“What is The Cloud?” was the opening question at a Cloud Computing panel debate at the recently held IP Expo . Clearly it's a question that can generate as many different answers as “What is art?", but panelists from Microsoft, Salesforce.com, NetSuite and Siemens had a stab.
“The Cloud allows the CIO a different way of deploying technology [like virtualisation and server farms],” said Adrian Brookes, Vice President, Unified Communications Technical Vision & Strategy, Office of the CTO at Siemens. “He’s not constrained by the servers. It’s pay as you go, a great environment grown through the cell phone age. The Cloud is a huge technological component but it’s also a shift in how we pay for those services.”
Toby Davidson, Director of Professional services at Netsuite, wanted to focus on the area of services. “Services do get talked about quite a lot [with The Cloud],” he explained.
Meanwhile Patrick O’Rourke, Director of Marketing & Comms, Server & Tools at Microsoft, took a pragmatic view. “Cloud Computing is whatever you make of it in all honesty,” he said. “It’s a combination of architecture, applications, application development, deployment, and use. There are different instances of Cloud Computing that we all see.”
An on-going perceived obstacle for Cloud Computing is the perceptions about security and data protection. For some management the act of storing sensitive company data with third-parties is unnerving, and far outside their comfort zones, so when is this likely to change? Somewhat uniquely (and obviously) for the debate, the opinion was unanimous: “The reality is that the perception has already become to change,” offered Woodson Martin, Director of Marketing for EMEA, Salesforce.com.
Microsoft’s O’Rourke agreed: “I look at my personal use, and I might represent a fair number of people. There’s a new generation coming that’s grown with the internet, and I think as technology breaks down barriers for people scared to use it, it’ll change the psyches and perception of the models," he suggested. "A few years ago it was e-commerce, at first the fear of using something that sounds scary as The Cloud.”
Current trends during the recession have seen a surge in Cloud Computing interest from businesses looking for cost efficient solutions, showing the perceived security issue surrounding the model is subsiding. But what about after the recession ends? Is it likely that interest over Cloud Computing could begin to dissipate, or is it now in a dynamo effect? “I think it (the recession) has been a catalyst for Cloud Computing in many cases,” said Martin. “The economic pressures that impact a company during a recession are the same as those always there when companies look to cut costs.”
Netsuite’s Davidson pointed out the use of top-end technology by Cloud services and data centres as a strong reason for The Cloud’s continued growth, referring to many SaaS vendors as providing a “best of breed and best of service” facility to customers.
The debate eventually turned away from the present, becoming an exercise in crystal ball gazing; specifically on the future of the CIO, and how the role will evolve (or diminish) as a result of The Cloud. Will they – for instance - need to become a less controlling force within companies?
SalesForce.com’s Martin revealed how the online CRM giant has observed changes being made at the CIO level: “In the last seven months we’ve have CIOs come in talking to each other about how they’re shifting their strategies around Cloud Computing and SaaS. We’re very engaged with the CIO community.” He explained a key virtue of Cloud Computing solutions over traditional on-premise products, namely affordability and the flexibility to experiment: “The great thing about The Cloud today is you can just do it, and the cost of trying things is very small.”
But do we really need CIOs at all in a Cloudy future? O’Rourke added that CIO’s were involved with the implementation of new efficiency models, which included Cloud Computing and virtualised desktop infrastructures. As a result, “We’ll see CIO titles for quite a while.”
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