Don't Trip Over The Cloud
The latest craze in the IT industry today is the ever growing cloud. The cloud is defined as using applications or storing data outside your premises. Some good examples of cloud solutions are virtual server, hosted email or remote backup. At face value many of these solutions seem to be great ways to save money and combine resources. Yet there are some dangers you must look out for when determining which cloud services to use, such as Internet outages, the Wild West of Cloud Computing and government control.
When you move to the cloud, you are essentially moving your data away from your location to shared data center. These data centers often are rated for everything from floods, fires, hurricanes and power outages. They have multiple Internet connections in case one goes down. 24/7 monitoring, redundant servers and often redundant sites in case a nuclear bomb would happen to go off. They have thought of everything except your business does not have multiple fiber connections and is probably not protected 24/7 by armed guards. What they fail to disclose is that they are not the weakest link, your business' Internet connection is. If the Internet connection at your business goes down and all your data is hosted in the cloud, how will your employees work?
We can often mitigate these Internet issues with dual Internet connections, (i.e. DSL and Cable), so that if one connection fails the other one can provide service. But what if the problem is not your Internet provider, but the Internet itself? Outside of the control of your IT firm and your ISP is the actual Internet itself. On occasion there will be a piece of equipment that goes out or a piece of fiber gets cut and suddenly a geographic area such as a town, state or area of the country goes without Internet. This happened recently to a colleague of mine, whose town was without Internet for an entire day due to someone with a rifle taking out the fiber that connected the town to the Internet.
While having your data in the cloud can be a cost saver in the short run, factors such as Internet downtime need to be properly analyzed as they can cost you more in the long run in employee downtime. To help mitigate the cost associated with Internet outage, many customers only place non-mission critical data and software in the cloud so that if they do have an outage their employees can still work.
In addition to the risks associated with Internet outages, there is what I have termed the Wild West of Cloud Computing. When I look at the marketplace right now for cloud computing, I see the familiar face of computers in the 90's, when every investor was throwing all their eggs into what ever .com they could get invested into. It was raining money in the IT community, every kind of tech company was opening at every corner with hopes of massive returns and then it hit, the .com bust. Everything came crashing down, from the little guys to the tech giants, no one was left unscathed.
Back then the only ones who were hurt were the guys who invested, many times blindly, their money in these ventures, hoping for sky high returns. This time though, it is a lot different. Yes, it is the investors who are holding the money bag and will loose big if .com II happens, but the bigger losers will be you or those like you who have entrusted your data to these companies. How will your company fair without its data for 30, 60 or 90 days while it has to go to court to get back its data after the cloud vendor files for bankruptcy and the judge orders all the servers to be shutdown. It is very important if you are going to be in the cloud that you keep a local current copy of all data in case a situation like .com II happens.
The final issue that comes to mind with approaching cloud computing is the federal government and world government. In keeping track of the technology news I am constantly presented with stories like "President Obama Wants an Internet Kill Switch" or "The United Nations Wants Control of The Internet." Headlines such as these may be a bit sensationalized but there is much truth to them. Government's desire to control the Internet has been ever increasing as those in power ever seek to increase their power, the Internet is a bastion of freedom they have yet to tame. Remember even as remote as it sounds, there may be more government regulation coming to the Internet soon which could hamper your cloud strategy.
While we do not have control over many of the traps of cloud computing, we can though mitigate our risks and decrease our exposure through a well thought out cloud strategy based on full knowledge of the hazards cloud computing presents. Before diving into cloud computing or even if you are currently in the cloud, examine what services and data you can safely store in the cloud and develop a plan of action if you were to run into one of the many hazards.
When you move to the cloud, you are essentially moving your data away from your location to shared data center. These data centers often are rated for everything from floods, fires, hurricanes and power outages. They have multiple Internet connections in case one goes down. 24/7 monitoring, redundant servers and often redundant sites in case a nuclear bomb would happen to go off. They have thought of everything except your business does not have multiple fiber connections and is probably not protected 24/7 by armed guards. What they fail to disclose is that they are not the weakest link, your business' Internet connection is. If the Internet connection at your business goes down and all your data is hosted in the cloud, how will your employees work?
We can often mitigate these Internet issues with dual Internet connections, (i.e. DSL and Cable), so that if one connection fails the other one can provide service. But what if the problem is not your Internet provider, but the Internet itself? Outside of the control of your IT firm and your ISP is the actual Internet itself. On occasion there will be a piece of equipment that goes out or a piece of fiber gets cut and suddenly a geographic area such as a town, state or area of the country goes without Internet. This happened recently to a colleague of mine, whose town was without Internet for an entire day due to someone with a rifle taking out the fiber that connected the town to the Internet.
While having your data in the cloud can be a cost saver in the short run, factors such as Internet downtime need to be properly analyzed as they can cost you more in the long run in employee downtime. To help mitigate the cost associated with Internet outage, many customers only place non-mission critical data and software in the cloud so that if they do have an outage their employees can still work.
In addition to the risks associated with Internet outages, there is what I have termed the Wild West of Cloud Computing. When I look at the marketplace right now for cloud computing, I see the familiar face of computers in the 90's, when every investor was throwing all their eggs into what ever .com they could get invested into. It was raining money in the IT community, every kind of tech company was opening at every corner with hopes of massive returns and then it hit, the .com bust. Everything came crashing down, from the little guys to the tech giants, no one was left unscathed.
Back then the only ones who were hurt were the guys who invested, many times blindly, their money in these ventures, hoping for sky high returns. This time though, it is a lot different. Yes, it is the investors who are holding the money bag and will loose big if .com II happens, but the bigger losers will be you or those like you who have entrusted your data to these companies. How will your company fair without its data for 30, 60 or 90 days while it has to go to court to get back its data after the cloud vendor files for bankruptcy and the judge orders all the servers to be shutdown. It is very important if you are going to be in the cloud that you keep a local current copy of all data in case a situation like .com II happens.
The final issue that comes to mind with approaching cloud computing is the federal government and world government. In keeping track of the technology news I am constantly presented with stories like "President Obama Wants an Internet Kill Switch" or "The United Nations Wants Control of The Internet." Headlines such as these may be a bit sensationalized but there is much truth to them. Government's desire to control the Internet has been ever increasing as those in power ever seek to increase their power, the Internet is a bastion of freedom they have yet to tame. Remember even as remote as it sounds, there may be more government regulation coming to the Internet soon which could hamper your cloud strategy.
While we do not have control over many of the traps of cloud computing, we can though mitigate our risks and decrease our exposure through a well thought out cloud strategy based on full knowledge of the hazards cloud computing presents. Before diving into cloud computing or even if you are currently in the cloud, examine what services and data you can safely store in the cloud and develop a plan of action if you were to run into one of the many hazards.
posted by Eric at
2:09 PM
