October 2009 Archives

The announcement that Salesforce is integrating directly with cloud-storage Box.net is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the future of the cloud:

Techcrunch explains what Box.net is thinking:

CEO Aaron Levie says that this is the first step in Box.net's plan to give businesses a secure way to share their files across multiple services on the web. He says that many of the cloud services geared toward the enterprise don't work well together -- oftentimes you'll have to reupload the same content to multiple sites to share or edit it. Box.net wants to help unify these services by serving as the central hub for your uploaded files, which you can then access from these other web-based services. Levie hints that we'll be seeing more integrations with other services in the near future.

What we are witnessing is the future of enterprise IT infrastructure. We have been talking about programmatic access through RESTful APIs for some time now.  This move by Saleforce is an evolutionary step in how enterprise IT will manage its IT infrastructure - it will be a cross-cloud platform, with applications and open access to the storage cloud of your choice.

Security is not an issue, and the future is about cross-cloud collaboration.

Phil Wainewright says that Box.net wants to be the "Switzerland of Data" - he's right and wrong.  Cloud Storage, provided by the various service providers are going to be the "switzerland of data storage."  Vendor lock-in is going by the wayside.

ReadWrite is spot on when they say that "you can start to see how platforms will evolve into service networks - where enterprise users may subscribe and get access to applications that they pay for on a per use basis."

The biggest threat then, is to traditional software vendors, and applications like Sharepoint.  We will see heated debates on this very topic in the days and weeks ahead.

BMC Software's announcement that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Tideway Systems Limited (Tideway), a provider of IT discovery solutions, can be interpreted as an extension of BMC's commitment to cloud-computing.

Here are two important statements in the press-release:

1. BMC will deliver unmatched visibility into the data center and rapidly reduce the time and resources required to model, manage and maintain applications and services. This is critical for IT organizations that are transitioning applications and services to cloud computing environments.

2. With the acquisition of Tideway, BMC adds the industry's leading application discovery and dependency mapping capabilities to manage and maintain complex data center environments including distributed, virtual and mainframe IT platforms and further extends its leadership in business service management.

So let's see what this could mean. 

It gives BMC the critical capability to discover and map complex data environments which are both physical and cloud-based.

This acquisition also puts BMC in a strong position to build a cloud-based CMDB.  While that might not happen right away, it is clearly now a key capability if they decide to pursue it. It also allows them to build a federated CMDB - and manage the hybrid cloud - private and public - across enterprise and hosted data centers. 

The evolution towards cloud-based ITIL continues.

UPDATE:
If you make enough noise, you may get your data back.  That's the message from Microsoft's Roz Ho: 

On behalf of Microsoft, I want to apologize for the recent problems with the Sidekick service and give you an update on the steps we have taken to resolve these problems.

We are pleased to report that we have recovered most, if not all, customer data for those Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage. We plan to begin restoring users' personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after we have validated the data and our restoration plan. We will then continue to work around the clock to restore data to all affected users, including calendar, notes, tasks, photographs and high scores, as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, Sidekick users should now start seeing their data being restored.  Although I still believe this is still a systems management failure, TechCrunch reports that "Microsoft has made changes to improve the overall stability of the Sidekick service and initiated a more resilient backup process to ensure that the integrity of their DB is maintained." 

Now why didn't they just do that in the first place?


By now we have heard all the excuses and rumors.  T-Mobile and Danger, the Microsoft-owned subsidiary that makes the Sidekick, announced that they lost all user data. That means that any contacts, photos, calendars, or to-do lists that haven't been locally backed up are gone.

Of course the common refrain we hear is that this is all the fault of cloud computing.

InformationWeek: "code red cloud disaster."

ZDNet: "one of the biggest cloud computing disasters so far."

CNet:  "threatens to put a dark cloud over the company's broader 'software plus services' strategy."

Barron's: "you have to wonder if the high hopes about cloud computing just suffered a mammoth setback."

Still others are blaming Microsoft. 

Writes Daniel Ionescu: "...the unfortunate coincidence is Microsoft's launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 devices last week, which in association with this weekend's Sidekick data loss could translate into reduced customer trust from potential Windows Phone buyers."

