Insights

Cloud Computing - just how fluffy is it?

19 Apr 2011 Enterprise Architecture, SAP NetWeaver Platform, Virtualization, Infrastructure

Customer - "I need a cloud solution".

Supplier - "We have a cloud solution".

How many times has such an exchange happened over the last few years only for the end result not to satisfy the original expectations or requirements?

Cloud solutions are rapidly becoming the de facto basis for many suppliers and vendors. But what exactly is a Cloud Solution? And is the real reason that expectations are not always met simply because the phrase 'cloud solution' means different things to different organisations?

What is cloud computing?

Gartner defines Cloud Computing as "a style of computing in which scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service to external customers using Internet technologies". This is a very wide definition so it may help to look at some of the flavours that are out there (N.B. these are the way I look at the marketplace as opposed to any formal definitions):

At the lowest level there is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

This is at the lowest level. Customers are provided with physical hardware but with the flexibility in terms of capacity and a reduced investment compared to a traditional dedicated environment. This can also be split into 'Private' and 'Public' clouds where private is dedicated to a particular customer whereas for 'Public', the customer shares the entire infrastructure with others.

Server as a Service (SRVaaS)

Here the supplier provides the customer with a fully managed, virtual operating system image delivered to SLA's whereby the customer can install and run anything they want.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

This delivers a bare-bones managed application platform that the customer can configure and customise to its own requirements.

Application as a Service (AaaS)

The supplier delivers a virtualised & customised image of the application (e.g. SAP, Oracle, Sharepoint etc) to the customer, again managed to SLAs, that allows the customer to run business processes within the application(s).

At the top of the tree is what I call Process as a Service (PaaS)

Here, the supplier enables the customer to perform a business process (e.g. sales order processing or marketing campaigns) such that the entire technology stack is effectively irrelevant to the customer.

Probably the most notable providers in the Application & Process space are Salesforce.com and SAP Business ByDesign.

As you can see, the definitions of these broad areas are markedly different from each other and it is easy to see where gaps in solution and expectations can become very wide indeed.

What type of cloud computing solution is best for me?

Well, in true consultancy style, the answer is - it depends.

For many organisations, the thought of handing over the management of all business systems, both critical and non-critical, fills IT Directors with dread. Quite rightly so as for many there will be data protection issues, security concerns about where data is held and who has access to it. Many organisations have specific non-functional requirements that are simply not deliverable within a cloud environment.

However, not everything needs or should be delivered by 'the cloud'. There is an almost bewildering array of offerings in the ecosystem ranging from web-based office functionality (e.g. Google apps, Microsoft Office 365), through email & web site provision, up to complete business application suites (SAP Business by Design, Oracle on Demand)

For large organisations, high volume, time & business critical transaction processing workloads are, in many cases, best managed internally or via an outsourcing provider on dedicated infrastructure. For the smaller, niche functionality and applications that can be described as 'edge' applications, there is a case for these to be delivered 'as-a-service'. An example of this could be specialist analytics (e.g. Banking) whereby the core data warehouse remains in-house but the specialist data manipulation is provided by a cloud-delivered application run by a specialist service provider.

For smaller organisations it is less clear, as in some scenarios, it is now the case that all a business needs to provide its staff with is a netbook (or Tablet) and a 3G data connection, with everything else being delivered as-a-service from 3rd parties.

So where do we go from here?

Whatever the size of an organisation, its non-functional requirements or even the market it serves, one of the key challenges facing IT Directors will be how to integrate on-premise delivery with cloud-provided functionality. Business users will demand seamless and secure service delivery and at the end of the day, they don't care where their IT service is delivered from...they are only concerned about whether it works and how quick it is. 

So, back to the title of this blog - how fluffy is the Cloud? Well, my view is that it can be very fluffy if your IT strategy doesn't include at least the evaluation of Cloud Services. You also need to be clear what can (and what should) be delivered from the Cloud from a business perspective.