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Copyright (c) 2010 SummaLogic - All rights reserved THE CFO’S GUIDE TO THE “CLOUDJanuary 2010 Robert Keahey WHITE PAPER

The CFO's Guide to the Cloud

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White paper presenting key considerations and questions when developing a cloud strategy - from the CFO's perspective

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Copyright (c) 2010 SummaLogic - All rights reserved

THE CFO’S GUIDE TO THE “CLOUD”

January 2010

Robert Keahey

WHITE PAPER

CONTENTS Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 1

Cloud(s) Defined .................................................................................................................................................... 2

Cloud Characteristics ............................................................................................................................................. 3

Common Cloud Myths ........................................................................................................................................... 4

Myth 1 – Cloud Computing is Simply About Hardware and Software… ............................................................... 4

Myth 2 – Virtualization Equals Cloud Computing ................................................................................................ 4

Myth 3 – The Cloud is Cheaper ........................................................................................................................... 5

Myth 4 – The Cloud Solves Availability, Reliability and Scalability Problems ....................................................... 5

Myth 5 – Migrating In, Out and Between Clouds is Easy...................................................................................... 6

Five Key Questions the CFO Should Ask… ............................................................................................................. 6

1 – What is the corporation’s strategy for controlling the acquisition and utilization of cloud services? ............... 6

2 – Do the cloud providers offer standard service level agreement (and warranties), and do they offer sufficient

assurances for business availability and continuity? ............................................................................................ 6

3 – Who owns the burden of service initiation, integration and management, and are the costs properly

accounted for in the business model? ................................................................................................................. 7

4 – Who is responsible for data and information security, and what are the service provider’s policies with

respect to data privacy and use? ......................................................................................................................... 7

5 – How are intellectual property and licensing issues addressed in cloud services agreements?......................... 7

Summary ............................................................................................................................................................... 8

Glossary ................................................................................................................................................................. 9

Appendix A – Cloud Outages ................................................................................................................................ 10

About the Author ................................................................................................................................................. 11

About SummaLogic ............................................................................................................................................. 11

Table of Figures

Figure 1 - Cloud Computing Models ....................................................................................................................... 2

Figure 2 - Cloud Characteristics .............................................................................................................................. 3

SummaLogic The CFO’s Guide to The “Cloud” Page 1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The “cloud”… It’s the hottest buzzword in town right now. Everybody is jumping on the marketing bandwagon

and promoting their products and services in the context of this latest IT and business model.

2009 was a pivotal year for cloud computing. While the adoption rate is still low (3-4%) among enterprises,

significant strides have been made in defining cloud computing, developing standards and delivering viable cloud

services – and migration services for moving to the cloud. We expect the buzz around the cloud to continue

through 2010 with significant adoption occurring in the 2011-2012 timeframe.

Much, if not all of the discussion around the cloud has focused on the Chief Information (CIO), Technology (CTO),

Marketing (CMO) and Security (CSO) Officer within the enterprise. But one key participant has been overlooked

in these discussions – the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). A lot of focus has been given to the technical and “social”

aspect of this new IT and business model. While the financial aspects have been touched upon – mostly in the

arguments over the cost of cloud computing/services – little focus has been given to the overall business impact of

this new model.

This white paper explores the aspects of the cloud that are of interest to the CFO – cost of ownership, risk

mitigation, business continuity and service level management. While this white paper is not intended to be a

“how to” guide for implementing cloud computing and service models, it is designed to prepare the CFO with the

basic knowledge required to understand the risk/rewards of cloud computing – and to arm him/her with the key

questions to ask during project/initiative reviews that require corporate expenditures for cloud services.

“Cloud computing represents a fundamental change in the relationship

between those who use solutions based on technology and those who

provide them. The result will reshape strategies from ‘budget’ to

‘business’ for both providers and consumers.”

Gartner Group

SummaLogic The CFO’s Guide to the “Cloud” Page 2

CLOUD(S) DEFINED

With all the hype surrounding cloud computing it has become difficult to determine what is a cloud and what isn’t.

