Suddenly everything is talking about clouds, the cloud (sometimes with trendy capitals) or Cloud Computing (usual with trendy capitals). Sometimes even with a hint of "air quotes". (Note: this has nothing to do with the little fluffy ones, cirrus, cumulus or the dark thing above your Financial Director on a Monday morning.) In this blog I hope to answer some common questions for you, mostly:
- What is it?
- Do you need it?
- What effect does it have?
- Where can I get it if I do need it?
I'll answer the first two in this blog, and the second two in the next blog (so you don't have too much information to digest at one time, and so I can get two blogs out of one topic...).
What is it?
Well, different people have different answers to this question, there is no real 'formal' definition of what 'cloud' is, however it tends to involve one or many of the following:
- It uses Virtualisation
- It runs from a big data centre somewhere
- It abstracts something to make your life easier
- It's delivered over the internet
- It's a rental model - you don't own anything
It's quite key to understand that 'cloud' is a term that can mean many things to different people and/or businesses, and what one person calls 'cloud computing' may be totally different from someone else. It also means that I'm not actually defining what cloud is - I'm defining the concepts that lie behind it. Let's take those one at a time and go a little deeper:
Virtualisation - the big V
This is the centre of what powers most if not all cloud solutions. Virtualisation is the process of taking a whole bunch of expensive hardware, cobbling it together with various cables and creating a virtualisation platform (something we call a 'cluster' in the IT world - doesn't contain nuts).
Inside this cluster you can run 'virtual' servers, which are just like real servers except you can't touch them (hence the 'virtual') - they're not imaginary. They can be powered on, upgraded, moved around etc. etc., however can also be seen as just big files inside the cluster itself. It takes a little leap of faith to 'get' this, and can be very confusing for non-IT folks to understand, but trust us it works!
A simple analogy is your home computer running your Word Processor and your Spreadsheet at the same time - both run simultaneously (or so it would seem) and both can be 'doing stuff' at the same time. Virtualisation is really just the big brother of this (except the Word Process and Spreadsheet in this case might be a Database Server and a Web Server).
These 'clusters' are relatively immune to stuff going wrong. It contains enough links and other technical wizardry to stop something simple like a cable breaking, a disk failing or even an entire physical box keeling over from stopping stuff working.
It helps make cloud computing work because it allows geeks like us to provide stuff for you (the customer) quickly and simply without the need to send staff in to install new kit. You can also remotely upgrade stuff with a few clicks on the mouse, and it's designed to make the best use of what you have.
This gives you a few key advantages:
- High resilience to stuff failing
As a rule, kit will fail, however your system is a lot less affected by it (note: not totally immune, but resilient). Something simple like a bit of kit not working, or a cable failing won't affect whatever service you are using.
- Up and running quick
If you need a new server (and you've done the right groundwork before hand), it can be there in 10-20 minutes. Not the usual 5-7 days waiting for delivery of kit, install time, coffee breaks etc. etc. We call this 'fast provisioning' (because it sounds technical). This allows you to respond to demand for services (whether that demand is virtual servers or user accounts etc. etc.).
- Changeable
The hardware each server runs on is also 'virtual', so you can change it around without having a geek with a screwdriver opening up boxes. You can even do some of this without even switching the server off.
Big Data Centre
Running from a big data centre means you are less likely to be affected by unplanned events (unlike the above topic, which makes you are protected against kit failure). Your office internet connection is probably either ADSL or possibly leased line. Which means it will fail at some point and you won't be connected to the internet (it's not an 'if', it's a 'when'). Data Centres usually have two, three or even more lines from different providers, usually over different physical routes (which means man + digger does not mean 'no internet'...). (Again us techies have a fancy name for this - diverse routing).
Equally you aren't guaranteed power in your office (you may have a UPS - aka big battery - but that only gives you 20-30 minutes). A Data Centre usually has a massive UPS coupled with a bunch of diesel generators outside (the one we use even has its own electrical sub-station). This means you don't run out of juice.
The same applies to fire protection, security, flood defence and various other things you probably don't want to think about and/or can't afford. Their business is to keep kit running.
Abstraction
Abstraction ties in with virtualisation to 'hide' all the complex stuff from you. You don't need to know that your server is running on a suite of Dell R610 Servers with Intel E5530 CPU's connected to a PowerVault MD3000i SAN via iSCSI. In fact you probably have no idea what that means. You don't need to - that's what abstraction does. (It basically means 'we hide stuff from you', but in a good way).
What you do know is that you have a Windows 2008 Server that is available for you to use whenever. Or that you have a Google Mail account with a certain login and password. It's just 'there' - available as a service.
The old way used to involve either you or a consultant making lots of decisions about what to buy, licensing, configuration, installation etc. etc. Cloud Computing does away with a lot of that as everything becomes a commodity instead, simplifying the purchasing process dramatically. And if you get the numbers wrong, you can change them (see above!).
Over the internet
This is not strictly true for all cloud solutions, however most of the common ones you can think of (Google, Amazon ECC, Microsoft Azure, Salesforce.com) are internet facing. Obviously some aren't (G-Cloud isn't in some aspects, some private clouds are totally not internet facing, or partially internet facing).
Being internet facing just makes it easy to work with - your mobile can pick up your Google Email, or you can have an App for your favourite SaaS solution on your tablet.
The advantage of this is you aren't tied to one physical piece of kit to access your solution - you could be using mobiles, laptops, desktops, tablets or even cyber cafes or customer's equipment. Or all of the above, it doesn't matter.
