What’s in a name?

There are a handful of things I like about the term “cloud computing.”  It’s kinda ephemeral, mysterious.   Like a soft Monet watercolor.  Clouds themselves are evocative, and sometimes they scatter to reveal sunlight.  That said, most of the time they gather in a menacing formation to wreck havoc and misery – which, not coincidentally, is a more apt metaphor for the term in the context of the IT world.

I also like “cloud computing” because of the limitless pun options.  As a writer, this is pure gold.  So, you can expect a future blog post entitled, “Hey hey you you get off of my cloud!“  Or another: “Cloudy with a Chance of Infrastructure Optimization.”   And it goes without saying that I’m very excited to, somehow, incorporate one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs in a post.  Ahhh someday.

But, shockingly, not everyone agrees with me.  Some corporate hot shots – what do they know about mystery?  ephemeral things? – apparently aren’t stoked on the term, and caused a minor buzz on the blogosphere.  In fact, Information Week asked their readers to submit their own suggestions.  Take a look at the list and hold your head, cuz it’s gonna spin.

For what it’s worth no one asked me for my suggestions.

 

Cloud computing will work if IT does its job (easier said than done)

So I dabbled in the IT consulting industry for seven or so years, and though the tenure was comparatively brief, I heard the same stuff over and over and over again.  All these goofball industry terms: “optimize the business,” “embed flexibility,” etc.  All those buzzwords.  And while the new hip trend (e.g. outsourcing, SOA) may change, the strategic foundation of all of these trends were the same; namely, the aforementioned buzzwords.

So its with eyes-severely-rolling that I read these blogs and white papers about cloud computing.  Don’t get me wrong, the premise of these arguments are correct; it just is a bit too familiar.  Deja vu all over again, as it were.  What’s next, flannel suddenly becomes cool again?

Tearing down silos, process improvement, etc.   Oh if we just do that, everything will be hunky dory, cloud computing will thrive, the hungry will be fed, and the Cubs will win the world series.   All very familiar.  But what’s truly value is intelligence on how to make these theories real.  How do you “optimize” a business?  How do you “tear down silos”?  Until we see hard evidence of this, it’s all conjecture and vaporware.

Oooh, I said vaporware!

 

The Christian Trinity with cloud computing: together at last

I have this rule of thumb that I sometimes use in life.  The rule of thumb is this: if someone can’t explain something in less than 10 seconds – or if the explanation is really confusing and bizarre – be wary.  There are obvious examples.

If you’re about to have surgery and you ask the surgeon if he can effectively perform the surgery, and he starts rambling and confusing you, well, that’s not good.

Or how about when you ask someone (namely, a Christian), “Who is your God?”  That answer can be deceptively confusing.  The not-so-crisp answer is something like, “Well, sure, yeah…there’s a God…but it’s three people.  Well, one’s a person – but it’s His Son, but it’s also God – and the other one is a ghost, not a person.  The ghost isn’t God, but it is.  Also, the God is Yahweh, the Old Testament God.  So, our God is a Godhead – 1/3 God the Father/Yahweh, 1/3 his Son, 1/3 a ghost – but those latter two aren’t God, but they are, etc. etc.”

I don’t mean to be snarky.  Just saying that seemingly simple questions can lead to difficult-to-answer questions.    Another example: “What the heck is cloud computing?”

According to this survey, only half of IT professionals can actually define it.  Then again, who sets the formal definition?  (Who is the Vatican in this instance?)  Not surprisingly, respondents were also dubious about oft-mentioned concerns, namely security implications and their own job security.

The cloud: a place where American jobs go to die?

Back in college I “dated” this really weird gal, who would open up and say alarming thing to me when she was a little buzzed.  “Alcohol is a truth serum,” she said.  I nodded and responded, “Cool, well, I gotta go now.”

I guess the  point is it takes booze to utter less-that-appropriate truths.  This is true in all aspects of our society, of course; if all of us really said what was on our mind, we’d be quite unpopular and under-employed.

Well, there’s something similar at work in the cloud computing hoopla.  Since cloud computing is glorified outsourcing – a bad word in many parts – many people are unwilling to go that extra step and state the obvious: that cloud computing can trigger the mass extiction of US-based jobs.  It will make the India-centric outsourcing boom of the late 90s/early 00s look like kindergarden.  If, of course, the hype is true.

Well, quasi-kudos to this guy from Unisys. He spoke the almost-unspeakable.  Words that make your networking pal in Palo Alto shudder in terror and make some manufacturing CEO quiver in delight.   IT workers can’t unionzie, right?

McKinsey rains (get it?) on the cloud parade

Nothing like a good old-fashioned reality check.  McKinsey’s smack-down of cloud computing (at least for large, corporate companies) caused an e-ripple, so I’ll try not to retread old ground.  Nonetheless, it was a refreshing, contrarian perspective that exacerabates the age of tension within the IT community, characterized by two camps: One, who views IT as a commodity; the  other, who view IT as a tangible driver of business value.  It’s as old as Catholicism vs. Protestantism; Ali vs. Holmes, etc. 

Those who are unimpressed with cloud computing have a point.  McKinsey, for example, argues that  cloud proponents (ahem, the vendors) greatly exaggerate cost savings.  History has shown that McKinsey is correct.  Something like 75% of projects (OK, I kinda made that up, but trust your instincts on this one) are delivered either over-budget or over-time; why would that change, particularly when you’re considering a massive migration of core services to an external entity?  What a mess!

