Venyu Blog

As unlikely as it seems Andy Rooney didn’t always have the last word on CBS’ venerable news magazine, 60 Minutes. In fact, America’s favorite (and probably most well-paid) curmudgeon actually inherited his seat from a pair of political gadflies, uber liberal Shana Alexander and ultra conservative James J. Kilpatrick who debated the issues of the day in a segment called “Point-Counterpoint” –parodied famously by Saturday Night Live’s Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin (search on Hulu for Aykroyd’s pitch-perfect Kilpatrick’s fusillade on Curtin’s Alexander, keywords: Lee Marvin and Michelle Triola).

Bernard Golden’s recent CIO article entitled “Cloud Computing: 3 Tips for Overcoming Implementation Anxiety” reminded me of this back and forth exchange.

Golden, who is CEO of a cloud consulting and virtualization practice, mentioned he had had coffee with a friend and colleague who works at one of the largest data centers in the country. Inevitably, the subject of cloud computing came up when Golden’s friend remarked, “Your company should offer a ‘cut through the cloud fog’ service.” He elaborated that many of the prospects his company speaks with display a curious diffidence: “They approach the initial conversation with great motivation, but when it comes time to develop an action plan, they begin hemming and hawing, noting “complications” in moving forward. They push out start dates and eventually the discussion dissipates, like water running into sand.”

His friend continued that after seeing a number of these promising beginnings turn into stalled launches, he concluded that some kind of organizational anxiety was preventing them from taking concrete steps. He believes a “defogging” service designed to help IT organizations clearly understand their options would help them move forward with confidence.

Golden conceded his friend’s experience mirrored his own in interacting with prospective customers who were “intellectually convinced that aggressively moving toward cloud computing is necessary, but seem hesitant and even confused about what to do.” Upon reflection, the reasons for their confusion, to Golden, were obvious:

• Deluge of solutions. Everywhere one turns, up pops another “cloud computing” solution. Each day brings new solutions along with old solutions disguised in new cloud computing alignments. The plethora of choices, actually makes people more likely to make no decision. Not understanding what is the right choice in an environment of many choices breeds disquietude.

• Vendor overload. It’s obvious that the landscape of IT is changing, and if you’re an established vendor, your revenue stream is at risk. So you develop a cloud product and then turn every sales rep in the company loose with it. The relentless stream of vendors insisting that you need to listen to their cloud vision results in apathy and lassitude—and an intense wish the clamor would stop.

• Fear of being wrong. If you’re a senior IT executive feeling overwhelmed by the number of cloud computing options, not knowing which is the right one, and fearing that if you make a poor choice it could all go terribly wrong, with associated career damage—well, or course you plumb for more research, additional evaluation, more consultation with technology analysts. Anything to avoid making the wrong choice.

Golden then shares his recommendations on helping to make companies more comfortable in moving forward with cloud computing deployments, each of which I feel has merit for anyone feeling overwhelmed by both the concept as well as its execution:

1. Start with a proof of concept. A low-risk, limited commitment experiment can validate the benefits of cloud computing and generate organizational learning without much downside. Knowing that the choice of technologies has a limited scope is very freeing, as it prevents the anxiety of “having to make the right decision.” After an acceptable deployment option is identified, whether internal or public, choose two applications as prototypes. One application should be legacy architecture, so you can determine the viability of transforming the installed infrastructure into a cloud environment. The second should be a web-based application, chosen to exercise scalability and elasticity, so the organization can learn about the long-term implications of cloud application architectures.

2. Implement limited, non-critical functionality. There’s a reason new skiers start on bunny slopes, and it’s an appropriate approach for cloud computing as well. An application that the business does not depend on allows a more measured perspective and evaluation. Conversely, if the first application “has” to run, one can be sure that problems will not be seen as     educational opportunities, but rather as full-on emergencies, which is not conducive to organizational learning.

3. Circumvent cloud infrastructure dependence. Perhaps the best way to protect oneself from a poor choice is to implement in a fashion that insulates one’s applications from direct dependence upon a particular cloud implementation. There are several techniques to accomplish this. First, manage your application code for deployment flexibility. Second, use vanilla code components and eschew the use of cloud-specific services. Use components and services that are widely deployed, enabling you to migrate an application among several cloud providers. Finally, don’t grow too dependent upon your initial cloud provider’s management console. There are a number of cross-cloud management tools and frameworks, and you should evaluate them to determine if one of them can avoid dependency and lock-in.

In sum, the article doesn’t say whether Golden was successful in overcoming his friend’s reluctance to trust in the cloud enough to add it to his toolbox, however, if you’d like some first-hand discussions of how the cloud can be implemented, without anxiety, in your environment, contact Venyu today.  (R.I.P. Andy Rooney).