While there are many different definitions for clouds, there are a few common models that have risen to the

surface over the past two years. Through the work of organizations such as the Open Cloud Consortium (OCC),

and the Open Cloud Standards Incubator (OCSI) group, the standards for cloud computing will continue to evolve,

but unfortunately are still at least 1-2

years away. In the interim, the industry

has somewhat agreed on the concept of

“private” versus “public” clouds as the

framework for defining clouds. Within

that framework there are generally three

categories of clouds:

Enterprise Clouds are computing

environments dedicated to a single

enterprise client. These clouds share

most of the features of the other cloud

models, but don’t suffer from some of

the risks associated with the other

models, such as security and availability.

Enterprise Clouds typically focus on IaaS

and PaaS models and are usually

designed, deployed and managed by the

enterprise itself, but may often be

outsourced to global IT providers such as IBM Global Services, EDS (HP), CSC or Perot Systems (Dell). In terms of

service level agreements (SLA), these are normally negotiated as part of the contract and are usually very

stringent.

Utility Clouds are similar to Enterprise Clouds, but are designed to support multiple clients (multi-tenant) within

the same infrastructure environment. Utility Clouds usually provide a fixed hardware and software architecture to

which the customer must adhere. This normally provides economies of scale and lower cost, but also introduces a

degree of risk related to lack of agility. Customers normally utilize this type of cloud to extend their dedicated

infrastructure (IaaS and PaaS) – utilizing their own applications and management tools within the environment.

Examples of Utility Cloud providers include Amazon (EC2, AWS, S3), Rackspace, Savvis, RightScale, TerreMark,

3Tera, Joyent, Elastra, Enomaly and GoGrid – with a cast of hundreds of other small to medium providers. SLAs

for Utility Clouds are usually fixed, with very little room for negotiation.

Services-Based Clouds are the largest sector within the market and offer a wide variety of capabilities. These are

not your typical services and focus more on PaaS and SaaS models – whereby the client utilizes the providers

application or platform (via APIs or SOA) as a way to outsource core applications (e.g, CRM, email, etc.), or to

leverage services that have been developed by others (e.g., Netflix, Facebook, Salesforce.com) to create new

offerings or extend the functionality of current offerings. These services are usually offered on a pay-per-use or

subscription basis and can dramatically reduce the capital requirements for new services as well as improving time

to market by eliminating the need to develop new capabilities (including the infrastructure to deliver them).

Private Public

IaaSPaaS

SOA-basedAPI-based

SaaSPaaS

Utility Cloud(Multi-Tenant)

Services-Based Cloud(Global User)

Enterprise Cloud(Dedicated)

Clo

sed

Op

en

IaaS – Infrastructure as a ServicePaaS – Platform as a ServiceSaaS – Software as a ServiceAPI – Application Programming InterfaceSOA – Service Oriented Architecture

IaaSPaaS

Cloud Computing Market 2012 - $42BSource: IDC

FIGURE 1 - CLOUD COMPUTING MODELS

SummaLogic The CFO’s Guide to the “Cloud” Page 3

Examples of Services-Based Clouds include Google Apps, Salesforce.com, force.com, Microsoft (Azure and

OfficeLive), Facebook, Twitter, NetSuite, Netflix, among a cast of thousands of similar players. SLAs for Services-

Based Clouds are usually less stringent (if provided at all, e.g., Salesforce.com basic contract) and are offered on

more of a “best effort” basis since the service is often provided at no charge (as a way to extend the market for the

service – e.g., Facebook and Netflix).

CLOUD CHARACTERISTICS Each of the cloud computing models have unique and at the

same time, overlapping functions. The following diagrams

depict a basic set of business issues that should be considered

when defining cloud strategies:

Capital Requirements – The amount of capital resources

that will typically be required to realize the business objective

enabled by the cloud computing service.

Elasticity Potential1 – The ability of the cloud service to

provide business capacity based on the current demand.

Reliability – The degree to which the cloud service is

available and provides the business service according to

defined service level agreements.

Security – The level of both physical and data security

provided by the cloud service provider to ensure business and

data integrity and confidentiality.

Manageability – The degree to which the customer can

monitor and control the environment that enables the

business service.

Variety of Services – The ability of the cloud service provider

to provide additional value-added business services (e.g.,

development platforms, subscription services, etc.)

Extensibility – The ability to quickly add new services to

support new business objectives.

Risk of Lock-In – The risk associated with selecting a

particular cloud service architecture that results in the

inability to transition without significant expense.

