Excellent to Work With
Parting the Clouds: A detailed look at the promises, challenges, and top uses of cloud computing for mid-market companies.
Download
Cloud Computing 12-1-09.pdf (96.73 KB)
Date published: December 3, 2009
Length: 2,018 words
Executive Summary
Of all the “next big things” to emerge in the last few years, cloud computing is quickly becoming one of the biggest. It offers tantalizing promises: cost savings, scalability, unlimited storage, and more. But while it might indeed be the next big thing, it might not be the best thing for every company. For all of its benefits, it also offers potentially formidable challenges. How can you decide if cloud computing is right for you? You need to take a balanced looks at its pros and cons—and get a firm grasp of exactly what vendors and industry pundits mean when they refer to the phrase itself—before you can determine if you’re ready to make the leap into the cloud.
Introduction
No, it’s not your imagination—you really can’t open a trade journal or surf to an industry Web site without seeing something new about cloud computing these days. Major vendors such as Amazon, Google, AT&T, and Microsoft are offering cloud-related services, and a host of upstarts are flooding the market. High-profile companies and organizations—General Electric, the City of Los Angeles, and ESPN, among others—have signed on as early adopters. And in the surest sign of cloud computing’s buzzworthiness, the mainstream media has picked up on it—the Economist recently described it as something that will “profoundly change the way people work and companies operate.”
There are plenty of reasons for the hype. Cloud computing offers robust scalability, virtually limitless storage capabilities, and automated disaster recovery and software updates. It promises to liberate IT staffs from mundane tasks and allow them to focus on business-critical issues. And it can hold down costs by eliminating the need to sink money into new infrastructure. All sounds great, right? Absolutely. On the flip side, however, the sector is still in the early stages of its development. Plenty of questions are lingering about everything from data safety to connection speeds, provider reliability, and the like. Does it make sense for mid-market IT departments to embrace the cloud? This P-guide will help you address that question.
What exactly is the “cloud?”
For all of the hype about the cloud, one thing is clear: Practically everyone seems to have a different definition of it. Gartner defines it as a “style of computing where massively scalable IT-related capabilities are provided ‘as a service’ across the Internet to multiple external customers.” Forrester Research is a little more vivid, describing it as a “highly scalable and managed computer infrastructure capable of hosting end-customer applications and billed by consumption.”
Boil down those and other definitions and you're left with this: Cloud computing offers a way to use an outside provider's servers and/or software on a pay-as-you-go basis-rather than purchasing and maintaining those resources yourself.
Another key point to keep in mind is that there are multiple types of clouds.
2. A public cloud refers to when a provider offers applications, storage, and the like to companies or individuals.
3. A hybrid cloud is a blend of public and private cloud services, or a mix of cloud services and a client’s on-premises resources.
4. A virtual private cloud refers to when a provider virtually partitions a segment of its public cloud infrastructure for a single client.
There are also four general categories of cloud services:
Cloud Type #1: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
With IaaS, you outsource your firm’s IT infrastructure—operating system, data center space networking components, and applications—to a cloud-based provider. Examples include Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and similar offerings from GoGrid and Rackspace.
Cloud Type #2: Platform-as-a-service (PaaS)
Also known as cloudware, PaaS provides operating systems and services via the Web, allowing users to build and deliver their own applications and services. Examples include Microsoft’s Windows Azure Platform and the Google App Engine.
Cloud Type #3: Software-as-a-service (SaaS)
Now relatively common, SaaS is based on a simple premise: Rather than buying software, users rent cloud-based applications from a third-party provider. Examples: Google Docs, Microsoft Office Live, and Salesforce.com.
Cloud Type #4: Storage-as-a-service (STaaS)
Another simple and increasingly common proposition: A user rents space in a provider’s storage infrastructure, typically for data backups. Examples include Amazon S3 (which is bundled with the company’s EC2 product), and offerings from such well-known entities such as AT&T and Microsoft, and newcomers such as Zetta.
The four top uses of the cloud for mid-market companies
Use #1: Web-based applications
Depending on what source you believe, between 15 million to 20 million individuals and 2 million firms now use Google Apps, the online suite that includes G-mail, Google Docs, calendar and video functions, collaboration tools, and other cloud-based applications. While that adoption rate pales against the estimated half-billion people who use the non-cloud version of Microsoft Office, the Google suite has only been around for three years. It’s also scored some big wins of late—such as this fall, when the City of Los Angeles ditched its Novell GroupWise e-mail system for Google Apps.
As for reasons why, it comes down to cost and value. Google Apps only costs $50 per user per year, a price that includes phone, e-mail, and Web support. Individual users also get 25 MB of e-mail storage and can access their documents from any Web browser. And IT administrators get integration tools that allow them to customize Google Apps to their infrastructure.