Rental Model
Financial People love this aspect of cloud - there is no capital cost (if you are creating your own private cloud, there is, but I did say these don't always apply!).
Usually, you don't own anything, you rent it. There may be a setup charge, but otherwise it is pay as you go. And the charging is often scaled based on usage (number of user accounts, quantity of servers, amount of storage space used, virtual server specifications, transactions etc. etc.).
This makes cloud very attractive financially, as the PAYG model scales very well for both start-ups and existing companies. It's also low-risk, as other than your internal costs (which will need factoring in), the PAYG nature means if you try cloud and it doesn't work, you don't lose massive amounts of cash.
Do you need it?
Not a simple question to answer, as it depends on your business needs, company size, cashflow and existing kit. The traditional approach to IT (big steel cupboard full of whirring boxes and flashy lights) is moving to cloud provision - so if you are considering buying stuff (specifically servers or software solutions) then look at cloud as it may be more cost effective, especially in the short term. It also might be more flexible or provide other advantages you hadn't considered. It isn't a panacea though.
Traditional multi-site companies (e.g. accountants, estate agents, lawyers, recruitment companies etc.) where there are lots of satellite offices can make excellent use of cloud solutions as they don't need expensive connectivity to use it - connect them to the internet instead of head office.
Single site companies can still make excellent use of cloud for teleworking, overseas working and partner companies, as well as virtual office setups.
Even a standard, single office could make use of cloud and its potential savings and benefits. To decide, it's best to investigate cloud when you are looking at your next IT upgrades - expansion, replacing hardware, reconsidering connectivity costs, looking at software upgrades or even downsizing.
So what's the downside?
Well not everything about cloud is perfect, otherwise no-one would buy new servers except Cloud Providers!
The key downsides are:
- Its internet based (yes, this was down as an advantage, but bear with me!)
- Security
- Availability
- Maturity
- 'Fit'
Internet Based
So how can being Internet Based be bad and good? Simple, if you *don't* have internet connection then your amazing cloud solution is useless as you can't access it! This primarily affects businesses that have mission critical stuff that can't be down for a half hour just because your ADSL line has failed. You need to bear in mind that if you have a cloud solution, your internet access is now critical and either accept that risk or do something to mitigate it.
Security
As with any maturing technology, the security aspects of cloud have associated risks. You are potentially transferring your company data (some of which may be subject to Data Protection) to a third party. Whilst I can't offer legal advice on this, it's worth considering the implications of this, particularly if you are storing or processing anything valuable (e.g. consumer details, credit card information) as you need to ensure this is adequately protected both by your cloud provider and in transit to them.
Equally there are a lot of risks with internet based systems and it's very easy to hack together a SaaS solution but much harder to make it secure and robust. Smaller players tend to be the ones to cut corners (I've seen this myself) and it is well worth looking for evidence of appropriate security testing.
Nothing could be more embarassing that migrating all your e-commerce to a new cloud solution only to find your customers card details on some black market list next week.
Availability
Whilst all the evidence above says that cloud should be there 24x7, it does depend on the investment put in by the company owning it. Even Google has had availability issues. Issues here include poor investment in hardware, expansion issues and standard release management controls.
Again you can look for signs like ISO:20000 or similar accreditations but it's unlikely newer players will have these in place. A strong IT team and customer feedback will show whether or not your cloud provider will be there when you need them, as will a strong contract with some kind of availability credit mechanism.
Watch out for anyone saying they have 100% availability - they can't. Any system needs downtime for upgrades, reboots or other such eventualities. And even with a good contract in place all you get if they fail is usually money back.
Maturity
Whilst cloud is not exactly 'new' (some of the underlying technology has been around for quite a while), it's still gathering maturity. New providers spring up all the time and some fail, just like with any other business.
You can protect against this by ensuring you either have contractual rights to get your data back, or sometimes even rights to 'own' a copy of the software should the core provider fail. Equally having the information stored by that one provider backed up independently isn't a terrible option.
Tied into this you have the maturity of the actual software (this is primarily for SaaS providers) - immature software may be more buggy, it may have issues working in all browsers (something that works fine in Safari might not work in Internet Explorer for instance, or vice versa) and it may lack features you desire.
The only way to overcome this is with a good trial period and testing from your side. Ideally you should run your full business process through a few times in parallel with your current system to make sure it all works correctly.
The good news here is that a lot of cloud providers give you a free trial period - so there is no risk to you other than a bit of time.
'Fit'
One of the big issues with cloud is that you get what is on offer. If you want a custom application or want to tread outside the box of what your provider does it can get very expensive very quickly. The cost effectiveness of cloud is coupled with your capacity to fit inside the product that is being offered. Sometimes this 'fit' is not ideal and you will need to adapt to the cloud solution (the other way round tends to not happen unless you go down a bespoke route).
Again some cloud providers are better than others - they allow you the opportunity to fine tune what is there, whereas others are 'take it or leave it'. Basecamp is a classic example of the latter - it's clean, simple, no-frills and does what it says. However if you need more then you have to go elsewhere.
Summary
Next time I'll take a look into the different types of cloud that are out these (SaaS and IaaS), tell you where it fits in your business and where to get it if you do need it.
I'm always happy to talk to people about IT needs or cloud needs - drop me a line on email, tweet @russhenley or give me a call. Or take a look at the rest of our website.
Equally post any questions you may have (or contentious points about the above!) and I'll do my best to answer them.
If you are fairly local I can also arrange for a 1-2-1 to discuss further, which does include some free consultancy from me if you wanted to talk more.
Alternatively there is plenty of reading on various IT related sites about cloud, however be warned it gets complex very quickly!