Cloud

Daniel333

Take it more seriously. Please guys.

I just had the unhappy experience of seeing a few people laid off today, so maybe this is written in an emotional state. I don’t take it well.

I have to say I feel uneasy about the chip on the shoulder of IT people right now when it comes to the cloud. In their world it’s often a buzz word. Some sort of marketing scam. But to C-level decision makers who will never ask your point of view, it’s an option.

This smug feels like those people buying houses with 10% down on adjustable loans just a few years ago.

I believe this chip is only happening because of this second tech-boom we’re in. Sure in many areas we’re looking at less than 2% unemployment in IT. But don’t kid yourself. This is a bubble.

The cloud isn’t a joke, it’s a challenge to you to adapt.

In my previous life we moved into small companies and worked on dismantling their IT departments. Turning 5-10 man teams to 0 man teams using Cloud and outsourced technology. People who at some point where every bit as smug but didn’t realize they were not satisfying their C-level staff’s expectation.

Exchange, IM, Sharepoint, backup, desktop apps and voip all outsourced and in the cloud. Support moved to India and Florida. Standard image laptops using hosted XenApp servers along with App-V. Complicated networks were replaced with boiler plate switches and Cisco ASAs which were all managed overseas and monitored by Cisco.

Fact of the matter? It worked better than what we walked in and saw. Sure, blame your manager that you don’t have the budget for XYZ, and it’s not your fault etc etc. Won’t matter when these sorts of companies come in at 80% of your cost with better SLAs.

If you have had a chance to work with things like azure, amazon, vCloud Director and Intermedia services you would see how impressive it’s really gotten. You’ll also see how heavy they are marketing how secure you’re your data will be straight to the C-level decision makers.

Installing fear of data loss to management, and hiding behind PCI compliance is not a strategy for a career. Automation efforts for even those sorts of things are getting better.

Be willing to start making the career changes now.

So, “the cloud” isn’t the evil bad guy that will steal your jobs. I firmly believe it’s a strategy that will change your jobs, and it will pick up the most steam just as the IT tech boom begins to reflect the rest of the economy.

Novalith478

antielvis wrote: »

I think many of you need to take the stats you read with a grain of salt. Way back in the 90s (I was around then) IBM released study after study that online shopping was going to decimate the bricks and mortar retail world. I remember reading articles about how these specialists fear what would happen to shopping malls. They foresaw a day when your local mall would be closed down. No such thing happened.

In theory the Cloud sounds like a good idea because proponents of the Cloud only emphasis the GOOD things about it (lower costs). They don't mention the expense of upgrading their network infrastructure. They don't mention the risk of having your data stored elsewhere. What happens if the Cloud provider doesn't pay the bills and their connectivity is cut? How about if a Canadian company puts their technical data on US server & that data falls under the Patriot Act?

Further to that, what about security? We are constantly seeing high profile hacks at all levels. Well known banks, governments, businessess...all being compromised. Sure, it's "only" their webserver or DB server in the DMZ, but..that's not what the public sees. The public sees that THEIR data was stolen.

In the mid term future, I can see perhaps hybrid clouds, but more likely you'll see private clouds & virtual desktops. I don't think you're going to see many companies move their entire server infrastructure to the Cloud. Good ideas may see like good ideas, but sometimes people forget about something I call reality.

Finally, I think what you will see is some companies that will "lowball" the price of the cloud much like web hosting companies did the same. The result will be pathetic service. You get what you pay for. People will sour on the experience and the cloud will be much slower coming into fruitation than the service providers make it out to be.

The point you mentioned about infrastructure is a valid one. We also should consider the fact that cloud storage may be "cheap" now, but then when more people migrate to it and the networks become more strained, **** is going to hit the fan, especially if entire organisations' data is in the "cloud".