Canonical: Cloud Bursting Important, But Not Key Sales Feature

Grazed from Talkin Cloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

Burstability may be an important feature for many businesses, but cloud services providers pinning their sales plans on bursting had better think again. According to Kyle MacDonald, Canonical‘s vice president of cloud, bursting is not a primary use case for cloud computing, but a nice-to-have add-on feature.

Vendors have been hyping the importance of bursting in their cloud computing strategies, most of which revolve around a hybrid cloud mix of both public and private cloud services, but while bursting is a useful tool to have during peak times, such as the holiday rush during November and December, it’s not a feature that is top-of-mind for most businesses, MacDonald told Talkin’ Cloud…

Many customers even approach cloud services providers with the idea that they want bursting features, but much of that interest comes as a result of hype. Businesses are told they need bursting, but when it comes right down to it, some key questions usually show it’s not a primary business concern. They’ve worked backwards from bursting, and most customers have found that when it comes to burstability, it’s not a core concern when it comes to cloud.

Pinning a sale on bursting may sound good, but the problem with burstability is it often flies in the face of what a customer really needs for their cloud services. Workloads, and the governance and compliance issues around them, often conflict with bursting needs, MacDonald said.

There are ways to set customers up with bursting capabilities, but it’s rarely a primary use case, he said. It’s a good add-on sales feature, but rarely is it something cloud providers should be leading with. Still, it’s good to include bursting as part of the sales discussion, but using it to make a sale isn’t the way to go.

Burstability can start a lot of cloud conversations with customers, but MacDonald said it should in no way finish the discussion.