As seen from the analysis, Services-Based Clouds provide a high

degree of flexibility in obtaining services at a lower cost entry,

but at the same time suffers in the critical areas of reliability2,

security and manageability. The one advantage of Services-

Based Clouds is that they provide the opportunity to consume

services based on the demands of the business as opposed to

signing up for a fixed amount of resources.

1 Defined as “potential” since most cloud environments currently do not have the capability to reliably scale

up/down in an on-demand fashion. 2 See Appendix A – Cloud Outages for examples

012345

Capital Requirements

Elasticity Potential

Reliability

Security

Manageability

Variety of Services

Extensibility

Risk of Lock-In

Services-Based Cloud

012345

Capital Requirements

Elasticity Potential

Reliability

Security

Manageability

Variety of Services

Extensibility

Risk of Lock-In

Utility Cloud

012345

Capital Requirements

Elasticity Potential

Reliability

Security

Manageability

Variety of Services

Extensibility

Risk of Lock-In

Enterprise Cloud

FIGURE 2 - CLOUD CHARACTERISTICS

SummaLogic The CFO’s Guide to the “Cloud” Page 4

Utility Clouds offer a more well-balanced set of capabilities, but with a slightly higher cost of entry, which is

normally associated with the development (hardware, software, testing tools, etc.) of the business applications

that will run in the utility environment. But at the same time, the Utility Clouds provide a higher degree of

reliability and security, based on standard infrastructure models, common operational practices, and more robust

SLAs.

Enterprise Clouds provide the reliability, security and manageability expected for “mission critical” business

services, but at a significant cost of entry. This is due to the fact that in private clouds the customer normally3

owns the infrastructure (and associated system architecture responsibility) and simply outsources the operation

of the environment to a third-party. On the other hand, since the customer normally maintains control of

business and systems architecture, the risk of being locked-in to a particular service provider is reduced. The

downside of this model is that Enterprise Cloud providers usually can’t satisfy the dynamic scalability

requirements required by the customer since the acquisition cost of additional customer-specific infrastructure is

prohibitive. Additionally, since the customer controls the business and system architecture, the service providers

can’t or don’t provide a wide variety of services from which the customer can quickly construct new

business/service capabilities.

COMMON CLOUD MYTHS As with any new technology or capability, there is a high degree of “hype”, which often leads to a variety of

misconceptions. Cloud computing is no different in this respect. Before selecting a strategy upon which your

future business success depends, the following myths should be considered.

MYTH 1 – CLOUD COMPUTING IS SIMPLY ABOUT HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE…

…so it’s just another IT purchasing decision. While the hardware and software vendors would like for you believe

this, the fundamental premise of cloud computing is about service. Cloud computing is simply a means to an end,

and the focus of your cloud strategy should be driven by your business (and subsequently IT) strategy, and should

be outcome based. The customer/user of your cloud-enabled products or services should not be aware of or

concerned with the underlying technologies – which should be abstracted from the customer/user through service

interfaces. With the shift to service-focused IT, the role of the CFO becomes even more important in ensuring

that meaningful value propositions are developed that accurately reflect the business drivers of corporate cloud

initiatives.

MYTH 2 – VIRTUALIZATION EQUALS CLOUD COMPUTING

Like cloud computing, virtualization has received the lion’s share of attention and hype for the past few years. But

the two are not necessarily synonymous and are often confused. Virtualization technologies do play a key role in

enabling certain types of cloud computing services such as IaaS and some PaaS models, but virtualization is not

an absolute requirement for all types of cloud computing services – especially those services that are enabled via

APIs and SOA. Therefore it is critical to clearly understand the project aspects and costs associated with

virtualization and prevent unnecessary or unrelated hardware and software costs to be included in cloud

computing initiatives.

3 In some outsourcing agreements the service provider may acquire the assets from the customer and provide the

service on a “per unit” basis. Even in these cases there is still a fairly high capital cost associated with the development and maintenance of new and existing applications.

