Visitors and employees crowd the Deutsche Telekom stand under hanging sculptures symbolizing cloud computing in Hanover, Germany. Getty Images/Sean Gallup
For most, the term “cloud computing” first popped up somewhere around 2008 or 2009 – which coincided with when tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft and Google started ramping up their consumer cloud applications. And many started using cloud without even realizing: to store music files, photos or connect with friends over the internet using social media platforms like Facebook.
Although “the cloud” has become a widely-used buzzword in just the past few years, the roots of the cloud are traced back to the early days of computing – back to the 1960s and 1970s. Today’s cloud is internet-centric, and has revolutionized consumer technology. In 2010 and 2011, the tech world was abuzz about the cloud, cloud storage service Dropbox was growing in profit and popularity, and Spotify finally hit the U.S., points out Gizmag’s Will Shanklin. Even Steve Jobs used his last Apple keynote to introduce iCloud, underscoring the shift taking place in the tech world as users’ information moves from gadgets to the cloud, where it is stored on remote servers and accessible from any device with an Internet connection.
“We are going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud,” Jobs said during the 2011 announcement. Apple has been a huge part of this shift, especially for consumers, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) dominates the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) market. Amazon’s market share in IaaS was more than 35% in the fourth quarter of 2012, Synergy Group estimated. The second-highest market share belonged to IBM but was only about 5% of the market, followed by British Telecom with under 5%.
Certainly, there is plenty of good that can be said about the benefits of cloud computing and cloud-based services such as cloud storage, email hosting and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms like Salesforce. They are designed to deliver cost savings, flexibility and improved collaboration for all sized organizations, including startups that typically have lean resources. In fact, more and more small businesses are tapping into cloud for infrastructure, storage and office productivity software.
Proof of this can be found in a recent survey conducted by Rackspace. An overwhelming number of businesses that started up in the past three years reported that cloud-based services save them time and money – just under 90% of such businesses said the cloud has made it easier to set up their business. In addition, over half of the startups surveyed (52%) said they wouldn’t have been able to afford on-premise IT resources at the time they wanted to launch. Yet the cloud also has a dark side, despite its benefits.
The looming threat of a cloud outage continues to hinder the full embrace of cloud, especially when AWS services went down at least twice last year, both of which were widely publicized. Cloud outages are a real consideration that can cost companies a lot in downtime, negatively impacting their bottom lines. In fact, a total of 568 hours of downtime at 13 well-known cloud services since 2007 had an economic impact of more than $71.7 million, according to a recent report released by the International Working Group on Cloud Computing Resiliency (IWGCR).
OVH and NaviSite had the greatest number of unavailability hours, according to the report, which lists Amadeus and Facebook as having the greatest availability. Other vendors cited in the report are: ServerBeach, PayPal, Google, Yahoo, Twitter Amazon, Microsoft, Hostway and Blackberry.
Availability translates into dollars and cents for most businesses – any potential disruptor jeopardizes our trust in cloud and it can be taken off the table for consideration despite other possible benefits it might bring.
Security is another challenge that continues to emerge as the strongest inhibitor of cloud adoption, followed by concerns around integration. When the term “cloud” first made its appearance in the tech industry several years ago, skeptics brought up a valid point: Is shifting data to the cloud – off premise, into another location – at all safe? How could it really be? “Cloud security” sounded like an oxymoron, and for some, it still does. Certainly, we know that cloud computing is imposing change to IT strategies, but is security in the cloud a real or perceived threat?
For organizations considering cloud, they need to conduct their due diligence and closely evaluate potential cloud service models and providers; they must also insist that cloud service providers grant visibility into security processes and controls. There are several industry groups working toward standardization of cloud security, including the Cloud Security Alliance – a group comprised of industry professionals, corporations and associations, which seeks to promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance within cloud computing, and provide education on the uses of cloud computing to help secure all other forms of computing.
Clearly, security and reliability need to be improved in order for the cloud movement to continue to gain traction – and for providers to truly win the trust of their users. Looking ahead, it’s likely we will see greater transparency from cloud services providers as this thing called “cloud” continues to evolve and impact us in ways yet to be seen.
