Dr. Jim Anderson tackles the question that all CIO’s are asking: just exactly what is “cloud computing”?
Dr. Anderson identifies the 4 different flavors of cloud computing that are available and points out how a CIO would go about using each one of them.
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Ok, admit it – cloud computing is here to stay. If you haven’t already signed up for a cloud then you will be doing so shortly. However, before you start writing the check, you really should know what you are buying. Everyone likes to talk about how good / bad cloud computing is; however, before now nobody has ever taken the time to talk about what you should be looking for when you go cloud shopping…
At a high level, I suspect that we all understand what cloud computing is: somebody else maintains a collection of generic servers that you can pay to use as needed. Sure sounds simple enough – it’s just basically IT outsourcing taken to its logical extreme. However, there’s more to it than just that.
Dave Durkee has taken a look at cloud computing and he has identified what he calls the seven essential characteristics that make up cloud computing:
The next thing that a CIO needs to understand when they go cloud shopping is just exactly what type of service model they are interested in. All clouds are not created equal.
Currently there are three different flavors of clouds for CIOs to choose from:
CIOs know that moving into a cloud is no longer an “if”, but rather a “when”. This means that they need to spend some time to learn what they need to look for when they go cloud shopping.
CIOs need to ensure that clouds that they are considering have a set of basic characteristics. These include on-demand access, elasticity, pay-per-use, connectivity, etc. CIOs will need to decide which of the three basic cloud service models will best meet the needs of their IT department.
All clouds are not created the same. Every CIO will eventually find himself / herself shopping for a cloud. Using the guidelines that we’ve discussed, CIOs can compare and contrast clouds so that they can end up selecting the cloud that works best for their company…
- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Department Leadership Skills™
Question For You: Do you think that a CIO should select two separate clouds to use at the same time?
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No matter if you are already a CIO or simply hope to become one someday, you are going to want to become a success. Just because you are the CIO, does not guarantee that you’ll be a success – it seems to take something else, something extra. It turns out that social signals are what determines how successful a CIO will be. Do you know what signals you are sending out?
Just when you think that you’ve got this Internet thing figured out, it goes and changes on you. When you become CIO the Internet is going to be both your best friend (always on connectivity) and your worst enemy (security). However, just like everything else in life the Internet keeps changing – now we’re using the Web 2.0. There are some fantastic tools out there for you, but will you know what to do with them when you are the CIO?
Now I know that you’re bright and smart because you are reading this article. However, let’s take just a quick moment and make sure that we’re all on the same page here. When the Internet first showed up, it was all about allowing you to “get somewhere”. You could go to AOL, CNN, Yahoo, etc. and see what content they had for you. This was all and good and businesses all opened up their own web sites and everyone pretty much knew what was going on.
Well apparently that wasn’t good enough. Things moved on and a whole new set of tools were invented that built on the original Internet and made it even more user friendly – say hello to the Web 2.0. The tools that make up the Web 2.0 ecosystem are all about allowing people who are using the Web to connect with each other – it’s all about “connectedness”.
When you become CIO this is going to matter because everyone is now expecting more from your company. It’s no longer enough to be a destination, now you are going to have to work with your IT department to make sure that you are a player in the Web 2.0 world.
Guess what – even if when you became CIO you put your foot down and said “Balderdash, we’re not going to get involved with this Web 2.0 foolishness” it wouldn’t work. The world is becoming filled with blogs (including one very popular one called The Accidental Successful CIO), wikis, mashups, and so on. Your employees will be using them even if you chose not to do so.
Instead of being a stuck-in-the-mud CIO, you will have an opportunity to do more and move faster than the CIOs who came before you. That is because the Web 2.0 tools are changing the way that corporate software applications are developed. Instead of being these big stand-alone application, now they are becoming sleeker Web Services that use what’s already on the Internet to perform functions as well as playing nicely with other applications.
If you turn out to be a really clever CIO, you’ll have one of those break-through moments that can define a career. What you’ll realize is that what the Web 2.0 tools really allow your IT department to do is to enable the company’s customers to do a lot work for themselves. Things that used to require somebody in the company to do (selecting product options, checking on the status of an order, paying a bill) can now be done online and with Web 2.0 tools they can be done much easier than ever before.
The clever CIO will be able to reduce the company’s required headcount while at the same time improving customer satisfaction. What’s even better is that you’ll be able to do this with the IT department that you currently have – you won’t need lots of additional staff.
The Web 2.0 has arrived and you need to be ready to deal with it when you become CIO. It has the potential to both help and hinder the tasks that you will need to do as CIO.