What McKinsey simply said is “Listen, cloud computing may not be for everybody (particularly large companies.”)  But given the responses by some of the posters on the NYTime’s site, you think they said, “There’s no such thing as Santa.”  Some posters attack the credibility of McKinsey themselves, arguing their shills for their bloated corporate clients.  And while that may be true, does that change the fact that cloud computing may not be for everybody?  Grow up people!

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

What concerns me about this cloud stuff is that it’s outsourcing on a massive scale, and no one has yet to really solve the problems associated with outsourcing, which are many.  Privacy, security, vendor risk, down-time and outages, etc.  Each of these risks have well-documented backstories behind them: the leaking of credit card information the most common.  Fact of the matter is, centrallly managing these systems and  applications  is difficult.  Managing relatively small outsourcing arrangements can be even more difficult.  The mass outsourcing of major systems is another story entirely.

Of course, the principals of sound outsourcing/decentralized IT management will still apply: robust SLAs, strong measurement mechanisms like dashboards and scorecards, etc.  But the trade-off is real: integration obstacles, potentially inferior support and maintence – in short, a relinquishment of control.  No one likes giving up control. 

This astute commentary pushes this discussion to it’s logical conclusion: how, then, is cloud computing any different from the age-old centralized vs. decentralized IT management debate?  (And to what extent is it glorified vendor hype…)

Microsoft and cloud-related privacy. Not sold just yet.

Security and privacy go hand-in-hand.   The security concerns regarding cloud computing have been – and will continue to be – documented here and elsewhere as sensitive information and applications are stored elsewhere.  By releasing a white paper on this topic, Microsoft – who’s making big bets on cloud computing – hoped to nip this issue in the bud. 

The gist of it seems to be this: what’s the big deal?  We, Microsoft, already have tons your information already.  You’ve heard of Hotmail, haven’t you?  So this, rather is the next step in the narrative. 

Some people arent’ sold.  Nor am I.  For starters, I think Microsoft minimizes the idea of scale.  Sure, you have my user name and – what else?  my password?  my password hint?  (my dog’s name) – on your servers already.  But that is a far cry from the serious and sensistive financial, health, and other types of information that will soon be residing on your systems.  There’s a fundamental difference there.  And furthermore, doesn’t Hotmail get hacked all the time anyway?  This is somehow supposed to comfort me.

Security professionals caution: be careful what you wish for

 

In this fascinating round-table of forward-looking security professionals, one fact becomes abundantly clear: the archetype of perimeter-defined security management, within the confines of the traditional network perimeter, has seconds to live.  I mean, its extinction was inevitable, but cloud computing has given it that extra push. In fact, this is the one sector of the IT community – the security world – where you see some hesitancy.  It’s not to say they don’t foresee the value in cloud computing it’s just that on a daily basis, they are confronted by ever-complex and increasing threats.  There’s never a dull moment, and now the IT community as a whole is charging full-speed ahead with a new and still-ambiguous paradigm that will only exacerbate this unease.  They’re the ones on the front lines who have to deal with the bottom-line ramifications of developer and tester ambitions, never mind the ever-present insider threat, which will only metastasize as the employee becomes more “empowered” on the cloud.

James Madison and the tyranny of Joe from Sales

The political theory of our Founding Fathers was smelted in the crucible of two enormous event that rocked Europe to it’s core.  The first, the Enlightenment.  These dudes saw first-hand how religion ravaged the continent, and made sure we in the States never got hung up on a state religion.  They tended to be deistic, believing in a creator, but one that was ultimately hands-off, like a celestial CEO.

The second event was the French Revolution.  This was bad.  This was what happened when the common man ran out of bread (and were chided to “eat cake” instead) and ran amok; when ideas like “liberty” was pushed a bit too far.  Basically, the only thing worse that tyranny by a king is tyranny by the masses.  And while it started after the Constitution was drafted, The Founding Fathers nonetheless saw this and said, “gnarly.”

Think about it: back when the Constitution was drafted, the Supreme Court was appointed.  The President was appointed by the Electoral College (still is.)  The Senate was appointed.  If you were some hick, all you could do was vote for your hick Representative in the House.  Maybe it’s safer to say – especially in the context of the time – the Founding Fathers were suspicious of the common man.  And rightfully so.

Where am I going with this?   Good question.

Well, I read this article saying that one of the cool things about cloud computing is this idea of “employee-led IT.”  Cloud computing gives employees greater flexibility to deploy software tools and drive productivity, etc. yada.  Ignoring the practicality of this idea – how do they do this? – the bigger question is: is this a good thing?

I mean, have you seen the employees at your company?

Cloud computing is already rife with security concerns; how we’re going to empower Joe from Sales to upload some beerpong app on the network?  What would James Madison say?  I know.  He’d say, “Let them eat clouds!”

The Navy and cloud computing: full steam ahead

One of the unfair raps leveled against the government – especially now, mired in this seemingly endless debate on health care – is that it can’t do anything right.   (Hello, GI Bill anybody?  Did you know at 14 recipients of the Nobel Prize got their education from the GI Bill?  Over 48 Pulitzer Prize winners?  Almost 25,000 doctors?  I digress.)

A similar complaint is that the government is always a step behind the private industry.  Well, not so when it comes to the military.  People tend to forget that stuff.  Case in point: Robert Carey, CIO of the Navy, discusses how the branch has embraced cloud computing as means to deliver core services more efficiently.  And as they say, “As goes the Navy, so goes California…”