Cloud Computing. How does it affect IT Admins?

Wanted to get some opinions. Wanted to see what you thought about the whole Cloud computing/SaaS computing? Really my question is what happens to IT Admins when the company or client you work for says they want to do cloud computing. What happens to your job since most of that stuff is hosted else where. Seems to me you just become the guy that contacts the guy to get your server up and running, instead of "your" the guy that used to to this. Job lose? Fired?

What you think?

peace

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dales

murdatapes wrote: »

Wanted to get some opinions. Wanted to see what you thought about the whole Cloud computing/SaaS computing? Really my question is what happens to IT Admins when the company or client you work for says they want to do cloud computing. What happens to your job since most of that stuff is <b>hosted else where</b>. Seems to me you just become the guy that contacts the guy to get your server up and running, instead of "your" the guy that used to to this. Job lose? Fired?

What you think?

peace

Not sure how many companies would be happy with hosting their data elsewhere, too many variables and risks to make it worth while. What happens if your net connection goes down.... how secure is the data being held elsewhere.... where in the world is your data... what laws are applicable to the location of the data... SLA's...whats to say the host goes bust and pulls the plug on all the data imediately. Absolute minefield in my mind.

I think for the moment we are quite safe, even if data could be housed in the cloud alot of applications will still need inhouse support.

tiersten

What dales said basically.

Cloud computing is the current new trendy thing at the moment and still in its infancy. The two biggest ones at the moment are Google and Amazon who both provide cloud computing platforms with App Engine and Amazon Web Services respectively. Both have suffered massive outages in the past with little recourse for those affected. All you got with a "Sorry all. Something is broken in our <blah>" and hours of downtime. I don't see how any modern business would accept that if IT is a vital part of their business.

Kaminsky

dales wrote: »

Not sure how many companies would be happy with hosting their data elsewhere, too many variables and risks to make it worth while. What happens if your net connection goes down.... how secure is the data being held elsewhere.... where in the world is your data... what laws are applicable to the location of the data... SLA's...whats to say the host goes bust and pulls the plug on all the data imediately. Absolute minefield in my mind.

I think for the moment we are quite safe, even if data could be housed in the cloud alot of applications will still need in-house support.

For the smaller comapnies who cannot afford it, I agree. For the mid to large companies, government, military, national infrastructure, etc this is not the case. It is a lot cheaper for them on the whole and the levels of support are far greater than they would ever get trying to keep their own staff trained without losing them and keeping up with the latest levels of equipment. This concept is slowly working it's way down to smaller companies where the term "cloud computing" starts. Higher than that, it is just called outsourcing and has been growing more and more popular for years due to it's obvious benefits in service, support and especially security. As for SLAs, our typical high end one is 3 hour fix then £14k per minute over breach for major outage. That's the standard SLA. Outsourcing is not going away and will become more and more prevelent in the future.

From a local IT support point though, most countries have laws like we in the UK have TUPE law. If the local service it outsourced, the staff go with it by law and they stay on their current terms and conditions after they have gone.

For the first 15 years of my IT support career (and as far as I could go as a Novell/MS admin manager for an 8,000 ser site), I was a corporate/outsourcing hater until I "sold out" and joined up. I had the same misgivings as discussed above. Once I joined and actually learnt how it all really works, I really wish I had done it a lot sooner just in the benefits and way of life you get working for them. Talented and gifted IT staff gravitate upwards naturally over time (not necessarily saying I am one of those) and large IT outsourcers are very high up the food chain.

As for Amazon, Googles recent efforts you are talking about, they are just trying to put themselves into the outsourcing market with a flashy spin called "Cloud Computing".

Outsourcing is outsourcing and you pay for the level of support you get. If a company is going to outsource, they are far better off going to a proper one that has been in the industry for years and has the staff base and secure infrastructure to look after you properly. If a company thinks they can do it on the cheap, they get what they desrerve.

Penfold

tiersten wrote: »

What dales said basically.

Cloud computing is the current new trendy thing at the moment and still in its infancy. The two biggest ones at the moment are Google and Amazon who both provide cloud computing platforms with App Engine and Amazon Web Services respectively. Both have suffered massive outages in the past with little recourse for those affected. All you got with a "Sorry all. Something is broken in our <blah>" and hours of downtime. I don't see how any modern business would accept that if IT is a vital part of their business.

Yes this is very true - on a much smaller scale there are companies out there who offer stuff like hosted exchange and people get fustrated when their e-mails aren't working all of a sudden. The last thing they want is to be calling some preimum rate number just to be fobbed off until it gets fixed.

sidsanders

us based outsourcing isnt so nice as the uk... they do it, you could be smoked. i have dealt with a few outsourcing shops and many are awful. they supply the lowest of the low skilled folks they can. outsourcing is a short term $$ savings unless you can find the right place (i havent seen that place yet). one of the things they do to get around the sla issue is make it so hard for folks to report problems/open tickets, give bad survey results, etc, that folks give up and hardly open tickets. this makes the status reports look like GOLD!!! plus, execs refuse to hear anything negative. you cant say the shop is having probs because you are not a team player. just what i have seen...

hosted apps are not new at all though. ASP/SAAS/grid computing/utility computing/etc... though not everything can be hosted or should be hosted. that would be up to each company to determine that. hard to say how this can impact tech folks: you could be working for the hosting site/shop, you could be doing other things for the company...