Cloud service brokerages to boost service delivery: Gartner

Mumbai: As cloud computing evolves, combinations of cloud services will be too complex and untrustworthy for end consumers to handle their integration, says technology market researcher Gartner.

Gartner predicts that as cloud services are adopted, the ability to govern their use, performance and delivery will be provided by cloud service brokerages. These brokerages will use several types of brokers and platforms to enhance service delivery, and, ultimately, service value.

''With the evolution of cloud computing, one inescapable reality continues to surface and that is, as with service-oriented architecture before it, the fact that cloud computing promotes the idea of continuous proliferation of services,'' said Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and chief Gartner Fellow. ''Unfortunately, using services created by others and ensuring that they'll work - not only separately, but also together - are complicated tasks, rife with data integration issues, integrity problems and the need for relationship management. Hence the role of brokers to add value to services and to deliver new services built and delivered on top of old services.''

''The future of cloud computing will be permeated with the notion of brokers negotiating relationships between providers of cloud services and the service customers,'' said L. Frank Kenney, research director at Gartner. ''In this context, a broker might be software, appliances, platforms or suites of technologies that enhance the base services available through the cloud. Enhancement will include managing access to these services, providing greater security or even creating completely new services.''

Although cloud service brokers may be delivered through technology, there is still a need for brokerage businesses to exist to take advantage of the brokers. A brokerage is a service whereas a broker may simply be B2B technology, and Gartner believes that cloud service brokerages (CSBs) are one of the most necessary and attainable opportunities for cloud service providers. CSBs will broker relationships between a service consumer and a service provider.

Gartner divides CSB businesses into three main categories:
Cloud Service Intermediation
An intermediation broker provides a service that directly enhances a given service delivered to one or more service consumers, essentially adding value on top of a given service to enhance some specific capability. CSBs will offer intermediation for multiple services of any kind such as identity management or access management. Individual cloud service consumers will acquire these intermediation services through some consumer-focused service providers, such as AT&T, Verizon, Telestra or Virgin Media. Intermediation brokers could also supervise pricing and billing.