The Biggest Cloud Computing Pitfall

August 2, 2009 · Posted in Other 

prison2 So what is the biggest cloud pitfall? Security, you say? Nope. That is too big not to be solved and it is in everyone’s best interest to do so. Performance? Nope. That is too big not to be solved and it is in everyone’s best interest to do so. Ease of use\programmability\cost\color\flavor? Nope.

Imagine if you built your house but the fundamental design only allowed for “proprietary electric” from a specific utility *AND* this system was built into the foundation of the house. If this electric company provided craptastic service after they got you locked in like only providing power every other day, what are you going to do? You put up with it or you rip out your entire electrical system and put in another one.

Cloud computing = Utility Computing

prison1Platform LOCK IN is the biggest pitfall for both consumers and providers on many different levels in my opinion. We will touch the surface in this post but use your imagination to see the possible implications because this chapter has yet to be written.

It can’t be that bad, can it? Is this “Scared Straight”?

Think of Apple before the iPod between 1995 to 1999. They were sucking wind BAD! Microsoft even had to invest in them. The general consensus of this period is the closed hardware platform is what hurt them so bad. 3rd parties did not legally release apple HW which lead to software developers to writing fewer Apple apps. The ecosystem was weaker and the PC has pwnd for the last 14 years.

On the flipside, Mac OSX has been able to focus. OSX has known hardware. It doesn’t have to worry about bad device drivers(unless they write bad code themselves). Eventually, those “in the know” figured out that pastels compute faster Macs do not blue screen. The ease of use and reliability of a closed platform became desired by some. Can you ride out that period of weak ecosystem and small community support while the cloud becomes solid as a closed system? The internet moves faster so maybe so. However, if you are a vendor, listen to this, otherwise, your customers may pass you up for a more open system at that internet speed.

Yep, Calling out Microsoft and Google.

Prison3 Software as a Service(SaaS) is a lock in by design. Ask someone who lives and dies by SaleForce.com. This is changing though. Now you can host your own, go with a service provider or go with the actual vendor with some of these apps. Some apps that were previously self hosted only are going SaaS. Exchange and Sharepoint for example. I am not talking about Microsoft or Google in this space. They are both competing and being portable in the cloud office app space. Kudos.

Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS) is open by design open. You run your app on whatever platform using whatever code. CPU\Memory\Disk\Network is the utility. If you do not like the service you are getting, you can change providers nearly as easy as electric companies.

Platforms as a Service(PaaS) is closed right now. It is why I write this evening. Right now, the big boys are Google App Engine and Microsoft Windows Azure. Both are in beta.

My Request

ec My simple request is release the platform for any company to use. This could be open source or commercial. This will stop the LOCKOUT mentality, decision makers will move to it faster if they know they can bring it in house if need be, 3rd parties will add on to it, and the baby jeebus will squeal with joy.

Google and Microsoft are currently holding out with the hopes that they can fill cubic miles of data center space. They could very well do this. However, I think the platform lock in is going to slow progress.

Full disclosure: I work for a company that is an IaaS provider but I do not be believe the opinion in this editorial is slanted because of that.

This content is published under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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Comments

  • Has anyone looked into Mosso, the RackSpace cloud?

    http://www.rackspacecloud.com/

    They allow for .Net and SQL Server 2008 access. That does not seem very "locked". I am not as familiar with the Amazon cloud. I think they have a proprietary DB that is simplistic and not as relational but might allow for your own DB to be loaded since they give you a VM and I guess you could load SQL Server on it (however, I have not looked into this option).
  • You are correct. That is infrastructure as a service. I checked out their product line and it looks like they only serve linux vm's. Am I missing it?

    BTW, I would like to think the company that I work for has a better offering than RackSpace. We do offer SQL 2005\SQL 2008 on Win2003\Win2008 in the enterprise cloud. http://terremark.com
  • johnsansom
    Hi Jason, I agree with you and great article by way.

    The lock in factor, in my opinion is such a prominent risk to a business, at least as the market currently stands, that it is a key deterrent to the adoption of cloud computing for established businesses.

    For small start-ups and new businesses however, I think the rules of the game may be different. I would have thought that the initial setup costs become a very important factor here, i.e. it may be more cost effective for a small business to deploy a SQL Server solution in the cloud than to host say a dedicated server or an internal solution. I don’t have hard numbers mind due, just my thoughts on the subject.

    Due to the business space that I currently operate in, my own personal reservation to Cloud Computing has to still be security. Only once this element has been addressed to my satisfaction will I begin seriously considering cloud computing at an enterprise level.

    I would be very interested to know your thoughts on security in the cloud and what steps you think the current solution providers could take to move this area forward.

    Cheers!
  • Microsoft has already announced that Azure will be available for sale and can be run in-house or by other hosting providers.
  • Link please?
  • davesmithcloud
    Everyone’s talking about Cloud Computing but you need to separate the fact from the gossip before committing to any kind of spend. Some of the UK’s top industry experts will be in London in December, discussing the key sector issues.
    It’s the first Business Cloud Summit. Martin Bellamy, the government’s new cloud computing chief, plus Salesforce CEO Marc Beniof, will be among the star studded list of speakers. More details here: http://www.businesscloud9.com/summit
  • Security in the cloud is a big issue. However, the government is past it. They are doing IaaS plus IDS services and virtual firewalls. They released a large RFQ last week.

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/17914883/US-Federal-C...
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