John Paczkowski: "Microsoft hasn't yet said what caused the failure, though some speculate it was a bungled storage area network upgrade performed without backup."

Dan Nosowitz: "It's been more than two weeks without data for Sidekick users, and T-Mobile finally bit the bullet and announced that it probably isn't coming back."

Michael Hickins: "Microsoft's Sidekick/Danger issue doesn't reflect badly on cloud storage, it reflects on cloud storage done badly."

And Jason Kincaid: "This goes beyond FAIL, face-palm, or any of the other Internet memes we've come to associate with incompetence. The fact that T-Mobile and/or Microsoft Danger don't have a redundant backup is simply inexcusable, especially given the fact that the Sidekick is totally reliant on the cloud because it doesn't store its data locally."

So clearly, we have a large scale "trust failure" on the part of Danger, and its parent company Microsoft.

As we've said before in this blog, large providers are not necessarily trusted providers.  But there is something else I's like to emphasize: this was not a failure of the cloud.  Rather, it was a management failure.  It is a failure by Danger to execute common sense server maintenance practices. Microsoft failed to ensure that sound systems management, backup and recovery policies were being followed, and T-Mobile failed to check the service delivery partners for the appropriate capabilities.

Again, it was NOT a failure of the cloud.

Unfortunately, the damage has been done to the reputation of the cloud.

For smaller service providers, this is an opportunity to take on Microsoft.

The issue here is not that the cloud failed, it is that the cloud provider failed.  We work with our service provider partners to architect appropriate services. It is ok to have a service that is priced low for average levels of service and priced at a premium for bullet-proof service delivery. And let's agree that service level is different from data loss.  No one expects their data to be lost, particularly by a service provider.  At a minimum, in any cloud storage service, there should be a second, recoverable copy from an off site location.  So, this is simple, the only way your data is lost is if two geographically remote data centers are wiped out.  This assumes that your testing and recovery capabilities absolutely eliminate data corruption problems. Usually, this is the problem. It is not a lack of multiple copies in multiple locations, rather, it is a system failure sourced from system architecture or underlying data corruption.

No service provider is ever going to place themselves in the position of ultimate total responsibility for every circumstance that could lead to data loss.

So what does the user do and on whom do they rely? At a minimum, the user must understand the data backup policy and commitment of the service provider.  Test them and make them prove they can recover.  And do business with someone who values your business and earns it every day. Do business with someone whom you can actually reach, and will enter into a constructive dialog with you to earn and retain your business.

A recent paper from Deloitte titled CFO Insights: Heading for the Clouds raises some very good points from the perspective of the CFO. It's worth a quick read.

In essence, the case is made that Cloud computing presents a significant opportunity because it allow companies to reduce the capital costs of information technology. It allows companies to convert the cost of computing from capital expenditures to primarily an operating expense. The author emphasizes that since the IT budget is often one of the largest expenses a company incurs, CFOs should ask their CIOs how they plan to leverage cloud computing to reduce costs and increase service responsiveness. In my view this is clearly a critical issue for CFOs looking to improve their financial results in a down economy.

Here are a few questions CFOs should ask:

• Is there a strategy to use cloud computing as part of the IT services mix? Companies need to take a "business service management" approach - only in reverse.  That is to say, they map out their "mission critical business processes" and leave them alone! Instead, they look to outsource non-critical IT tasks to cloud computing service providers who are better equipped to execute them, which frees up the internal IT organization to focus on business critical processes.

• What areas create the greatest opportunities for savings now? Today, cloud services for data storage and occasional high performance computing capabilities may be a good starting point. Clearly, data storage is one such area, especially storage of non-critical data - email, office aps, images, videos, etc.

• What applications will be migrated to the cloud? For small and medium-sized companies, enterprise applications such as customer relationship management (Salesforce) and accounting (Netsuite) are already moving to the cloud.

What about security, reliability, and lock-in?  These are the three issues most of us worry about with cloud deployments.  The article says that the level of computer security, data privacy practices and the expertise of major cloud service providers are likely to be greater than those provided by an in-house IT staff and systems.

And of course, you've got to check your service providers' SLAs, their backup and recovery policies. Here are SLAs from Amazon S3 and Softlayer, for example.

Bottom line? CFOs must embrace the Cloud if they are looking to improve performance.