In cloud computing, particularly the private variant, a supply chain of sorts exists, one based on virtual resources within the data center. In this supply chain, demand emanates from a member of an applications group who (in the vision of cloud computing) fills out a web form that identifies type and amount of resources, (e.g., two virtual processors, so much memory, network connectivity, storage, and so on) clicks the submit button, and, voila, compute resources appear, ready to use, in a matter of minutes. It is the job of IT Operations to emulate Wal-Mart and coordinate sourcing, logistics, and shelf (or in this case, rack) stacking to ensure sufficient resources are available to meet application group demand.
This is going to pose some challenges to IT operations, and, by extension, to IT organizations that want to implement a private cloud.
