On any given day, we speak to customers and partners who speculate cloud computing is either an over hyped term destined for obscurity or the greatest promise for the future of Information Technology and today's high availability computing needs. While there is a great deal of fanfare associated with the cloud, our belief based on customer and partner feedback is that the hype will prove to be well deserved.
Our thoughts are echoed by those of Gartner that predict by 2012, 20 percent of organisations will own no IT assets as cloud-enabled services increase.
Vital role of channel
It is also our belief that the channel will play a vital role in the uptake and success of cloud-enabled services. Given the dual charge to develop IT strategies and protect an organisation’s information assets, the channel has an obligation to adopt cloud computing carefully.
This adoption will come at a cost – the cost to develop skills, expertise and new service levels – which implies all members of the channel are not created equal. Only those channel partners with strong balance sheets, a long term commitment and rigorous operational discipline will be able to adequately embrace and capitalise on the customer trend towards cloud computing. During this period of highly disruptive cloud technology choices to evaluate, there is a limited window of opportunity to develop a strategy to gain maximum benefit from a ‘Trusted Cloud’ service provider.
Buy only what is needed
In order to sort between the hype and the reality, let's consider a consistent understanding of the definition of cloud computing and why it fits the profile of a significant and disruptive trend. Cloud computing represents the inexorable movement towards transitioning computing from hardware and software that we procure with capital expenditures to a pay as you go, provisioned utility-like service that is consumed as needed and paid for with operating cash flow.
Cloud computing offers customers an option to eliminate wasted computing power by only buying what is needed, as additional compute resources can be allocated dynamically. This dynamic model facilitates business agility allowing customers to select capacity, service and provisioning “as required“ which means expense follows demand vs. expense is a sunk, lost cost. Small and medium enterprises with modest investments in legacy computing have already adopted cloud computing aggressively and their productivity gains are putting competitive pressure on larger organisations to do the same.
Technologies like virtualisation are used to extract every available CPU cycle and free disk space. New management tools – built for cross platform interoperability - have been devised to automate customer provisioning and resource allocation.
One inevitable consequence of building an efficient economy of scale is the co-location of several customers’ data and other assets within shared data centres, separated by new and often untested management controls.
New platform
Another major implication, perhaps the most fundamental of all, is the fact that the new technical architecture that enables this economic efficiency is essentially a new application development platform. Major platform shifts are rare generational occurrences in computing. Software is being reinvented in the cloud and businesses are being reinvented by this new paradigm. The unprecedented rate of change and development in a “live” operating environment means the need for a competent, agile and trusted channel is of paramount importance.
Whilst the advent of the cloud computing trend is clearly gaining momentum, there are legitimate questions to be raised regarding the timing to migrate to cloud computing, particularly for extremely sensitive information and mission critical processes. Customers have been clear on this point – any decision to migrate workloads and services to the cloud will be taken with great care and only after a thorough assessment of risk to return is completed. In most cases, customers will once again turn to their trusted advisers in the channel for help with the assessment, procurement and migration of identified workloads and services.
Security concerns
A recent IDC survey of CIOs reveals that 89 percent of those surveyed list security concerns as the primary inhibitor to the speed at which they are considering a move to the cloud. As such, an immediate opportunity for the channel is to offer a comprehensive security audit in partnership with trusted vendors in the identity, access management and security business.
Audits will help customers discover where sensitive information resides within an organisation, how it is shared and who has access to it and where the potential risks may lie in their current or proposed network architecture. The partner who works with a customer on this critical assessment, is then ideally positioned to help design and build a cloud-based IT strategy that supports the future needs of the organisation. Underpinning this strategy will be the appropriate technologies and processes that address complex information management, workloads and security requirements including automating business processes, mitigating security risks and laying the foundation for compliance with internal policies and external regulations.
Tremendous opportunity
And this is just the start of what should blossom into a tremendous opportunity for the channel over the next few years. The channel has a huge opportunity to influence the direction of cloud computing, the IT industry and the capabilities delivered by cloud providers through their work with customers. All stakeholders are beholding to the customer and the channel often has the trust and accountability for guiding customers forward with the market and their evolving business requirements.
With proper focus, early investment and a commitment to developing customer ready expertise, the channel is in a perfect position to guide customers from the precipice of hype to the stable service environment and benefits that cloud computing will deliver. The journey towards the benefits of leveraging the Cloud begins with the first, trusted and secure, step.
Are you ready to take your customers there?
