How much cloud is too much? That's the question a handful of companies are attempting to answer for enterprise users of cloud computing services.
It's no secret that cloud vendors are taking advantage of their solutions' virtual nature to sell customers more capacity than their applications may require. In some cases, cloud vendors have bypassed IT and worked with less tech-savvy business customers in order to get away with this.
Sometimes the fault for overprovisioned clouds rests squarely with users who've chosen their own way around IT. "Today’s cloud services can easily be acquired by corporate end-users and strategic business units in an unauthorized and ad hoc fashion ('the consumerization of IT') and can quickly become very costly unless properly managed," states Jeff Kaplan of consultancy THINKstrategies in an email today.
Enter a growing demand for tools that help enterprises avoid overpaying for cloud services. "There are a growing number of cloud-based and on-premises tools aimed at helping organizations better monitor and measure their use of cloud services," Kaplan writes. "These tools are increasingly important."
Companies such as Cloudyn, a startup from Israel that helps IT allocate Amazon Web Services to fit actual enterprise usage, are trying to stop firms from paying for services they really don't need and take advantage of services that might be cheaper.
Cloudyn claims to monitor the activity of AWS users, including the virtual instances they deploy as part of their service. Then Cloudyn's software calculates the most cost-effective AWS setup based on the configuration and usage data it finds.
Cloudyn claims it can save customers a typical 40 percent on the cost of cloud deployment.
According to a statement on Cloudyn's Website:
Cloudyn continually collects utilization, consumption, availability, capacity, and cost metrics for your monitored cloud resources: Compute (e.g, AWS EC2), Database (e.g, AWS RDS) and more. Cloudyn continually seeks the optimum balance of available pricing options and potential cloud configurations in consideration of your historical usage pattern.
Cloudyn's software is in beta test (free until May 1), and the vendor hopes to extend the capabilities of its tool to a range of services other than AWS via APIs.
There aren't too many offerings like Cloudyn's, though other startups are turning up, and large IT vendors provide solutions to help customers monitor and size private clouds.
But it's likely that we'll start to see these kinds of solutions proliferate -- because they are needed. Experts say customers aren't aware of what clouds should cost, what service levels they should expect, or even the specific capabilities of cloud services.
In a press release, Cloudyn CEO Sharon Wagner acknowledged the emerging market segment: "Recent developments by cloud providers and feedback from our customers indicate that cost visibility is becoming a commodity."
Paul, I'm not sure what your first point is, but you seem intent on exonerating any IT vendors of opportunism.
That said, I agree that IT and departments will do best to cooperate on cloud selection, and that it's natural to make tactical errors when choosing a new kind of service.
But there is not ample evidence to prove that the cloud vendors are trying "an end-run around IT". The cloud vendors will pitch their services to the 'front office' and if the IT is not part of the it, then the business will do itself good if they can get the IT involved in any decision to secure cloud services. I want to believe that some organizations that have elevated the position of IT to some kind of management level may have started reaping considerable dividends.
I think therein comes the importance of the services you mentioned in blog. Due to the big economies of scale associated with adopting cloud services, it won't surprise me to see many businesses going big at the start but with time and aided by services like Cloudyn will gradually start to develop more tailor-made cloud services that are just suited for them.
We should also not forget the fact the Cloud is relatively anew thing and as such we should be forging if mistakes are been made here and there when it comes to its adoption.
Paul, I do think cloud vendors will sell their services wherever they can. If they try an end-run around IT, it's both their fault and the department's fault if things don't work out. My opinion.
Again we have to draw the distinction here that it is the cloud users that are bypassing their own IT set up when it comes to implementing cloud services. It is not like as you've stated that "cloud vendors have bypassed IT and worked with less tech-savvy business customers in order to get away with this, which may connote some element of dishonesty on the part of some cloud vendors.
It is always the customary habit of service providers to pitch many services to consumers. That's why it is always incumbent upon the customers to do thorough needs assessment that will help them determine the nature and extent of services they are ready and willing to sign up to. I am not going to sit here and feel sympathetic for a cloud user who may have bought too much cloud. It is more of a case 'you ought to know better'.
So the call should directed to cloud users that they have to work in tandem with the 'local' IT to determine what cloud services they really need. As you rightly stated who is in a better position to know the extent of computing services you need that your own IT.
Surely no one is faulting cloud vendors for trying to make money. But really, bypassing IT doesn't really help when it comes to data protection, liability for information, or any of the other responsibilities that usually involve IT.
In many enterprises, it's not even legal to have separate silos of data, either in house or in a cloud, because the company has responsibilities for marshalling and managing its information, particularly in sectors like banking and healthcare.
"In some cases, cloud vendors have bypassed IT and worked with less tech-savvy business customers in order to get away with this."
How is it even possible for cloud vendors to bypass IT when IT is in-house? Mary's post you were referencing to stated that Cloud Users are the ones bypassing their own IT. If a Cloud User can't use utilized its own IT to determine the kind and extent of cloud computing services it may need, then we should not placed the fault on the cloud vendors. What do we expect cloud vendors to do? IIs it not to sell their products which they have invested a lot of research dollars into. Is there any crime in over-selling a product?
Great point. The IT department has always been stuck holding the bag when departments go rogue. But these days, it's tougher than ever for IT to step in and rescue a project they didn't start, given the pressures of budget, big data, time, etc.
Interestingly, on a recent online forum about cloud computing, I found that when asked for a one-word description of the biggest challenge facing cloud computing in 2012, many answered "understanding" or "learning" or "misinformation." Those kinds of issues were mentioned at least as often as security.
My point is that there seems to be a learning curve about cloud services that not all users find it easy to scale. And that can lead to some unpleasant surprises after deployment, as you point out.
The sad thing is most of these firms don't realize how much money they've wasted and are wasting until it's too late. At this time usually an IT person or firm is brought in and they ask "why"?
I might be wrong, but it seems to me that an important concern for some would-be cloud users is that they think they can ditch their IT dept and rely on a cloud-IT service. The problem being that once an enterprise switches over to a cloud, they'll be locked into that particular cloud after they ditch their in-house IT.... and the cloud's prices and capabilities could shift in the wind.
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