Going to the Cloud? You Don’t Have to Go All In
April 5, 2012
When I talk to people about cloud computing, and especially to solution providers and business executives, they tend to have the belief that you are either in the cloud or you are not in the cloud. This causes a lot of distress, as people try to compare less than perfect cloud providers, in hopes of choosing the perfect one. In some of recent posts, this distress has been manifest with comments expressing fears about security and connectivity, among others.
While I do run with the crowd that believes cloud computing will be huge, I believe the industry is just beginning to mature. One of the reasons it is maturing is the formation of niches. Niches are a tell-tale sign that an industry is growing-up. Companies are finding gaps in the industry and then developing products and services to fill those gaps. This maturation will continue, and then the next step will be consolidation in the industry…
With this in mind, the argument of traditional computing vs. cloud computing is an argument that is often unnecessary. The best choice at least in the near future might be segregation until the industry matures further. Not just in the sense of using cloud computing and traditional computing, or a public cloud and a private cloud (called a hybrid cloud), but in using multiple cloud services, possibly even in conjunction with a traditional model.
The fear of putting all your eggs in one basket can be lessened by spreading your needs across multiple providers: one for email handing, one for backup and disaster recovery, one for managed security, and one for email archiving and compliance, etc. Then there are software solutions that can also be spread out, perhaps a customer relationship management (CRM) suite that is in the cloud, with an accounting system that is local, or specific office applications (Microsoft Word, Outlook) that are local, while the entire suite is available through a hosted desktop.
On my laptop that I travel with, I use a combination of encrypted local files, with encrypted off-site cloud storage for files I access less often. This model of splitting resources, whether it is storage, software applications, desktop resources, security, email, or backup can all be realized quite easily. In many cases, this is exactly what many cloud providers are doing: reselling others niche services.
Spreading your needs across multiple providers sounds like it could be a hassle to manage, but there are plenty of Technology Solution Providers, or Managed Services Providers, that can manage all those resources for you. Additionally in this scenario, when and if a cloud provider goes down, the rest of your infrastructure can still function and you still have only one provider to call for help.
So if you are struggling to develop your cloud strategy, consider the option of spreading your resources to multiple providers, and using a single company to manage those resources. Every organization’s needs are different, but don’t think that you have to go all in.