Cloud Brokers and the Health Industry Andrea Bilobrk

A Cloud Broker is a type of service provider who performs certain value-added functions

Cloud exchange –match providers between buyer and suppliers requirements. Cloud Exchange

 Access to large number of services  Flexibility in types of solutions  Helps foster competition between service providers  Risk of interoperability issues  Still dealing with multiple vendors  Integration and support needs to be clarified in SLAs to avoid future conflicts Customer Requirements Service Provider Offerings Cloud Exchange

Technical Cloud Broker–orchestrating functional APIs, service integration. Customer

 Provides higher level of support  Additional services including reporting, billing and analysis  Full end-to-end solution containing different vendor solutions  SLAs remain critical  Broker is a reseller, not a provider Customer

Cloud Business Broker – pre-contract obligation, much like an insurance broker, or service lifecycle operations etc. Customer

 Able to provide multiple offerings from different vendors  Acts as intermediary for pricing and contracts  Can aid in deploying cloud services across multiple platforms  Do not add additional services or functionality Cloud Business Broker Provider 1 Provider 2 Provider 3 Provider 4 Customer

 Some service providers already have the capabilities to provide Cloud Broker services such as offering infrastructure services in conjunction with additional offerings such as SaaS and security.  The difference for Cloud is the type of resources that need to be orchestrated (switched & managed).  Traditional service providers can perform the “bigger” cloud broker role and leaving the technical one to another provider/platform.  Service providers already support services including billing, assurance, customer reach and the ability to scale operations to meet the needs of regulated industries

 Technical Cloud Brokers provide additional expertise to augment existing infrastructure with new services.  Technology agnostic as their function is to provide a platform to integrate multiple services.  Provides additional value through analytics and reporting platforms that are not often included in cloud services  For highly regulated industries, technical cloud brokers can provide compliant environments and auditing support.

 Identify which processes and services are better served through outsourcing to a service provider.  When looking at any service provider model, including brokers, the SLA will be a key influencer on how services are delivered and supported.  Look for brokers who are technology agnostic to reduce the risk of vendor lock-in and interoperability issues.  Consider additional services including managed and professional services (ie: Security)