I am currently working on extending the CBDI-SAE meta model for Cloud. I started this exercise by making some specific assumptions:
1. I am interested in the larger enterprise perspective; enterprises probably need more knowledge of the underlying capabilities than SMEs if for no other reason than good governance
2. For similar reasons I am exploring primarily the SaaS and PaaS layers because most enterprises will usually outsource the infrastructure, even if its private.
3. And in defining the meta classes for these layers I am interested in supporting an application modernization process and life cycle because, again, that’s where most enterprises are at in their Cloud efforts.
In looking at some of the excellent work that has been published already on Cloud, particularly by NIST, I was struck by the Provider centric focus of all the deliverables. I suppose I shouldn’t be so surprised because most of the work is being supported by service provider based people. Yet, in context with my assumptions above, I am finding the models not as helpful as they might be. The NIST Reference Architecture is mostly Actor centric, yet the Provider capabilities are expanded, whereas the Consumer, Broker and Auditor are either not expanded at all or at a very superficial level. Well it’s all superficial, but nevertheless it presents a very unbalanced picture.
So pretty soon I decided that (at least) my initial model would be a Consumer View – because that’s the primary requirement of enterprises. And of course I find a high level of overlap with the SAE model because the Cloud from the Consumer perspective is all about services. But there are some interesting alterations and extensions that I will be detailing in due course.
If anyone is working on meta models in this area I would be very interested to hear from them.
