Efficient private cloud management will require an effective software deployment strategy. Start planning your’s now, says John Stetic, Global Director of Product Development for Novell®.

I’m starting to see some interesting products that help people build and manage a private cloud.  Very cool and very needed if IT is going to keep pace with business demand for new applications without losing control of existing assets, or compromising on compliance.

But, when people are looking at solutions for managing a private cloud their sights need to be set a little further than just quick workload provisioning and offering management.

It’s the right place to start but it’s not the full story.  If I’m an application architect and I want to start to build up my new app in the cloud I want my cloud manager to have some understanding of my app, right?  How it gets installed, how it gets configured maybe even who gets access to it.  So I’d like to propose three different ways that application architects will get their application deployed into a private cloud.

1.  Manually install the software – Go provision a workload into the cloud, log in – copy the rmp or exe and install it.  Simple, low effort and a total pain in the ass if you have to do it lots of times!

2. Use a virtual appliance - Simply grab your app from an appliance store deploy it and do a little configuration. Done.  This works well if your application is in an appliance format.  You have two choices if it’s not: go and build an appliance using an appliance building tool or create a VM, install your apps, put it in a template and call it an appliance.  This model works well if you are working with infrastructure applications.  It only makes sense to have your favorite app server or database or LAMP stack in a template. (But also think about how your going to configure that at deployment time)

3. Auto install the application at run time – Maybe it does not make sense to create a whole appliance for an application that you are going only run in one place.  There might also be a collection of applications that different architects do not want to have running in their deployed workloads.  So this is where having a good software deployment and configuration management solution integrated into your cloud offering can make a difference.  It gives you the flexibility to not have to have one template or appliance for each variation of application you will need to deploy; but it also allows you automatically have the right software installed in a repeatable manner.

So when your looking at building a private cloud, and I know you all are, think about how software deployment fits into the solution.  You don’t need it out of the gate, but as your cloud begins to grow you certainly will.