You’re falling into the cloud and you don’t know it! 3 things you should ask yourself.

By Protonet Team. Published 1. August 2014.

The cloud isn’t a future thing anymore. It’s mainstream already and has taken over important functionalities we used to do on our computers such as running programs and storing data eg.: Google Docs & Dropbox. The same has happened in the enterprise world. Companies that used to host applications such as CRM and ERP on in house servers have started to use cloud-based services without noticing it. In this post I’ll be focusing on the enterprise side of cloud computing. We’ll check out how its environment has changed and a couple of factors you should take into account when planning your cloud-strategy.

Before we start with discussions about what cloud computing really means let’s check out how Oxford dictionaries defines cloud computing: “[Cloud computing is] the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.” As we’ve noticed it here internally at Protonet it is easy to fall into a lengthy discussion about what specific services are cloud services or not. E.g.: “Is Facebook a cloud service or not?” (I argue it is.) To answer this will be something for another blog post. Cloud computing is also fragmented in public, private and hybrid cloud. The main difference between the different cloud-types is where the processing and storing of the data takes place. The public cloud is hosted on servers a final user doesn’t have access to while the private cloud servers are mostly owned by the final user. The hybrid cloud happens mostly when a private cloud uses public cloud storage space to back up its data. There are various shared advantages between both platforms, but that will also be the topic for another blog post.

Now let’s have a sneak peek into the past. Until recently, businesses used to have to build their complete IT infrastructure on local servers for most of their digital activities such as CRM, file management, email hosting and so on. Managing the local servers was always an expensive and abstract part of the company, which only the IT-guys knew how to handle. In 2009 I had an internship in a big corporation with a huge IT infrastructure. The first thing I received when I arrived was a computer with all the relevant software that I needed for my day-to-day activities. Throughout the internship it was clear to me that the software they had on their local servers was outdated. Most of the employees I had contact with were frustrated from using it and felt they were less productive than before, when the software was still new and up-to date. Updating the custom-made IT infrastructure was so expensive that they could only afford to update it every couple of years. (Yes they desperately needed an update.)

A lot has happened since then and the complete cloud-computing ecosystem has grown exponentially. Applications that were just until yesterday a pillar of the data center such as ERP and CRM systems have now shifted to the public cloud. Windows, which used to sell software for servers, has even decided to drop that business segment all together in order to focus on their public cloud platform. It can even be argued that companies who want to stay competitive have to drastically increase their investment on their IT infrastructure, or jump into the cloud. Most companies want to stay focused on their own core competences such as customer service, project management and will end up neglecting their outdated IT infrastructure. In too many cases the jump into the public cloud simply “happens”, and it’s too late by the time they realize that they don’t have any control over their own and their customers data anymore. The data is suddenly on some cloud in a country with sketchy data security standards. They did the right thing: focus on their core competences but regrettably never stepped back to have a look to where their IT infrastructure was drifting to and think about their cloud strategy.

The private cloud, where Protonet is currently placed, offers most of the advantages of the public cloud and adds infrastructure ownership to it. One disadvantage of the private cloud until now has been that it has resembled the traditional IT infrastructure companies used to have. Only IT-versed people knew how to manage it and this was again one of the forces pushing companies to the public cloud. Now with Protonet it is possible for anyone to manage his/her own private cloud without any IT knowledge. We call this the personal cloud. You can find out more about Protonet here.

Now that we’ve had a brief look at what the cloud means and what cloud options you have let’s get on to the three most important factors you should take into account when planning your cloud strategy.

1) Cloud or no cloud?
Most companies don’t have core-competences in developing software. Companies that get custom IT infrastructure have to hire or insource people to manage this colossal task, especially when their core competence isn’t in IT. As mentioned before, they often end up with a custom infrastructure that gets outdated faster than they expect and stays that way until the pain is too big. These companies often have very strict security standards, which make cloud services a no-go. E.g.: car-part developers, pharmaceutics devs, etc. Which leads us to the first question: Are you willing to invest substantially into a custom IT infrastructure and can you afford it? If you want and need a custom-made IT infrastructure you don’t need to keep on reading. The next points are for the cloud users.

2) Public or private cloud?
Companies that use the cloud enjoy more frequent updates because cloud-based service providers are constantly updating and improving their software to fit the current needs and usability trends. There is a plethora of public cloud services with their data scattered all around the world. If having many login portals, many bills and don’t mind where the data ends up in you can go for the public cloud. If you decide to go the public cloud way you should be careful with vendor lock-in (http://bit.ly/1qetqtM) and don’t forget to see if there’s a way to retrieve your data in a useful format in case you terminate the services. You may also want to check the connection between the services such as connecting the CRM service with the one that manages your bills. You wouldn’t want to fill out the same information in many platforms.

3) Private cloud server-rack or personal cloud server?
The benefit of having your private cloud is that you keep control of the hardware that manages your data. You’ll have your data and processing power within physical reach. Private cloud servers come in two forms: rack servers and personal cloud servers. The main difference between rack servers and personal servers is the need of IT knowledge. Rack servers need similar IT knowledge like with custom-made IT infrastructures but in a smaller scale. In Protonet we have customers who used to spend over €10k a year in IT support of their rack servers. This doesn’t sound like much money for big companies, but is a budget that most small companies won’t want to pay. Apart from the high costs of IT maintenance, companies that use rack servers need various licenses for every software application they use. Personal cloud servers in the other hand can be managed by anyone even by those without any IT knowledge. They even come with the most important software preinstalled and ready for performing out-of-the-box. Our Protonet personal server for example only needs power, Internet and someone to press the only button for it to work. No installation or complicated setup is necessary.

It doesn’t matter which IT infrastructure you go for. The most important point is that you consciously define the cloud strategy for your company before your company lands somewhere you didn’t want to. All in all, if you don’t have a cloud strategy you’ll end up falling into the public cloud when you least expect it.