Reader Alert: Controversial and based on non-verifiable facts
As a part of my day job, I often interact with vendors - IT service providers, equipment manufacturers, software / middleware providers, and even consultants like me. Ever since the market for Cloud based services has opened up (sometime since 2009) - vendors across the board have come up with their variation of Cloud services.
As I explore more and more Cloud products on the ground - I find that vendors are mostly rehashing old products and technologies under the Cloud label. Well, this isn't surprising because the Cloud is not something completely new. As I have previously written, the Cloud is just an evolution over Web2.0.
However, what concerns me is that vendors are brazen enough to go to market without even making the minimum necessary changes to these products before they can be labelled as 'Cloud'. Simply rehashing the packaging and some time not even that.
Let me elaborate - true that if you an application vendor then Cloud simply means that rather than sell your application to an enterprise for a licence fee and allow them to run it on their own hardware, you now can sell it as a service charged per user per month (et al.) by hosting it on your own hardware and allowing the customer to access it through the Internet.
But, this does mean that you need to alter some portions of your application. For example, you need to change the way your application manages its user IDs to enable multiple customers use the same instance of your application without accessing each others data - this is often referred to as multitenancy in the Cloud parlance.
However, what I have often observed is that vendors do not undertake any modification in their application. Instead they tell customers that they will set up independent instances of the application on the same server to handle multi-tenancy. This way each customer's application runs on an independent virtual machine. While this approach may work, it means that your application is going to use far greater resources of the server, as a result your cost of hosting the application will go up and this would ultimately result in higher pricing for the customer.
Similarly, to move to the Cloud, you must now change the way your customers pay you - it should be based in usage rather than a lumpsum payment. However, vendors often venture out in the market without redefining their costs and their pricing strategy. When asked about pricing, they try to dabble by putting across 'bulk pricing' strategy. In effect, all this again prevents customers from harnessing the power of the Cloud. Unfortunately, since customers too have been used to the older pricing models they often agree to such pricing even though it may be disadvantageous in the long run.
When looked inside the psyche of vendor organizations, I sense that most of them are waiting for the 'market' to make the move - a customer who pushes hard for the real Cloud model or a competitor who offers real Cloud service (and starts converting their customers). No one wants to proactively change what they have been doing for years - they are all happy just relabeling the wine bottle.
In between all this - Cloud is like the invisible man - suited in full ballroom attire but without the man inside!
Image Credit via flickr by Ariaski
As I explore more and more Cloud products on the ground - I find that vendors are mostly rehashing old products and technologies under the Cloud label. Well, this isn't surprising because the Cloud is not something completely new. As I have previously written, the Cloud is just an evolution over Web2.0.
However, what concerns me is that vendors are brazen enough to go to market without even making the minimum necessary changes to these products before they can be labelled as 'Cloud'. Simply rehashing the packaging and some time not even that.
Let me elaborate - true that if you an application vendor then Cloud simply means that rather than sell your application to an enterprise for a licence fee and allow them to run it on their own hardware, you now can sell it as a service charged per user per month (et al.) by hosting it on your own hardware and allowing the customer to access it through the Internet.
But, this does mean that you need to alter some portions of your application. For example, you need to change the way your application manages its user IDs to enable multiple customers use the same instance of your application without accessing each others data - this is often referred to as multitenancy in the Cloud parlance.
However, what I have often observed is that vendors do not undertake any modification in their application. Instead they tell customers that they will set up independent instances of the application on the same server to handle multi-tenancy. This way each customer's application runs on an independent virtual machine. While this approach may work, it means that your application is going to use far greater resources of the server, as a result your cost of hosting the application will go up and this would ultimately result in higher pricing for the customer.
Similarly, to move to the Cloud, you must now change the way your customers pay you - it should be based in usage rather than a lumpsum payment. However, vendors often venture out in the market without redefining their costs and their pricing strategy. When asked about pricing, they try to dabble by putting across 'bulk pricing' strategy. In effect, all this again prevents customers from harnessing the power of the Cloud. Unfortunately, since customers too have been used to the older pricing models they often agree to such pricing even though it may be disadvantageous in the long run.
When looked inside the psyche of vendor organizations, I sense that most of them are waiting for the 'market' to make the move - a customer who pushes hard for the real Cloud model or a competitor who offers real Cloud service (and starts converting their customers). No one wants to proactively change what they have been doing for years - they are all happy just relabeling the wine bottle.
In between all this - Cloud is like the invisible man - suited in full ballroom attire but without the man inside!
Image Credit via flickr by Ariaski
Good post - And I think you touch only the tip of the iceberg as far as the multiple ways and means through which the 'cloud' term is abused! You do tend to hear a lot (And i mean a LOT) of offerings geared the cloud way now a days!
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