Colocation vs Cloud
Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 3:10PM Every day we read more about Cloud Computing and the benefits of using Cloud Computing. You have surely heard IBM and Microsoft touting the service. One the leading, or should I say "better known" orgainzations offering Cloud Computing is Amazon's Web Services . Though they tend to focus on the low-end of the market, they are probably the best known. A recent survey by the IT Industry Council (ITIC) found that 85% of companies will not implement either a public or private cloud in 2009 because of fears that service providers may not be able to adequately secure sensitive data. With that said, there are some seemingly obvious advantages to using Cloud Computing like - hardware (server,etc) savings, software (licenses) savings, management and internal resource savings, etc. You would need a consulting company to do the analysis that would take an individual months to evaluate. Well, no worries. McKinsey & Co has done all the work for us and the report is very interesting. The most common thought is "if I don't have to buy any more servers I will save money." Wrong! Your application will need to be re-designed to run in a Cloud environment, tested, re-worked, and stress-tested again. That takes time and labor. In addition to redesign there is managing another vendor relationship, additonal software licenses, data transfer, re-IP, and then there's the provider's longevity. What if they go under? Even a well-executed Disater Recovery strategy will have some issues and even minor challenges will disrupt data flow. The cost to run an application in a Cloud environment would cost double what the same application would cost in a co-location environment! Not only will you not save money, as most Cloud proponents exclaim, but you will lose money. Either way, it will be 3-5 years before anyone other than SMBs begin moving towards Cloud Computing. For more information about this report you can check out The UPtime Institutes review at UptimeInstitue.com. You will need to register but there is a lot of great information there. Or I can be reached at woody@globalcoloquote.com or 917-710-5226.
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For a basic understanding of "cloud-computing" you can check out this article http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/04/cloud.computing.hunt/index.html.