The Web 2.0 is a set of tools that transforms the web from a set of places that we go to a way to connect with other people. You will need to work with your IT department in order to harness these tools. Your goal should be to harness the power of the new tools and create ways for your company’s customers to do more by themselves.
If you can figure out how to do this, then you’ll end up saving your company both time and money. You had better hurry up, the Web 3.0 can’t be that far away…
- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Department Leadership Skills
Question For You: Of all the different Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, Ajax, etc.) which do you think is the most valuable to a CIO?
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If you want to be a CIOs, then there’s no need for me to tell you that we are living in troubling times We are always trying to do two things: hold on to our jobs and find ways to move up the corporate ladder. One of the best ways to do both of these, or so we have been told, is to go out and get an MBA. Maybe it’s time to look for a better way to accomplish what we’re trying to do…
By Dr. Jim Anderson
CIOs Need To Make Sure That Cloud Computing Is Not Just A Fad
Does anyone besides me remember the big Furby craze that swept the U.S. in the early ’90′s? People went crazy for these little plush dolls and they started collecting them in hopes that they would one day be valuable. Well, that never happened and a lot of people got stuck with expensive toys that they couldn’t get rid of. Is is possible that the current cloud computing craze in IT could be another Furby fad that will fade away?
If a CIO can move beyond the hype, he/she needs to spend some time doing their homework in order to find out what kind of services a cloud could offer that their company could make use of. Neal Leavitt has spent some time studying cloud computing and has boiled cloud services down into four types of services:
The Forrester research company has done some investigating and they now claim that most company’s data centers are using less than 50% of their total capacity. Despite the hype that is currently surrounding cloud computing, Leavitt has uncovered three very good reasons for looking into having your firm start to use cloud computing:
It is all too easy for CIOs who are adverse to change to look at the current excitement over cloud computing and decide that it is yet another fad that will fade away in time. The reality is that cloud computing provides several different types of services that are useful to any IT department. This can’t be ignored.
Additionally, successfully adding cloud computing resources to the company’s existing IT infrastructure will mean that a CIOs will have found a way to apply IT to enable the rest of the company to grow quicker, move faster, and do more.
How much of your existing IT infrastructure do you think that your firm is currently using – more or less than 50%? Which of the four types of cloud computing services would have the most immediate value to your company? Why? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.
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Cloud computing is all the rage these days and everyone who is anyone is making plans to implement at least some flavor of it as soon as possible. It turns out that the decision to go with a cloud computing solution for your IT department might not be as simple as some would lead you to believe. There are challenges to successfully using a cloud and we need to talk about them…
CIOs Need To Understand Cloud Computing
One of the great things about working in the IT field is that whenever things start to get boring, we have the ability to create new buzzwords and make things interesting all over again. The arrival of “Cloud Computing” on the scene a couple of years ago showed that this cycle has not gone away. Maybe it would be worthwhile to take a step back and make sure that we’re all on the same page here – what is cloud computing and why should anyone care?
Neal Leavitt has spent some time studying cloud computing and has some thoughts for us. A quick definition of just what cloud computing is might be a good place for us to start. In olden days (3 years ago), if you wanted to run an application you pretty much had to go out, buy a server, plug it in, load up the software, connect it to a network and then you were in business. Cloud computing changes all of that.
Now all you have to do is set up an account with a company who has already done all of the above steps. You can then load your application onto their server(s) using the Internet to reach these servers and ta-da you are in business.
There are three main “flavors” of cloud computing that users are employing currently:
The list of cloud computing service providers is long and seems to be getting longer every day. Here’s a partial list with a number of names that you’ll probably recognize…
Ok, so clearly this is not the final thought on Cloud Computing. I’ve got a lot more to cover with you, but this is a good place to quit for now. Cloud Computing was treated as a bit of a novelty when it first showed up. I mean, who would trust unreliable links to remote computers to run critical corporate apps?
Times have changed and the economics of Cloud Computing have also changed to make this a more attractive option. Every CIO needs to be thinking about how his / her IT shop is using computing resources right now and what role Cloud Computing could play in the future. Addressing this issue this will mean that CIOs will have found a way to apply IT to enable the rest of the company to grow quicker, move faster, and do more.
Have you spent any time thinking about using Cloud Computing yet? How long until you run out of room to add more servers to your company’s infrastructure? Have you calculated the total cost of ownership for the servers that you do have? Are your applications too critical to trust to a cloud? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.
Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Successful CIO Blog is updated.
Does anyone besides me remember the big Furby craze that swept the U.S. in the early ’90′s? People went crazy for these little plush dolls and they started collecting them in hopes that they would one day be valuable. Well, that never happened and a lot of people got stuck with expensive toys that they couldn’t get rid of. Is is possible that the current cloud computing craze in IT could be another Furby fad that will fade away?
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