SummaLogic The CFO’s Guide to the “Cloud” Page 5

MYTH 3 – THE CLOUD IS CHEAPER

It depends… This is one of those areas that CFOs detest, and while we would like to present a binary answer for

this area, it actually does depend on your cloud strategy. If you are looking for a one-to-one replacement for your

existing IT service delivery infrastructure, then the answer is “no” – cloud computing will not necessarily save you

any ongoing operational costs. But if you are looking to build new service delivery infrastructure capabilities, then

you can definitely avoid capital outlays by acquiring IaaS and PaaS capabilities from a utility cloud provider. But

you must examine the total cost of ownership of the new service delivery model, including planning, transition,

operations and continuous improvement costs. Depending on the business model for which the new service

delivery capability is being deployed, the operational costs (data management, security, monitoring,

management, et al) may actually be higher than deploying dedicated infrastructure.

Application development and testing is an area that can enjoy the financial benefits of cloud computing services.

With the movement to agile development models that are geographically dispersed, the utilization of on-demand

(elastic) computing services that grow and shrink as your project mix changes can definitely reduce the capital and

operational costs associated with maintaining dedicated development environments.

MYTH 4 – THE CLOUD SOLVES AVAILABILITY, RELIABILITY AND SCALABILITY PROBLEMS

The fundamental premise of cloud computing is that it

transfers the responsibility of providing adequate and

reliable resources (IT and service instances) to the

cloud provider – thereby relieving the consumer of the

worry (and capital expense) associated with

maintaining these resources. In the Enterprise Cloud

model, this is typically true – since the underlying

business model is closely related to the outsourcing

model that has been in place for many years. Even

with these models the consumer must ensure that the

service includes provisions for service elasticity due to

seasonal demands, flash crowds and global events

which may cause abnormal stress on your business

applications. These contingency provisions usually

command an additional (usually premium) pricing

structure and require close management to ensure that

they adequately meet your demands.

As you move to the Utility and Services-Based Cloud models, the ability to lock in SLAs that provide guarantees of

performance becomes much more difficult, if not impossible. Utility Cloud providers will normally warrant the

performance of their compute, networking and storage (IaaS) and hosting/development platform (PaaS), but

again, as in the case with Enterprise Cloud providers, scalability is usually defined as an add-on service and must

be negotiated as part of the contracting process. Services-Based Cloud providers (SaaS and API/SOA-based) tend

to provide even less guarantees of performance, leaving you at significant risk in the event of service provider

failure.

GOOGLE AND PARTNERS DO NOT WARRANT THAT (i)

GOOGLE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR

REQUIREMENTS, (ii) GOOGLE SERVICES WILL BE

UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE,

(iii) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE

USE OF GOOGLE SERVICES WILL BE ACCURATE OR

RELIABLE, (iv) THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS,

SERVICES, INFORMATION, OR OTHER MATERIAL

PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU THROUGH

GOOGLE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS,

AND (V) ANY ERRORS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE

CORRECTED.

Google Applications Terms of Service

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/terms/user_terms.html

SummaLogic The CFO’s Guide to the “Cloud” Page 6

MYTH 5 – MIGRATING IN, OUT AND BETWEEN CLOUDS IS EASY

Just like the many differences in vendor-specific IT technologies, there are as many or more variations between

cloud architecture and vendors. As seen earlier, there are different models for clouds (Enterprise, Utility,

Services-Based), and identifying the business drivers and developing the right strategy for migrating your mission

critical applications to a cloud is the critical first step. Once you have selected a particular cloud strategy, model

and service provider(s) there a several business and technical issues that must be considered when deciding to

move to a new model: security, data migration, management and control, technical integration, and very

important (but often overlooked), process and culture.

The area of cloud strategy, migration and management has led to the birth of a new class of “as a service”

offerings – Integration as a Service. Companies like ServiceMesh, Sun Microsystems (Cloud Strategic Planning

Service), HP (Cloud Discovery Workshop and Cloud Roadmap Service), Cast Iron Systems, and Symplified offer a

variety of planning, integration and migration services to determine if your business services, systems and

applications are “cloud eligible”.

FIVE KEY QUESTIONS THE CFO SHOULD ASK… While there are many elements (most in continuous state of flux) of the cloud computing equation, there are a

few key questions that every CFO should consider – and feel comfortable with the response – when reviewing

initiatives that affect the corporation’s ability to deliver services and have the potential to alter its brand

perception.

