The Truth About "The Cloud"
The Cloud is the new term given to service provision via the internet. It is being touted as way IT is going, delivering IT services on a PAYG basis. But is the IT industry making sure that customers are being fully informed of the of the risks? Sean Elliot explains a few home truths.
"We'll make cloud computing announcements because if orange is the new pink, we'll make orange. Okay, fine, we'll do some cloud." Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle.
The IT industry often experiences waves of "killer solutions" & revolutionary technology. Sometimes these turn into tsunamis & others just disappear without a trace. Cloud Computing is the new terminology synonymous with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Application Service Provider (ASP) and Utility Computing & is currently receiving a lot of media attention as a result of the significant investments companies like Microsoft, Google & Amazon have made for their own Cloud services.
The concept of Cloud Computing is based on the outsourcing of computing resources. Rather than purchasing certain hardware or software at relatively high capital expenditure, companies simply rent applications from service providers and access them over the Internet. As an alternative to managing traditional IT resources, a host company takes care of the background technicalities and you simply connect to your services through a secure Web-browser - using them whenever needed. These services are hosted online on secure servers - a network of computers collectively referred to as "The Cloud".
Cloud Computing is here to stay, there is no doubt of this. Indeed, some of the services we already provide to our clients can be termed Cloud Computing. An example is our anti-spam offering which processes our clients' email out in the internet, before it can reach a client network. Our own practice management system is in fact a hosted SaaS application. We're also looking at SaaS options for some clients where it looks like a very sensible option.
However, like most technology changes, the first wave happens in the US & works its way across the Atlantic. In this case, businesses in the UK need to understand the key elements of detail & difference between ourselves & the US. One issue is that with a solution based in The Cloud, a key dependency is then reliability & resiliency of broadband connection. If a Cloud service is mission critical, then our advice is that broadband resiliency is a necessity. This isn't so easy to achieve cost-effectively in the UK. We are generally reliant on BT Open Reach ultimately & I'm sure not many people would like to rely on BT Open Reach in the event of a major problem! Some cities have the luxury of a cable option - ADSL & cable together present resiliency as it is unlikely both will fail at the same time - although the risk of this is Edinburgh is far greater at the moment with the tram works & a great deal of excavation going on! Other than cable though, there is no real cost-effective alternative option to ADSL which means there is likely to be a significant single point of failure in any Cloud Service solution.
The second issue of note is the small print relating to the standard agreements Cloud services providers have. They invariably admonish the provider of any responsibility for any failure or loss. We have heard tell of some providers altering their standard agreements following discussion, but for many SMB/SMEs, this will be unlikely. Consideration should also be given to retrieval of data from Cloud service providers in eventualities where it needs to be retrieved, e.g. a service provider going bust.
Finally, Data Protection need to be considered. With Cloud Computing, providers often do not state exactly where the servers holding your data will be located. The UK’s Data Protection Act 1998 expressly restricts certain transfers of personal data outside the European Economic Area : “Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data”. A potential problem here then.
In summary, the concept of Cloud Computing is good & we see a great future in it. However, there are some key fundamentals to be sorted out before it can really deliver on the hype being generated in some quarters of the IT industry. Some of these fundamentals could take some time to address, e.g. physical infrastructure changes in the UK to allow greater choice & resiliency of broadband connectivity. If anyone would like to discuss Cloud Computing ideas they may have or be considering, be sure to talk to us before making a decision.
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cloud computing
•saas
•utility computing