Risk Thinking for Cloud-Based Application Services

Many enterprises are moving their applications and IT services to the cloud. Better risk management results in fewer operational surprises and failures, greater stakeholder confidence and reduced regulatory concerns; proactive risk management maximizes the likelihood that an enterprise’s objectives will be achieved, thereby enabling organizational success. This work methodically considers the risks and opportunities that an enterprise taking their applications or services onto the cloud must consider to obtain the cost reductions and service velocity improvements they desire without suffering the consequences of unacceptable user service quality.

Introduction. Framing the Cloud Service Customer’s Problem: Cloud Computing Fundamentals. Desired Cloud Service Customer Benefits. Risk and Risk Management. Cloud Service Qualities. Analyzing the Cloud Service Customer’s Problem: The Application Service Lifecycle. Lean Application Capacity Management. Testing Cloud-Based Application Services. Service Design, Transition and Operations Processes. Continual Service Improvement. Improving Operational Efficiency of Cloud-Based Applications. Service Strategy. Cloud Service Quality Risk Inventory: Factoring Cloud Service Quality Risks. VNF Product Risks Virtual Machine Risks. Virtual Networking Risks. Virtual Storage Risks. Virtualized Application Latency Risks. Service Integration Risks. Visibility Risks. Service Policy Risks. Accountability Risks. Human and Organizational Risks. Lifecycle Management (Execution) Risks. Functional-Component-as-a-Service Quality Risks. Cloud Service Provider Catastrophe Risks. Unknown-Unknown Risks. Cloud Service Quality Risk Assessment and Management: Establish the Context. Establish Service Quality Objectives. Risk Assessment Process. Risk Assessment Techniques. Service Quality Risk Management Process.

Eric Bauer is a Bell Labs Fellow and Reliability Engineering Manager in Nokia’s Applications & Analytics Chief Technology Office. He currently focuses on the service reliability, availability and quality of Nokia’s cloud offerings. He has written three books on cloud computing, one book on georedundancy and two system reliability books. Before focusing on reliability engineering topics, Mr. Bauer spent two decades designing and developing embedded firmware, networked operating systems, IP PBXs, internet platforms, and optical transmission systems. He has been awarded more than a dozen US patents, authored four engineering books and has published several papers in the Bell Labs Technical Journal. Mr. Bauer holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.