Demystifying the Cloud

We love YouTube and with just reason. A recent video shows people being asked what they thought cloud computing was. Among many rib-tickling ones, the most popular was: “Computers that must float on parachutes up in the clouds or maybe dirigibles”.

Getting the basics right

These days, everyone comfortably uses the term ‘cloud computing', but very few seem to know what it really means.

Basant Narayan Singh, a full-time software developer and part-time technology blogger (Techno Pulse) says, “Students often write to me asking, “Which language or technology should I learn if I want to build a career in cloud computing?” They need to know that the cloud is not a standalone technology but a style of computing.”

The way people and companies, big and small, define the cloud at the moment is also quite vague. “A common user may be interested in SaaS (Software as a Service) whereas a developer would love to play around with PaaS (Platform as a Service),” says Singh. On the other hand, some solution providers are only talking about IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) when talking about the cloud. The quintessential example is a company that outsources its IT needs, doing away with the hassle of servers, storage space and networking in its own premises. They turn to cloud solutions companies who give them flexible, customised plans or bill them according to usage.

One such company is Netmagic Solutions whose cloud computing, managed hosting and application services are headed by Karan Kirpalani, GM, Product Management.

“The perception that the cloud isn't as secure as a traditional dedicated server or collocation environment is the biggest misconception about the cloud today,” says Karan. If anything, identities now offering cloud solutions believe that the cloud is a much more secure set-up than a physical one. “A quality IaaS solution from a reputed Public Cloud services provider will most likely offer greater levels of availability, security, and performance than what most organisations are capable of deploying in traditional physical hosting environments.”

Security concerns

At Dell World 2011, held recently in Austin, it was mentioned during a presentation that people who are yet to take the plunge into cloud computing are holding back due to their apprehensions about how secure a platform it is to put their data in to.

Rehan yar Khan, founder and CEO of Remindo, a company that provides enterprise social softwares (focused on employee engagement and productivity related tools), says, “Many people think data is not secure on cloud software because it does not reside on your own server or hard disk. But, secure cloud software typically uses the same technology on the web as your online banking account.”

Basant Singh believes the hesitation to make the jump to the cloud due to security reasons “has more to do with the human tendency to resist change than the actual security provided. On any given day, the Googles and Microsofts of the world will have better data security measures in place than anything a generic company can ever think of. You are looking at a specialist versus generalists.”

Money matters

How much money do you need to take that first step to cloud computing? And even if it's a minimal, usage-based fee, is it economical in the long run?

“Cloud based software while low on upfront cost, does not lower total IT costs for an organisation.” This pre-conceived notion keeps a lot of people from considering cloud solutions as an option. Switching to “SaaS software is not only economical to acquire but also curtails IT-related capital expenditure by way of eliminating infrastructure, manpower and maintenance costs. The total cost of ownership in this scenario is much lower and also allows you to add additional capacity on the fly, minimising wastage related to excess hardware or software capacity,” Khan says.

A majority of the exodus to the cloud includes SMBs who find it economical and a low-risk move to try out cloud solutions. But what about established organisations which have complicated systems to maintain and need to protect their security?

According to Khan, “SaaS is now a common delivery model for most business applications, including accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, invoicing, and human resources management. Centralised hosting of business applications has been around since the 1960s with IBM and other mainframe service providers. Salesforce.com, for example, is used by 85,000 organisations, 2 million users and has over $1.6 billion in revenue.”

At Dell World, we were told about how a major hospital chain in India had moved part of its infrastructure to the cloud. Sensitive information like the medical history and treatment that each patient has undergone – information that could be of need even 10-15 years down the line, is quite a hassle to maintain if stored in physical records. Moving these to the cloud not only makes the information accessible to doctors across all branches of the hospital but also reduces the footprint and its susceptibility to damage or loss in a physical storage facility.

Dropping out

Many companies, who might not see the desired results after testing the waters in the cloud, have the choice of opting out. But, what happens to their data?

“A lot of people seem to think that extricating yourself from the cloud is a difficult process,” says Karan. “Most IaaS contracts don't bind you for long periods of time. The typical notice period is just a month. And all you need to do is terminate the virtual machines after migrating your data away. Certain providers even assist with data migration activities.” This means your data's nowhere ‘up there' on the cloud once you choose not to.

Dell World 2011 saw software leaders from around the world converge to talk about enterprise cloud solution and how the line between business and IT is slowly disappearing. Steve Schuckenbrock, President of Dell Services, the global IT services and business solutions unit of Dell, talked to eWorld , about the myths surrounding cloud computing which he thought needed to be busted.

He believes in the promise of the cloud but his answer was quite unexpected. Steve says cloud computing is “no silver bullet”. “A lot of people seem to think that cloud computing will solve all their problems. But there's a long way to go before that can happen.”

>mahananda@thehindu.co.in

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