EDITORIAL NOTE

Your Journey to the Cloud

An iEnergy® Editorial Series
EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

Your Journey to the Cloud

Authors

Zainub Noor
Product Manager - GGRE - RM Integrated Solutions, Halliburton Landmark
Loulwa Salem
Senior Technical Consultant - LCS, Global Practice, Halliburton Landmark
David Seymour
Regional Cloud Lead, Halliburton Landmark

INTRODUCTION

Oil and gas companies are pioneers in science, engineering and technology actively
exploring and producing the most precious resource for mankind, and the industry
should stand proud of its achievements. Unfortunately, the adoption of digital
technology has remained slow, with the industry out of step with other sectors. There
are discreet areas where digital technology has realized benefits and has been
adopted, but the overall picture is still one of a siloed, non-digital, out-of-date industry.
“The time has come
for a re-evaluation of
Current market conditions are putting pressure on all aspects of the industry; in digital technology
upstream, we have seen significantly reduced exploration and development activity within upstream oil
and a relentless focus on cost to ensure business survival. These brutal market and gas, and
conditions will not be soon forgotten, and the industry must reflect and adapt to the Landmark believes a
“new normal.”
cornerstone of this
paradigm shift is
Thanks to advancements, modern digital technology could yield unprecedented value Cloud technology.”
for the E&P industry. Silicon Valley has already established the Cloud as the key
foundational platform to deliver services for its consumer base. Whether it’s Netflix for
streaming entertainment, Facebook for social interaction and collaboration, or complex
customer relationship management (CRM) systems, Cloud technology is an integral
part of their success.

The time has come for a re-evaluation of digital technology within upstream oil and
gas, and Landmark believes a cornerstone of this paradigm shift is Cloud technology.
As such, the Cloud can deliver lower cost simplified systems with the latest science
and engineering know-how to enable a more agile, collaborative business. This article
will provide an introduction to a series covering various opportunities to leverage Cloud
capabilities in upstream oil and gas.

Your Journey to the Cloud begins...

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EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

WHAT IS CLOUD TECHNOLOGY?

With the advent of digital technologies and computing infrastructure, companies have
moved away from desktops for data processing towards a client/server architecture to
share and utilize information for delivering services. However, with the passage of time
and an increase in data and users, computing infrastructure has increased
exponentially, in both cost and complexity. Hardware, software, support staff, and
building and managing utilities to ensure smooth-running operations have become a
larger and significant burden on IT.

The next advance in sharing resources comes not from inside your organization, but
from outside by sharing resources in a controlled and secure manner with third
parties—this is at the heart of Cloud computing. Resources can now be delivered on
demand, over the internet, for services such as computing, storage, servers,
applications, databases and analytics. Delivery via shared, internet-based, low-cost
service is fundamentally changing the way companies are utilizing digital technologies “The next advance in
for their businesses. sharing resources
comes not from
Not only is the Cloud changing the way computing resources are provided, it is
inside your
fundamentally changing the core of processing by the scalable, seamless sorting and
organization, but
managing of data across the globe, and the ability to connect workflows with real-time from outside by
access, by anyone, anywhere. As we centralize and connect, we unlock the possibility sharing resources in
of collaboration globally, and this is driving new and disruptive business models. Such a controlled and
collaboration and easy connectivity is exemplified by businesses such as Uber, Airbnb secure manner with
and the like, who rely on the Cloud to maintain a light business footprint, scale quickly third parties—this is
and easily and ultimately deliver services in a brand-new way.
at the heart of Cloud
computing.”

THE CLOUD IS HERE TO STAY

Digital technology innovation can be likened to a funnel, with many new ideas entering
the top of the funnel and only the long-lasting, enduring technology advancements
falling through and maturing. Cloud computing is very much an enduring, mature
technology, with an exponential rise in investment and use as companies have
realized the benefits and gained more confidence in its security.

The Cloud and the public internet is now an everyday part of many people’s lives
around the world in some form. This began with very basic uses, but is gradually
increasing in complexity and value, with businesses now deploying mission-critical
systems and core business applications via the Cloud.

Public Cloud provisioning remains a competitive and commodity market, with some
interesting dynamics.

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EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

As the usage of certain Cloud providers has grown, prices have been driven down,
truly reflecting the economies of scale possible by sharing computing resources.