The five questions shown here, while somewhat simple in their context, form the basis for further discussion –

ultimately leading to a level of assurance that all the CxOs within the corporation are in sync when it comes to

developing a new service delivery capability.

1 – WHAT IS THE CORPORATION’S STRATEGY FOR CONTROLLING THE ACQUISITION AND

UTILIZATION OF CLOUD SERVICES?

This probably the most overlooked question when it comes to cloud services. With the ability to acquire services

with the use of a credit card, it is becoming increasingly difficult to control how services are acquired – and the

potential downstream affects on costs, quality of service and brand management. Additionally, for those

agreements that are properly initiated, what provisions are in place to prevent overspending? Much like the

controls that have been put in place for office supplies, the CFO must strike a careful balance between business

agility and corporate bureaucracy…

2 – DO THE CLOUD PROVIDERS OFFER STANDARD SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (AND

WARRANTIES), AND DO THEY OFFER SUFFICIENT ASSURANCES FOR BUSINESS AVAILABILITY

AND CONTINUITY?

As seen from the Google example above in Figure 2, many cloud services do not offer stringent SLAs and

warranties. Granted, these can be obtained through supplemental negotiations (even with Google), but with the

ability to acquire services at all levels in the organization, it is critical that the enterprise has a clear and concise

policy with regards to the minimal acceptable level of performance and risk mitigation and management. Given

that line of business services are now comprised of multiple delivery models, this area requires careful oversight.

SummaLogic The CFO’s Guide to the “Cloud” Page 7

3 – WHO OWNS THE BURDEN OF SERVICE INITIATION, INTEGRATION AND MANAGEMENT,

AND ARE THE COSTS PROPERLY ACCOUNTED FOR IN THE BUSINESS MODEL?

With the diversity of cloud models, it quickly becomes obvious that there is no “one size fits all” solution. This is

also true for the diversity of methods for planning, execution and management of cloud strategies. This leads to

the necessity for a new set of methods, processes and tools (including third-party relationship and associated

management) to successfully execute a cloud strategy. Historically this function has been handled by IT, but with

the shift to business-oriented services enabled by clouds, a new structure is required – one that blends lines of

business and IT into a single delivery model with a common focus.

4 – WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA AND INFORMATION SECURITY, AND WHAT ARE THE

SERVICE PROVIDER’S POLICIES WITH RESPECT TO DATA PRIVACY AND USE?

Much has been written about the use of customer’s data (e.g., Facebook). Who owns the data in the cloud? You?

Your customers? Your cloud service provider? Do they use customer's data to promote their business interests

like offering advertisements based on the data content, selling the customer behavior/information for third party

marketing, etc., and if so, what are the potential brand implications for your company? Additionally, are there

any data locality issues (governance, security and privacy) regarding the storage and maintenance across

geographic boundaries?

5 – HOW ARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND LICENSING ISSUES ADDRESSED IN CLOUD

SERVICES AGREEMENTS?

Like data, the issue of intellectual property is becoming an increasingly visible component (issue) in cloud services.

The question of to what extent and for what purpose cloud services can be used is an area that is not clear in most

cases. This requires careful consideration when adopting a Services-Based Cloud approach, especially when using

APIs and SOA models. Are the guidelines, policies and limitations for allowable use clearly defined?

An outgrowth of the virtualization aspect of cloud enablement is the issue of license management. With the

ability to quickly deploy new “virtual” instances of service delivery infrastructure, the policies around proper use

and control of software licenses becomes more important. And this extends to third-party providers, who may

put your business at risk if they violate licensing and intellectual property rights.

SummaLogic The CFO’s Guide to the “Cloud” Page 8

SUMMARY Cloud computing is here to stay – at least for the foreseeable future. As stated earlier, it’s not just about hardware

and software. Cloud computing is a new model for business service development and delivery. As such, it

requires new planning, operational and measurement policies, practices and tools.

There are numerous advantages to cloud computing – first and foremost is its promise of agile business services.

But with that agility comes risk, which must be closely monitored. These new service delivery models now put the

management of your brand into the hands of your customers – they have the tools (and the clout) to reshape your

image. So one misstep in service delivery can have catastrophic consequences.

Historically the planning and execution of IT service delivery models was in the hands of the CIO, CTO and CSO.

