seen this vision early, Monitis is now the global leader in developing this market.  It is the first affordable network and systems monitoring solution based 100% in the Cloud. 

Besides Monitis’ enthusiastic and loyal user base of 50,000 customers from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies to government agencies and educational institutions, Monitis has won rave reviews from the technology analyst community. Recently, because it’s Cloud-based monitoring helps companies reduce system downtime, improve the productivity of their IT staff, and reduce operational expenditures, Monitis was named the Most Innovative Start-up for 2009 by The 451 Group at their annual Client Conference.  

Monitis was founded in 2005 by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and fed-up and worn-out developers who were tired of complaining about the limits of software-based tools, while inspired by the promise of the Cloud.  Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Monitis is lead by a team of IT professionals with deep experience running enterprise-grade IT businesses, as well as starting and selling several IT start-ups.  Using a global workforce, particularly its R&D team based in Yerevan, Armenia, Monitis is poised to move from strength to strength.  At present, it has a loyal and enthusiastic user community of 50,000, and an average month-on-month revenue growth of over 10%.

Contact:
Monitis Inc.
Sales & Marketing Department
info@monitis.com
http://www.monitis.com
US & Canada Toll Free: +1-800-657-7949
UK + International: +44-845-527-3346
France + International: +33-48-607-9035
2880 Zanker Road Suite 203
San Jose, CA-95134
USA

These days, IT is under growing demand to do more with less. And in the case of servers, their uses, requirements and complexity have all increased dramatically (just think about the constant work involved in upgrading operating systems (OSs), or the labor involved in maintaining server clusters around the world).

That’s why, today, the server monitoring is more important than ever, too. But in these times of limited resources, IT administrators need a solution that dramatically streamlines the time and work that’s required to monitor and administer servers.

Key Solutions

Automating monitoring is one way that IT staff can safeguard an ever-growing number of servers while working with limited resources. Automated monitoring should be easy to install, maintain and customize. A few of the features to look for:

- remote monitoring, allowing an administrator in Chicago to get reports and alerts on servers around the world,

- automated alerts, including pager, cell phone, e-mail, SMS, IM – even Twitter, which give administrators a “heads up” in case of an outage.

- 24×7 monitoring, which automatically plots server statistics and then measures them against user-defined thresholds. And when those thresholds are exceeded, the monitoring tool sends out automatic alerts through a menu of notification options (see above).

- Easy and Fast deployment. You should aim for automation that can be deployed in hours, compared with traditional monitoring solutions that require long deployment times over many months. And if you want fast, nothing beats the Cloud (e.g. see our blog Consider the Cloud When Choosing Network Management and Monitoring). With Software as a Service (SaaS) monitoring solutions housed on the cloud, such as the system offered by Monitis, you don’t need to worry about upgrades, server maintenance, and compatibility issues.

- Easy customization. Look for intuitive yet powerful features that make it is easy to adapt to the unique, fast changing, demands of your business.

Appeal to small, mid-sized companies

Automated monitoring solutions are also perfect for many small or mid-sized companies who lack platform-specific, silo-centric specialists and with very limited IT budgets. Yes, there are individual solutions that monitor a specific type of server, but installing, maintaining, and managing multiple monitoring solutions can be very complex and costly.

For example, a 2010 poll from Salaries.com found that database administrators earned up to $119,500, Senior Network Administrators $121,000, Unix Administrators $119.600 and Senior Project Managers up to $137,200, among others.

That’s why growing companies often opt for SaaS and cloud-based monitoring solutions. With their pay-as-you-go structure pricing structure, it’s simply more affordable to monitor servers, transactions and applications end-to-end.

But the appeal of automated monitoring is not limited to smaller firms. Big firms with heterogeneous IT needs, those operating multiple kinds of servers (from those based in Windows, Linux, UNIX, Netware, BSD, and more), are opting for comprehensive, platform-agnostic all-in-one monitoring solutions that can be used to monitor every type of server and OS in their organizations.

In my next post on today’s changing server environment and why it’s important to choose the right monitoring service, I’ll talk about such topics as monitoring SLAs, virtual servers and more. Stay tuned!

Cacti is a network graphing solution that features data storage and graphing functionality, and it is useful for everything from LAN-sized installations up to complex networks with hundreds of devices. And Nagios is a monitoring system that enables organizations to identify and resolve IT infrastructure problems.

Many companies have integrated use of both of these open-source services. But only one solution is really necessary for both functionalities — Monitis. Plus, while Monitis’ all-in-one, external and internal suite of monitoring tools matches or exceeds any competitor, function for function, there is one critical thing Monitis does that no one else does: monitor everything 100% from the Cloud.

