Gartner Says Cloud Consumers Need Brokerages to Unlock the Potential of Cloud Services

Cloud Service Providers Must Begin to Partner with Cloud Brokerages to Ensure That They Can Deliver the Services They Promote

STAMFORD, Conn., As cloud computing evolves, combinations of cloud services will be too complex and untrustworthy for end consumers to handle their integration, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner predicts that as cloud services are adopted, the ability to govern their use, performance and delivery will be provided by cloud service brokerages. These brokerages will use several types of brokers and platforms to enhance service delivery, and, ultimately, service value.

“With the evolution of cloud computing, one inescapable reality continues to surface and that is, as with service-oriented architecture before it, the fact that cloud computing promotes the idea of continuous proliferation of services,” said Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and chief Gartner Fellow. “Unfortunately, using services created by others and ensuring that they’ll work — not only separately, but also together — are complicated tasks, rife with data integration issues, integrity problems and the need for relationship management. Hence the role of brokers to add value to services and to deliver new services built and delivered on top of old services.”

“The future of cloud computing will be permeated with the notion of brokers negotiating relationships between providers of cloud services and the service customers,” said L. Frank Kenney, research director at Gartner. “In this context, a broker might be software, appliances, platforms or suites of technologies that enhance the base services available through the cloud. Enhancement will include managing access to these services, providing greater security or even creating completely new services.”

Although cloud service brokers may be delivered through technology, there is still a need for brokerage businesses to exist to take advantage of the brokers. A brokerage is a service whereas a broker may simply be B2B technology, and Gartner believes that cloud service brokerages (CSBs) are one of the most necessary and attainable opportunities for cloud service providers. CSBs will broker relationships between a service consumer and a service provider.

Gartner divides CSB businesses into three main categories:

1. Cloud Service Intermediation
An intermediation broker provides a service that directly enhances a given service delivered to one or more service consumers, essentially adding value on top of a given service to enhance some specific capability. CSBs will offer intermediation for multiple services of any kind such as identity management or access management. Individual cloud service consumers will acquire these intermediation services through some consumer-focused service providers, such as AT&T, Verizon, Telestra or Virgin Media. Intermediation brokers could also supervise pricing and billing.

Intermediation brokerages and the broker products that support them will exist in three places. First they may reside in the cloud at the service provider’s location, allowing the provider to deliver a level of governance beyond the original service. Second, the broker may reside at the consumer’s location and may allow local management or administration of service levels. Finally, the service broker may exist in the cloud as a service and in this situations, a true brokerage service business exists independent of the original service provider or the consumer.

2. Aggregation
It’s unlikely that consumer organizations or individuals will be able to provide the data integration, process integrity or intermediation needed to bring multiple services together. An aggregation brokerage service combines multiple services into one or more new services. It will ensure that data is modeled across all component services and integrated as well as ensuring the movement and security of data between the service consumer and multiple providers. These aggregation brokers will exist primarily in the cloud as service providers in their own right, forming a layer of service provisions that approximates the application layer in traditional computing. In aggregation-style brokerages, the services brokered are generally fixed and won’t change frequently.

3. Cloud Service Arbitrage
Cloud service arbitrage is similar to cloud service aggregation. The difference between them is that the services being aggregated aren’t fixed. Indeed the goal of arbitrage is to provide flexibility and opportunistic choices for the service aggregator e.g., providing multiple e-mail services through one service provider or providing a credit-scoring service that checks multiple scoring agencies and selects the best score.

“What sits between you and the cloud will become a critical success factor in cloud computing as cloud services multiply and expand faster than the ability of cloud consumers to manage or govern them in use,” said Mr. Plummer. “The growth of service brokerage businesses will increase the ability of cloud consumers to use services in a trustworthy manner. Cloud service providers must begin to partner with cloud brokerages to ensure that they can deliver the services they promote.”

Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Three Types of Cloud Brokerages Will Enhance Cloud Services.” The report is on Gartner’s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=973412&subref=simplesearch.

This document is included in the Gartner Special Report “The What, Why, and When of Cloud Computing” The Special Report contains 29 pieces of research compiled by more than 20 analysts. In this research, Gartner begins to establish what people should do about cloud computing and how it might help, or hurt, them. As such, this research on cloud computing continues to be multidisciplinary and wide-ranging. By its very nature, the subject is broad, exposing risks and opportunities throughout both the IT and the business worlds. The special report is available on Gartner’s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/it/products/research/cloud_computing/2009/cloud-computing09.jsp?prm=6_8_09_CCC.

About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the indispensable partner to 60,000 clients in 10,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,000 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants in 80 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.