Visibility in the Clouds: Using Systems Engineering to Demystify Cloud Computing

As CTO or CIO. you are responsible and accountable for delivery of services to the organization. Cloud Computing presents an attractive option for many organizations based on the promises of reduced costs (especially CAPEX investment), on-demand scaling, improved Service Levels, etc. The marketing message in this industry is all about "Don't worry about the detailed design. We're the professionals. We got this."

While you can delegate responsibility of service delivery to an outsource provider, you are still on the hook for success/failure.

The dilemma for the CTO / CIO: Cloud Computing is all about abstraction, so how do I manage my services if I don't know how they are deployed? How do I ensure the security of the company's Crown Jewels (proprietary data)?

I recently hosted a webinar for the George Washington University's Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering. The focus of this webinar was to use Systems Engineering best practices to take the mystery out of Cloud Computing. Check it out:

Visibility in the Clouds: Using Systems Engineering to Demystify Cloud Computing

Abstract: The rapid adoption of Cloud Computing is driven primarily by issues of cost performance. The Public Cloud Computing model is particularly attractive to organizations because of the low startup costs and the transition of Capital Expenses (CAPEX) to Operations Expenses (OPEX). The hallmark of Cloud Computing is that it abstracts the infrastructure and appreciation from its users (and therefore clients). Before migrating into a Cloud Computing, organizations have to find a way to part the mists and understand the system-level implications of this move in terms of interoperability with legacy systems, end to end performance of this distributed system of systems, and cybersecurity. In this webinar, Dr. Sahlin will walk through the Systems Engineering Vee model and demonstrate how using standard modeling techniques (UML, SYSML, DoDAF) can help take the guesswork out of migrating to the Cloud and help improve not only your organization's performance but also your cybersecurity profile.

As an added benefit, viewing this webinar counts as CEUs for many industry certifications!