Clouds for Business or Business for Clouds?

Cloud technology has become a very popular phrase. There are certainly reasons for this: virtualization of network functions, for example, is very necessary for telecommunications companies. And this level of abstraction with respect to IT infrastructure is only possible when implementing cloud solutions in data centers. But is it good for every business to follow fashion?

Back in 2008, Nicholas Carr, an American journalist who specializes in high-level analysis of technological innovations, published a book known as “The Great Transition. What’s in store for the cloud revolution” . This study is essentially a panegyric to the concept of IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service; infrastructure as a service). Carr looks at the possibility of providing computing capacity as a utility service. At the outset, he mentions Mike Sullivan, one of the founders of VeriCenter, who resigned as chairman of Microsoft in 1999 to pursue his idea. It was to free businesses from having to maintain IT infrastructure. His business model was based on the idea of providing data processing services for a modest fee. That way, the company only had to provide its employees with access to the Web from the simplest and cheapest devices. The computing capacity, according to Sullivan’s idea, had to be on the side of the service provider.

Why do businesses need the cloud at all?

With cloud technology, businesses have the ability to scale quickly. This means that computing power can grow quickly and painlessly and the time to implement certain innovations (for example, from developing applications to run in the cloud to integrating them into business processes) is greatly reduced. Moreover, it will cost less. IT infrastructure requires substantial expenses from business on technicians’ salary, on license fees that give the right to use certain software, on buying or renting physical “hardware” – servers, network equipment, etc. In the case of clouds, the company receives the same as a separate service for much less money.
This is exactly what Carr was talking about.

Small companies can make very serious savings with clouds – they don’t pay for all the infrastructure needed to build their IT system, i.e. physical hardware, software, employees. They only spend on subscription fees to the IaaS provider. This is all the more advantageous because, for smaller companies, there are clouds with pre-installed software designed for specific work scenarios. For example, for companies providing transportation services, there will be software to calculate routes, monitor fuel consumption, GPS tracking vehicles, etc.

Large companies also benefit from cloud technology – they can use it to ensure continuity of operations, migration of virtual machines between physical servers, and easy management of the entire infrastructure. But in the first case, we are talking, as a rule, about public clouds, and in the second – about private clouds.

Thanks to clouds, it is possible to use different physical equipment. Servers of different generations and manufacturers are combined into one cluster; you can combine data centers with different geographical locations – if one data center is attacked by DDoS, the data will not suffer – they are synchronized in advance with the second, backup. Thus, it is enough to simply switch traffic from one data center to the other. And the user will not notice anything.

In general, the cloud for the company means savings through the efficient use of physical resources. Think about the virtual office. Virtualization allows a significant increase in efficiency in the use of server capacity.

Clouds for private users

Cloud technology can be of interest both for companies and individuals.

We have already mentioned the former. And private users need the cloud, in case they have light projects and need “light” services, in other words, those, which do not consume a lot of resources. For example, a server for testing software under development or an e-mail server. A typical user would definitely find it more profitable to pay for a cloud account than to rent or buy a separate server, which requires configuration and maintenance, but certainly will not be loaded to half of its capacity. It is cheaper and easier to use the cloud, because the administration of “iron” requires both special skills and time.

Corporate customers also, as we’ve already mentioned, appreciate all the advantages of cloud solutions. Both private and public. It is no coincidence that the demand for Google services for business is steadily growing.

Who does not need the cloud?

Cloud technology will not be in demand in companies that have static tasks, whose activities are strictly regulated. These are companies that do not have rapidly changing processes and do not expect dynamic growth. Take, for example, a construction site – why does it need clouds? Let’s assume that air conditioning, access control, security, video surveillance systems are provided at the site. But there were 100 cameras before they were commissioned, and they will still be there in five years. In this case, the introduction of the cloud is not only economically inefficient, but also creates additional vulnerabilities in terms of security.

Or, for example, it does not make sense to use clouds in some defense projects, because it is in their interest to minimize security risks, and the load of such projects is clearly calculated in advance and specific equipment is selected for it. Deploying and maintaining clouds requires additional infrastructure, capacity and manpower. Why do you need it when it is more economically profitable to do the project without it?

Although, of course, it all depends on the situation and the specific task at hand. For example, the Israeli army actively participates in the life of the OpenStack community, their military experts speak at summits. You have to think, for a reason. So their commanders see an opportunity to benefit from this technology.

What kind of companies need cloud technology?

Cloud technology is needed by fast-growing companies. These are all software, IT companies, service projects, telecom operators, the media…

For example, IT developers need clouds because resources and technology needed to perform their tasks, as well as the number and content of tasks themselves, can not always be predicted in advance. Clouds enable developers to use a variety of solutions. In addition, IT professionals can automate the allocation of cloud resources, which will significantly reduce the waiting time for developers, for the product – the time of release, the timing of bringing it to market, and thus the waiting time for profits for management, business owners and investors. The latter, as Mitch Wagner, editor of the online industry publication Light Reading told my friend and colleague Ilya Stechkin, “It’s important to see the real benefit of technology for their business: how it can help improve metrics such as customer satisfaction, business profitability, ROI. People are interested in being able to cut costs. There are popular topics, such as the Internet of Things. How emerging technologies help bring that concept to fruition.”

With companies that have projected growth in computing capacity, the case is more complicated – whether they need the cloud should be decided on a case-by-case basis. Another thing is that in today’s environment, every company is a bit of a software company. The same Wagner told a favorite story – about a company that manufactures fitness equipment and supplies it to gyms and hotels: “Even they came up with the idea that it would be good to give users the ability to log in to the simulator, so that it automatically adjusts to their parameters. And here they are, customers of a cloud service provider.

Conclusion

Here is a strange thing: almost every modern business needs the cloud. The more conservative a business is, the less it needs cloud technology. Do businesses want to “stake out the field” in the future or do they prefer to live in the present? If they do, it makes sense to ask a different question: “How exactly can a business use cloud services?” Even builders, in partnership with a provider, can offer cloud services to residents as part of the smart home concept. What’s more, if they don’t do so in the very near future, the liquidity of their properties will tend toward zero. After all, a “smart” city will need not only “smart” cars, but also “smart” houses. And the future will need smart people and efficient businesses. But that is a different story – not just about the Internet of Things.