Given all that, it’s also easy to see why Microsoft has unveiled the Office Web Apps package (which features cloud-based versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and OneNote), and why solutions such as Salesforce.com’s CRM offerings and Oracle CRM On Demand remain popular. It also explains why vendors are continuing to expand the range of cloud applications. For instance, Netsuite Inc. offers a hybrid cloud software suite that combines complete customer-facing CRM and e-commerce capabilities with back-office accounting ERP functions. And a relative newcomer to the space, Cloudworks Inc., offers a Web-based suite that allows small and mid-market companies to outsource practically everything. A company’s employees use a Web browser to access their desktops, applications, and files from Cloudworks. It’s an efficient, if somewhat ahead-of-the-curve proposition: never again deal with software updates, server upgrades, data loss, and the like.
Use #2: On-demand infrastructure resources/scalability
Use #3: Application development and testing
A growing number of providers have begun offering cloud-based software testing and quality assurance as an alternative to on-premises testing. Virtual test environments within the cloud offer tangible benefits. In fact, testing is in many ways an ideal use of the cloud: The cost is typically low, group collaboration is simple, and the testing can be ramped up/scaled down as needed.
Several virtual testing providers have developed unique niches. uTest Inc., which uses crowdsourcing—a community of nearly 20,000 on-demand professional testers—to track down software bugs and weigh performance and usability issues. Capgemini has begun offering its noted T-Map testing toolkit as a cloud service. Another firm, Skytap, offers a hybrid cloud model in which clients use their own testing tools in conjunction with the company’s cloud-based testing services. And in the last few months there’s been a lot of industry buzz over Soasta’s CloudTest product, which allows users to employ custom or predefined test protocols, and which is available as on-demand cloud service and as an appliance for internal testing.
Use #4: Data storage and backup
Of all the players in the cloud storage space, Amazon’s S3 product is perhaps the best known. And with good reason, as its benefits offer a snapshot of the overall advantages of storing data in the cloud. Users can store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the Web, at any time. S3 is easy to use, has an elegant user interface, and features standards-based REST and SOAP interfaces that work with almost any Internet-development toolkit.
All of that aside, Amazon isn’t the only cloud storage option. Providers such as Microsoft and AT&T include storage as part of their IaaS and PaaS offerings. Companies such as Intronis offer backup services that operate in individual users’ systems and automatically encrypt and back up data to off-site data centers. And a recent startup, Zetta, is positioning itself as capable of handling an enterprise’s primary storage (rather than simply backups and archives); its Enterprise Cloud Storage solution features encryption and data integrity checks designed to distinguish it from Amazon S3 and other vendors.
Challenges to cloud adoption
While cloud computing has undeniable and unique advantages, the industry still faces some significant hurdles. Bandwidth could be an issue—does your firm have the capacity to handle the increased traffic that comes with use of the cloud? Migrating to the cloud is not always as easy as advertised. Portability is still a challenge—switching cloud providers and moving data between clouds can be difficult. And reliability remains an issue. Last year, Amazon’s S3 service went down for several well-publicized hours, affecting hundreds of users (including the New York Times, which uses the service to store its archives). And earlier this year, numerous users lost data when the Google App Engine went down for the better part of a morning.
And then you have security. Maybe it’s a function of not having your data under your own roof (and perhaps not even knowing precisely where it’s actually being stored), but many people still have concerns about the true security of the cloud. And while providers have taken pains to install beefy encryption measures, some of the concerns are legitimate. By storing data entirely outside your four walls, you hand over control to your provider. Can you be certain that the vendor’s personnel don’t have access to your proprietary information and applications? Are there compliance regulations that will come into play? Can you access your data if the provider goes out of business or gets acquired.
Conclusion
Practically everyone agrees that cloud computing will continue to change the IT world. The question is when the changes will start to take place on a large scale. How should mid-market firms step into the cloud as the industry evolves? Ultimately, the best first step is to evaluate your readiness (see “Ready for the Cloud?” on page 3). From there, you’ll need to draw up a realistic business case that matches your core needs against a picture of the cloud’s pros and cons. As always, it pays to arm yourself with the information that can help you make sound decisions.
About Productive Corporation
Productive Corporation is a specialized software reseller that helps small and medium businesses across North America with software initiatives in security, storage, and infrastructure. We provide subject matter expertise, access to technical resources, and excellent customer service. We also strive to provide the most relevant resources for our customers.
About the Author
Chris Mikko is a Twin Cities-based writer and editor who specializes in technology topics.
Send a review of your thoughts of the, Parting the Clouds, P-Guide.
Sign up for our IT Professionals Forum to be a part of a peer group evaluating and giving feedback around emerging mid-market software technologies. The feedback from members of the IT Professionals Forum drive product development, volume licensing strategies and user management for many of the major software publishers in the market today.
We Can Help You
Deployment Questions
Licensing and Technical Support
help@productivecorp.com
800.726.4099