Why is that a good thing? Because by being 100% Cloud-based, we save our clients time…levels of time that they’d never before imagined. What would you do with your free time if you no longer had to manage product updates, maintain your monitoring servers and, as a result, were able to go home on time and have dinner at a normal hour?

Here are some benefits of integrating Cacti and Nagios (not really, rather, using Monitis) without the hassle. You get:

• Monitoring for the cloud and data center
• Multiple clouds, multiple private data centers – one dashboard
• Fault detection, alerting, diagnostics
• Data visualization
• Management tools – tags, colors, sorting, users
• Monitoring from outside and inside of corporate firewalls

Instant data visualization

Monitis provides you with interactive graphs of all the data you need to study to improve your customers’ website experience.

Our graphing feature is pre-loaded with useful default graphs, such as average ping latency on all your servers, or you can navigate through all your data on a per-server basis with the data browser. You can save graphing templates for later viewing, export graphs as images, and overlay or stack multiple data sets.

Monitor your entire infrastructure – and fast

With Monitis, because we’re cloud-based, there’s nothing to download, compile, or configure. And you never need to worry about updates. Monitis tracks the performance of such major cloud providers as Amazon Web Service, and with our Universal Cloud Monitoring Framework, we can sync to other Cloud computing providers very quickly – from Rackspace, GoGrid, Softlayer, and more. Monitis is very easy to set up, and you can start watching all of your servers, networks and applications in a matter of minutes. All you need to do is select what services you want to check, choose what servers you want to check, choose what addresses to alert when a check fails, and hit save. Once your monitor is saved, Monitis will start keeping an eye on your servers, collecting data for diagnostics and graphs, and alerting you when something goes wrong.

We Grow with You

Monitis is designed to work on the cloud, and it’s completely elastic.

It works like this:

• You create a monitor, using a query to target a specific tag or provider
• Monitis starts monitoring based on your query
• Any time a new server comes online that matches your query, Monitis automatically starts monitoring it

Have you ever used a SaaS solution where to do a simple task you had to load five pages and then navigate back to the home screen?  It can be frustrating, and despite the many advantages of SaaS vs. Software, user interface is usually not one of them.  One of the things we here at Monitis takes very seriously is saving our customers time and hassles.  That’s why we’ve created a super-intuitive, one-of-a-kind Ajax dashboard that looks and feels like a desktop application but exists completely within your browser.  You can easily move things around by drag-and-drop, rename labels with a click,… Heck you can set up monitoring for 1000 servers, generate graphs and notification rules for each without once loading a new page.  Let’s take a look at a few dashboard shortcuts that make tasks quick and easy.
The toolbar is packed with time-saving features.

The Share Page feature generates a link that lets you share a read-only view of your monitoring dashboard with anyone.  The link can be destroyed and recreated as you wish.  The read-only view is interactive, so the viewer can still drill-down into charts and tables to identify root causes.  A great way to quickly share information with your colleagues without compromising security or access privileges.

Changing the number of columns is convenient for quickly adjusting to different screen sizes and switching between cluttered and uncluttered views.  Any Monitis chart or report is a movable widget that falls under a column.  In the picture above, there are two columns.  This makes things legible on a tiny laptop or giant desktop.

Turning Flash charts on and off is another key feature.  We know that some browsers have issues with flash, so we’ve made both a flash and non-flash view of anything on the dashboard.  So you can even use Monitis at those 12-year old computers at the public library that run IE6.  The advantage of Flash is that the graphs are a little more interactive and aesthetically pleasing, but you get the same data in both views.  Here’s two ways to view a process monitor:

Using the calendar, you can easily go back in time and see past data for all monitors.  Live Chat and Support are a click away.  In addition to the toolbar, we also have a sidebar which can be turned on by selecting “Show Sidebar” under My Account.  The sidebar contains shortcuts to add External, Application, Internal, Cloud, and Traffic monitors and reports.  These are all just a click away from the menu bar along the top, but some users prefer a sidebar.

We will be releasing some amazing dashboard features soon, so expect a sequel to this post.

Press release

San Jose, CA – April 19, 2010 – Monitis, the leading provider of all-in-one Cloud-based network and application monitoring, today announced the launch of it’s Live-Voice Alert Notification program that will compliment its already existing SMS-, email-, IM-, and Twitter-based notification systems.

