"The Current Model Of Cloud Is More Vendor Centric Than Customer Centric"

Use And Implementation Of Cloud In Business

At the outset, I would like to say that ‘Cloud’ is here to stay but may not be in the same form which exists today. The current model of cloud is more vendor centric than customer centric. It may be the right choice for the start-up companies and small segment. At present sustained revenue assurance model for vendors is happening and that is why everyone is jumping into this. I am sure it will evolve.

Let us look at the promise of cloud offering:
1. Scalability: In general, Scalability is no more a challenge and so its cloud. Scalability was  once part of strategy and thanks to growing technology it is already in the commodity space.  Hence chasing cloud only on account of scalability may not be the right approach.

2. Quick turnaround time: It can be true in case of any new sudden requirement. For such emergency cloud service can easily be opted.

3. Interoperability between clouds: It is one of the big challenges that makes customer be at  the mercy of vendor especially on cloud based applications. Though many claim that they can  provide data, there is no easy way out for the same. I hope this will evolve over the years.

4. Mission critical systems: Traditionally mission critical systems are not exposed to outside environment because of its inherent risks. Though we need to challenge the conventional wisdoms, it is too primitive to suggest cloud to be the choice for mission critical systems. Technically, it can be argued that private cloud is an option. We will have to wait and see.

5. Security (Data protection): The general notion that cloud may not be secured is not correct. Of late many security standards are put in place in many cloud offerings and some of them are very expensive if we choose them individually. Security level increase and costs are directly  proportional. But to conclude all cloud offerings are fully secured is equally not wise. We need to look into the standards followed and their certifications before opting.

To conclude, Cloud is still at an early stage with a lot of promise. However, one can safely predict that in house data centres will be soon replaced by private clouds since it is affordable and a commoditized computing resource with lots more benefit than in-house installation.

On a lighter note mere cloud will end up with the store house of bacteria unless it transforms the customers.

Cloud still has to grow and although, as a technology it excites me, I look forward to its transformation from vendor centric model to customer centric model.