Many E&P organizations have taken initial steps towards the Cloud, with some
systems and functions transitioned, though the industry stands firmly at the
2
crossroads, perhaps ready to enter the new era.

CLOUD MODELS

One of the most fundamental decisions an organization looking to move to Cloud has
to make is which Cloud model to go with. The choice between public, private or hybrid
Cloud will largely depend on individual company needs and challenges. So, it’s
important to know what each of these models offers and which scenario is most
applicable for your E&P organization.
“As the usage of
Private Cloud
certain Cloud
providers has grown,
A private Cloud solution is one that resides on the actual premises of an organization;
prices have been
it is within their network, and all the data and applications are protected behind their
driven down, truly
firewall and other corporate security measures. This solution is ideal for companies reflecting the
that have readily available data centers to house the Cloud infrastructure (hardware economies of scale
and components necessary to run the solution). It is also ideal for companies that have possible by sharing
strict security or data residency requirements and where a public Cloud is not available computing
or has challenging connectivity limitations. The main drawback of this model, however, resources.”
is that it still requires a considerable effort in management, maintenance and updating
of the data center and infrastructure, all of which usually remains the responsibility of
the IT team.

Public Cloud

A public Cloud is the other end of the spectrum, with applications and data residing on
an external provider’s Cloud infrastructure. The biggest advantage to public Clouds is
that responsibility of management lies entirely with the provider, allowing the
organization to focus on its core business rather than IT management. This type of
Cloud is ideal for companies looking for simplification, agility and shorter lead times
when deploying and using new products. It’s best suited for locations where public
Cloud coverage is readily available and accessible. The main drawback of this model
is that it tends to be perceived as “less secure.”

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EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid Cloud is a mix between a private and public Cloud solution with capabilities to
orchestrate and sync workflows between the two. This model, when implemented
correctly, can provide valuable flexibility to an organization. A use case in E&P would
be a company that uses a private Cloud for sensitive production workflows, whilst
using the public Cloud for less critical operations. Additionally, companies can use the
hybrid model for “Cloud bursting” to augment their private Cloud capabilities in such
workflows that require a short-term spike need for resources, such as High
Performance Computing for simulation or processing, and data analysis operations.
The biggest inhibitor to this model remains the complexity it introduces into the design
of the solution.

VALUE OF THE CLOUD

“The benefits and
value of the Cloud
are both wide-
The benefits and value of the Cloud are both wide-ranging and transformative, as they
ranging and
can fundamentally change the way a business operates in terms of people and
transformative, as
processes. But, whilst the Cloud brings us new possibilities, why adopt if there is no they can
intrinsic value and benefit? The answers outlined below will be explored in greater fundamentally
detail in articles throughout the series. change the way a
business operates in
Total cost of ownership
terms of people and
Cost is a key consideration in any business decision, and Cloud offerings have the processes.”
ability to provide alternative cost models and reduce the total cost of ownership. This
total cost of ownership improvement comes from removing the need for routine
investment in expensive capital purchases of workstations, servers and infrastructure.
Operating expenditure can also be reduced or refocussed by removing the need to run
and operate a local complex computing system; all of the management and operations
are included as part of the Cloud service. Specialised personnel can then focus on
other activities. An organisation can also get more for their money by benefiting from
the economies of scale that can be gained via multi-customer data centres, and
service providers can offer more efficient and effective single points of contact for
support.

Simplification

A simplified working and operating environment brings less challenges for end users
and the IT team. Real estate can be reduced or re-used, as there is a reduction in the
physical space required for hardware in IT data centres and for the desktop user.

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EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

Networking connections are also simplified, as the need is reduced for a high capacity
system that can transfer significant data in a burst manner. A Cloud system maintains
a continual, low bandwidth connection to the Cloud. Finally, a simplified, standardised
Cloud petrotechnical environment allows IT teams to focus on higher value activities.

