Cloud Score Card(CSC)

Business Score Carding in a Cloud

Author: Vinit SharmaEmail: vsharma@vmware.com

www.cloudscorecard.com

Cloud Score Carding - Balanced Score Carding in a Cloud

T he Cloud Score Card(CSC) utilizes the globallyaccepted balance score

card (Kaplan and Norton 1996).Success of Organizational strat-egies can be greatly enhancedby ensuring balanced focus onall four disciplines of the cloud

Financial efficiency is a everlasting goal of

organizations, and hence the CSC caters for this

strategic requirement. Special focus within the CSC is

on Chargeback (Cost Accounting) in a cloud. Accurate

cost accounting methods and models will provide

transparency, accuracy and assist with TCO (Total Cost

of Ownership) objectives. Consumption based invoicing

(internal or external) is a widely accepted mandatory

requirement of implementing and managing a

successful cloud (private or public). Performance

management and economical operations are constantly

sought after goals by any organization.

Although each organization and industrial sector is

different, there are many common practices that can be

adopted and fine tuned to fit each organization’s unique

needs.

It is the combination of each quadrant’s optimization that

leads to overall organizational success. Strategies and

Visions are set through thought leaders, executive

management and consequently implemented through

proven methodologies, frameworks and technologies.

Each quadrant of the cloud score card (CSC) has sub

categories, frameworks and methodologies to allow

organizations to excel in each quadrant. Key

Performance Indicators (KPI) ensure objective and

consistent measurement of success against pre defined

targets. Industry accepted KPI benchmarks can be used

for comparisons and drivers for further

The CSC aims to provide enhanced score card

information specific to the cloud computing and

virtualization (the key driver for cloud computing) era.

score card. Traditional core focus on financial performance is still appliedin the cloud score card, yet the three remaining quadrants also receivestrategic attention. This provides a higher probability of overall organiza-tional performance.

www.cloudscorecard.com

Cloud Score Card

Each discipline of the cloud score card has various sub categories, KPIs, best practices and methodologies that

help organizations automate and manage a cloud more effectively. White papers, ISV (Independent Software

Vendor) solutions and discussion forums all aim to provide guidance and answers for cloud operators and

consumers. End consumers are a key driver for many requirements of a cloud, and cloud providers operating

according to industry practices are more likely to receive business than those providers that do not.

www.cloudscorecard.com

Cloud Score Card

Chargeback (Cost Accounting) and Financial Management are a

key discipline deserving special attention. Therefore the Cloud

Score Card has explicit focus on Chargeback in a cloud and virtual

environment. While Chargeback in a virtual environment was

cumbersome several years ago, software solutions now automate

the majority of effort required to execute a Chargeback strategy.

Cost modeling is still a manual task, as accountants and financially

oriented personas need to discover the True Cost of Ownership

(TCO) of services and activities (covering tangibles and

intangibles). White papers and forum discussions aim to share

industry practices, Chargeback methods, Cost Models, Rate Card

values and best practices for evolving to the Hybrid model.

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► Global SME for Chargeback at VMware

► 10+ years Financial Intelligence experience

► Speaker at international conferences

► Chargeback and ABC Management (ITFMA)

► 5+ years Chargeback in a virtual environment

► Finance and Accounting background

► 6 Sigma officer and internal auditor

► Global SME for Virtualization Assessments

► VCP

► MCTS

► MCDBA

► OCP Developer

► MCSE

► BEA

About the Author:Vinit Sharma

Vinit Sharma, a senior consultant, special-izes in Chargeback and cost accounting incloud and virtual environments. Vinit holdsa globally unique certification in Charge-back and Activity Based Cost Managementfrom the ITFMA (IT Financial ManagementAssociation).

He has over 10 years of experience inFinancial and Business Intelligence, andhas worked in finance, accounting and au-diting. Vinit has been a speaker at variousinternational events, and is recognized as aglobal subject matter expert in Chargebackin VMware environments. He is also a glob-al specialist for VMware virtualization as-sessments and capacity management andhas written numerous books.

Every Virtual Machine has a price, someone has to pay

www.cloudscorecard.com

Cloud Score Card

Author: Vinit SharmaEmail: vsharma@vmware.com www.cloudscorecard.com

Cloud Score Card(CSC)

Business Score Carding in a Cloud