In Part 1 I gave a quick introduction to Cloud Computing, the different types of cloud offerings and the three layers, Software-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service that cloud solutions fall into.
In this post I am going to concentrate on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and in particular on Enterprise Software that is available on the cloud, the SaaS delivery model and the main objections that people have to moving to the cloud.
Software Delivery
Making the move to the cloud requires a fundamental change of mindset. One of the major hurdles businesses have to overcome is convincing the stake holders that this new delivery model makes sense.
We are all used to the old distribution model where a piece of software was packaged up into an executable installer and either shipped to the customer on a CD or DVD or downloaded from the Internet.
We are used to checking system requirements, buying hardware, installing and configuring an OS to run the product and installing security patches and service packs to make sure everything is up to date.
We are used to release cycles where a new major release of the software is released every 2-5 years and where minor updates are released every few months.
Software-as-a-Service changes all of that.
With SaaS the delivery model is much simpler, you buy the number of licences you need and login to the service through your web browser.
There is no installation, no system requirements (other than a modern browser), no patches or service packs.
All of these “keeping the lights on” tasks are no longer the responsibility of your IT department, you are buying a service, like electricity, water or telephone, you expect it to be there when you turn it on. How it gets there is not your concern.
What is available right now?
The answer to this is lots! I am not going to go into any one product in detail in this post, instead I will focus on three areas that are probably the most mature, Cloud Email, Collaboration and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). These are business functions that companies are choosing to move to the cloud first.
Email & Collaboration
Email and collaboration tools often come bundled into the one offering (of course we have Microsoft Office to thank for this!). Three of the big players in this space are Google Apps, Microsoft Office365, and Zoho.
CRM
Salesforce are the predominant SaaS player in this market although Zoho also have a good SaaS CRM solution.
Objections
The two big objections that come up with all businesses are:
Security – Where is my data? Who has access to my data? Can I ever get my data back?
and
Availability – What if the provider has an outage? What if my ISP has an outage?
In terms of security I would argue that the likes of Google or Salesforce put a lot more time, effort, manpower and money into protecting their networks and servers from attack than most companies.
Most SaaS solutions are multi-tenanted, meaning that your data will be stored on the same servers as other people’s data. This does not necessarily mean that it is any less secure. The big players will operate their own mesh of datacentres, housing only their equipment with physical access limited to a very select few. Some providers are willing to divulge details of where these datacentres are located, others are more secretive about such information. Businesses operating in the EU should look for assurance from the provider that their data will be stored in the EU or at least covered by the Safe Harbour Agreement which allows for the movement of data to North America so long as the EU Data Protection regulations still apply.
The idea that my data is safe so long as its behind my firewall is harder and harder to guarantee in these days of personal webmail, online file storage, usb keys and social media sites. There are so many ways that data can leak from a corporate network that having strick firewall policies is simply not enough.
Before making a move to a SaaS solution enterprise customers should scrutinise the T&Cs to make sure that they retain ownership of all corporate data, that corporate data will not be used for any purpose other than the provision of the service being paid for and that data will not be shared with third parties. This is all standard stuff but it is your responsibility to check.
A big fear with a lot of companies is vendor lock-in. Before moving to a SaaS solution you should satisfy yourself that if the vendor decides to discontinue the service or increase their prices that you can move to another provider or take your data back. Most of the big players are very open about their policies and will be more than happy to explain how you get your data out of their system. Check out Google’s Data Liberation website for more how they handle migrating data out of their cloud.
There is always a worry about availability. If I put my server out in the cloud what happens if there is an outage? Again this requires a bit of a mindshift.
If we take a mail server as an example to show the difference between what availability means for on-premise services and cloud services.
With an on-premise email server local clients experience quick connections to the server, attachments are sent/download quickly etc because they are on the same LAN as the server. If your ISP has an outage users on the LAN can still email each other. Mail from outside the domain might get bounced back to the sender during the outage and remote worker will be out of action while the line is down.
With a cloud service speed (as measured at the client device) might seem a bit slower. The client has to upload/download attachments from a remote server over the Internet. If there is an ISP outage nobody behind that Internet connection will be able to email anyone else, even if they are on the same LAN as the recipient. However today’s corporate networks are not that simple. Users have smartphones that are connected to the Internet over 3G and laptops with WiFi. This means that even when a main Internet connection goes down users have options. They can connect the the server over 3G on their phones, they can go to the local cafe and continue to work over WiFi. What’s more, because the mail server is not sitting behind the same Internet connection remote users are not effected at all by the outage and emails from other domains are still delivered to the users’ mailboxes.
All-in-all the severity of loosing a primary Internet connection is less with a cloud service than with on-premise servers.
The other concern people have regarding availability is that of the service itself. What if the cloud provider has an outage?
All enterprise offerings should be backed up by an SLA. Most will provide a guaranteed availability of service (99.9% uptime is somewhat standard) which will, in most cases, be backed up with a refund or free days if not met. Again it is your responsibility to look for an SLA and to satisfy yourself that it meets your requirements.
Logentries – Log Management as a Service
In my line of work I meet a lot of IT professionals who are starting to think about Cloud Computing and how they could utilise it in their organisations.