Inspired by the repeated feedback it was receiving from IT managers who, because they were sleeping, had missed critical alerts in the middle of the night via SMS, email, IM, or Twitter, Monitis has created the Live-Voice Alert program to insure IT managers world-wide are always in the know. By giving IT managers a simple phone call, regardless of where they are in the world, Monitis’ Critical Alert team will personally inform customers of critical issues the moment they happen.

Using advanced notification rules to set-up priorities, escalation rules, contacts, and more, the Live-Voice Alert program turns Monitis into an even more sophisticated and reliable tool.

Said Hovhannes Avoyan, Monitis’ Founder and CEO, “This is a tremendous gain for IT managers around the world. Now they can be absolutely, 100% sure that they won’t miss an alert. Monitis is innovating at warp-speed to help save IT managers around the world massive amounts of time. The Live-Voice Alert program is another testament to our customer-driven culture.”

Every Live-Voice Alert is only US$0.50 per call, and users can re-fill their account balances on-demand within the application.

About Monitis All-in-One Monitoring Platform

Monitis is the only service that provides Cloud Monitoring from the Cloud.  It is leading a new era of systems management tools – the Cloud generation.  Monitis is a 100% Cloud-based, complete, and flexible IT monitoring solution, offered on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

Monitis consolidates back-end monitoring, application monitoring, website monitoring, and cloud monitoring in an all-in-one, central monitoring service. The platform is easily customizable and may be used for managing of all kinds of IT assets such as websites, servers, routers, switches, VoIP devices, DNS, databases, processes and any other IP devices.  Monitis provides users with a comprehensive view of their system’s health and performance.

About Monitis

Monitis believes that the Cloud is the biggest thing to happen in IT management since IT management. Having seen this vision early, Monitis is now the global leader in developing this market.  It is the first affordable network and systems monitoring solution based 100% in the Cloud.

Besides Monitis’ enthusiastic and loyal user base of 50,000 customers from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies to government agencies and educational institutions, Monitis has won rave reviews from the technology analyst community. Recently, because it’s Cloud-based monitoring helps companies reduce system downtime, improve the productivity of their IT staff, and reduce operational expenditures, Monitis was named the Most Innovative Start-up for 2009 by The 451 Group at their annual Client Conference.

Monitis was founded in 2005 by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and fed-up and worn-out developers who were tired of complaining about the limits of software-based tools, while inspired by the promise of the Cloud.  Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Monitis is lead by a team of IT professionals with deep experience running enterprise-grade IT businesses, as well as starting and selling several IT start-ups.  Using a global workforce, particularly its R&D team based in Yerevan, Armenia, Monitis is poised to move from strength to strength.  At present, it has a loyal and enthusiastic user community of 50,000, and an average month-on-month revenue growth of over 10%.

Charles Babcock, who wrote the book, Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution, offers some great tips on seven things to consider before converting to cloud computing. I’ve decided to repeat them here, and I’d like to specifically point out step #3, that companies should consider cloud monitoring services.

# 1 – The proper definition, as every vendor describes it differently. In its simplest form, cloud computing is a “new method of distributing computing power,” says Babcock. All the pieces that make it up have been around for a while, but it’s the combination of high bandwidth and low-cost cluster servers that now make cloud computing practical (and I might add affordable, as it’s on a pay-as-you-go scheme).

# 2 – Cloud computing breaks you of the bad habit of over-provisioning your own data center, that is, applying a new server for every app that you need or use. Even if you’re committed to keeping your own servers intact, you could use the cloud to handle overflow and conserve capacity internally.

#3 – Nobody ever said you “have to” put all your data on the cloud. After all, some of your data is sensitive and will always remain so, and you want to keep it as private as possible. So, you may choose to keep that information on internal servers. Other data that you elect to put on the cloud should be tracked and monitored constantly for security, compliance and potential abuse.

#4 – Consider data and workload replication because you get excellent disaster recovery support and the juice you need to cover transaction surges.

#5 – Make sure you know the details of your workload before searching for a cloud provider – including CPU types, average workload and capacity, and whether the workload is storage or transaction intensive. Share this information with your cloud partner so that you can both agree, as in an SLA, how they should handle (or not) your regulated data.

#6 – Chances are you’ll wind up with a mix of public and private clouds. The way things stand now, most corporate data centers employ servers that are partially virtualized and are on their way to becoming private clouds. You should create a variety of server templates for your workload, as many as necessary, and ask your cloud computing provider to replicate them in their data center.

#7 – Shop for a partner that can accept your templates. That will make it simpler to roll your servers out into their cloud support structure.