Issues that Cloud the Cloud Computing Promise
by Joe McKendrick
I’ve been getting quite a bit of interesting reactions to a post over at my ZDNet SOA site, “Is Cloud Computing Too Good to Be True?” In the post, I discussed Google’s latest entree into the infrastructure-as-a-service space, Google App Engine, and how it competes with Amazon Web Services.
Both vendors offer storage, messaging, queuing, and back-end server scalability that can conceivably offer an alternative to buying and managing onsite software and hardware.
Amazingly enough, access to Google App Engine will be offered for free, versus Amazon’s incremental pricing plans. However, Amazon’s services are priced so low that free versus a couple of hundred dollars per month may not be an issue for enterprises. (Individual consumers, however, will more likely be drawn to the no-cost Google model.)
However, what may be an issue for enterprises are things such as governance, security, privacy, and control — all issues that cloud the Cloud computing space.
In an online poll I am conducting with the post, sentiments are running against Cloud computing for the enterprise: at the time of this writing, 62% said Cloud computing is still too risky of a bet for enterprises, versus 32% saying it is enterprise-capable.
Readers of this blogsite may have already seen my arguments in favor of moving to the Cloud — not having to deal with software maintenance and upgrades, and paying for only what you need. However, there are arguments against enterprise-scale Cloud computing, which include the following:
- Cloud computing may create a dependence on the provider (Google, Amazon) and may make it difficult to move to another platform.
- Google itself admits that Google App Engine is targeted at consumer applications, not businesses.
- Enterprises leveraging Cloud computing may become homogenized — and lose the competitive advantage that may come from custom-built systems.
- There’s always the risk that the Cloud provider may change business models or even go out of business.
