Cloud Computing Strategies for the CIO
Back in school, a friend of mine had an interesting motto: "A little paranoia will keep you out
of jail." While this mantra might be a bit extreme for everyday life as a cloud administrator, a
little caution won't hurt. And that's the theme for this week's Quotes from the Cloud; it's
important to do
your homework when choosing a cloud vendor. Figure out if the provider can answer your
questions; be sure to look at both sides of the open source cloud equation; and get some idea
of what technologies end users will launch in the enterprise -- whether or not you give them
the thumbs up.
“Some of the older partners here say they’ll host sensitive data in the clouds over their dead
bodies, but the younger ones say they don’t care.”
-- Susan Bradley, partner at Fresno, Calif., Tamiyasu, Smith, Horn & Braun, stressing that the
accounting firm’s more seasoned IT pros still carry deep concerns over cloud security. Other IT
pros share those sentiments, noting an interest in Microsoft’s
impending Windows Azure updates and IaaS roadmap but no solid commitment to buy into it.
“That's really critical -- you've got to have somebody to call.”
-- Sean McDermott, CEO of Windward IT Solutions, on why some cloud customers might choose Citrix's
forthcoming CloudPlatform over open source cloud software OpenStack.
Due out in June, CloudPlatform lets IT pros create, launch and manage applications that can run
across CloudPlatform and AWS clouds with Amazon EC2-compatible tools. And isn't that all we want
sometimes -- someone to hear your call when
the whole thing's undone?
“Open source is good, but you have to be careful. If you don't have any real expertise
in-house, you better hire someone to help you or buy commercial.”
-- Bill Claybrook, in a Q&A on open source cloud software, stresses the value of
open source cloud options where there are no license fees, no vendor lock-in and the ability to
truly innovate. Claybrook also warns of the pitfalls, however: Open
source cloud vendors may be growing in popularity, but they can lead to a dead end if you don't
have talented, dedicated development staff to help nurture your cloud
“Dell has been very clear while HP has proceeded in fits and starts.”
-- Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, echoes what many in the cloud
market say when trying to make sense of HP
and Dell's cloud messages. Both hardware vendors have slapped the "cloud" label on products
aplenty, but customers are still left scratching their heads on which vendor offers what.
“Running business apps on mobile devices, especially when companies are thinking about BYOD,
opens up a whole new can of worms with respect to security.”
-- Kamesh Penmaraju, analyst at the Sand Hill Group, explains how bringing your own device
(BYOD) can exasperate security concerns in the enterprise. Using mobile device management tools in
a private
cloud can help to lessen the blow by extending centralized cloud
security policies to the device and giving IT a single, comprehensive security
policy.
“It's not uncommon for IT pros to bypass management and set up their own AWS
clouds.”
-- SearchConsumerization.com staff explaining why Amazon
ranked in the top 10 disruptive technology vendors in the enterprise. AWS, Amazon
EC2 and Simple Storage Service (S3) are disruptive for several reasons, not the least of which
is the fact that anyone can sign up for the services. But just because Amazon is considered the
cloud computing giant doesn’t mean it’s at the top of the list for most
disruptive technologies … or does it?
Michelle Boisvert is Senior Site Editor for SearchCloudComputing.com. Contact her at mboisvert@techtarget.com.
This was first published in May 2012
Join the conversationComment
Share
Comments
Results
Contribute to the conversation