6 hidden costs of cloud and how to avoid them
Grazed from CIO. Author: Thor Olavsrud.
It should come as no surprise at this point that organizations of all sizes are flocking to the cloud with high hopes of reducing CapEx, making OpEx more predictable, enhancing scalability, making management easier and improving disaster preparedness. In fact, here in the opening weeks of 2013, a new study by Symantec finds that 94 percent of enterprises are at least discussing cloud or cloud services, up from 75 percent a year ago. But Symantec also reports that companies that rush into cloud deployments inevitably encounter a host of hidden costs.
ReRez conducted Symantec’s Avoiding the Hidden Costs of Cloud 2013 Survey from September to October 2012, gathering responses from 3,236 organizations in 29 countries–1,358 of the responses came from smaller and midsize businesses, while 1,878 came from larger enterprises. “This is a broad, robust survey,” says Dave Elliott, senior product marketing manager for Global Cloud Marketing at Symantec. “It was in planning for nine months and took two months to implement. What we found is that organizations have, in fact, actually embraced the cloud. Organizations have said, ‘Yes, the cloud is a real thing. We’re there.'”…
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) recommends the Cloud Security Readiness Tool (CSRT), a free tool from Microsoft designed to help organizations review and understand their IT maturity level and their readiness to consider adopting or growing cloud services. The tool uses the Cloud Control Matrix (CCM) to consider data security, privacy, and reliability factors as well as key compliance and regulatory standards. The tool is a simple way to adopt Security, Trust, and Assurance Registry (STAR) and CCM principles.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) has invested in Parallels, which develops cloud and SaaS automation software for hosting providers. Financial terms were not disclosed. The Cisco-Parallels relationship will also include joint development, marketing and industry initiatives. But there’s a hidden wrinkle here. It involves distributors and other companies that host cloud services for VARs and MSPs.
Word has just leaked out of Hewlett-Packard that Zorawar “Biri” Singh, senior vice president and general manager for Cloud Services, is leaving the company. Roger Levy, the group’s vice president for technology and customer relations, will replace him on an interim basis. I haven’t been able to find out if Singh is leaving for another job or if he’s just leaving.
Oracle’s latest advancement of its cloud computing strategy is being called out as a "faux cloud" by a consultant and author, and as the latest example of cloud-washing, or the practice of vendors misusing the ubiquitous technology term. This week Oracle announced the availability of a service it previewed last year at Oracle OpenWorld that allows customers to rent Oracle hardware equipment and store it on their own sites for a monthly fee. David Linthicum, CTO and co-founder of cloud and SOA consultancy Blue Mountain Labs, says that’s not cloud computing.
AMD Monday charged four former managers from its Boxborough, Massachusetts facility including its erstwhile VP of strategic development Robert Feldstein with looting its files and taking more than 100,000 confidential documents with them to new jobs at graphics rival Nvidia last year. The suit, which does not name Nvidia, was filed in district court in Boston.
Microsoft upgraded its System Center suite Tuesday to make it a hybrid cloud manager and a more complete manager of the capabilities included in Windows Server 2012, launched last September.
For OpenStack to succeed, the open source cloud platform will need a big ecosystem of trained experts and channel partners. Enter Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) and MIT, which this week are training 20 students as part of a 12-hour introduction to OpenStack. Although that’s a small group, it’s the latest wakeup call for channel partners that are trying to get their arms around public and private cloud business opportunities.