Get Off of My Cloud

Check out Google Apps (http://www.google.com/apps/business/index.html). Here, Google provides collaboration sites, basic office productivity products, instant messaging, calendar, and scheduling software. Add in Google mail, and you have all of the basic tools you need to run the day-to-day knowledge worker side of a business. It even has partnered with other software vendors to supply Google Apps with additional functionality. Google Apps is cloud computing. You consume the software services it offers by connecting to them over the Internet. The actual application is running on a Google server, and the data is stored on a Google server.

I like Google Apps. I like the elegance of letting someone else provide the infrastructure and the raw computing horsepower to accomplish basic business functions. I like the fact I have virtually unlimited storage available from Google. The last time I logged onto Google mail through a Web browser, I was told I had about seven gigabytes of storage available. I like all the nifty things Google has done with AJAX and Web 2.0. I like the implications cloud computing has for licensing. I probably have seven different computers in my home and support a lot of other computers for my family. I cannot afford to license productivity suites for all those machines. Software as a Service has the ability to simplify licensing issues.

A Typical Scenario

For the sake of argument, let's say I have a small company with 50 employees. I have been successful but not on the dot.com scale of success. I have a collection of workstations and laptops purchased over the past few years. On those machines I have three different operating systems and four different versions of Microsoft Office. I would love to use a standard version of the Office productivity suites but can't afford to purchase 50 licenses and I can't really upgrade because most are OEM licenses.

Our mail server is two versions old. Some of the machines won't even support the latest available operating systems. I really would like to create a collaboration portal that would be available to my telecommuting employees and my road warriors. Here again, my two-person IT department (and my budget) won't support any of these legitimate business needs.

A Typical Solution

Enter one of the major players (such as Microsoft) with a cloud computing SaaS solution. By paying a monthly fee based on the number of users, I can obtain the latest version of Exchange, a collaboration solution such as SharePoint, and Web access to the current version of Office productivity tools. If I need to, I probably can add on tools such as Office Communicator (instant messaging, Live Meeting, and other tools) or Microsoft CRM. This potentially is a very attractive proposition, dependent on a number of factors, the first being cost.

Software licensing is an arcane science no one seems to understand. I have seen totally different licensing rules and rates quoted from different representatives of the same software vendor–and from the same representative on different days. There is no easily comprehensible solution for the average firm. Upgrading from one licensing scheme to another can be expensive. There never is any guarantee licensing won't change with the next generation of software. Entering into a SaaS agreement would go a long way to relieving licensing uncertainties. If the price is right, a SaaS solution potentially can solve all your licensing woes.

Back to Price

Even if the cost of the solution is on the mark, it still scares me. Software vendors continually need to increase revenue. That means they either need to increase their user base or increase the cost of their software. In my experience, most software vendors actively strive to do both. Cloud computing is being touted as a way to obtain the same or better services at a lesser cost.

This reminds me of being called into my supervisor's office to be informed of a new pay plan that offers me the potential to make a lot more money. Of course, there's a catch. That new "potential" is obtained by sacrificing my current guaranteed earnings. I have gone from a preferred stock with a guaranteed dividend to a penny stock with no dividend but with unlimited growth potential. Let's be honest. New pay plans are for the benefit of the employer, and new software licensing plans are for the benefit of the vendor. Did someone say something about a free lunch?

SaaS licensing may, in fact, be better for some organizations in some situations, but it is unreasonable to assume it will be a better solution in all cases. Unless, of course, nefarious vendors make their non-SaaS licensing so expensive there is no effective alternative. I don't truly believe major software vendors are nefarious–they just are portrayed that way in the media. Besides, there is way too much open source software available to render that tactic a real possibility.

So, we won't worry about costs being unfairly manipulated by our SaaS provider. What other considerations are there? Here are a few possible deal breakers (but remember there are others): Data privacy and security, service-level agreements (SLAs), and SOA.

Whose Data Is It?

That seven gigabytes of data Google is providing me comes at a cost. Once you allow your data to reside somewhere other than your own server, you are abrogating control of that data. I am not suggesting any of the vendors mentioned in this article would purposefully do anything illicit or improper with your data, but the fact remains they physically have your data. And that scares the heck out of me. "Free" cloud services routinely scan and index personal data. As I type a Google e-mail, advertisements deemed appropriate to the content of my e-mail appear. That is a little spooky.

Beyond the obvious paranoia of allowing another organization to host your data, there remains the issue of just how secure it can be when it readily can be accessed over the Internet. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) provides a modicum of security, but if I can log onto cloud computing with a user name and password, then anyone with Internet access can do the same. At least within the bounds of my firewall, I have more secure ways to control and track access. I also can respond positively when a data breach occurs. I do not have that option when someone else has physical possession of my data.

The Server's Down

Most IT departments have years of experience managing and controlling their environments. They know their customers and have long-established SLAs to provide their customers with the service they demand. There also exists a chain of direct responsibility if those SLAs aren't maintained. When that responsibility is transferred to a third party, your control of service levels necessarily decreases.

If you are a Fortune 20 company and are using external cloud computing for e-mail, there is a very good possibility your SLAs will be maintained. But if you are a small local company with 50 licenses, your SLA may be meaningless. Software vendors generally are not acknowledged to have responsive and useful help desks. If they are going to be in the business of providing business-critical solutions through SaaS, they need to improve the perception, if not the actual value, of their responsiveness.

SOA

Most of us have a significant investment in service-oriented architecture solutions. Web services have created an environment where it is relatively easy for one application to consume services provided by another. How is that going to work in cloud computing? Suppose my intranet is using data pulled from my human resources system to provide a people-search capability. How is that going to work when I move my intranet to a hosted solution? Am I supposed to expose my HR system's Web services to the Internet so I can fetch the data from the "cloud"? I don't think so. SOA certainly can work over the Internet, but few are going to expose any back-office systems to public consumption just so they can provision a hosted solution.

It's Not All Bad

Regardless of what I have said so far, cloud computing is not evil. It is not doomed. In fact, it probably has a bright future. But that future depends on finding rational solutions for the items I have discussed here.

There undoubtedly are many firms that would benefit greatly from adoption of SaaS for different parts of their infrastructure. If I were doing a start-up, I just might consider putting everything on a cloud. I suspect large organizations that already have outsourced a considerable portion of their IT infrastructure simply will see cloud computing as an extension of that outsourcing. Other organizations may take a mixed approach–maybe having e-mail, office productivity, and collaboration services reside in an external cloud while keeping all back-office systems and all sensitive data internal.

That, of course, brings up additional complications regarding licensing. Do I need to purchase separate licenses for my external cloud and for internal use? I don't know those answers. I don't know how receptive business ultimately will be to cloud computing. I suspect in the long run cloud computing and SaaS will be successful. I do know I hope Google doesn't cancel my Google App account. I kind of like cloud computing.