Business agility

With the turbulent nature of the energy industry, modern organisations need to be able
to adapt quickly to changing demands in petrotechnical system usage. This usage
must expand and contract quickly, as well as allow instant temporary allocation. New
advances are constantly emerging as we push the technical boundaries of engineering
and science in the upstream world; regular updates and upgrades of software allow an
organisation to take advantage of these latest developments. With a Cloud-based
solution, Landmark, a Halliburton business line, can rapidly roll out software upgrades,
enabling access to the best technology to support exploration and production activity.
In this case, multi-month rollout programmes can be completed in a matter of hours. “As upstream
As upstream organisations work on fewer, but more complex, projects, this may organizations work
change the demand for capacity; i.e., some project teams may need access to a very
on fewer, but more
complex, projects,
high level of computing resource for a short time. Since a Cloud-based system
this may change the
virtualises the hardware, it can assign very large amounts of memory to individual
demand for capacity;
users just for the duration of the project, and then return the memory to the “pool” once i.e., some project
the project is complete. This virtual nature of the Cloud system also allows rapid teams may need
(within hours) deployment of resources for staff to efficiently pursue a new project, access to a very high
venture or affiliate. level of computing
resource for a short
All of this combines to enable the business to move very quickly and allow IT to time.”
support the pace of modern business.

Global collaboration

The Cloud is available anywhere and anytime; thus, making collaboration more
achievable than ever before across various geographies, so that employees can do
more together and do it better through the sharing of data and application interactions
in real time.

The new generation of workers put an increasing emphasis on their work-life balance.
The Cloud makes it possible for them to contribute and provide their expertise no
matter where they are.

Typical examples of this include remote collaboration between operator staff, as well
as partner and JV companies, which can be enhanced with a Cloud solution. Staff with
the right credentials are able to access their petrotechnical environment from
collaborative meetings rooms, or within partner companies.

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EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

Collaboration workflows are also enabled by the Cloud. Guided systems can
orchestrate a step-by-step approach to complete a business task, such as designing a
well. These tasks can operate in a central, Cloud-based system, allowing all sub-
contractors to remotely take part in an optimized workflow, fully audited and controlled.

Closer collaboration across the industry as a whole is being driven by the cyclical
economic environment of oil and gas, scarcity of skilled resources, advancement of
digital technologies and rapid pace of innovation. Landmark is sponsoring an
OpenEarth™ community via a centralized and integrated Cloud infrastructure to
provide a platform for the energy ecosystem to harness the power of open innovation.

Faster access to high-tech resources and new technology releases

With modern, high-science and engineering workflows and systems needed in

upstream, the demand for highly-skilled, specialist expertise means some
organizations either have to pay a high price for temporary resources, or struggle to
gain access to the new technology. The Cloud can help by outsourcing the installation, “In a digital E&P
management and support of these systems. Currently, organizations can take months business model, the
or years to adopt new technology versions. Often, this means they are years behind
field, the front office
and the back-office
with the latest hardware trends or software releases. Contrast that to the Cloud, which
data all tie together
remains current with providers, ensuring an infrastructure that is continuously updated
to provide complete
through ongoing development, testing and deployment practices. visibility of the
Digital E&P information
landscape, and a
Digital E&P, a.k.a. E&P Digitalization, has become the goal of many E&P Cloud system is key
organizations, which are using modern digital technologies to change their business to achieving that.”
models, transforming the way things are done. The result is a step-change in
performance and efficiency, allowing those companies to reduce their costs and
increase their revenue simultaneously.

In a digital E&P business model, the field, the front office and the back-office data all
tie together to provide complete visibility of the information landscape, and a Cloud
system is key to achieving that. The Cloud enables many of the more advanced and
high-impact technologies to operate—from Machine Learning and Big Data Analytics
(which need access to all data), to microservices generating unlimited numbers of
scenarios and what-if analysis.

Open innovation

The cyclical economic environment of oil and gas, scarcity of skilled resources,
advancement of digital technologies, and rapid pace of innovation, leads us towards
closer collaboration across the industry as a whole. Landmark is sponsoring an
OpenEarth™ community via a centralized and integrated Cloud infrastructure to
provide a platform for E&P companies to harness the power of Open Innovation.

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EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

Business continuity and disaster recovery

Any business relying on digital technology must make contingency plans in the event
that it fails. What to do in the face of man-made or natural disasters, including IT
failures, must form part of a wider business continuity plan. Office closures due to
major storms, earthquakes or simple power failures can easily affect the ability of an
organization to continue operations. The Cloud gives us new tools and options in the
realm of business continuity and disaster recovery; whereby, systems can easily be
replicated to offsite global locations, and further layers of redundancy can be added to
help ensure the digital does not affect the physical in E&P.

CHALLENGES

The Cloud is here and available today, and it provides many benefits; so why then
have some organizations been slow to adopt it? The answer to that lies in the fact that
some concerns still exist around the Cloud that hinder its widespread adoption,
particularly in the oil and gas industry.

