CDW Outlines Cloud Computing Ambitions

Five Ways to Prepare for the Enterprise Cloud

As part of an effort to provide a set of managed IT services in the cloud, CDW has announced that it will now manage implementations of the Microsoft Azure cloud on behalf of its customers.

Best known as a multi-billion dollar reseller of IT hardware and software, CDW in recent years has expanded its service portfolio to include managed services for IT hardware and software installed on premise. Now Stephen Braat, vice president of cloud and managed solutions for CDW, says the company is expanding the scope of those services to include the cloud.

While not committing yet to providing managed services for clouds other than Microsoft Azure, the company does have plans to support multiple cloud computing platforms via its network operations centers (NOCs), Braat says.

In fact, over time Braat says CDW expects to deliver managed IT services across hybrid cloud environments made up of both homogeneous and heterogeneous cloud computing platforms. Driving demand for those services is not only the need to move application workloads between clouds, but also the fact that many organizations tend to manage IT differently inside and outside of the cloud.

Most of the on-premise deployments are running what are generally considered to be systems of record. Cloud computing platforms that are more agile tend to be used for so-called systems of engagement. The end result is a two-tier approach to managing IT that often results in increased reliance on IT service providers to manage cloud computing deployments.

Of course, time will tell whether this model will remain in use. As cloud computing continues to become a mainstream vehicle for delivering IT services, the line between external clouds and internal IT platforms will continue to blur. And as that process occurs, we may just revert to calling it plain old enterprise computing once again.