With the convergence of business and IT, the role of the CMO, and more particularly, the CFO have become much

more important in ensuring the viability of these new approaches to providing real-time, global services to a new

breed of very demanding customers.

While there are hundreds of business and technical questions that must be answered to ensure a successful

deployment of a new service, this white paper focuses on a few key questions that the CFO, as a custodian of

corporate assets, should always ask when approving new strategies and additional resources. While they are

fairly high level in nature, these questions get to some of the key issues that, without proper consideration and

oversight, can result in significant impact to the enterprise’s bottom line – and reputation.

SummaLogic The CFO’s Guide to the “Cloud” Page 9

GLOSSARY Application Programming Interface (API) – a language and message format used by an application program to

communicate with the operating system or some other control program such as a database management system

(DBMS) or communications protocol. APIs are implemented by writing function calls in the program, which

provide the linkage to the required subroutine for execution. Thus, an API implies that some program module is

available in the computer to perform the operation or that it must be linked into the existing program to perform

the tasks.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – a computing environment in which dynamically scalable and virtualized

computation and storage resources are offered as a service. This service abstracts the number of service

consumers from the need to invest in low-level hardware, such as servers and storage devices.

Platform as a service (PaaS) – provides operating system and application platform–level abstractions to service

consumers. PaaS provides system resource–management functions to schedule processing time, allocate

memory space, and ensure system and application integrity within a multitenant environment. PaaS application-

development tools enable service consumers to build cloud applications that run on the hosted platform.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) – defines how two computing entities, such as programs, interact in such a

way as to enable one entity to perform a unit of work on behalf of another entity. Service interactions are defined

using a description language. Each interaction is self-contained and loosely coupled, so that each interaction is

independent of any other interaction.

Software as a service (SaaS) – refers to applications that are hosted by third-party service providers, usually

accessed through web browsers or installed desktop applications interacting with the hosted applications. In

some cases, SaaS providers also offer web services to allow enterprises to integrate data and business processes

with SaaS applications.

Web Services – automated information services that are conducted over the Internet, using standardized

technologies and formats/protocols that simplify the exchange and integration of large amounts of data.

SummaLogic The CFO’s Guide to the “Cloud” Page 10

APPENDIX A – CLOUD OUTAGES The following are examples of cloud service outages that occurred during 2008 and 2009. This information is

provided to simply show the types and frequency of outages, and is in no way intended to represent an opinion or

indictment of the service provider’s ability to deliver and/or the quality of the service.

Service Date(s) Outage/Impact

Rackspace

June 2009 July 2009 November 2009 December 2009

Multiple hardware and power failures, resulting in $2.5 million and $3.5 million in service credits issued

Twitter August 2009 Denial of service attack disables service for several hours

PayPal August 2009 Online payment services disrupted for over an hour due hardware issues

T-Mobile/Microsoft Danger October 2009 Multi-day outage for Sidekick users and possible

loss or corruption of data

Google Mail March 2009 August 2009 September 2009

Multi-hour outages resulting in loss of access to mail services

Microsoft Azure January 2009 March 2009

Multi-hour outages resulting in loss of access to Azure hosted applications

Amazon EC2, S3, AWS

February 2008 July 2008 February 2009 December 2009 January 2010

Multiple, multi-hour outages due to hardware/software failures, power failures, denial of service attacks

Salesforce.com January 2009 One hour outage due to core network device failure

ma.gnolia.com January 2009 Multi-day outage resulting in data corruption and loss

SummaLogic The CFO’s Guide to the “Cloud” Page 11

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Successfully identifying, analyzing and creating compelling value propositions for emerging technologies that drive

both top and bottom line value for global enterprises of all sizes is Robert Keahey’s expertise.

Mr. Keahey, who holds an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) V3 Foundation certification, brings

to his clients a successful track record of innovation, strategic technology and business planning and

development, superior service delivery and operational know-how complimented by a variety of information

technology industry experiences. He has a network into high level executives in the information technology

industry and has partnered with key players such as Microsoft, Sun, Cisco, EMC and Oracle to develop industry

leading capabilities. He also has relationships with numerous venture capital firms and has assisted in the

evaluation, development and acceleration of the business plans of several of their portfolio companies.

Visit his blog at www.robertkeahey.com

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