Cloud computing is transforming Information Technology
Making travel arrangements recently, I was struck by the impact that the Internet has had on travel. Before the Internet, going anywhere meant calling a travel agent, trusting that they found the best options for you, and waiting for tickets in the mail. It was a time consuming and costly process. Today, I can hop on Orbitz or Expedia and see every flight and hotel option available in seconds, and be booked, checked in, and out the door less than a minute later. The Internet has had a similar transformative effect on communication, entertainment, news, and even dating.
Why is it then that IT itself still operates more like a travel agent than an Internet travel site? IT itself is one of the last areas of business to be transformed by the power of the Internet. In a small business, if you want a new IT service you call your local IT provider, tell them what you want, they give you a quote, and a few days or weeks later they have something set up and running. In big businesses, product groups send their requirements over the wall to an IT team, who analyze the requirements, procure hardware, install it, configure it, and a few weeks (or months) later has it ready to go. Need an upgrade? Get ready to repeat the whole process.
Cloud computing represents an opportunity for the Internet to transform IT the same way it has so many other areas of our lives. Engineers can provision new servers in seconds with a few clicks, without needing to worry about capacity or capital budgets. Unlimited storage is available to anyone with an Internet connection and a credit card. You can setup an office PBX in minutes, with nothing more than a handset that plugs into your Internet connection. By putting all these services on the Internet and making them available through a web browser, we’re removing bottlenecks and allowing instant IT gratification.
Why has it taken so long for IT to improve the experience of IT? Imagine if traditional travel agents were the only ones who could build Internet travel sites. Do you think they would have been in a rush to do so? It’s clear there is a lot of fear in the IT community surrounding cloud computing, and much of that fear comes from a natural instinct for self-preservation. After all, who needs a mail server administrator, when there is no mail server? Who needs a backup operator, when there are no backup servers and backups are completed automatically and seamlessly all the time? The good news is that much of this fear is misplaced. As cloud computing transforms IT, IT staff will find themselves spending less time buying hardware, racking servers, and writing RFPs, and more time focusing on assembling and managing the best collection of IT services from across the Internet to improve their business.
There are still many legitimate questions and concerns about cloud computing. Will it really save money? Can it be as reliable as fully managed IT services? Who will I call when it breaks? What if the cloud provider shuts down? How can I ensure the security of our data in the cloud? These questions will take time to answer. Some of them will be solved through technology, and others will simply be better understood as cloud services have more time to evolve. The eventual transition is inevitable though – the Internet will transform IT just as it has every other part of our lives.
3 Comments to Cloud computing is transforming Information Technology
One strategic question remains about the cloud remains unanswered. How to deal with large corporations, such as Banks. They do not trust “the cloud” and won’t place their information “there”.
Dave WrightOctober 27, 2008
@Colin – That’s a good point, there are some companies that are never going to put their data / infrastructure on a “shared” cloud, however I think they’ll still benefit from cloud technologies by building “private” clouds in their own datacenters. To their developers & users it still looks like a self-service super flexible system. The IT staff just needs to keep sufficient capacity without worrying about individual application requirements.
Jon ZOctober 27, 2008
Saying that IT people are just trying to keep their job isn’t getting at the real issues facing cloud computing. The hard issues are:
1) Compliance – Sarbanes/Oxley, HIPPA, etc. etc.
2) Security – Can I be sure the data I put in the cloud won’t be hacked and cause companies stock to plummet?
3) Standard/Interchangeability – If the service provider to which I commit my company’s operations goes out of business or becomes unreliable, can I move to another vendor without much pain?
These are all solvable for many situations, but they are real and difficult problems. I suspect these will be easier to solve for small and medium sized business. Success awaits those that can deal with these issues in a satisfactory way.
October 26, 2008