The Drive To Public Clouds

The farthest-reaching changes in the IT industry often occur when a single new development simultaneously responds to the needs of both consumers and business users. Perhaps the best-known example of this kind of wave was the original PC: office workers used PCs during the day for their business tasks and then used the machine when they got home to play games (and often vice versa). The Web was also adopted in equal measure by consumers and business users when it first broke into the mainstream, which was a key factor in its incredibly rapid rise. The same will happen with cloud computing, once the public cloud providers close the loop between business and consumer services.

In 2012, both consumers and large companies will step up their adoption of public clouds. From the standpoint of end users, public cloud computing will be seen as enabling greater mobility, gradually leading to “ubiquitous” computing in which they no longer have to be concerned about where their data is actually located. At the same time, the economics of public cloud computing will become sufficiently attractive to IT managers in enterprise environments that they will no longer be able to avoid considering it, at least for certain workloads. This kind of lockstep between consumers and business users will cause big changes across the IT industry.

Users who put their data in the cloud expect that they will be able to access the data on any device, from anyplace in the world. Because there is only one copy of the data (and hopefully a backup copy somewhere), users hope that they will no longer need to synchronize laptops with other devices like iPads and smartphones. In 2011, many consumers were subtly introduced to the convenience of cloud storage when Apple introduced automatic synching of data between iPhones, iPods, and other devices with its iCloud service (the capability was introduced transparently with an update of Apple’s iOS operating system). Since the iPad dominates the tablet market, and the iPhone is one of the most popular smartphone models, other tablet and smartphone providers will soon need to include similar capabilities to remain competitive. As a result, the huge base of consumers storing their music and photos in multitenant clouds will promote the acceptance of cloud storage from a theoretical capability to a real and useful service. The rise of cloud computing will eventually speed the convergence of “mobile” and “social” trends, in which data sharing between trusted parties will become the normal approach for exchanging information.

In datacenters, the economics of public cloud computing will become increasingly attractive to IT managers. Continuing concerns about potential security risks will prevent organizations from entrusting their most sensitive workloads to public clouds, but for many other workloads, the flexibility and potential cost benefits of cloud deployment will outweigh its risks. In 2012, the use of public clouds will go beyond early adopters and enter the mainstream for certain applications. As public clouds become part of standard IT operating procedures, some business issues with service providers will rise to the forefront. Customers will increasingly focus on issues such as service level agreements (SLAs) and portability between cloud services. Companies planning a cloud deployment will narrow their focus to providers who have the technical ability to deliver on SLAs and can provide security in the cloud. Vendor lock-in with cloud service providers will become a greater concern as customers grapple with the decision of whether to embrace proprietary solutions that deliver unique benefits, or more open solutions that may have limitations. Some cloud vendors will tout their relative openness and present vendor lock-in as a major reason customers should not buy from their competitors.

Throughout 2012, cloud services will become an increasingly big business as companies complete their trials and begin to roll out full-scale enterprise applications to the cloud. Amazon AWS will become the first billion-dollar cloud venture. Towards the end of 2012, the cloud business will begin to see a shakeout as larger, better-financed companies cherry-pick the best companies and push out the weaker start-ups. It will become much clearer by the end of the year which service providers can deliver for the long haul, and which can’t. On the user side, most deployments will be noneventful and successful, but some high-profile events will occur that highlight the problems that happen when cloud is not deployed correctly. To fully reap the benefits of cloud computing, IT workers will need to reassess their skills and go for training in new areas. In the meantime, companies that want to deploy a private cloud may have a difficult time finding IT workers with the right mix of skills to design, deploy, and manage a cloud.

Author: Tony Iams
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Brian

Managing Partner at meshIP, LLC

Brian Byrne is the founder and Managing Partner of Dallas based meshIP, a technology services firm offering cloud computing strategies and services. He is an accomplished executive with senior management experience in all facets of the technology, telecom, cloud computing, and SaaS industries. He has proven success in developing, financing and executing strategic plans as well as launching new ventures. His background includes a record of significant achievement in international business development and his credentials include a MBA in Marketing and Management Strategy from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS from the School of Computer Science at DePaul University, and a BBA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

He is also the inventor of the patented meshDETECT, Secure Prison Cell Phone Solutions.

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