There’s a perception that cloud computing has a fuzzy “edge” that makes it difficult to tell where being online ends and the cloud starts, says Alexander Mehlhorn, CEO of Framework One.
This makes it easy for the unscrupulous to pull the wool over the eyes of the uninformed and pass off online solutions as being in the cloud.
And because so many IT managers and CTOs don’t really understand the cloud, it is easy to sell them solutions that don’t match even the most basic criteria of being a cloud solution.
What are these criteria? At the most basic level, a cloud solution must be:
* Immensely scalable on demand;
* Immediately flexible; and
* Pay-as-you-go.
In most cases, cloud solution providers (CSPs) aren’t wilfully misrepresenting their solutions. Part of the problem is that those designing and implementing these supposed “cloud solutions” don’t comprehend cloud computing, its capabilities, and what makes a cloud solution.
How could they, when they don’t inhabit the cloud themselves. It takes more than a DropBox folder to place an organisation in the cloud.
Too many solution providers and development houses are trapped in archaic models, employing massive IT departments that maintain a myriad of servers and download countless patches. After all, that’s what a technology company should look like, isn’t it? Well, no.
Cloud computing allows for progressive and innovative approaches to business within even the smallest organisation, and there is nowhere that this should be clearer than within the companies that deliver IT services and solutions.
Because how can users trust a company to provide them with a cloud solution, when it is unable to make the shift to the cloud internally, and it is still saddled with managing and maintaining a traditional IT infrastructure? The truth is that users can’t. Which is why it’s so important to make sure that the solution provider practices what they preach.
Cloud computing offers scalability and immediate access to inconceivable computing power. And once users understand that this is the true power of cloud computing, they don’t need a murky crystal ball to see into the future of technology or the business.
Instead, users can make use of this game-changing technology to drive them into the future and differentiate the business. And more importantly, users can choose a cloud services partner to guide the entire organisation into the cloud.