Security and user control

Believe it or not, the Cloud can help provide more security and control to an
organization by virtue of centralization. How so? A lost laptop may not be of significant
monetary value, but the sensitive data held on it being potentially compromised is the
stuff of nightmares for any IT team. Cloud computing provides greater security in these
types of situations because the data is securely stored. In addition, the central nature
of the Cloud gives organizations greater control of their applications and data, by
allowing them to quickly add or remove permissions for employees or partners, as
needed; a task that is much more difficult with individual, distributed user systems that
need to be managed and kept current.

Fear, uncertainty and doubt

The notion of where to begin, what to begin with, how to leverage the Cloud for
business advantage is often a sticking point. This initial understanding is essential to
dispel the belief that something so complex within a customer environment can be
done so simply within a Cloud environment. The clarity on where to start, balancing
risk and reward, is becoming clearer for upstream organizations as they migrate to the
Cloud. Landmark is working with many organizations today to define these first steps
and working in partnership with your organization, we can make clear how to begin
and remove the uncertainty, jointly defining a journey to the cloud.

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EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

Data security

Perhaps one of the most common concerns around the Cloud is the perceived “lack of
security.” This is high on the priority list for oil and gas companies that put a premium
value on their confidential and proprietary data. Whilst this concern persists, it is worth
noting that Cloud providers have, and continue to utilize, the best in cyber security
practices to ensure their environments are well protected from various threats.

Cloud providers ensure their systems install the latest security patches and implement
various layers around their network security to help ensure detection and prevention of
attacks. Organizations can have more confidence with Cloud security, knowing that it
is, in fact, one of the focus areas for Cloud providers, who have dedicated well-trained
experts in this field. This alleviates yet another “must-do” for a potentially already
overwhelmed internal IT team that may or may not possess the in-depth knowledge to
implement rapidly changing security measures.

Solution complexity

Another concern high on the list for the oil and gas industry is what some believe is a
daunting effort to migrate to the Cloud. Let’s face it, E&P environments are complex,
diverse and multi-vendor in nature, processing large volumes of data—all of which
make a simple migration to the Cloud seem like an impossible task. Often times,
organizations buy into the idea of moving to the Cloud, but they are fraught with
questions, like “How?” and “Where do we start?” There is no simple way to resolve
such concerns; however, the choice of Cloud provider may make a difference. Whilst
almost all Cloud providers are experts to varying degrees, few really understand the
needs of the oil & gas industry or have the expertise to lead an E&P organization
through the journey to the Cloud.

Migration pathways

So, where do we start? Once a decision has been made to move forward with Cloud
solutions, the next questions are inevitably, How to go about doing this? Which
applications or systems? Which locations? Very few organizations have the risk
appetite or the resources and ability to execute a full-scale, complete Cloud migration
for all systems and applications. There needs to be an overall strategy, with a
migration pathway to the Cloud as a key output. Consideration needs to be given to
the existing ways of working and the tools used to support these. Many E&P
organizations are taking the opportunity to move to the Cloud in conjunction with
harmonizing or standardizing their business processes and workflows, realizing more
value than just an IT migration. Halliburton has helped several major E&P
organizations define this migration pathway through collaborative Cloud workshops.

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EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

LANDMARK CLOUD SOLUTIONS

The Cloud is an inevitable necessity for the oil and gas industry if it is to continue to
move forward into the digital age. Organizations are quickly realizing that they must
adopt this technology, and fast. Landmark’s own journey to the Cloud began with lifting
and shifting our existing technology into shared hosting centers over 15 years ago.
Over time, our technology solutions evolved, and continue to do so, taking advantage
of shared systems and the new distributed and elastic-scale computing and storage
systems offered by Cloud providers. This allows us to offer new and ground-breaking
Cloud-native capabilities: distributed seismic processing scaling instantly to thousands
of nodes to complete jobs in record time at minimal cost, micro-services allowing
engineering algorithms to be run thousands of times enabling thousands of different
models to be assessed, faster automated deployment of building and deployment of
systems allowing us to spin up scientific workflow solutions in hours at global scale.

