Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Saturday, September 15, 2012

to Cloud or not to Cloud

As you would expect much of my work lately has been discussion about the best way to use the cloud resources now available.  My answer is a predictable "it depends".  First, what is "the Cloud"?  and Second, what questions should I ask to figure out if it is right for me?

1."the Cloud"  is applications and solutions that are not located at your facility but are available through the internet and function as if they were at your facility.  That is the simplest way that I can figure out to describe it.

2.  Figuring out what questions to ask can be the tough part.  I think the reason for this is that there is so much excitement and momentum around cloud solutions that it's easy to forget to ask questions.  I'll say that I've spent a fair amount of time "un-clouding"  customer networks.  Too often sales people are anxious to sell what they've got because its the only tool in their bag.  So that might be a good first question:

 A. What type of solutions do you offer?  Are they only cloud based solutions or do you provide customer premise based solutions as well?  

I think for the time being the best solution providers will offer both types of solutions and will provide them based on the  requirements identified in the discovery process.  Most of the frustration I see has come from the inhibited performance that cloud based solutions can have when they are sold or configured incorrectly.  The reason is that by moving your IT resources to the cloud you have the potential to greatly reduce your speed of access to those resources.  In short, when you have to go over the internet to get to your cloud it can be slow going.  Next question:

B.  Can I see a demonstration of your solution and test it myself?  Can you explain to me how your solution will work going through the internet as compared to my local LAN?

I think a lot of the confusion that I see lies in the fact that most people (because they are not in IT) don't understand the difference in speed on your office network (LAN Local Area Network)  as it compares to the internet.  Simply put: most LAN environments travel at 100 or 1000 MPH  where as most internet connections are traveling at 10 MPH or slower.  Can you see the potential for a traffic jam?  What the best cloud providers do is make their application store information on both ends of the internet connection or they make it web based.  That does not solve the problem completely.  The next step is to make sure you have a large enough internet connection.  I think the 50 or 100 MBPS connections from Comcast work great! Next question:

C.  What size of internet connection will I need in order for this solution to perform at its best for me?

Final question:

D.  Whats the best solution for my business based on my performance requirements and the ROI of the competing solutions?

I'm fortunate to be working for a company that embraces both cloud and non cloud assets for our customers.  I'm not forced to guide my customers to a decision that they will later regret because of a limited product selection.  Honestly I don't think I would do well with such a limited product offering.  That being said there are some great cloud solutions like Office 365 and Backup and Disaster Recovery.

Thanks, 

Sunday, September 2, 2012