The choice of Cloud provider will dictate how effective and smooth the transition to the “The Cloud is an
cloud can be. Landmark has been providing “Cloud-prequel” services for the oil and inevitable necessity
gas industry for over 15 years and as the technology evolved, so did our offerings and for the oil and gas
services. Understanding very well that every organizations needs are different has industry if it is to
positioned Landmark to be an ideal Cloud partner to meet these various needs. We continue to move
offer two distinct models for private and public Clouds specifically tailored for the oil
forward into the
digital age.”
and gas industry.

iEnergy®

Landmark is spear-heading the concept of openness in the oil and gas community and
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Landmark’s iEnergy® is the foremost digital frontend
and community for E&P; it provides opportunities to work, learn, contribute and
collaborate amongst the best of industry experts. iEnergy is also the portal through
which DecisionSpace® 365 offerings can be accessed and launched.

DecisionSpace 365 is Landmark’s SaaS offering; it provides Cloud collaboration and

on-demand global scalability and availability through the internet. In other words, it is
the public Cloud model. DecisionSpace 365 is a subscription-based model of
consuming software; whereby, an organization can pay on-demand for what they use.
This model provides flexibility and the ability to control and track spending through the
consolidated spend per user.

Furthermore, with DecisionSpace 365, an organization can rest assured their users
have access to the latest software releases and, therefore, more of the new desired
functionalities that help them better perform their work.

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EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

Landmark Earth™

Landmark Earth is the private Cloud model that allows an organization to benefit from
the Cloud, but from within the boundaries of their own network. The solution comprises
the E&P engineered appliance, which is specifically configured and optimized to run
high-demand E&P software. When implementing Landmark Earth, an organization
gets architecture complete with engineered, pre-optimized and pre-configured
hardware and integrated, pre-installed E&P software.

Landmark Earth allows you to customize your private Cloud and fully integrate it into
the existing IT environment. It is designed to run E&P software regardless of the
vendor. Furthermore, the solution is built according to a software blueprint that is the
result of years of expertise in best practices governing how E&P software behaves and
how best to configure the hardware.

Choosing Landmark Earth delivers further benefits in more efficient management and
maintenance of the solution over the course of its operation, even when performed by
your own IT teams. Alternatively, the Landmark team may be chosen to manage the
solution, getting closer to a “no-touch” environment with the peace of mind a private
Cloud solution brings.

DecisionSpace® 365

DecisionSpace 365 is Landmark’s Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, offering

Cloud collaboration and on-demand global scalability and availability through the
internet. In other words, it is the public Cloud model. This SaaS solution is available
and accessible through iEnergy Cloud, an end-to-end Cloud solution designed
specifically to meet the needs of E&P organizations, as it helps reduce total cost of
ownership and accelerate time to value.

DecisionSpace 365 is a subscription-based model of consuming software; whereby an

organization can pay on-demand for what they use; this model provides flexibility and
the ability to control and track spending through the consolidated spend per user.

SUMMARY

Your Journey to the Cloud series begins with this introduction article, summarizing key
aspects of what the Cloud is, how it can deliver value to an upstream organization and
which areas should be considered.

Throughout this series, we will explore in more depth many of the topics covered in
this introduction, addressing the tough questions and concerns specific to our industry.

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EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

Suffice it to say, Cloud systems are no longer reserved just for the innovators and
early adopters in oil and gas; the majority are moving to the Cloud to ensure they do
not become laggards. Other industries have done the heavy lifting, so that we now
have proven business models and mature technology developments, making the
Cloud available to all.

The benefits of the Cloud are now clear. The industry can collaborate more effectively
within operating companies, but also between service companies, partners and all
ecosystem participants. Cost reductions and simplification can also enable E&P
companies to tune their investment to their budget and maximize efficiency for the
road ahead.

Landmark is the leader in E&P Cloud systems across all solution lines. We continue to
innovate and drive towards optimizing new Cloud features that can benefit our
customers. Through our experience in offering Cloud technology, we have addressed
the challenges and stand ready with comprehensive solutions to deliver the value your
organization needs.

Join us as this series continues with one of the hottest topics, Security. The next article
will take a deeper look at data and security, exploring how concerns can be addressed
and dispelling some of the myths associated with this important Cloud-related issue.

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EDITORIAL NOTE | Your Journey to the Cloud

References

1. Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press.

2. Accenture – A new Era for Energy Companies.

https://www.accenture.com/t00010101T000000__w__/fr-fr/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-
Assets/DotCom/Documents/Global/PDF/Technology_2/Accenture-New-Era-Energy-Companies-Cloud-Computing-Changes-Game.ashx

www.landmark.solutions

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